This major investment in our digital future has been made possible through a generous legacy gift from the late Mr Nicholas Timothy David Stone. We’re deeply grateful to Mr Stone for this lasting contribution to our work, and to his estate for ensuring that the gift was safely received. It’s thanks to this generosity that we’re able to move forward with a project that will strengthen how people access, understand and support our work.

The new website will create a more accessible, engaging and effective digital home for Wikimedia UK. It will make it easier for people to discover our programmes and partnerships and learn more about the importance of free and open knowledge. We’ll have easier ways to get involved through volunteering, donating and participating in our work.

Accessibility and participation sits at the heart of the redevelopment. The new site will help us better serve our communities, communicate our impact, and provide stronger pathways for supporters, partners, contributors and the wider public to engage with our mission.

We’re excited to be working with the Hotfoot team over the coming months and look forward to sharing updates as the project progresses.

Wikimedia UK extends its sincere thanks once again to the late Mr Nicholas Timothy David Stone and his estate for making this important project possible.

The post Honouring a legacy, building our future appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

Gemma Coleman | Wales

I love nature and I’m always taking photos of things that strike me or of plants I want to identify. But for some reason, “Wiki Loves Earth” didn’t feel immediately relevant. Making time to travel to a protected area felt hard, all I have is the phone on my camera and I’m not even really a competent photographer! 

But as someone who is always taking (bad) photographs it was fun going through the pictures on my phone. There was the strikingly moody sunset at Nant Gwrtheyrn on a drizzly November evening. I was in the area for a residential Welsh course rather than the nature but the Llŷn Peninsula coast is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty so eligible for Wiki Loves Earth! There was the cow parsley I snapped on a lunch time walk to feed into my plant ID app. And there was that time I came across a fin whale carcass! 

I’m still no photographer and these still aren’t the greatest pictures in the world. But it was fun to reminisce on what I’d already taken over the year (and it was an excuse to create the Beached whales in Wales category, which didn’t exist yet!) 

Wiki Loves Earth in Wales page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Earth_2026_in_Wales 

List of protected natural areas in Wales page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Earth_in_Wales/Protected_natural_areas 

Richard Nevell | England

One of London’s highlights is the amount of green space. Even a megacity can have a place for nature. With that in mind I thought I’d see where the nearest eligible place for Wiki Loves Earth is. The first challenge is avoiding the red herrings. London has lots of parks, but the competition is specifically about protected places. The most common designation is Site of Special Scientific Interest, so was the best choice for something nearby. Just over 40 minutes on the bus took me within a short walk of the Chingford Reservoirs. I checked the route to the reservoirs on Google Maps and my plan was to go to the reservoirs and take a snap from the road.

So far so good!

On arrival, I was struck by the size of the embankment around the reservoirs which reminded me of the remains of Iron Age hillforts, and were calling out to be climbed. However, I couldn’t see the reservoir from the road. One thing I should have considered was whether I could get into the protected area and a large metal fence made it clear that wasn’t going to be possible. Though it’s not what I expected, I do quite like the photograph, though you probably wouldn’t know it’s a reservoir unless someone told you as much. The moral of the story is: if you are making a trip just to visit to take a photograph, check if there is access. And if that fails, find somewhere nearby to get a consolation snack.

Wiki Loves Earth in England competition page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Earth_2026_in_England

List of protected natural areas in England page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Earth_in_England/Protected_natural_areas

Sara Thomas | Scotland

Living in Glasgow, I’m normally more of a Wiki Loves Monuments participant than Wiki Loves Earth.  But I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how the Wikimedia projects help us to interact with physical space and location, which led me to the Possil Marsh article on en.wiki.  If you’re familiar with the city you’ll know that North Glasgow often has a reputation primarily characterised by its experience of poverty rather than its rich community spirit or industrial history, but I know Possil Marsh (a Nature Reserve and a Special Site of Scientific Interest), Hamiltonhill Claypits, the nearby River Kelvin, and the Forth & Clyde Canal as havens for nature, and reminders of why Glasgow’s Dear Green Place nickname remains quite so apt. I guess that it may be unexpected to find SSSIs within city boundaries, but Glasgow has two! 

Pictures make a difference when it comes to Wikipedia, and the Possil Marsh article only had one image, which was taken in 2009.  I wanted to expand on that, to give more of a sense of what the place feels like, and what you can find there. With it being Wiki Loves Earth season, it seemed like an appropriate time to take a sunny Saturday morning wander.  

I got a few good shots (well, as good as I can get on a mobile phone) showing the wider location context, some close ups of interesting plants, and found a path I’ve not taken before that let me get closer to the water to show Possil Loch itself.  I’ve now added a few more images to the article, and created a new “Possil Marsh” category on Commons.  Not a bad way to spend a Saturday morning! 

Wiki Loves Earth in Scotland competition page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Earth_2026_in_Scotland

List of protected areas in Scotland page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Earth_in_Scotland/Protected_natural_areas 
If you’re in Northern Ireland, you can find out more about the Irish competition here: https://wikimedia.ie/2026/05/01/wiki-loves-earth-2026-in-in-ireland-and-northern-ireland-photography-competitons-are-open/

The post Wiki Loves Earth 2026, get involved! appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

By Rupal Karia – Outreach & Community Coordinator | 22 Apr 2026

We are excited to announce a second season of the virtual Sandbox Session and invite community members to propose sessions they are interested in leading. Community Sandbox Sessions offer a space for community members to share their learning, meet other Wikimedians and try new things. They are volunteer-led events, supported by Wikimedia UK. 

Our first season featured sessions on the Wikidata tool Duplicity, how to edit calmly in controversial areas, a wikisource transcribe-a-thon, smell-related content on Wiki, and being an en.wiki admin!  Huge thanks to all our presenters – Josef Anthony, Femke Njise, Martin Poulter, Lucy Moore, and Harry Mitchell.

The type or format of an event is open; however, we’d like to encourage proposals which go beyond the traditional Wikipedia edit-a-thon. Maybe there is something you do on Wikimedia projects you’d like to do in community with others? Here are some session suggestions.

• A talk on how to advocate for the release of images from a collection
• Here’s how I overcame hurdles related to adding under-represented content
• Let’s add images to Wikipedia from this collection
• My special niche on Wikimedia projects
• Let’s spend an hour thanking people on Wikipedia
• Let’s build a worklist and find reliable sources for this under represented topic on Wikipedia
• Hints and tips on translation of articles
• Here’s a cool Wikidata tool I’ve found, let’s try it out
• How to add structured data to images
• Add pictures to articles together
• If you have extended user rights and are involved in the governance of Wikipedia tell us about your role 
• Here’s how I got this article to Featured Article status

We would love to hear any other ideas that you might have.

Support WMUK can offer 

• Advice on refining your format
• Setting up of Event Registration 
• Event promotion through UK listings & mailing lists
• Hosting on the WMUK Zoom account / Google Meet
• Friendly space support from a WMUK staff member (or volunteer) during the event 

Dates and times

Events can take place throughout the year, and can also be on an evening or weekend.  Suggested duration is an hour, but longer (or shorter!) events could be considered. We’re suggesting that these events are online in the first instance, to reach the widest possible audience, and all events should of course be run in line with the Wikimedia UK Safe Space policy.  

If you’re interested in running a session, please submit a proposal here.

Deadline

The initial deadline for submitting proposals is 18th May 2026. If you have any questions, please contact rupal.karia@wikimedia.org.uk

Season 1

By Dr. Sara Thomas – Programme Manager | 24 April 2025

Do you have an idea for a Wiki-learning session?  Have you found something that you’d like to share with other Wikimedians, or an idea that you’d like to try out?  And would you like some help from Wikimedia UK in sharing it? 

In response to feedback from the community around having opportunities to improve Wiki-skills, and connecting with other community members, and as part of the overall training package for 2025, we’re excited to introduce a new strand of event programming, called Community Sandbox Sessions.

We’re looking to programme up to 6 virtual events over the next year, which would be open to all members of the UK community, and supported by Wikimedia UK.  We’re asking community members to propose sessions that you’d like to lead.

Session suggestions

The type or format of any event is open; but we’d like to encourage proposals which go beyond the traditional Wikipedia editathon – for example: 

• Here’s a cool Wikidata tool I’ve found, let’s try it out
• Wikisource transcribe-a-thon
• A talk on how to run backstage pass events
• Here’s how I got this article to Featured Article status
• Let’s add images from this collection to Wikipedia
• A mobile meeting where we take pictures of our local area for Wikimedia Commons
• Minoritised language work – eg: adding Wikidata labels
• Building a worklist & finding reliable sources for future events

Dates and times

Events can take place throughout the year, and can also be on an evening or weekend.  Suggested duration is an hour, but longer (or shorter!) events could be considered.  We’re suggesting that these events are online in the first instance, to reach the widest possible audience, and all events should of course be run in line with the Wikimedia UK Safe Space policy.  

Support WMUK can offer 

• Advice on refining your format
• Setting up of Event Registration 
• Event promotion through UK listings & mailing lists
• Hosting on the WMUK Zoom account / Google Meet
• Friendly space support from a WMUK staff member (or volunteer) during the event 

This is very much an experiment, and we hope that the format will allow community members to share knowledge and skills, and get to know other UK Wikimedians, as well as test out new ideas!  If you’d be interested in running a session, please submit a proposal here.

Deadline

The initial deadline for submitting proposals is Tuesday 20th May. 

If you have any questions, please contact sara.thomas@wikimedia.org.uk.

The post Community Sandbox Sessions appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

I came to the role of Education Lead at Wikimedia UK after 20 years of teaching A level Philosophy in a Further Education college. I had always strongly felt that critical thinking skills should be taught to all young people, regardless of social or educational background. This will enable us to move toward a more equitable society and see more diversity in politics, media and society in general.

The changing face of education in the digital age

Over my many years of teaching, I saw gradual changes in how young people engage with the digital world. I also saw how those changes became drastic over time. Students have always been passionate about causes, always curious and keen to learn about the world they lived in. But they were increasingly being exposed to more information than ever before. That information came from more sources and also arrived at a faster pace than ever before.

The philosophical skills I was teaching them had always been about critically engaging with information they are given, learning how to spot good from bad arguments, questioning what they are told and having the confidence to articulate their own thoughts and opinions. But now these skills are crucial in navigating the digital world in an age of misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories, and where developments in AI blur the boundaries of truth and fiction. Those students who did not develop these skills are increasingly at risk of polarisation, or at worst radicalisation. 

The digital divide and education.

During my time in education I was also involved in widening participation in Higher Education, running programmes to help students overcome barriers to reaching top universities. Many of our students were the first generation to go into post-compulsory education and came from a variety of challenging backgrounds. Socio-economic barriers had always existed, but now the digital divide added a new dimension to inequality.

Digital poverty includes a lack of access to technology and online information. It also needs to be understood as poor information literacy. If students cannot critically assess the digital information they encounter, they become vulnerable. They are more exposed to misinformation and disinformation. As a result, they are also more vulnerable to harm. Since 16-year-olds will soon be able to vote in general elections, they will become targets online. Fake news and conspiracy theories are likely to focus on them. Students also need to learn how to check sources. They must assess information for reliability. They also need to use AI responsibly and effectively. Without these skills, they may struggle academically at university. This can lead to higher dropout rates. It can also widen educational divides.

From the Classroom to Wikimedia UK

The move from teaching to Education Lead at Wikimedia UK was something that was very natural for me. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation, a charity supporting all the Wiki projects and community of volunteers. The most well-known of these projects is of course Wikipedia. When I began teaching most teachers still warned against using Wikipedia as a research tool. Times have changed, although some misconceptions about Wikipedia do still exist.

Why Wikipedia should be used in the classroom

At the heart of Wikimedia UK’s work is the belief that every human should have free and equal access to the sum of all human knowledge. The charity works hard to break down barriers which prevent individuals and groups from accessing and shaping open knowledge. Wikipedia itself is the product of collaboration and the work of volunteers across the globe who produce, edit and monitor its content. Campaigns and projects work to increase representation on Wikipedia, both in those contributing and in the content, and young people play an important part in that process. 

Wikipedia also strives for the core principle of neutrality, with articles giving proportionate weight to different viewpoints when they exist and lacking bias or opinion. Combined with the principles of transparency (all edits are visible) and verifiability (articles strive to be clearly sourced) Wikipedia is one of the few places where young people can go for a neutral, unbiased perspective. In a world of fake news and influencers this is more important than ever. 

Where Wikimedia UK comes in

Wikimedia UK encourages critical evaluation of online information, including of Wikipedia itself. Some articles need improving in content or citation, and there are knowledge gaps to be filled. Debates occur on the talk pages about the best way to present information. But all of this encourages complexity resilience, being more comfortable with an increasingly ambiguous, complex, and difficult world, rather than simply offering definitive answers or actions (like conspiracies theories or answers given by AI often do). 

Following the Curriculum and Assessment Review of English schools, media and information literacy has been recognised as a crucial part of education. At Wikimedia UK we are committed to helping teachers and students navigate this increasingly complex and important topic by providing teacher training, classroom materials and workshops.

I am proud to be part of something that will empower young people to build digital resilience, safeguarding their wellbeing and allowing them to make informed decisions as they become the ones to shape the future. 

Interested in Workshops or Collaboration? Let’s Talk

My role as Education Lead at Wikimedia UK involves developing materials and workshops to teach young people crucial media literacy skills. If you are an educator interested in bringing this work to your school or college, or an organisation looking to collaborate on media literacy projects I would love to hear from you.

Dr Sally Latham (sally.latham@wikimedia.org.uk)

The post Why Wikimedia belongs in education appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

Just like everything else Wiki, the “Wiki Loves” competitions every year couldn’t happen without the hard work and contributions of a flurry of volunteers who help us promote and judge the competitions and maximise the use of the subsequent images throughout the different Wiki projects.

2026 is no different and we’d love your help! We have three competitions this year… 

Wiki Loves Folklore – February and March 2026

Wiki Loves Earth – May and June 2026

Wiki Loves Monuments – September 2026

To help us with managing these competitions we’re looking for the following volunteers for any or all of the above competitions.

Comms & Community support – We need volunteers who can help us make sure we’re shouting about the “Wiki Loves” competitions in the right places, making it easy for people to take part and celebrating the efforts of those who do. 

Competition judge – Our judges help determine which are the best entries that have been submitted to a particular competition and which we should submit to any international panel. The role might suit people with photography experience themselves or who understand the importance of high quality images to Wiki projects

Data volunteer – And of course, we want these images to be useful and helpful in the wider Wikiverse which is where data volunteers come in. If you’re knowledgeable about Wikidata, we’d love your help!

Follow the links above for more information or for a no obligation chat email volunteering@wikimedia.org.uk

The post Wiki Loves Photography – volunteers wanted appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

Adam Harangozó stepped into the role in December 2025, combining sharing openly licensed content, training and preparing learning resources, with bibliometrics tools to help researchers make their work more visible. The project will last for two years and aims to support LSE and the wider international social science community in developing open knowledge and sharing insights and expertise through the Wikimedia projects. Adam has previously worked as a Wikimedian in Residence for the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and the Blinken Open Society Archives (based in Budapest).

At Wikimedia UK, we are very excited to be working with both LSE and Adam. This is the fourth residency active at a UK university – joining Edinburgh, Exeter, and Leeds – and the first to focus specifically on social science.

As well as joining LSE’s community, Adam joins Wikimedia UK’s community of Wikimedians in Residence who learn from and support each other. LSE’s ‘Research for the World’ strategy aligns closely with WMUK’s aims, setting out how LSE seeks to “generate the knowledge and insight the world needs to build a more sustainable, prosperous and equitable future.”

The post Introducing the new Wikimedian In Residence at LSE appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

With a decision on whether or not Wikipedia will be considered a category 1 service under the UK Online Safety Act 2023 expected in 2026, it seems like a timely moment to reflect on the journey to this point; including Wikimedia UK’s work to ensure that measures to improve online safety do not have detrimental consequences for public interest platforms like Wikipedia.

Overview of the Online Safety Act

The UK Online Safety Act 2023 (the Act) is a set of laws that aims to protect children and adults online by establishing a regulatory framework for certain online services, including user-to-user services (such as Facebook) and search services (such as Google). The Act gives providers new duties to create and implement systems to reduce the risk of their services being used for illegal activity, and to take down illegal content that does appear. There are specific duties related to child safety, with providers required to prevent children from accessing harmful or age-inappropriate content. The 2023 Act established Ofcom (the Office of Communications) as the regulator of online services, and gives it a broad range of powers to assess and enforce compliance with the framework. 

Background and history to the creation of the Act

The backdrop to the creation of the Online Safety Act was one of mounting concern about the risks children and young people face online, with calls for more regulation of online platforms becoming increasingly urgent following the tragic death of Molly Russell in 2017. The inquest concluded that Molly died from an act of self-harm whilst suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content, and a Prevention of Future Deaths report was sent by the Coroner to the government, Pinterest and Meta recommending the introduction of platform regulation. This led to an Internet Safety Strategy Green Paper, published by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport in Autumn 2017, followed by the Online Harms White Paper in April 2019. 

Wikimedia’s concerns in relation to online safety regulation

Wikimedia UK strongly supports efforts to keep people safe online. Our charity has a strong focus on information literacy, with projects and programmes designed to equip young people with the skills needed to successfully navigate the online environment. However, the Online Safety Act was simply not designed for public interest, non profit and educational projects like Wikipedia. The Act has provisions around content moderation, age-gating, and user verification that are incompatible with the way in which information on Wikipedia is created and curated, as well as the website’s commitment to user privacy and freedom of speech. 

Advocating for changes to the proposed legislation

Wikimedia UK provided detailed responses to successive government consultations relating to Online Safety, stressing the need to balance safety with access. In particular, we emphasised that online providers should not be forced to take down content that would be legally protected as free speech in other contexts (an aspect of the proposed legislation that didn’t make it into the final Act). We argued that Wikipedia and other projects within the open internet movement should be outside the scope of the legislation, sharing our concerns in meetings with Ofcom and DCMS, alongside colleagues from the Wikimedia Foundation. 

How we tried to influence the Bill in Parliament

The Online Safety Bill was introduced to the House of Lords in January 2023, at which point Wikimedia UK’s advocacy efforts moved up a gear as we started communicating directly with Parliamentarians in a bid to make changes to the draft legislation. Working in partnership with staff from the Global Advocacy, Legal and Communications teams at the Wikimedia Foundation (the legal host of Wikipedia), our actions included: 

• Scrutinising the draft text to identify key areas that risked our movement and model 
• Drafting a series of amendments to the Bill that addressed these problematic areas
• Briefing peers (members of the House of Lords) about the unintended consequences of the Bill and our suggested amendments 
• Meetings with Parliamentarians, Ministers and the regulator to explain our position
• Drafting speeches for the Peers who sponsored our amendments in the House
• Working with civil society partners, including supporting joint briefings and campaigns

The response from Peers

As a result of this work we were able to ensure that our proposed amendments were debated during both the Committee and Reports stages of the Bill’s passage through the House of Lords. Ultimately, we focused on just one amendment, which was to introduce an exemption for public interest projects. Many members of the House of Lords shared our concern that access to open knowledge could be threatened if the Bill became law without such an exemption. The following quotes are all taken from the formal Parliamentary record:

Baroness Harding (Conservative): “There is unanimity of desire here to make sure that organisations such as Wikipedia and Streetmap are not captured.”

Baroness Kidron (Crossbench, Chair of the 5Rights Foundation): “I too am concerned at the answer that has been given. I can see the headline now, “Online Safety Bill Age-Gates Wikipedia”…there are some services that are inherently in a child’s best interests”

Lord Stevenson of Balmacara (Labour, frontbench): “Why is it that we are still worried about Wikipedia, a service for public good, which clearly has risks in it…but is definitely a good thing that should not be threatened by having to conform with a structure and a system which we think is capable of dealing with some of the biggest and most egregious companies that are pushing stuff at us in the way that we have talked about?”

Lord Clement-Jones (Lib Dem, Spokesperson for Digital Economy): “All of us are Wikipedia users; we all value the service. I particularly appreciated what was said by the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron: Wikipedia does not push its content at us—it is not algorithmically based.”

Baroness Stowell (Conservative, frontbench): “I have been very much persuaded by the various correspondence that I have received, which often uses Wikipedia as the example to illustrate the problem…(we must make sure) that there is a way of appropriately excluding organisations that should not be subject to these various regulations because they are not designed for them.”

The Open Letter

In June 2023 we also launched an open letter inviting knowledge institutions, Wikimedians, civil society and concerned members of the public to join us in calling on the UK Government and Parliament to exempt public interest projects from the Bill. The initial coalition of signatories included the Arcadia Foundation (one of the largest funders of open access world-wide), Creative Commons, Liberty (the UK’s foremost charity for human rights and civil liberties), Open Rights Group and The Heritage Alliance (England’s national umbrella body for heritage), among many others, with additional signatures added by over 800 individuals and organisations. You can read the open letter and see the signatories here. 

The Act is passed, and the work on implementation begins

Unfortunately, despite cross party support for some sort of exemption from the Bill for public interest projects, there was no softening of position from the government and the Act became law in October 2023, without any consideration for charities, educational or public interest projects. After this, the regulator Ofcom started developing and introducing secondary legislation to enforce the Act and in December 2024 the categorisation thresholds were published. Sadly, despite the many verbal assurances to the contrary, once the proposed thresholds were published it became clear that Wikipedia could be treated as a Category 1 service, and subject to the most stringent requirements of the Act which are fundamentally incompatible with Wikipedia’s community-led model of content generation, curation and governance. 

The Motion to Regret the Regulations is won

Working quickly before the Regulations were debated in the House of Lords, it was agreed with our colleagues at the Wikimedia Foundation that Wikimedia UK should write to a number of peers to highlight Wikimedia’s concerns, with Lord Clement-Jones subsequently tabling a ‘motion to regret’ in which he called on the Government ‘to withdraw the Regulations and establish a revised definition of Category 1 services. Introducing the motion, Lord Clement-Jones highlighted the importance of protecting Wikipedia: “Many sites with over 7 million users a month – including Wikipedia, a vital source of open knowledge and information in the UK – might be treated as a category 1 service, regardless of actual safety considerations….This makes it doubly important for the Government and Ofcom to examine, and make use of, powers to more appropriately tailor the scope and reach of the Act and the categorisations, to ensure that the UK does not put low-risk, low-resource, socially beneficial platforms in untenable positions.” Conservative peer Lord Moylan added, “I come back to the same question that I have been asking to no real effect now for two years. Perhaps when she comes to reply, the Minister can give me a definitive answer. Is Wikipedia in scope of this regulation? Is it covered by Section 3 or not? We would like to know.”

Lord Clement-Jones won the motion against the government by 86 to 55 votes. However a “motion to regret” is not legally binding, and despite heavy criticism from within and outside of Parliament – including from child safety organisations – the Categorisation Regulations became law on 26th February 2025. 

The legal challenge

If enforced on Wikipedia, Category 1 demands would undermine the privacy and safety of Wikipedia’s volunteer contributors, expose the encyclopedia to manipulation and vandalism, and divert essential resources from protecting people and improving Wikipedia, one of the world’s most trusted and widely used digital public goods. Given the seriousness of the threat posed by Category 1 status, in May 2025 the Wikimedia Foundation announced that it was challenging the lawfulness of the OSA’s Categorisation Regulations, arguing that the regulations endanger Wikipedia and the global community of volunteer contributors who create the information on the site. The case was heard in the UK’s High Court in July, and was dismissed on 11th August.

While this decision did not provide the immediate legal protections for Wikipedia that were hoped for, the Court’s ruling emphasised the responsibility of Ofcom and the government to ensure Wikipedia is protected; acknowledging the “significant value” of Wikipedia, its safety for users, as well as the damages that wrongly-assigned OSA categorisations and duties could have on the human rights of volunteer contributors. The Court stressed that this ruling “does not give Ofcom and the Secretary of State a green light to implement a regime that would significantly impede Wikipedia’s operations”, and indicated they could face legal repercussions if they fail to protect Wikipedia and the rights of its users. 

The current situation and next steps

In November 2025, Ofcom published an update on the implementation of the Online Safety Act, noting the legal challenge to the Government’s secondary legislation setting the categorisation thresholds. Having considered the implications of the judgment, Ofcom has adjusted their plans for the categorisation register and the consultation on the additional duties that will apply to categorised services. There is a “representations process” planned for early 2026, giving services that Ofcom believe meet the threshold conditions an opportunity to comment on provisional decisions before the register is finalised. It’s worth noting that regardless of the secondary legislation passed, it is in the gift of both Ofcom and the Secretary of State to exercise their burden reduction powers under the Act, allowing low risk platforms such as Wikipedia to focus on ensuring every single person on the planet – including those living in the UK – has free access to the sum of all human knowledge. 

Personal reflections

Having worked on this issue since 2019, I believe that the value of Wikipedia and other public interest projects to UK society must be recognised and protected in law, not subject to shifts in the political agendas of future governments and regulators. The central paradigm of the UK Online Safety Act is that people are kept safe by denial of access to harmful content. But the notion of what is harmful is neither globally homogenous, nor apolitical. The current UK government may be most concerned about limiting access to pornography, and protecting children from sites that promote self-harm. But it’s not a huge stretch of the imagination to see future governments shifting the focus to “public order offences” or using the law to impose similarly repressive tactics which would be detrimental to free expression and civic life. We need to take a more holistic approach to user and societal wellbeing, with adequate safeguards for human rights and an emphasis on empowering people with the media and information literacy skills to become active curators of the knowledge they seek out, not passive consumers of information with no regard to the agenda or ideology of their sources.

The post Wikimedia UK and the Online Safety Act: A deep dive into the story so far appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

As Christmas bells ring out and 2025 draws to a close, I wanted to share one highlight from Wikimedia UK’s work in each month of the year. Of course, these moments are only a small snapshot of the projects, events, activities and partnership programmes delivered or supported by Wikimedia UK in 2025.

My sincere thanks go to our staff team, Wikimedians in Residence, partner organisations, and our extended network of volunteers across the UK, who work so hard to help ensure open knowledge for all.

January

At the start of the year, we celebrated ten years of collaboration with the National Library of Wales. Over the decade, this partnership has supported the creation of thousands of articles on Welsh Wikipedia, and the release of more than 150,000 images to Wikimedia Commons, images that have gone on to receive over 1.5 billion views.

Jason Evans has been at the heart of this work throughout, initially appointed as a Wikipedian in Residence and now Open Data Manager with a focus on Wikimedia collaboration. Jason reflects on the partnership in this blog post, underlining that while his role and portfolio have evolved, the core principles of openness, engagement and innovation have remained unchanged.

February

In February, we launched Mini Wiki, an initiative designed to help people with limited spare time make meaningful contributions to open knowledge. We kicked off with a focus on translation and folklore, tying into International Mother Tongue Day and the annual Wiki Loves Folklore campaign. Throughout 2025 we showcased a range of mini wiki tasks, encouraging the use of the hashtag #wmuk in edit summaries so we can track impact.  

Looking ahead, watch out for our Birthday Gifts campaign in 2026 as we encourage our editing community to pledge gifts through contributions to the Wikimedia projects as part of Wikipedia’s 25th birthday anniversary celebrations.

March

Women are for life, not just for March. But with International Women’s Day (8 March) and Women’s History Month, March is often a focal point for initiatives that shine a light on women’s contributions and achievements, historically and in the present day. This year, Perth Women on Wikipedia celebrated by researching and sharing the stories of remarkable women from Perth’s history, as part of an ongoing partnership with Wikimedia UK and local library services.

April

In April, we launched Community Sandbox Sessions, with a call for contributions from our volunteer community. Since then, a number of highly successful sessions have taken place, covering topics including:

• editing controversial topics (led by Dr Femke Nijsse)
• creating missing Wikidata items from Wikipedia using the Duplicity tool (led by Josef Anthony)
• where, how and why to add smell-related content across the Wikimedia projects (led by Dr Lucy Moore)
• a Wikisource transcribe-a-thon (led by Dr Martin Poulter)

Our next and final Sandbox Session is on 25 January 2026. Led by experienced English Wikipedia admin Harry Mitchell, the session focusses on being an admin, what that involves, the process for becoming one, levels of commitment expected, and associated challenges etc.

May

Spring typically comes late to Scotland, where I live but by May, it was in full swing, not just here but also in mainland Europe, where I was fortunate to travel several times this year.

First, I represented the UK chapter at Wikimedia Europe’s General Assembly in Prague, where affiliates from across Europe gathered to vote on trustees and resolutions and, just as importantly, to connect and share practice, ideas and approaches to community development and partnership working.
Not long after, I was in Berlin for a three-day workshop with representatives from ten other affiliates, working together to develop future plans and a joint funding proposal for the Content Partnerships Hub. I’m pleased to say the proposal was successful, and work is now beginning on implementation for this international resource and Wikimedia hub.

June

June saw the launch of Wiki Loves Earth 2025, the global photography competition showcasing protected areas and natural landscapes around the world. This year, England participated alongside Wales and Scotland for the first time and I’m delighted to share that three photos from England placed in the international top 20, announced this December.

You can see the local winning images, including those from the UK, on Wikimedia Commons.

July

Wikimedia UK’s flagship Train the Trainer course returned in summer 2025, bringing together volunteers from across the UK and around the world to build the skills and confidence needed to run Wikipedia editing events in their own communities.

Designed to strengthen both delivery and diversity, this year’s programme welcomed 23 participants from eight countries, taking part in person and online. 
You can read the full report where participants reported feeling better equipped to make positive change in their communities as a result of the course.

August

In August, I felt incredibly privileged to attend Wikimania in Nairobi, Kenya. This annual conference brings together nearly a thousand Wikimedians for workshops, lightning talks, keynotes, panels, social events and more. It’s a wonderful opportunity to meet fellow open knowledge advocates from around the world.

Even after a decade in my role, I come away from Wikimania every year having learned more about this extraordinary movement. This year, I also attended the first in-person meetings of the new interim Global Resources Distribution Committee, of which I am one of three affiliate representatives, and I sang with the Wiki Choir for the first time, performing in Swahili at the closing ceremony.

September

In September we published our latest Strategic Report, and held our Annual General Meeting, where Adrian Beidas, Douglas Scott and Ian Watt were elected to the board.

Following an external recruitment process, we also announced Wikimedia UK’s new Chair of Trustees, Lucy Yu, and welcomed former philosophy teacher Dr Sally Latham to the staff team in the newly created role of Education Lead. Sally is charged with driving forward our programme in secondary schools, and is already accelerating our work and relationships in this area.

October

On 20 October, Wikimedia UK joined forces with the Wikimedia Foundation and the British Library to explore the impact of AI on open knowledge and the wider information landscape. This day-long summit brought together experts and practitioners to discuss the threats and opportunities at the intersection of AI, open knowledge and human rights.

With 150 participants from across the open, policy, culture, higher education and technology sectors, the Knowledge is Human summit asked how we can ensure machine learning supports human learning, and how we build sustainability and information integrity into new models of content creation.

November

We held our annual online Community Celebration, bringing together staff and volunteers in what was an uplifting event highlighting the ongoing, sometimes painstaking, but always meaningful, contributions of individuals and partner organisations.

We also announced the winners of the UK Wikimedian of the Year Awards 2025. The UK Wikimedian of the Year was jointly awarded to longstanding contributor Andy Mabbett and community leader Jo Baines, Partnership of the Year went to the Khalili Foundation, and librarian Colette Townend received the Up and Coming Wikimedian award. 

Congratulations, and heartfelt thanks, to all winners and nominees!

December

While much of our chapter’s work is focused on the UK, as one of the larger Wikimedia affiliates we also have an important role to play in the wider international ecosystem, supporting the Wikimedia 2030 strategy through collaboration, leadership and innovation.

As part of this commitment, I regularly attend online meetings of the Executive Directors group, and was pleased to join an in-person ED retreat in São Paulo, Brazil, in early December. Over three days, I gave presentations on Wikimedia UK’s work on indigenous languages and climate information, co-presented a lightning talk on the Volunteer Supporters’ Network (which Wikimedia UK jointly manages with Wikimedia Argentina), and contributed to in-depth discussions about affiliate governance, community development, and external trends, including changing patterns of engagement with Wikimedia and information more broadly.

I also took the opportunity to spend a few days travelling along Brazil’s Costa Verde, accompanied by a talented local photographer and Wikimedia contributor.

This experience, along with many others across the year, was a powerful reminder that a commitment to open knowledge crosses borders and backgrounds. It’s also how the Wikimedia movement has grown and thrived over the past 25 years. I hope you’ll join me in celebrating this big birthday in 2026, and continue to support open knowledge in your own way, whether as a contributor, donor, partner, or reader.

Wishing you a peaceful festive season and a hopeful new year!

The post Community at the centre: Wikimedia UK’s 2025 in review appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

Alongside its new Education Lead Sally Latham, Wikimedia UK has also appointed its first Topics for Impact Coordinator. This blog discusses what Topics for Impact means for the Wikimedia movement in both a global and UK context.

Introduction

‘If we fail to move beyond speeches into real action, our societies will lose faith’ – Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

In November, over 56,000 individual delegates made their way to Belém, Brazil, to participate in the COP30 climate summit. Each day the issue of climate change becomes more and more pertinent to lives across the globe. The impact of our ‘real action’, or indeed lack of action, when it comes to questions of climate, will be felt for generations to come. 

This urgency is crystallised in the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals which cover a number of crucial elements of human life: from energy to the economy, oceans to land, health to hunger. In these aims, the UN lays out ‘a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future’. A commitment to these sustainable goals is integral to the Wikimedia UK 2025–30 Strategy. Under our Strategic Aim 3, we will: Increase free, verified and open access to knowledge and information about the climate crisis and other important topics, by delivering impactful projects with relevant partners, and advocating for the release of content.

With the proliferation of Large Language Models often referred to as “AI” and mis- and disinformation, keeping information on Wikipedia accessible, free and moreover, verifiable, has never been more important. In shifting focus and time to topics for impact, we will effect change that has positive and powerful repercussions for society.

What are topics for impact?

The question of what ‘topics for impact’ are, and how they relate to both our work and global society, is an important one. Looking at the Wikimedia movement’s work to ‘identify topics for impact’, we can see a real and tangible focus on ‘the different ways in which Wikimedia content can make an impact on improving people’s lives’. In looking at the social issues underpinning the UN SDGs, a picture starts to emerge of Topics for Impact as those which directly concern human wellbeing: in this context, health, human rights and climate.

Wikimedia UK and Topics for impact

Precisely defining what these topics for impact are is a curious process: on the one hand, the answers are crystallised in the UN SDGs. On the other, there is an element of reactiveness to defining a topic for impact, as the world is ever-changing, with new, pressing issues and questions emerging in unpredictable ways and at pace. At Wikimedia UK we are committed to making informed decisions about where to put our resources and expertise in open knowledge practices.

Wikimedia UK has a strong history of work which intersects with what we now term topics for impact. Since 2022, we have supported our first climate-focussed residency at the Global Systems Institute, with Wikimedian-in-Residence Tatjana Baleta. The articles edited as part of this project have gained over 190 million views. 

From 2021 to 2025, Adam Harangozó was Wikimedian-in-Residence at the National Institute for Health Research, improving access to health information on Wiki. Ongoing work at partner organisations like the IDEA Network (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Accessibility in Open Knowledge Network) at the University of St Andrews reflects our commitment to engaging with partners doing crucial work in areas like medical knowledge equity. 

In establishing a permanent role on the Programmes team for Topics for Impact, Wikimedia UK is further emphasising our commitment to these vital areas of research and development, enriching existing partnerships and seeking new areas of work.

Where are we looking first?

Applying large global issues to a local context can be daunting: how climate change presents itself, for example, varies hugely from country to country. For the four nations of the UK, we will be looking closely at community needs, as well as strengthening our relationship with the Wikimedia Foundation’s Wiki For Human Rights campaign. Even closer to home, our latest Mini Wiki challenge focuses on images of climate impact and the elements on day-to-day life in the UK.

Our commitment to ongoing annual drives like Wiki Loves Earth and 1lib1ref will be reinforced with topics for impact in mind, and newer initiatives such as 2025’s Mini Wiki will be utilised as tools for change in the key areas of impact: health, human rights, and climate change. Through promoting editing, upskilling volunteers and interested members of the public, and close attention to metrics of change, we will develop and deliver an impactful programme of work.

This programme will be sustained by the creation of new partnerships with like-minded organisations working in these areas. There is a reciprocity to how we work in our medium and long-term projects: in helping to transform content in a topic area, we uplift the voices of partner organisations, and in turn, they may find the way they work shifting in new and helpful directions, thanks to an increased understanding of the value of open knowledge.

A little about me

I’ve worked in the Wikimedia movement for nearly five years now, beginning my career as Wikimedian in Residence at the British Library (2021–23) and going on to work with the Connected Heritage project (2021–23), the Royal Albert Memorial Museum (2022–24) and the GLAM-E Lab (2023–24).

I currently work part-time at the University of Leeds as their Wikimedia and Open Knowledge Adviser alongside my work as Topics for Impact Coordinator at Wikimedia UK.

Get involved

If you have any questions, thoughts or ideas around topics for impact, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with programmes@wikimedia.org.uk. We are always interested to hear from potential partners, contributors and interested parties.

The post Topics for impact appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

A bit more about these grants:

Wikimedia UK operates a small grant programme to support Wiki volunteers to complete activities which work toward our strategic aims.  Grants are usually for amounts between £5-£250, and can include: 

• Support for Wikimedia-related events such as editathons or meetups
• Research, marketing & administrative time for a Wikimedia-related project
• Travel funds relating to Wiki activities
• Books & access to other sources for improving the Wikimedia projects
• Equipment to help support improving the Wikimedia projects.

Recent project grants have included support for the Aberdeen meetup, British Newspaper Archive access to support content creation, and competition prizes.

You can find out more about the grants programme including how to apply here: https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Project_grants – please mention Northern Ireland in your application so that we can process it accordingly.  Ideally we’d like to receive your application before mid-January 2026; but please do get in touch with me at sara.thomas@wikimedia.org.uk if you’d like to discuss your idea before applying, or if you have any ideas that might be for a later application. 

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