Wikipedia/Wikimedia should embrace its roots and give the public all the nerdy facts that they so desperately want from us. Social media campaigns like the Depths of Wikipedia and the high viewership of popular culture articles show the way toward reviving the eccentric spirit that makes our projects beautiful. Solutions can be found in thoughtful and playful reform of Wikipedia's style, guidelines and notability, as well as experimentation through new sibling projects like Wikispore.

The City University of New York has had a long engagement with various aspects of the Wikimedia movement for the last 10+ years. In 2025, CUNY welcomed its first Wikimedian-in-Residence, Richard Knipel. This session will explore how CUNY is using that position to institutionalize and grow its role across 25 colleges and the many academic units that serve this system. Based at the Office of Library Services as a hub, and with the support of a dedicated documentation role as well, the goal is to bring together aspects of the university system as they overlap with Wikimedia projects in a cross-disciplinary manner.

A vision will be shared with participants of cross-institutional efforts blooming in the shape of a flower, and we will lead a demonstration of how participants can draw their own flower models.