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Research:Organizers in the Wikimedia movement/Literature review

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Duration:  2025-March – 2025-August
This page documents a completed research project.


Organizers are “a fundamental building block of the healthy functioning of Wikimedia communities” (Wikimedia Movement Study, 2019). This review attempts to collect existing literature or studies capturing organizers’ personas and motivations and their impact in the Wikimedia movement, highlighting best practices, and drawing opportunities for possible future work. The strategic goal of this review is to provide a summary of lessons learned so that organizers can be supported in building the communities including growing content, fostering connection, and deepening collaboration.

Given the complex and diverse nature of organizers in the Wikimedia movement, as well as the limited availability of literature or studies on this topic itself (e.g., most of documents reviewed here are in English – indicating an opportunity to do localized studies on local organizers and/or amplifying certain underrepresented regions in the global Wikimedia movement), this review does not and cannot aim to be comprehensive. As such, please use this review as a complementary information resource.

Who are the organizers in the Wikimedia movement?

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In studies, namely Wikimedia Movement Organizers Study (2019) and Navigating Adoption by Global South Users: The Case of Wikimedia Volunteers (2023), organizers are varied in their degree of affiliation with the Wikimedia movement and their editing experiences. There are organizers who are editors or contributors themselves. Some organizers are supported by Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) or affiliates. Some identified as activists, collaborators or volunteers in the general sense. Some preferred to be simply identified as “Wikip(m)edians".

In the Community Insights 2024 Report, organizers are “respondents who indicated that they organize Wikimedia projects, events, campaigns, or groups, that they are a primary contact or staff of a Wikimedia Affiliate, or have received a grant (including those who identified as Editors and Developers)”. From a technical ability perspective, one example is the term “Event Organizers” defined as a user group for organizers on the wikis, which grants it the power to use certain tools like Event Registration and Invitation Lists. Another example is “Workshops or Campaign organizers” namely those who, as the name suggests, organize workshops or campaigns. The Organizer Lab also focuses on organizers of content campaigns. It aims to “hone the skills organizers need to run consistent, high-impact campaigns that invite new contributors, partners, and supporters to the movement”.

Furthermore, there are organizers who organize based on their thematic interests, expertises or institutional affiliation. Those organizers focus on topics such as gender (e.g., Art+Feminism) or exercise their professional skills like librarians (see further: 1Lib1Ref Case Studies), education (see further: Wiki Education impact and Kelab Wiki Kent - Wikimedia student society of Institute of Teacher Education Kent Campus in Malaysia), and photographers. Some reside as a Wikimedian in Residence.

Cognizant of the above references, this review finds it is impossible to pin down one definition of organizers as they are a diverse and dynamic group of people, contributing to the movement building and collaborating for the movement’s growth in their own preferred ways. Not to mention, focusing only on a definition may leave out those who do community organizing activities in the Wikimedia movement but prefer other terms than “organizers” or those who prefer not to identify as “organizers” at all. This, however, presents an opportunity to further explore and emphasize organizers’ evolving actions and impact more generally, and regional/local nuances specifically.

What are organizers' motivations and/or personas?

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Below is a summary of motivations from key studies that capture organizers’ motivations and/or personas in the movement: Wikimedia Movement Organizers Study (2019), Navigating Adoption by Global South Users: The Case of Wikimedia Volunteers (2023) [see also UX Research & Design Support: Campaigns Team (2022)], and Community Insights Report (2024).

  • Wikimedia Movement Organizers Study (2019)
    • Organizers in this study includes those who are based in Argentina, Ghana, and Indonesia.
    • Motivations: Ideological motivation (e.g., Wikimedia identity, social activism); Personal opportunities (e.g., learning, networking).
    • Personas: International activists, Local activists, Movement facilitators, Open movement activists, Open education.
  • Global South Users study (2023)
    • Organizers in this study includes those who are based in Senegal, Uganda, D.R.C., and Rwanda.
    • Further reading: UX Research & Design Support: Campaigns Team (2022).
    • Personas & Motivations:
      • Ethical opportunist - contributing because both social impact and personal opportunities.
      • The local empowerment volunteer - care about local impact and have high sense of belonging to local communities.
      • The Pan-African visionary - care about social impact and promote African values.
      • The one that’s giving back - care about social impact and create networks for training, mentoring, etc.
      • The western foreigners - care about social impact and have passion for local empowerment (via capacity building, etc.).
    • The study asserts “People fitting the “Ethical Opportunist” persona are among the most common volunteers to be found in Africa”.
  • Community Insights 2024 report
    • Scope: “...data from more than 3000 Wikimedians from all over the world through the Community Insights survey”.
    • Motivations: Organizers rank the following motivations as somewhat or very important - at higher rates than Editors (see further: Key Terms):
      • Social motivations: Engaging and sharing opinions with other Wikimedians, Mentoring or teaching others to contribute, Exchanging skills with other Wikimedians, Friendship - having made friends on the wikis.

When compared to other studies namely New Editor Experiences (2017) and Volunteer Archetypes (2024), ideological or social motivation and personal opportunities motivation are not unique to those who are explicitly identified as organizers. These shared motivations (e.g., social impact) among organizers, (new) editors, and volunteers indicate that everyone could potentially be considered to be an “organizer” if the hallmark of being an organizer is only those socially-driven motivations. Because of this, it is important to take a closer look at the multitudes of skills that organizers bring to and their impact on the Wikimedia movement. Furthermore, from an organizers growth perspective, when one looks at these shared motivations, it offers an opportunity to provide a wide array of avenues for connection and collaboration among those who share motivations despite their preferred labels (or motivations/personas labels assigned to them via the above studies or research) and to endeavor an outreach in expanding and reaching out to more potential organizers to grow the Wikimedia movement.

What are organizers' influences and/or impacts?

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Organizers do multiple forms of community organizing activities. It is difficult to capture them all in a thorough manner. As such, this review can only highlight some of the best practices. Additionally, the summary below hopefully also serves as a validation of organizers’ meaningful contributions to the Wikimedia movement.

Organizers as generally motivated individuals or groups and sharers of enthusiasm about the Wikimedia Movement

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A closer look at the Community Insights 2024 report, especially on the analysis of differences in responses to the report’s questions about motivation among Admins, Editors, and Organizers by Tanja Anđić, found that organizers were more likely to find almost all motivations important (specifically, very important) compared to both editors and admins - indicating that organizers are overall more enthusiastic about the Wikimedia movement and bring diverse motivations as a group.

Key highlights:

  • In relation to organizing work, organizers rank “sharing knowledge about community or culture” very important (compared to editors and admins, while admins and editors are likely to rank “not important” compared to organizers). This provides an indication as to why organizers are keen to host events or campaigns on topics that they care about.
  • Organizers also rank “helping my language be better represented online” very important compared to admins and editors. This signals that organizers think about both local (e.g., their language and culture) and global (e.g., sharing it to the wider global movement) and as such, it perhaps makes them a group that can attract more organizers who have similar passion and/or reach to underrepresented languages or Indigenous people and local communities to contribute to the contents across wikis or the movement in general.
  • With regard to mentorship, this is an area where organizers stand out from editors and admins. Organizers are motivated mentors or found “mentoring or teaching others to contribute” very important compared to editors and admins.
  • In terms of sense of belonging, organizers feel more sense of belonging to the Wikimedia movement as a global community and they share this with others, be it newcomers or returning editors. It ties into the organizers' thinking both local (e.g., making knowledge available and reflected for everyone) and global (and sharing that knowledge for the world).

For further reading:

Organizers as guides, trainers, teachers and/or mentors

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Organizers attract or retain new people by organizing events or campaigns. Through those events or campaigns, they provide guides, training, teaching, and/or mentoring. The exact method(s) will depend on the organizers themselves.

Organizers as mediators and/or facilitators

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Organizers who organize editing events often find themselves having to defend the edits made. The term “mediator” or “facilitator” seems to fit this type of role they play because, as mediator, one helps the parties involved (e.g., editors, volunteers, newcomers) to understand each other and be that bridge between in- and out- of wikis world.

  • Ms. Categorized: Gender, notability, and inequality in Wikipedia (2023): “Wikipedians who organized edit-a-thons explained that when they voiced concerns over notable women being nominated for deletion, they were told that they were taking the editorial process “too personally"". These Wikipedians take the role in not only mediating among editors and volunteers but also defending new edits.
  • See also: Wikimania 2024:Program/How to improve our work on notability? Librarians’ case. This was a session where Polish, Romanian, and American librarians shared “difficulties regarding resources and getting articles accepted in Wikipedia” and trying to come up with potential solutions. (Not per se about organizers, but to note that there are others who are acting as mediators and/or facilitators for edit defense).

Organizers as drivers of partnership, content contributions and/or overall change - be it social, cultural, structural or transformational change, among others

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Organizers bring diverse goals to the Wikimedia movement. Below are a few examples:

Spaces for future work

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This review notes various potential opportunities for future work. It serves as recommendations. Further in-depth discussion may be needed.

  • To have localized studies on local organizers and/or to amplify certain underrepresented regions in the global Wikimedia movement and to endeavor an outreach in expanding and reaching out to more unique organizers to grow the Wikimedia movement..
  • To explore a wide array of avenues for connection and collaboration among those who share motivations despite their labels. A focus on organizers’ actions, such as what they do to onboard newcomers and what they do to ensure events are engaging for all levels of editing experience can give us insights into specific supports that organizers would need. This can include, but is not limited to, tools and resources needed for them to collaborate.
  • To further understand the organizers’ engagement impact in the Wikimedia movement. In the Community Insights Report (2024), organizers rank “Mentoring or teaching others to contribute” as somewhat or very important social motivations. Various best practices shared above further indicate organizers’ diverse skills to bring people together to edit and/or stay in the movement. Furthermore, there are plenty of studies pertaining to forms of socialization to support newcomers, such as Newcomer Homepage (e.g., Increasing Participation in Peer Production Communities with the Newcomer Homepage), Wikipedia Teahouse (e.g., Evaluating the impact of the Wikipedia Teahouse on newcomer socialization and retention), mentorship (e.g., Mentorship feature preliminary analysis), the Wikipedia Adventure (e.g., Impact of the Wikipedia Adventure on new editor retention), and various forms of (skills) training and campaigns organized by organizers and/or partner organizations.
    • Two topics for further exploration so that the Wikimedia movement can grow are (1). On organizers as mentors (e.g., identifying organizers who are also mentors through the Mentorship feature and taking a closer look at their experiences to learn about best practices) and (2). Organizers’ impact in intentional attraction and/or retention of newcomers (e.g., their readiness, types of approaches they use, existing success metrics and results, as well as their usage of tools and other resources).
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