Talk:NARWHAL/April 2026

Notes from the meeting

[Copied and edited from https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/narwhal-2026-4 (will be wiped at the end of May, 2026)]

• Annual Wikimedia hackathon is coming up in May ; https://openstreetmap.us/events/state-of-the-map-us/2026/ in June in Madison, WI
• WMNY: Wiki games ; public storefront? involved in outreach to college student Wikimedia groups ; early Wiki photo contests were done with student activists.
• One person went to WikiCredCon a week ago ; in San Francisco ; Cred stands for credibility ; program: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiCredCon_2026/Schedule
• WikiClub Toronto event recently ; plan to have a photo walk, June 13th ; co-drafting Quebec City's bid for WIkiConference North America ; local clubs for wikimedia got clobbered during covid period and are recovering; is happily helping rebuild them
• Chelsea of WMCA: WikiClub Canada has had events in Vancouver, perhaps virtually ; an event in May will be held in Edmonton (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Event:Edmonton_Meetup_May_2026), and one in Kitchener (May 2 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event:Kitchener,_Ontario_meetup_in_May_2026) ; and WCNA in September ; Queering Wiki conference will be in October (in Montreal - https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Queering_Wiki_2026/Scholarship)
• Bay Area Wikimedians User Group: events are expanding greatly!!
  • hosted a WikiGameJam and other events recently; WikNic coming up ; regular salon events ; they are applying to the Knight foundation for funding associated with OpenHistoricalMap - https://knightfoundation.org/knight-cities-challenge/
• econterms ; I went to WikiCredCon and a nice meetup in SF. At the WikiCredCon I was interested to meet people who had really worked on LLMs — the guts of them ; and the idea of a more formal partnership between the WMF and Internet Archivee who really worked on LLMs ; the idea came up again of a more formal connection/partnership between Internet Archive and WMF ; the new WMF CEO Bernadette Meehan was interviewed ;
• Texas: planning to find a virtual meeting time for Texas Wikimedians for a few months, followed by in-person events in Austin at a few local libraries

• Plans for WikiConference North America in Sept: Conference theme will be " Building the Future of the Commons". And there will be a little sharper attachment to the theme than sometimes. There will be several tracks: https://wikiconference.org/wiki/2026/Program. Program submissions are due by May 15.
  • There was a request for hybrid participation ; but this is said to be not too feasible for the conference costwise ; counterargument - that a smartphone camera can deliver video

• WikiPortraits events recently: Seattle filmfest?

• North Carolina group had big editathons last month. Women's history and WikiCurious/country music presentation and editing session. It went well. Country music artist Rissi Palmer attended and spoke about aspects of the history of diversity of country music performers. There will be a followup editathon to the Country music one on Wednesday.

• News on the North American Hub proposals (Canada, US, and Caribbean, presently abbreviated "CANCUS"): WMF approved the latest grant submisssion. there are two be two staff people. WM Canada is the primary fiscal sponsor and will hire an administrative staff person, and WMNY will hire a programmatic staff person. alternative names to "CANCUS" are invited here. A steering committee is to be selected. There are many specific representatives and criteria for them specified in the grant. How to select them? Might have an election among people who attended the recent WikiConference(s).
  • suggestion: bring on people for the steering committee and/or staff who are experienced in wiki events recently
  • the reason not to call it "North American" hub is that it doesn't (yet) include Mexico and Central America.
  • suggestion: for new names, invite answers to an email broadcast
  • Suggestion: CUSC!
  • Suggestion: invite input broadly and noisily ; and to a public link; people may be uncomfortable with a back room decision
  • advertise hub stuff widely and ahead of time ; give people time
  • possible path: invite input on a meta page regarding the NAME and possible STEERING COMMITTEE members. That's relatively open and we can point to that page all over the place.
  • will try to get a steering committee together fast

• etherpads! they will be wiped out. We can move NARWHAL notes to talk pages. Try to NOT move personal introductions, to avoid including lots of personal information, but rather the content of the meeting. Can't panic about including some personal info.

• Wikinews as previously existed is being frozen but a new startup effort will be hosted on Miraheze wiki farm

• on OpenHistoricalMaps: there have been a strong network of their chapters/user groups ; we Wikimedians can partner/ally with them

Chelsea Chiovelli (WMCA) (talk) 22:16, 29 April 2026 (UTC)