Deoband Community Wikimedia/Activity plans/Strategic plan for January 2026 - June 2026
This activity plan builds upon our previous activity plan for April-December 2025. This page outlines a comprehensive list of planned activities for the term spanning from 1 January to 30 June 2026. Please note that this list is dynamic.
Community Enhancement
[edit]Content
[edit]We are particularly stressing on the DCW-K Editiathon during this period, aiming a total of 150 articles on Kashmiri Wikipedia. We will also support our volunteers improve thematic content on English and Urdu Wikipedia. We will provided extended training to the members of our clubs in understanding technical landspace of our movement for their effective and efficient participation. This will be in the form of both virtual and in-person training workshops co-organised with our Wiki Clubs.
Photographers Club
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Mausoleum of Mir Saadullah Shahabadi -
Achabal Gardens and the Mughal architecture -
Mausoleum of Jamaluddin Bukhari in Lisser -
Markazi Jama Masjid, Aishmuqam -
Mahmud Gami mausoleum
The sixth itertion of Heritage Lens was a super-success, helping us bring over 500 images. In this term, we aim to establish a club, comprising our previous Heritage Lens fellows, and photography enthuasists. This club will help ease our work as it will be responsible for handling all of our programs, initiatives and projects dealing with Wikimedia Commons. The club members will be made responsible to provide support for photo-walks requested by our community members. This will be beneficial for the DCW Board and help it utilise more time on developing leadership and decision-making processes.
Wiki Clubs
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Understanding Wikipedia Inclusivity Criterias workshop -
Wikidata Sprint by Wiki Club AMU
For our Wiki Clubs, our priorities include:
- Capacity Development: for Wiki Club Deoband & Wiki Club Jamia
- Outreach and Awareness: for Wiki Club AMU.
Our Wiki Clubs will engage in campus photowalks, organise workshops on learning, technical and leadership aspects of the movement. These include exploring MediaWiki tech, Wikimedia community policies, and contributing patterns across Wikimedia wikis.
The core organising team of Wiki Club AMU, led by Shzshb and supported by advisory members like CosmicCodex, has a focused and objective-based activity plan for the January-June 2026 term. The plan focuses on strengthening core contributions, deepening member skills, and ensuring smooth transition to the new academic session through focused, high-impact activities aligned with the academic calendar at the Aligarh Muslim University.
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Learning Zone
[edit]We don't plan to invest on our learning zone with exhaustive manner subject to current capacity development programs and initiatives going on within our community. We will offer one-on-one and cohort based virtual, and wherever necessary, in-person training sessions on:
- Design: in collaboration with Saumyaa Naidu, an independent researcher working on digital rights, specifically focusing on design, digital infrastructures, and digital cultures. This will be offered freely to all of our community members who support with design.
- Translation Administration: cohort based
- How to become an Admin on Commons: we will bring conversations on copyright, community service, and administrative maintenance and hope to at least help one community member become an administrator on Wikimedia Commons project.
Wikipedia 25
[edit]We will celebrate 25 years of Wikipedia towards the end of January 2025 with a one-day academic conference hosting about 20 researchers and academics. We are hoping to initiate a call for abstracts by December 15 so that we have enough time to review and prepare. Ideal topics would be the impact of AI, systemic bias, neutraility and reliability, alongside the navigational challenges that users face.
Conversations
[edit]DCW Progress Prism
[edit]DCW Progress Prism is our frequent quarterly community call where we share updates with our community members. This serves as a discussion hub where our community members and club leads talk about their challenges and seek guidance. We will be organising two of these calls between January and June 2026.
DCW Conversation Hour
[edit]We aim at conducting 6 impactful conversations during this period, including one about the impact and outcomes of the Wikimedia Futures Lab, featuring Nicole Ebber from Wikimedia Deutschland.
Mehfil-e-Wiki
[edit]In our 19 October 2025 board meeting held during the Aligarh edition of Train a Wikipedian, the board decided a new contributor retention technique. Our Mehfil-e-Wiki events will not only serve as friendly spaces of discussions about navigating Wikimedia projects but that each contributor will be making at least of three edits or three uploads during the event. Previously, we organised Mehfi-e-Wiki in a rotational manner across our Wiki Clubs, however, the board has decided that each of our clubs will be organising one Mehfil-e-Wiki event each month. We are hoping to have over 18 such impactful events across our clubs from January to June 2026, led by our dedicated club leads, Numis Zuhair, Sabaaya and Shzshb.
Wikimedia Futures Lab, Frankfurt
[edit]We are delighted to participate in the Wikimedia Futures Lab in Frankfurt, Germany.
GLAM and institutional partnerships
[edit]IIT Delhi
[edit]
Raydann and Alnitak-Alnilam-Mintaka have successfully established a GLAM partnership with the Central Library of the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, an Institution of Eminence (IoE) and Institution of National Importance (INI), during the previous term, Through this collaboration, both have been appointed as Wikimedians-in-Residence at the library. Following their appointment, the GLAM IIT Delhi project was formally launched. As part of the initiative, a heritage preservation walk was organized on campus, with its documentation shared on Wikimedia Commons.
Looking ahead, the collaboration with the Central Library, IIT Delhi, will continue with capacity-building workshops and training sessions for library staff, aimed at increasing institutional understanding of Wikimedia projects and open knowledge initiatives.
IIT Madras
[edit]Building on this momentum, we plan to extend GLAM outreach to the Archives of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. The archives, which maintain and digitize historical academic records and research documents, hold immense potential for knowledge preservation and public access. Being a top ranked higher education institution in India and an INI, IIT Madras presents a valuable opportunity for long-term collaboration.
Both Raydann and Alnitak-Alnilam-Mintaka are current students of IIT Madras and, drawing upon their experience as Wikimedians-in-Residence at IIT Delhi, can lead a promising outreach to the IIT Madras Archives.
Revisiting Akkalkuwa, NCPUL and other institutions
[edit]We are hoping to revisit two identified potential partnerships: the National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language and the Jamia Akkalkuwa. We have also Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine and Sciences in Aligarh as a potential partner, which for now serves as an easy-to-go place for our high impact events. Through the partnerships with these institutions, we are focused on:
- Creating and curating impactful content in Urdu language
- Helping push Urdu Wikisource
- Bring new contributors.
Leadership development
[edit]Executive Board
[edit]Our community has significantly grown over the years. We are hoping to add 2 more advisory members to the Executive Board, and conduct two board meetings during this period.
Mentorship Bonds
[edit]Peer learning has been an impactful activity within our community. For this term, we are hoping to pair at least 10 newbies wit our existing community members. This helps us with maximum beneficial output. The bonds will be curated and identified through surveys.
Train a Wikipedian
[edit]Given the success of the second edition of our residential leadership development program, we are hoping to conduct its third edition in February 2026 in Deoband, bringing about 16-17 Wikimedians together for two days.