 Hello and welcome to the final day of Wikimedia 2021. My name is Winnie Kabintse from the Wikimedia community in Kenya and I've also been part of the Wikimedia co-organising team. I can't believe it's the last day already. It feels like we just got started. A very warm welcome once again. Thank you for joining us and we hope you've been enjoying all those five days. We would like to hear your thoughts on some of your highlights of Wikimedia. Please do engage with us on the chat in the telegram groups and also on Twitter the hashtag is Wikimedia21 and do share your highlights and also in the same breath we would also like to collect your feedback regarding your experience in Wikimedia so we will have a feedback survey that will go around. Please do fill it in and help us make future Wikimanias actually better. Allow me to introduce the second session or rather the plenary session of Wikimedia today and this is on reflecting on the past, the present, the future of Wikimedia and the media. And now it's my honor to introduce Dr. Tedros Adhanom Gibriassos who is the director of the World Health Organization. Dear colleagues and friends from across the Wikimedia community the internet and social media platforms have been a double-edged sword for the global response to COVID-19. On one hand they give people access to unprecedented amounts of good information on the other they have enabled harmful conspiracy theories and falsehood to spread. No single organization can manage this infodemic alone. We must work across sectors and with new partners. Last year, WHO joined forces with the Wikimedia Foundation to expand access to the latest and most reliable information about COVID-19. This partnership has made WHO resources available under a free license so Wikipedia editors can use them to improve articles about COVID-19. As a result, Wikipedia has become a trusted source of information about COVID-19 for millions of people around the world. I thank the many dedicated volunteers who contribute their time and expertise especially to the COVID-19 articles on Wikipedia in multiple languages. We all have a role to play in ensuring equitable access to accurate public health information regardless of where you live or the language you speak. We look forward to continuing our work with you to create a healthier, safer and fairer future for everyone everywhere. I thank you. Thank you very much, Dr. Tedros. Thank you very much, Dr. Tedros. And next, we have a message from Mr. Sal Khan, an American educator and the founder of the Khan Academy, which is a free online education platform. Hi everyone in the Wikipedia community and at Wikimedia, Sal Khan here from Khan Academy. And first of all, I just want to frankly thank all of you for doing the work that you do. Many folks don't remember in the late 90s. It was obvious that the internet was a way to disseminate information, even disseminate knowledge. And a lot of people were trying to make money off of it. And it felt very utopian and maybe even overly idealistic back in 2001 when Wikipedia was started that really thoughtful, really competent people around the world just purely out of the goodness of their heart would contribute to a project that could be as good and as we later learned better than pretty much anything else out there. And on one level, it was a mind-blowing idea. But on another level, it's hard to imagine the world before Wikipedia. It's hard to imagine what the internet would be without Wikipedia. But it's also important to emphasize just the example that Wikipedia has set. Khan Academy would not be a not-for-profit or I don't think I would have had the belief that it could exist as a not-for-profit if not for all of y'all's work and showing what Wikipedia could do, how it could scale, how it could innovate, how it can preserve knowledge. And over the several decades, which is equivalent to centuries in internet time, has really stood the test of time and has shown that it's unparalleled and its ability to share knowledge and its ability to evolve and make sure that humanity gets good information. And I think now more than ever, people are hungry for good, credible information. I was once introduced at a talk where someone said, you know, the irony is when there's a flood, that's oftentimes that the people might actually experience dehydration. And I think we have a similar thing in the internet today. We have a flood of information with social media and what else. But there's actually very few places where people can go that they're not politically motivated, they're not just in their bubble, and it is actually a source of truth. And I think Wikipedia is the lighthouse example for that. And I view almost Khan Academy as a layer on top of that that can give extra instruction and texture, but obviously the breadth and depth of what Wikipedia can do is really unsurpassed. So I just want to thank all of y'all for showing that humanity is fundamentally good and that it gives me hope in where we're going as a civilization for projects like Wikipedia to exist and to continue to evolve that we won't enter. You know, I give the example of Harry Selden in the Isaac Asimov Foundation series of creating the foundation to preserve the world's knowledge to prevent the future galactic empire from going into a dark ages. Well, if there's anything comparable to that, it's Wikipedia. And maybe Khan Academy plays a little role as well. But it's Wikipedia really is, I think, one of these core institutions of the internet. And frankly, I would say now of the world and it wouldn't be possible without all of y'all's help and tireless effort. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Khan. Indeed, we have a flood of information and we have to preserve it. And now it's my joy to introduce Boch Bostria, who is a member of the Wikimanias Tearing Committee and also the coordinator of the EC Abhab to talk about what the future holds for Wikimanias 2022. Hello, and welcome to the final day of Wikimanias 2021. I am thrilled to meet you virtually. And on behalf of the organizers, we appreciate that you joined the conference. We sincerely hope that you enjoyed the many informative and entertaining sessions throughout the days. We want to acknowledge the major earthquake that struck Haiti. Our hearts and thoughts are with the people of Haiti and the Wikimedia community user group Haiti. As well, we are concerned about the access to education, women's rights and the state of glam institutions in Afghanistan. And we only hope for a peaceful outcome. I am Boch Bostria, a member of the Wikimanias Tearing Committee and overseas Filipino Wikimedian coordinator of the East, Southeast Asia and the Pacific or Asia. And that person you saw in 2019. Thank you, Stockholm, and see you in Bangkok. Not one day, but how many days? The organizers of Wikimanias 2019 in Stockholm did an amazing job and set the bar high. Empowering more community members in groups to review and select program content was one innovation adopted since. We are ever grateful to the Wikimanias Tearing Committee for trusting Asia and Wikimedia Thailand to host Wikimanias 2020 in Bangkok. We are eager to start planning right after the previous organizers passed the responsibility. It would have been the first time that we, a group of community members with diverse cultural, ethnic, socio-economic identities, would plan the Wikimedia movement's largest event. We come up with a theme, power of diverse collaboration, sharing knowledge brings people together. The last time Wikimedia went to Asia was nearly a decade ago in Hong Kong. It was my first Wikimedia and I experienced the life of our regular Wikimedia immersing with a new and established members of the international community. It was my life-changing moment. I'm honored to be mentored by Australian Craig Franklin, who is no longer with us on project management catered for Wikimanias. Many of what I've learned from him, I apply in my volunteer engagements including Wikimanias. Danny, who will be speaking later, the founder of Wikidata, taught me one-on-one the basics of Wikidata. At first, honestly, I do not do much Wikidata as a whole hardcore Wikimedia editor. But after learning basic Lua years later, I was able to improve articles in English, Tagalog, Sibuano, Waray, Pangasinan, Bicol, and other languages in the Philippines as well as Bahasa, Milayo for integrating Wikidata content to those Wikimedia language projects. We of organizing team face a challenging road. No other organizers had ever imagined. There were valid concerns raised by our community members such as a dengue fever epidemic, torrential rainfall, and the political situation in the whole city. However, the pandemic was the major test in our risk assessment. It was a tough decision not to have Wikimedia in 2020. In January of this year, it was announced that Wikimedia will be shifting to an online environment. As we know, Wikimedia has gone from a youth hostel to museums, university campus, hotel convention centers, and now a new venue, a virtual one. With this, the Wikimedia steering committee selected the volunteers fit for this type of event. Eight persons, thousands of kilometers apart, formed the 2021 Wikimedia core organizing team. This year was tough. The team faced a narrow timetable, learning a new virtual platform, and meeting in various time zones. Yet, the organizing team working in partnership with the Wikimedia Foundation's communications team and the Wikimedia steering committee raised the bar even higher, and we all enjoyed the fruit of this hard labor. We also salute the safety support volunteers and user-farers for the community village for their tireless effort in helping our event participants. As we close Wikimedia later today, we want to hear from the next host. Following the latest steering committee meeting, the following consensus was reached, and I go. Our current thinking is to have virtual Wikimedia in 2022, and we are open to a hybrid approach or in real-life aspects that are justified given the developing global situations. ESEAP would still like to host the next in-person Wikimedia. Hopefully in 2023, once an in-person event in a single venue or city is generally acceptable to many of you. We receive valuable feedback from you, such as further usage of free and open license software, packet conferences in various locations of the world, and continuing using our virtual platform on remote event participation. We have a wider timetable in our hands. We are greatly appreciate your help to sign up to take a volunteer role for Wikimedia 2022 once we publish the details. Please share your thoughts and reflections about Wikimedia 2021. An email will be sent to you after this event with a survey. We appreciate your time in filling it out so that we can make the next year even better. Wikimedia is resilient and will remain an important annual opportunity to bring our community together. Whether person or online, our focus on sharing and learning together will remain strong. We invite you to a panel discussion later at 1500 UTC in Building 5 on the future of Wikimedia. We have Kelsey Steinrow moderating the talk of Wikimedia events and my colleague Phoebe Ayers of the Wikimedia steering committee, Yemen Bosirish of the 2021 Wikimedia core organizing team and Douglas Scott of the Wikimedia Cape Town 2018. Eight years ago, there was a panel on Imagine Wikipedia in 2022. And Wikimedia Deutschland for the time machine. And I do hope we will see you ten years from now again with the same panel. See who was right. Thank you. People had predicted a lot of weird things then on what will happen in 2022 including video conferencing, the foundation's new revenue streams and Wikimedia with a much larger number of registrants. With one year left, let us see if those and other bold predictions match the real 2022. Well, we wish to have a reenacted or sequel of the Wikimedia 2022 with DeRor and Christof this time with real testimonials. And yes, we need to have a Wikimedia theme song. We are motivated to continue Wikimedia 2022 at all means possible so that we can leave a mark for future Wikimedians to watch and look back. Have a wonderful productive last day of Wikimedia 2021 from nighttime here in Southeast Asia. Don't be tricked by the background. It's Zoom. Don't worry. Thank you, everyone. See you later. Thank you very much, Boch, for those great remarks. Indeed, we love that background. I must also say that Boch has also been the gifted hands behind the Wikimedia social media platforms. At this point, we want to reflect on 25 years of Wiki technology. As many of you might know, last year was the 25th anniversary of the first Wiki going online. And now we are going to have a short talk by Ward Cunningham, who is the inventor of Wiki with an introduction by Phoebe Ayers of the Wikimedia Steering Committee and also a reflection by Danny Randichich, who is the founder of Wikidata. In 1995, a programmer in Portland, Oregon who was working on pattern languages for programming created something called the Portland Pattern Repository. It was accompanied by a companion website, the WikiWikiWeb, which was the world's first Wiki. That programmer was Ward Cunningham, and that site started a revolution in how content on the web could be created and changed. The WikiWikiWeb is more than just a website. It became a home for people who were interested in collaboration, and many of the cultural practices and philosophies developed there became embedded in the early practices of Wikipedia. As we think about the future of collaboratively created knowledge from the global to the local, our imagination builds on the foundation developed by Ward. One of Ward's ideas mentioned in this video is the Federated Wiki, which is a conception of a Wiki that would be distributed in a decentralized manner, hosted by many people. Imagining what a Wiki that follows the pattern of a distributed physical community might look like, like a town square or houses with shared courtyards could lead us to new innovations in knowledge creation online. Ward has been a part of the Wikimedia community since the beginning. He was one of the featured speakers at the very first Wikimedia in 2005 in Frankfurt, and we are honored that he is with us at Wikimedia again in 2021. Over to Ward. Well, welcome to Wikimedia. Hello to Bangkok. We wish we were there. I want to thank the organizers for this chance to speak. It's been 25 years of Wiki, 20 years of Wikimedia, 16 years of Wikimedia. I spoke back then at the first Wikimedia of federating Wiki. Not this Wiki, but a place that might have special properties. History is seen. 10 years of Federated Wiki now is a good time. For me, report back here as to how it's going. I'd like to describe it more as a feeling than a technology. It feels a little like the blogosphere because people have their own places, but it's different because the reader is completely different. The reader tries to make it feel like a Wiki and does a pretty good job of it. It's less like a newsroom and more like a retreat. It's a place to go and be yourself. It's like a cottage at the beach or the mountains. It's a place to make things and keep things you've made. It's like an artist's retreat. It's more than that because the cottages exist in clusters with courtyards that are shared by neighbors. We call these courtyards the lineup. Cottages are narrow. One column width. You can see many at once. We compare the goings on and draw on them as a commons. It's a creative courtyard. It's good to have a couple of cottages that suit your changing moods. Go to the one that you're into in the moment. There are some skills to making this work. If you're not digging the party vibe in one courtyard, then find another or host one you do like. I've been in a few VR meetups that we're looking for the same atmosphere and some skills are required in each. Wikipedia too requires some skills and the community is to be commended for reaching out. Give yourself a hand. I would like to mention some stats to give you an idea about how well this has been working. We've been watching the Wiki Federation for six years now. We've seen 2,500 sites since then. 1,500 at any given sweep. We see about 50,000 unique pages omitting duplicates. We put a code on each one to move around the Federation so we don't count them twice or three times or ten times. Sites edited this week represent about 15,000 pages. I'll focus more a little on just a couple sites that give you a feel for what gets done. Thompson Morrison approached me maybe three years ago and wanted to share the success that they had found in rural Oregon, middle and high schools. A lot of their thinking was focused on motivating creativity and kind of the same way that my original Wiki focused on computer programming and Agile and patterns and all that stuff. He was hoping to use the Federated Wiki Cottages to capture the systemic nature of reimagining that was taking place now on four continents and reduced to a printed book that describes that experiment that's called the Dayton experiment available on Amazon and two more on the way. Closer to home I'd like to mention all the pandemic has been tough on all of us and for some it's been horrendous. For me it turned my bicycle commute into a neighborhood wandering where I would just ride and go down dead ends that I might have passed by when I was in a hurry. Spotting informal trails that crisscross the networks of creeks that have shaped my quarter of Portland, Oregon. I started just posting pictures of places I found but this has grown in complexity month by month. My artistry is in computer programming so with each new geographical question I launch new workflows that collect and organize now 18 months of exploration. I've got 300 pages in one site 600 images organized exactly the way I want to think about them this week. The pandemic has been hard for us gruesome for many but I'm intentionally programming my own memory with pleasant discoveries which is how I will remember these months or years to come. It's a tool for the way I work. So thank you and have a great event. I'll be hanging around and would love to chat. Thank you. Thank you Ward for this overview of how federated wikis are today. Since introduction of wikis by Ward a quarter of a century ago we saw the cycle going from decentralized small sites to a small number of large mostly commercial players the cycle going from open web standards where anyone could participate to the epification of data where you have to have the right mobile phone brand to do what the app owners graciously allow you to do the cycle going from a vast common meadow to walled controlled gardens and hopefully we are going to see that cycle going back again. 20 years of Wikipedia today's our projects are crucial central pieces of the global infrastructure of knowledge but what kind of project of federated wikis envision some more decentralized future where a federation of wikis can live not just one Wikipedia where a federation of knowledge bases can live not just one wiki data where a federation of open media repositories can live not just one comments it is time for us not only to celebrate and cherish and grow Wikipedia the encyclopedia but to learn how to turn Wikipedia into a pattern so that Wikipedia does not remain the last best place on the internet but becomes the pattern for many new good places interacting in a federation allowing everyone to share in the sum of all knowledge thank you again Ward and thank you all for being part of this journey I'm looking forward to the sessions today thank you very much Phoebe Ward and Denny for those great reflections on the 25 years of wiki thank you everyone once again for joining us thank you for making wikimania 2021 come to life this was our first ever virtual wikimania and we are happy so we still have a number of great sessions lined up throughout the day including a closing plenary on preventing misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic that will take a look at how Wikipedia public health experts and news media can collaborate to share trustworthy knowledge in times of crisis and we also have a lightning talk by Dr. Jess that will look at science and storytelling the unconference and community village will also remain open until 2230 UTC and at the end of the day we have a celebratory toast as curtains close on wikimania 2021 and we will be happy to see you there thank you and enjoy the final day of wikimania 2021