Next 25

Next 25 is an informal ad hoc set of community members assembled in Q2'2026 to discuss the future of the Wikimedia movement. It is mainly a reaction to many discussions about Wikipedia's traffic and growth challenges, in the face of artificial intelligence and reduction in referral traffic (see Google Zero).

After the Wikimedia Futures Lab in January 2026, AI-BRIDGES symposium, extended discussions on the Wikimedia-L mailing list and ahead of Wikimania 2026, a number of community members assembled for a call on 7 July 2026, and subsequently labeled the continuing conversation as "Next 25".

Ongoing conversation is being held on Telegram, using the former SWAN Telegram channel. (Join Next25 link)

This page is to gather discussions, materials and initiatives about the current trends and the next 25 years of Wikimedia.

Context

Some Wikimedians are concerned about current trends on readership, editorship and general knowledge distribution. There are different initiatives across the movement on that topic, but they are scattered, loosely coordinated and without clear unified direction. The Next 25 effort attempts to make those efforts more coherent and collaborative.

Actions

Statements

/Making Wikimedia's human collaboration visible

Artifacts

Meetings

Event:This is not a meeting - First meeting on July 7th 2026

Etherpad
Meeting summary
Event talk:This is not a meeting
Related: email threads on Wikimedia-l

Public email threads

In internal and external media

"Wikipedia at 25: A Wake-Up Call" essay, as republished in The Signpost from the original email
/Telegram logs

Useful readings

https://www.conduction.nl/academy/opinion/feed-the-wolf-that-ships/

Related artifacts and initiatives

General strategy

"Solving puzzles together", an essay by former Wikimedia Foundation CEO Maryana Iskander (WMF)
"Demystifying the 2026–27 Annual Plan", an overview of a published draft of the plan by User:Sohom Datta

Innovation

Futures Lab (recent history)

"Futures Lab in a box" may become a recurring smaller-scale event, such as in chapters or hubs

IdeaLab (historical but perhaps should be revived)
Individual Engagement Grants (historical)

Grant making and capacity building

Online trainings for partnerships

Multi-generational sustainability

Decision-making and governance

Governance Study Group
"We need to innovate with Wikimedia decision-making", opinion piece by User:Lodewijk

2030 Strategy recommendations and initiatives

Parking lot

I don't have time to structure things properly so I'm dumping here things

Capacity building ideas

Improving WikiLearn discoverability

- from Telegram - Four ways off the top of my of head:

Referrals from on-wiki help and planning pages.
Referrals from grant program officers to applicants.
CentralNotice campaigns to reach editors not involved in affiliate work.
Just-in-time proposals made by Mediawiki itself: imagine if, when an edit you made got reverted, the wiki notification would not just tell you it happened, but offer you links to learning modules on NPOV and Verifiability. This requires a software change of course. We have been lobbying for this in the past year, but Product has not included it in its annual plan for the fiscal year just started. I still think it would be a powerful link.

Online and offline events

Future of Affiliate Gatherings

Affiliates and grantmaking

Updating the ecosystem of Wikimedia organizations

Updating the ecosystem of Wikimedia organizations/Recognition and Funding for Movement Organizations, comment period through 7 August 2026

Also mentioned under the Events category: Future of Affiliate Gatherings