2025-08-06 –, MOMBASA (Ballroom 1) 🌐 💬
Language: English
The internet is changing rapidly, and so is how people discover and consume information. Over the next fiscal year, and into the future, the Wikimedia Foundation is placing more focus on attracting and building meaningful relationships with new readers so that we can protect the future of our movement, ensuring that humans have access to free knowledge for years to come. We wanted to start a discussion on which problems in this space are the most important and brainstorm solutions.
This session will be a panel discussion with participants from the Reader Growth, Reader Experience, and iOS and Apps teams.
One of the biggest challenges we see ahead is figuring out how to engage an entirely new generation of readers - people who may not even think about the wikis today, but whose future participation in the free knowledge ecosystem will be crucial. We need this generation to begin using and learning from Wikipedia today, so that they can become tomorrow’s generation of editors and donors. We believe this is key to sustaining our movement in the future.
But the way this new generation learns and uses the internet is different from how people have traditionally used Wikipedia. They are coming online to a rapidly changing internet, full of distinct ways to create, access, and learn online. Today’s global internet users are more diverse, not only in age and geography, but also in what they need from learning and being online, and not all of them have chosen Wikipedia as their preferred source of knowledge.
We'd like to discuss ways to introduce Wikipedia to these readers, showing some of our current thinking, and brainstorming ideas for the future.
Session objectives:
1. Begin the conversation around the main issues and difficulties for new Wikipedia Readers
2. Discuss participants' perspectives and experiences with Readers and Readership.
- What other themes or topics does your session fit into? Please choose from the list of tags below.
-
Collaboration, Product development
- How does your session relate to the event theme: Wikimania@20: Inclusivity. Impact. Sustainability?
-
This session discusses technology that can make Wikipedia more inclusive and accessible to readers globally
- What is the experience level needed for the audience for your session?
-
Everyone can participate in this session
- How do you plan to deliver this session? You will be asked to confirm this closer to the date in case of changes to the format.
-
Hybrid, with some speakers in Nairobi and others dialing in remotely
- Should your session be selected for the program, do you agree to release your session and supporting materials on-wiki and on the eventyay platform under CC BY-SA 4.0?
-
I agree
Hi! I'm Olga and I'm a principle product manager at the Wikimedia Foundation. I think about a lot about the readers of Wikimedia projects and work to make their experience on the site better and more engaging.
I am the Lead UX Designer on the Web Team at WMF. I’ve been at WMF since July 2023 and I've designing software as a job for 14 years. Before I started at WMF, I worked on an offline-first, trans-institutional personal finance app, tech for crisis response and the humanitarian sector, as well as developer tools and fintech products.
I am grateful to live, work, and play in Treaty 7 Territory, just east of the Canadian Rockies on the traditional territories of Bearspaw First Nation, Chiniki First Nation, Blood Tribe (Kainai Nation), Piikani Nation, Siksika Nation, Tsuutʼina Nation, and Wesley First Nation.