WikiConference North America

WikiConference North America (WCNA), known as WikiConference USA in its first two years, is an annual conference for volunteers and supporters of Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean.^[1] It brings together Wikipedia editors with educators, librarians, and staff of cultural institutions for talks, workshops, and networking.^[2] Since 2016 it has been organized by the WikiConference North America User Group, an affiliate recognized by the Wikimedia Foundation, working with regional affiliates such as Wikimedia Canada, Wikimedia New York City, and Wikimedia DC.^[2]

The first conference was held in New York City in 2014.^[3] The event took its current name in 2016, when it widened its scope from the United States to the whole continent.^[4] It was held online from 2020 to 2022 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and resumed in person in Toronto in 2023.^[2][5] The 2025 conference in New York drew wide press coverage after an armed man disrupted its opening session.^[6]

History

WikiConference USA (2014–2015)

The first WikiConference USA ran from May 30 to June 1, 2014, at New York Law School in Manhattan's Tribeca neighborhood. It was hosted by Wikimedia DC and Wikimedia New York City. Its program covered "topics concerning the Wikimedia movement in the United States, as well as related topics of free culture and digital rights," through keynotes, panels, workshops, and unconference sessions. The event was free, and organizers expected about 300 attendees.^[3]

The second conference took place from October 9 to 11, 2015, at the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C. It was co-hosted by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the Wiki Education Foundation, Wikimedia DC, and Wikimedia New York City. Archivist of the United States David Ferriero described it as "the annual national conference of Wikimedia enthusiasts and volunteers in the United States." Sessions covered outreach to cultural institutions, community building, technology development, and Wikipedia's role in education, and talks in the building's McGowan Theater were streamed on NARA's YouTube channel.^[7]

Expansion to North America (2016–2019)

In 2016 the event was renamed WikiConference North America and opened to Wikimedians in Canada and Mexico as well as the United States.^[4][8] It was held in San Diego from October 7 to 10, 2016, at Balboa Park and the Central Library. The program opened with a "Wiki Culture Crawl," in which attendees visited more than 15 museums and institutions in Balboa Park; organizers described it as possibly "the largest one-day GLAM-Wikipedia collaboration ever held."^[4] (GLAM stands for galleries, libraries, archives, and museums.) Wikimedia Foundation executive director Katherine Maher led strategy discussions with attendees, and sessions addressed gaps in Wikipedia's coverage of women philosophers and transgender topics.^[9] The WikiConference North America User Group was established the same year.^[2]

The 2017 conference, held in Montreal on August 9 and 10, served as a pre-conference to Wikimania 2017, the Wikimedia movement's global conference, which followed in the same city from August 11 to 13.^[10] In 2018 the conference took place in Columbus, Ohio, from October 18 to 21, at Ohio State University's Thompson Library and Sullivant Hall and at the Columbus Metropolitan Library, under the trilingual theme "possibility / posibilidad / possibilité."^[11] The 2019 conference ran from November 8 to 11 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, mainly at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Stata Center, with a Friday program at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. Its theme was "reliability / credibility," and it was planned with the Credibility Coalition.^[12]

Online conferences (2020–2022)

The 2020 conference was held entirely online from December 11 to 13, 2020, under the theme "online | en ligne | en línea." It was free and open to anyone worldwide.^[1] The 2021 conference was also online, from October 8 to 10, with local in-person picnics ("Wiknics") in New York City and Mexico City.^[13] The 2022 conference, held online from November 11 to 13, was organized jointly with OpenStreetMap US's Mapping USA conference and included lightning talks split between mapping and Wikimedia topics.^[14]

Return to in-person events (2023–present)

The conference returned to in-person format at the Toronto Reference Library from November 9 to 12, 2023. Its theme, "Recent Changes," referred both to the wiki feed of that name and to changes since the last in-person gathering in 2019.^[5]

The 2024 conference was held from October 3 to 6 at Indiana University Indianapolis, primarily in Hine Hall. Its theme, "Crossroads," drew on Indiana's state motto. It was organized by the Wikimedia Indiana User Group and the IUI University Library.^[15] Indianapolis mayor Joe Hogsett proclaimed October 4, 2024, "Wikipedia Day" in the city.^[16]

The 2025 conference took place from October 16 to 19 at Civic Hall near Union Square in New York City, and drew more than 300 attendees. Its opening Culture Crawl included visits to 16 museums and cultural institutions, and keynote speakers included Wikimedia Foundation CEO Maryana Iskander and Craigslist founder Craig Newmark.^[17] On the morning of October 17, during the opening session, an Ohio man wearing a sign describing himself as an "anti-contact non-offending pedophile" went onto the stage with a gun and threatened to kill himself. He was restrained and taken into police custody, and the rest of that day's program was cancelled; the conference resumed the next day with additional security and police on site.^[6] Slate reported that volunteer editors Richard Knipel and Andrew Lih restrained the man and that the gun was loaded.^[18] Some presentations displaced by the cancellation were moved to a virtual day on November 24, 2025.^[17]

The 2026 conference, hosted by Wikimedia Canada, was announced in January 2026 for Edmonton, Alberta.^[19] It is being held at the University of Alberta's Lister Conference Centre, with a Culture Crawl on September 24 followed by the main conference from September 25 to 27, 2026. Organizers expected about 250 attendees, including scholarship recipients.^[20]

List of conferences

Organization and format

The conference is organized by volunteers. The 2019 edition, for example, was led by a three-person steering committee and a core planning team of 12 people from the Wikimedia community and partner organizations.^[12] Each year's event is typically co-organized with a local host institution, often a university or public library, and funded in part by the Wikimedia Foundation.^[11][15] Recent editions have offered travel scholarships.^[19]

Since 2016 most editions have opened with a Culture Crawl, in which attendees visit local museums, archives, and other cultural institutions, followed by several days of talks, workshops, and informal sessions.^[4][17][20]