Wikimedia Europe/General Assembly/2025
The 2025 General Assembly of Wikimedia Europe is a yearly event for all affiliate members that will take place on April 25-26 (Friday-Saturday) 2025 in Prague Czech Republic. Read more about the last year's General Assembly.
Registration
[edit]The registration is now completed.
Travel and accommodation costs are covered by member organisations. To facilitate equitable participation, members with limited financial resources who face difficulties in participating in person, have a possibility to reach out to Wikimedia Europe to discuss available support. In such cases, please send an e-mail to network@wikimedia-europe.eu.
Venue
[edit]
The General Assembly 2025 takes place in Prague, Czech Republic. Event Address: H40, Holešovická tržnice, Bubenské nábřeží 306/13, Praha 7 - Holešovice, Prague, Czech Republic
Go to FLOOR 2!
Recommended accommodation nearby includes Mama Shelter.
Side Event
[edit]Members are invited to participate in a side event: Affiliate-Communities Relationships Workshop on April 27 (Sunday), 2025. Registration to the side event is included in the main registration form.
Agenda
[edit]| Time | Agenda | Info |
|---|---|---|
| 11:00 | Walk-In, Registration | feat. TEA & COFFEE |
| 12:00 | Walk-In, Registration | feat. LUNCH & lunchtime chat |
| 13:00 | Opening | Welcome and Introduction (WMEU) |
| 13:15 | Celebrating | Looking at past year's achievements (WMEU) |
| 13:45 | Reports & Plans | Adoptions of reports and annual plan (WMEU) |
| 14:15 | Board Exit | Exit memo of exiting board (WMEU) |
| 14:30 | CLOSING DIGITAL VOTING | Tea & Coffee Hangout |
| 15:00 | Election Results | Board elections and resolutions (WMEU) |
| 15:30 | Strategy | Soft launch of strategy process and timeline (WMEU) |
| 18:00 | Public event: AI meets Wikipedia - online communities and their approaches | Venue: Czech Savings Bank Galleries in Prague, Rytířská 29, Old Town, 110 00 |
| 20:00 | END |
| Time | Track / Location | Session Title | Description | Speakers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8:00 | TEA / COFFEE HANGOUT | |||
| 9:00 | Main space 2nd floor (onsite only, no online participation) | Understanding our network | Summary, reflections, observations and tricky questions we don’t have answers to (yet), based on community mapping of WMEU network. Who are we? How does this influence our network? Who do we want to become?
NOTE: This is members only session, we invite other participants to join us at 10:30. |
Van Anh Dam, Bhav Patel |
| 10:30 | TEA / COFFEE HANGOUT | |||
| 11:00 | Main space 2nd floor | Wikimedia and the Digital Services Act: Identifying, Assessing, and Reporting on Systemic Risks | How the Wikimedia Foundation identified and assessed systemic risks relating to Wikipedia in the European Union as required under the Digital Services Act? Participants will have the opportunity to reflect on how they experience these risks and others in their own work, potentially informing future Foundation risk assessments. | Ricky Gaines |
| 11:00 | Side room 2nd floor | Debrief of WMEU Board election process | Summary of the process, gathering feedback and feedforward. Next steps and recommendations for future elections. | Claudia Garad, Jan-Bart de Vreede |
| 12:00 | LUNCH BREAK – Lunchtime chat with Rebecca MacKinnon: "Threats, hopes in troubling times: Observations and reflection on what we can all do to support one another." | |||
| 13:00 | Main space 2nd floor | Understanding Wikipedia: researching regulations and actual practices that shape Wikipedia in Europe | How legal regulations and community practices can influence and enhance our impact. Introduction to research and first learnings. | WMUE, University of Amsterdam, EURECAT, SWPS |
| 13:30 | Main space 2nd floor | WMEU Collaboration groups | How to start effective topic collaboration groups within our network? Discussion and co-design of guiding values for working and collaboration groups. | Bhav Patel, WMEU |
| 13:00 | Side room 2nd floor | Bilateral Digital Dialogues | TBC | Friederike von Franqué |
| 13:15 | Side room 2nd floor |  |
How do we bring our open education resources to our stakeholders? | Jean-Marc Wyss |
| 13:35 | Side room 2nd floor | History of the Basque Country in 100 objects | Innovative GLAM project, centered in museums, trying to cover the history of the Basque Country in 100 objects. In this session we will learn how we are designing and what problems we are finding in the way. | Galder Gonzalez |
| 13:50 | Side room 2nd floor | Looking at Europe from the North | Understanding the past, present, and progress of the Wikimedia movement in Northern Europe.
Geostrategic position of Northern Europe and the Wikimedia movement in Northern Europe, which includes the following countries: Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland. What Wikipedias are there and their progress? How does the copyright law/directive implementation differ from other countries? What consequences does this have for Wikipedia projects? |
Heikki Kastemaa |
| 14:05 | Side room 2nd floor | Building the Slovak Comprehensive Music Database | The Slovak Comprehensive Music Database is a bridge between the database of a rights management organization, a public Slovak music promoter and Wikipedia and Wikidata. Its aim is to keep information about music and musical artists up to date and reliable so that it can be used by the general public but more specifically also by streaming services. The result should be an increase in play of Slovak artists. This method should be repeatable in other countries/communities. | Matej Grochal |
| 14:10 | Side room 2nd floor | Get on board the new Wiki Loves Monuments app! | Presenting new WLM app developed by Wikimedia Italy and the opportunity for other countries to get on board and adopt it as their Wiki Loves Monuments contest platform. | Ferdinando Traversa |
| 14:15 | Side room 2nd floor | Capacity Exchange Tool | We aim to present the Capacity Exchange (CapX) tool: a platform, designed by and for the Wikimedia Movement, that allows for decentralized capacity building. It has a fresh new version in which the development team tried to incorporate all community feedback. | Amanda Jurno |
| 14:30 | TEA / COFFEE HANGOUT | |||
| 15:00 | Main space 2nd floor | Non-Wikimedia grant projects practically | Discussing specific project ideas for non-Wikimedia grants that can pay for your work time. Get inspired by other ideas, present your own, find partners and start your project in a year. | Michal Matúšov, Valentina Calcagno |
| 15:30 | Main space 2nd floor | Crowdsourcing Wikimedia viewpoints, attitudes and positions on AI and the impact on the platforms | The aim of the session is to provide background information on AI and have a better understanding of Wikimedia’s needs and attitudes to AI. This is fundamentally important to safeguard and develop the Wikimedia platforms and other open platforms in this new and rapidly evolving environment. | John Cummings |
| 15:00 | Side room 2nd floor | The “Human AI” game | Bring the beginning of a compelling story, experience, or project, and let our "Human AI" take it from there! Together, we'll put its imagination to the test and explore unexpected twists and creative continuations. Then, we'll see whether our Human AI got it right—or completely off track. And, of course, we’ll find out who’s the better storyteller in the room: the AI or the humans? Expect surprises, friendly debates, and plenty of laughter. | Jan-Bart de Vreede, Nicole Ebber |
| 16:00 | Main space 2nd floor | Feedforward & Spotlights & Next steps | Your thoughts & key next steps | WMEU |
| 16:30 | END OF SESSIONS OF DAY TWO | |||
| 18:00 | NETWORK GET TOGETHER – BOAT TRIP | |||
Boat Trip Instructions
[edit]- You don't have to sign up, everyone who was registered as a participant to the GA and joined us on site can show up and be part of the trip
- Please arrive at the location at exactly 17:45 - otherwise we might join the trip without you as we board all together and don't wait for late comers
- The location is Prague Steamboat Company, 76, Rašínovo nábř. 1672, Nové Město, 120 00 Praha
- Go down stairs to the bay, the bay number / ticket office is 2, the company name you should see in Paroblava
- It takes about 35min by public transport (i.e. tram 14) to get there from our main venue or 1h10min by walk
- We meet all together there to enter boat as one group at 17:50 (if you don't enter with our group we might not be able to make sure you're let in individually)
- The person on WMEU team leading the group will get the group ticket that has been booked and lead everyone to onboard.
- In case of trouble, please contact us on our GA Signal group or someone who is in the group to whom you have contact phone.
Friendly Space Policy
[edit]Wikimedia Europe is dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone at all venues and events such as conferences, virtual events, and related social events. This policy applies regardless of gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, physical appearance, age, race, ethnicity, political affiliation, national origin, or religion and is not limited to these characteristics.
We do not tolerate any form of harassment of General Assembly participants. Harassment includes but is not limited to offensive verbal comments related to gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, physical appearance, age, race, ethnicity, political affiliation, national origin, or religion. Harassment also includes sexual images in public spaces, deliberate intimidation, stalking, unwelcome following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention.
We are focused on providing a good socialising experience for people and will have time and space dedicated specifically towards that. However, during the General Assembly sessions participants are requested to refrain from drinking alcohol and using other substances that may affect their behaviour towards others, whether in the venue or outside if they plan to come back to the sessions after use. If that happens, you will be asked to leave the room or the venue until the effects of the substance subside.
Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately. Any participant violating these rules may be expelled from the event at the discretion of the organisers. If a participant engages in harassing behavior, the organisers may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender or expulsion from the event. If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact any member of the Trust & Safety Team or Wikimedia Europe's board immediately.
Staff will be happy to assist those experiencing harassment in any way possible to ensure they feel safe for the duration of the conference.
Trust & Safety Team
[edit]The following people are responsible for applying the friendly space policies and the Universal Code of Conduct (UCoC) may be contacted at any time in case of need:
- Klára Joklová, klara.joklova@wikimedia.cz
- Dimitar Zagorski, dimi@wikimedia.be
- Natalia Szafran-Kozakowska, nszafran@wikimedia.org
Local Attractions
[edit]The following have been recommended by the local organising team:
- JATKA 78 - modern circus
- DOX gallery - contemporary art
- expo 58 art - the iconic EXPO 58 pavilion overlooking Prague’s Old and New Town