User:Affandy Murad/Wikimania 2025

The Wikimania 2025 Conference was the 20th edition of Wikimania, held in Nairobi, Kenya. This annual gathering of Wikipedians took place over four days, from 6 to 9 August 2025, with an additional pre-conference day on 5 August 2025. The theme of Wikimania@20 was Inclusive, Impactful, and Sustainable.

My journey to Wikimania 2025 began with an email I received on Wednesday, 19 March 2025, from the Wikimania 2025 Core Organizing Team. The email announced that I had been selected as a full scholarship recipient from the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) to attend this grand annual conference. Wikimania@20 was my first time attending the event in person, as well as my first trip outside the Asian continent. During the conference, I represented the Wikimedia Jakarta Community, which uses the Betawi language, and participated as one of the new administrators of Indonesian Wikipedia.

The main venue for Wikimania@20 was the Trademark Hotel, located in the Gigiri district of Nairobi. Several social and pre-conference events were also held at separate venues, including the Novotel Hotel, Tribe Hotel, and Village Market Mall. To facilitate participant mobility, the organizers provided a shuttle bus service to and from the Trademark Hotel.

During Wikimania@20, I had the opportunity to network with Wikipedians from around the world, attend various conference sessions, visit museums, the Embassy of Indonesia in Nairobi, and the KICC, as well as carry out volunteer duties as part of my responsibilities as a full WMF scholarship recipient.

The following is a documentation of my activities during the preparation and throughout the closing of Wikimania@20.

Preparation and Journey

After officially being selected as a full scholarship recipient, I immediately informed the Wikimedia Indonesia (WMID) staff of the news.

Through WMID, I learned that there were six other scholarship recipients: Elis Fajariyati (WMID), Raymond Sutanto (Creative Commons Indonesia), Agus Damanik, Jeromi Mikhael Asido, Dimas Hardijanto (WMID), and Najla Khairani Siregar, also known as Lala. Among us, Agus came from Central Kalimantan, while Najla was from North Sumatra. To facilitate coordination, we agreed to create a WhatsApp group chat as a medium for exchanging information.

As an initial preparation step, Elis and I received the yellow fever (Stamaril) vaccination at Kimia Farma Clinic, Mampang Prapatan, on 12 April 2025, at a cost of Rp600,000. Afterwards, I applied for a Kenya e-Visa (USD 30), ordered my personal business cards, and prepared souvenirs in the form of sticker sets featuring all the community logos under WMID.

In addition, I completed several administrative requirements provided by the Wikimania 2025 organizers, including:

Booking round-trip flights CGK–DOH–NBO and NBO–DOH–CGK with Qatar Airways;
Filling out administrative forms for stipends and hotel accommodation;
Attending the online orientation session; and
Joining the Wikimania Telegram group.

I also selected volunteer duties during the Wikimania@20 sessions, registered for side events, and participated in creating the Wikimedia Jakarta Community poster for the poster exhibition session. Furthermore, I planned several meetings, including with James Heilman (Doc James), Sadat Abdulai, and staff from the Embassy of Indonesia in Nairobi for specific purposes.

As I was still working full-time as an IT Supervisor at Korindo Group, I needed to apply for six days of leave (4–11 August 2025). I also exchanged part of my money from IDR to USD, since Kenyan Shilling (KES) was not available at most money changers in the Greater Jakarta area.

As an additional note, ride-hailing services in Kenya use Uber, which can be linked directly to Visa or Mastercard debit cards. Although the M-Pesa digital payment app is also widely used in Kenya, I preferred using my debit card to avoid exchanging a large amount of cash.

On 3 August 2025, five of us finally met at Terminal 3, Soekarno–Hatta International Airport (CGK) while waiting for the arrivals of Lala from North Sumatra and Agus from Central Kalimantan. We then departed for Nairobi (NBO) at 18:30 WIB, with a two-hour transit in Doha (DOH).

Main Activities of the Wikimania Nairobi 2025 Conference

Arrival in Nairobi (4 August 2025)

Upon arrival in Nairobi, we gathered at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to wait for the shuttle bus that would take us to our respective hotels. Lala, Elis, and I headed to Trademark Hotel, the main venue of the conference. Meanwhile, Raymond, Dimas, Jeromi, and Agus stayed at the Novotel Hotel.

After checking in, Dimas, Raymond, and I agreed to meet in the Trademark Hotel lobby to join a side event, a visit to the Museum of Illusions Nairobi at 1:00 p.m. local time, together with Wikipedians from various African countries.

Pre-conference Day (5 August 2025)

As of 18 July 2025, I officially became a Wikipedia Bahasa Indonesia administrator, which entitled me to attend the Users with Extended Rights Convening event.

There, I met Maor from Ladino Wikipedia for the first time. I also expressed my gratitude to Natalia, who had invited me via email to attend this pre-conference. After that session, I joined the second side event, a trip to Karura Forest.

With the mascot Moppy WUER
With Maor and Darafsh
With friends from ESEAP
Sockpuppet banner photo
With Natalia
Walking at Karura Forest

First Day (6 August 2025)

On the first day, I attended the opening ceremony of Wikimania 2025 wearing traditional Betawi attire as a representation of the Wikimedia Jakarta Community. I also took photos with Jimmy Wales and Maryana Iskander, and had breakfast with colleagues from the ESEAP region.

In the afternoon, I performed my volunteer duty as a room manager in the Meru Room from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. I also participated in the souvenir exchange at a designated table in the lobby of the Trademark Hotel (which was moved the next day to the first floor near the Hackathon area).

On the same day, I met with Doc James and Mohammed Sadat Abdulai. The meeting with Doc James was a follow-up to a prior agreement, as Hariadhi, one of the senior contributors to Indonesian Wikipedia, had entrusted me with two of his books titled Jordan and Mantan to deliver to him.

I also offered assistance for their project at MDWiki by developing a React JS tool called medwikinoimage, designed to identify medical articles without images.

Meanwhile, I expressed my appreciation to Sadat Abdulai for his support during the Wikidata Open Online Course. I also attended the WikiFolklore session titled Global Voices for Cultural and Gender Equity – Shaping the Future of Wiki Loves Folklore & Feminism and Folklore held in the Eldoret building. During the session, I shared a story about one of Indonesia’s intangible cultural heritages, the tale of Siti Rabihatoen from West Sumatra.

Conferences or sessions I attended on that date:

With Jimmy Wales and Maryana Iskander
Breakfast with the ESEAP teams
Souvenir exchange table in the lobby of the Trademark Hotel
With Doc James Heilman
With Mohammed Sadat Abdulai
With the WikiFolklore team
Affandy Murad as room manager in the Meru Room

Second Day (7 August 2025)

The second day began with a group photo of all participants of the Wikimania 2025 conference. I met Panpan and Jamshid from Uzbekistan—both friends of Fitriayu from Creative Commons Indonesia (CCID)—and we took a photo together with Jimmy Wales.

In the afternoon, I planned to visit the Embassy of Indonesia in Nairobi (KBRI Nairobi) to deliver a book entrusted by my cousin, Delfina, titled Tutor BIPA Itu Unik!, for the embassy staff.

I obtained the contact of the Indonesian Ambassador to Kenya, Tyas Baskoro Her Witjaksono Adji, through another cousin, Dewi Susanti. However, since the ambassador was unavailable, the meeting was delegated to Muhamad Farhan Faruq, Second Officer for Information and Socio-Cultural Affairs, who came directly to the Wikimania 2025 venue and took photos with us.

After the meeting, I had a conversation with Amr Fathy, a Wikipedian from Egypt, as well as Jilorisa John from the Wikimedia Kadazandusun Community (Sabah, Malaysia).

Later, I carried out my next volunteer duty as a Hackathon Helpdesk assistant in front of the Turkana room at the Trademark Hotel, from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. In the evening, we joined a side event, a bowling activity with fellow Indonesians, on the second floor of the Village Market Mall, which is directly connected to the hotel.

Conferences or sessions I attended on that day:

With Jimmy Wales, Fitri, and Wikipedians from Uzbekistan
With staff of the Indonesian Embassy in Nairobi
With Amr Fathy from Egypt
With Jilorisa from Sabah
Hackathon Helpdesk volunteer session

Third Day (8 August 2025)

On the third day, I joined a side event tour to Nairobi National Park, one of the largest urban forests in the world located in the heart of Kenya’s capital. We rented open-roof vehicles to explore the park area.

On the way back, we visited the Maasai Traditional Market and performed Friday prayers at Runda Grand Mosque, together with Ahmad Fauzi (a WMID scholarship recipient from the Bandung Community) and Zahirul Nukman from Wikimedia Community User Group Malaysia.

Conferences or sessions I attended on that date:

In front of the East Gate of Nairobi National Park
With Elis in an open-roof vehicle
Visiting the Maasai Traditional Market
Me with Ahmad Fauzi and Zahirul Nukman after Friday prayers at Runda Mosque.
With the Wikimedia Jakarta poster

Last Day (9 August 2025)

On the last day, I visited the Nairobi National Museum using Uber. There, I took many photos to be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons and added illustrations to various multilingual articles.

After that, I met again with Mr. Faruq at the Embassy of Indonesia in Nairobi and was introduced to Made Arjun Winata, an Indonesian intern student. We took a photo together in front of the embassy building.

Before returning, I had the opportunity to visit the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC), an iconic Kenyan landmark depicted on the Kenyan Shilling (KES) banknote.

Later, I joined the poster exhibition session, where I presented documentation posters from the Wikimedia Jakarta Community.

As a closing event, all participants attended the Wikimania 2025 closing ceremony, during which it was announced that Wikimania 2026 will be held in Paris, France. I joined the WikiChoir group and performed two songs, Hakuna Matata and Jambo Bwana.

I also met Zakaria Baou, a Wikipedian from Morocco who will be one of the organizers of Wikimania 2026. Before heading to the airport, we had dinner together at Hotel Tribe, located near Village Market Mall. As a souvenir, I gave a handwoven bag to Maor.

No conference sessions were attended on that date.

In front of the Nairobi National Museum
With the staff of the Indonesian Embassy in Nairobi and Made Arjun Winata
In front of the KICC building
Affandy on stage with WikiChoir
With Zakaria Baou at the closing ceremony
Presenting a souvenir to Maor

Other Activities I Participated In

Pitabangan Nairobi Project — I contributed several articles and content to this collaborative project.

Medwikinoimage for Doc James — A personal project to help identify MDWiki articles that do not yet have images.

Wikilokal on Wikidata — A tool I developed but did not have the chance to present during the Hackathon session. It can be accessed through the Wikilokal site.

Capx Profile — Documentation of accounts and contributions to Wikimedia projects.

Wikimedia Jakarta Poster — My participation in the poster exhibition session titled *Preserving Linguistic and Cultural Heritage in the Digital Era*.

WikiChoir — I sang together with other Wikimania 2025 participants at the closing ceremony of the conference.

Volunteer Duties

In addition to my on-site responsibilities during the conference, I also carried out online volunteer work by uploading video files to Wikimedia Commons using the Video2Commons tool.

The record of files I successfully uploaded can be viewed on my personal contributions page.

The following is the documentation of my volunteer duties during Wikimania 2025:

Volunteer duty as Helpdesk Hackathon
Volunteer duty as Room Manager
Proof of Room Manager duty on the Eventyay platform

Return to Indonesia and Follow-up

Before returning to Indonesia, we had an eight-hour transit in Doha. We used this short time to rest and visit the National Museum of Qatar.

All experiences from Wikimania 2025 will be shared with members of the Wikimedia Jakarta Community, in the form of activity reports, sharing sessions, and publications across various online platforms, so they can serve as inspiration for other communities.

In front of Hamad Airport MRT Station
Midday atmosphere at Souq Waqif, Doha
Visit to the National Museum of Qatar
Terminal area of Doha International Airport

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude to the entire Wikimania 2025 organizing committee, Wikipedians from around the world, and fellow members of the Wikimedia Jakarta Community. Thanks to your support and enthusiasm, I was able to take part in this annual Wikimedia event with great meaning.

I am also grateful for the opportunity to connect with many international Wikipedians to continue collaborating in the mission of freeing knowledge for everyone through Wikimedia projects.

In conclusion, thank you for this valuable opportunity — see you at Wikimania 2026 in Paris! 🇫🇷