Deoband Community Wikimedia/Reports/Activity reports/2025

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In 2025, the Deoband Community Wikimedia completed its fourth year of recognition with a robust calendar of events. From 1 January to 31 December, we hosted 12 DCW Conversation Hours and three iterations of Heritage Lens, while representing our community at international gatherings including Wikimania Nairobi, the GLAM-Wiki Conference, and the Youth Conference. Capacity building remained a priority, evidenced by our Train-a-Wikipedian program, and engagement in the She Leads Bootcamp and Advanced Train The Trainer programs.

+570

Articles

+1200

Images

+45

Active Users

+ 23

Conversations & Meetings

+12

Workshops

25 of the active users are females

Conversations

DCW Conversation Hour

These conversation hours are just incredible resources for engaging our communities and working to advance the mission of Wikipedia's free knowledge. The archive especially I was looking at is just a wonderful resource. — Prof. Matthew Vetter

We organised a total of twelve conversation hours in 2025, delving into a wide range of issues with varying perspectives and stories. These include:

• Archives to Access: Understanding Wikisource: Featuring Satdeep Gill from the Wikimedia Foundation, this conversation hour explores the relevance of Wikisource, and practical strategies for improving the project.
• Bridging GLAM and Wiki: Featuring Martin Poulter, a Wikimedian in Residence at the Khalili Foundation, this conversation hour explores learnings from the Khalili GLAM initiative of Wikimedia UK and the Khalili Foundation.
• Wikimedia Alliances Fund: Featuring Jacqueline Chen, this conversation hour brings learnings and lessons from the Wikimedia Alliances Fund.
• Language Activism and Wikimedia Incubator: Featuring Jon Harald Søby, this conversation hour focuses on the role of Wikimedia Incubator where new language projects take birth. Incubator is a foundational space where new language communities can build Wikimedia projects before launching as independent wikis.
• Advocacy, Policy and Open Knowledge: This conversation hour focused advocacy and policy in open knowledge ecosystem, and featured Catalina Frigerio, the director for Advocacy and Public Policy at Wikimedia Chile.
• Healthy and Sustainable Wikimedia Affiliates: This conversation hour reflects on the concept of affiliate health, and features Suyash Dwivedi, who serves as the vice-chair of the Affiliations Committee.
• Exploring Wikimedia Residence Initiatives: Featuring John Cummings, this conversation hour explores the scope, impact, and challenges of the WiR role as well as how it empowers both Wikimedia communities and institutions to collaborate for the public good.
• AI, Hallucinations and Fact Checking: This conversation hour features Abbad Diraneyya, and explores how AI-generated content impacts the reliability of knowledge, the challenges it poses to Wikimedia’s mission of accuracy, and the opportunities to adapt fact-checking practices in the age of AI. Drawing on his unique experiences across Wikimedia, authorship, knowledge strategy, and AI design, Abbad guides us through these critical questions and help us reflect on how communities can safeguard knowledge integrity.
• Community Narratives and Systemic Bias: This conversation hour features Shanmugapriya T, an Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities at IIT Dhanbad. She presented her research on community narratives and systemic bias, focusing on projects documenting water bodies in South India and mapping Fisher community scientific knowledge. The discussion explored challenges around digital storytelling resources for marginalized communities in India and issues with missing or biased data sets in digital platforms.
• 2030 Strategy and the Wikimedia Movement: This conversation hour features Dumisani Ndubane, a long-time South African Wikimedian, and the director of Monitoring and Evaluation at MMG EARTH, who formerly worked with the Wikimedia Foundation in several roles, including as a monitoring and evaluation strategist for the Global Data and Insights Team. He provides a critical assessment of the Wikimedia 2030 Strategy implementation, noting that only 35% of planned initiatives are being achieved and highlighting specific areas where progress is lagging. The discussion focused on the importance of equity in decision-making and the need for community engagement with strategic initiatives, particularly regarding the movement charter that was not ratified despite significant investment.
• Digital Knowledge Commons: This conversation hour feautures Puthiya Purayil Sneha, who works as Research Manager with the Open Knowledge Initiatives team. We examined the shifting architecture of the digital knowledge commons against the backdrop of mass digitization and the rapid integration of artificial intelligence. The discussion centered on how archival and open-knowledge projects serve as the bedrock of a sustainable commons, while simultaneously addressing the mounting ethical challenges regarding data ownership and equitable access. A significant portion of the session was dedicated to the resilience of underrepresented Indian languages, analyzing how these linguistic communities navigate technological shifts to ensure participation in the future of open digital ecosystems
• Reimagining Collaborations: This conversation hour focused on reimagining collaborations beyond Wikimedia, with Pavan Santhosh sharing his experience as a Wikimedian and open knowledge practitioner. He discussed the challenges of bringing new contributors into the movement, highlighting the importance of mobile accessibility and the need to shift from a laptop-centric to a mobile-first approach. Pavan emphasized the need to understand and address the digital literacy gaps among potential contributors, particularly academics and researchers who are not aware of Wikimedia resources like Wikiquote. He also suggested creating applications or campaigns that debunk misinformation to build trust in Wikimedia projects. The conversation explored how Wikimedia can better collaborate with other open knowledge initiatives and adapt its outreach strategies to engage a wider audience.

DCW Progress Prism and other meetings

We organised two Progress Prism conversations in 2025. The first one was conducted in 12 January 2025, and focused on updating our community members about our decision-making transition and sharing our 2025 plans, while the second one was organised on 31 August 2025. Through these frequent calls, we share our community-wide achievements and challenges with our members.

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We organised our first annual convening on 20-21 December at Ibn Sina Academy in Aligarh. At the convening, we explored the condition of our Leadership and Skills Infrastructure Program, the metrics from our major programs such as Conversation Hour, and Heritage Lens, discussed our Social Media and Design Strategy. We also honored our best contributors at the convening. Sabaaya was named as the Newcomer of the Year, AJ12119 as the media contributor of the year, while Khaatir was named as the overall Wikimedian of the Year.

We established our Youth Focus Group in July 2025 under the lead of CosmicCodex and Raydann. The group organised an introductory workshop about Wikimedia projects on 15 October 2025. The workshop was graciously facilitated by Prof Swati Chawla at her residence.

Edit-a-thons and contests

Alongside supporting contests organised by our Wiki Clubs, we organised the third edition of DCW-K Editathon in September, and a quick editing challenge across several Wikimedia projects in October.

DCW-K Editathon

We organised third edition of DCW-K Editathon in collaboration with Kashmiri Wikimedians User Group in September 2025. Through this, a total of 47 articles were created on Kashmiri Wikipedia.

October 2025 Challenge

In October 2025, we organised a pilot editing contest focused on Wikipedia, Wikidata and Translation Administration backlog clearance across several projects. Partcipants created more than 87 articles across English, Hindi and Urdu Wikipedia, and improved reasonable Wikidata items.

Heritage Lens

See also: c:Category:Heritage Lens - Iteration 5, c:Category:Heritage Lens - Iteration 6 and c:Category:Heritage Lens - Iteration 7

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We conducted 5th, 6th, and 7th iteration of the Heritage Lens in 2025, bringing in a total of 741 images through this program. The 5th iteration was conducted in Aligarh, the 6th focused in Kashmir, while the 7th iteration aimed at capturing images from Lucknow. Travel fellowships were awarded to Laraib17, KahkashaaN, Mahi zahidi, Sabaaya and AJ12119 to execute these iterations.

Impact and Development

DCW Board

In 2025, we formally moved from a consensus-based model to that of an executive board. The board elections were conducted in March and the members were announced on 27 March 2025. We welcomed Durre Shehvaar, Koshur, Khanahmedsam and Raydann as the members of the inagural executive board, with Aafi appointed as the board chair. With 40% female representation on our Board, we ensure that diverse perspectives directly shape our strategic decisions and community governance

The members of the board met several times, both online and offline. The first organised meeting was held on 6 April 2025, while the most recent was concurrently organised during the October edition of Train-a-Wikipedian program, in Aligarh.

Conference and event participation

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In 2025, our members consistently participated in both national and international Wikimedia events. Beginning the year with Humaira Ali's participation at She Leads Bootcamp in Bangalore (though Bloomingbibliophile was also awarded a scholarship, but could not join), our participation in international Wikimedia events improved significantly. Two of our volunteers, CosmicCodex and Raydann participated in the Youth Conference in Prague in May 2025. Aafi received a scholarship for Wikimania Nairobi and Raydann represented our community at the GLAM-Wiki Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, in October 2025. Aafi was also part of the first cohort of Advanced Train The Trainer program, conducted by the Open Knowledge Initiatives team at IIIT-Hyderabad in October 2025.

Train-a-Wikipedian

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Being part of TAW in October 2025 was a rewarding experience that strengthened my skills, connected me with a passionate community, and inspired me to contribute more actively to the Wikimedia movement. — Shadabgdg

In 2025, we initiated Train-a-Wikipedia as our residential leadership program, with the lifecycle of Identify, Learn, Think, Mentor. We conducted the first edition in February, while the second edition was organised in October 2025. Both the editions focused on basic to semi-advanced nuances of the Wikimedia ecosystem including leadership, and engaged 27 Wikimedians in these discussions. The following are three important resources created through this program.

• Digital Public Goods, addressed by Manavpreet Kaur, where she explores why Wikipedia[matters as a DPG for communities like DCW.
• Students and the Wikimedia Ecosystem, addressed by LiAnna Davis, sharing about educational initiatives of Wiki Edu Foundation, and exploring how students associated with the DCW Programs could utilise Wikipedia for their academic growth.
• Self, Community and Knowledge, addressed by Tanveer Hasan, he discusses the importance of skills and curiosity in learning and personal development, emphasising that skills require patience and practice, while curiosity forms the foundation of deeper understanding. He also highlights the need to go beyond just acquiring skills and to ask questions about the why behind things. He encouraged the cohort to engage with the Wikimedia movement by asking questions and seeking to understand the underlying principles. He also focuses on issues such as Imposter Syndrome, Knowledge Activism and Systemic Change Through Individual Will. In this address, Tanveer highlights how systemic change occurs through three stages: beginning with an individual's strong will and dedication to an idea, and then supported by a committed community, and finally recognised by the broader system, and how this could be implemented in our Wikimedia communities.

Wiki Clubs

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Wiki Club AMU organised several programs in 2025. These include the inaugural Wiki Clicks AMU in January 2025, and an orientation program on 28 June. The club core members organised four dedicated meetups for discussing strategy and sustainabilty. These were organised on March 4, 20 June and 25 July, and 12 November. Wiki Club AMU also initiated the Revitalisation of Urdu Wikiquote and organised two online workshops, together with the Munfarid Aqwaal Contest in December 2025.

The growth of Wiki Club Deoband and Wiki Club Jamia has been slow and steady at organisational level, and we have been working to improve the structures of the core organising teams. Wiki Club Deoband organised Exploring Dars-e-Nizami contest from 21 November 2025 to 6 January 2026, helping create and curate about 25 quality articles on Urdu Wikipedia. The club also organised a Mehfil-e-Wiki in April 2025. Wiki Club Jamia was briefly left with no COT from April to June 2025. The club organised the first edition of Wiki Clicks Jamia contest on Wikimedia Commons in September 2025, in which 14 students participated, uploading over 133 images.

Workshops

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• Did You Know: Roadmap and Process: Organised virtually on 19 January 2025, this workshop explored the Did you Know process of English Wikipedia.
• Identifying Credible Sources: Organised virtually on 23 March 2025, this workshop provided an extensive dive of how Wikipedia communities understand reliability of sources when article articles on the encyclopedia.
• Category Dynamics on Wiki: Organised virtually on 30 April 2025, this workshop helped particpants understand how categorisation works on Wikimedia projects, exploring best categorisation practices.
• Understanding Wikipedia Inclusivity Criterias: Conducted offline by Wiki Club AMU on 30 August 2025, this workshop extensively helped more than 20 participants explore the Wikipedia notability criterias.
• Words that Echo: Organised virtually on 21 November 2025, this workshop was offered as a part of the Urdu Wikiquote Revitalisation project.
• Getting Started with WikiTech: Tools, Bots and More: Organised in Delhi, in collaboration with the Indic Technical community, on 29 October 2025. We were pleased to have Jay Prakash as the trainer in this workshop.
• Exploring Translation Administration: Organised in Delhi, this dedicated workshop focused on internationalisation on our projects. This workshop particularly resulted in Sabaaya becoming a translation administrator on Meta-Wiki and Wikimedia Commons.

Metrics and Finances

To avoid redundancy, we do not add detailed contribution metrics and finance incurred in our activity reports. These are available on our final rapid project reports, and can be viewed through our financial overview of the year.