Wikisource Community User Group/2025 Report
Report of the Wikisource Community User Group for 2025.
Written by VIGNERON, Darafsh, Bodhisattwa, Filipinayzd, ...
The Wikisource community had a very active year with major events, global campaigns, sustained editorial growth, and vibrant community platforms that collectively reflect the group’s ongoing contribution to preserving and disseminating free textual heritage online.
Events
[edit]Online meetings
[edit]
These meetings aim to bring together both the non-technical and the technical Wikisource contributors together.
- April 12, 22 people registered, 15 participants
- May 10, 9 people registered, 11 participants
- June 8, 9 people registered, 10 participants
- July 13, 6 people registered, 10 participants
- August 17, 10 people registered, 11 participants
These meetings were hosted by Darafsh.
Wikisource Conference 2025
[edit]_Wikisource_Conference_2025.png)
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Our major 2025higlight was the the Wikisource Conference. Long awaited and after 10 years, the conference was back (the previous one was in 2015 in Vienna, the 2020 was cancelled due to COVID). The 2025 Conference was held 14–16 February in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia. Thanks again a lot to our fiscal sponsor Wikimedia Indonesia, to Denpasar Wikimedia Community and to all the people involved who made it a very successful conference (the Wikisource Conference 2025/Team, people at the WMF and all the participants). Over 100 contributors from all over the world participated, bringing together volunteers, community leaders, and partners involved with Wikisource projects worldwide.
The conference theme was « Wikisource: Transform & Preserve Heritage Digitally », emphasizing the role of Wikisource in digitally preserving historical texts and strengthening community collaboration. The conference lasted for 3 days:
On Day 1, Munawar Holil (Indonesian Manuscript Society/Manassa) and Cokorda Rai Adi Paramartha (Udayana University) shared their expertise on Indonesian manuscript preservation, highlighting the importance of technological advancements such as the development of a keyboard in digitizing Balinese script. Their discussion inspired ideas for new collaborations between local experts and the Wikisource community. Day 2 featured Dr. Adi Keinan-Schoonbaert (British Library), who explored opportunities for Wikisource communities to contribute multilingual transcriptions for the Ground Truth initiative. Cassie Chan (Google Asia Pacific) introduced Google’s work in digitizing physical content through Google Books and Google Arts & Culture while raising critical questions about the challenges of AI-generated images. On Day 3, Andy Stauder (READ-COOP) reinforced READ-COOP’s commitment to Wikisource by discussing advancements in Transkribus’ Automatic Text Recognition (ATR), a machine learning tool designed to enhance manuscript transcription efficiency.
See Wikisource Conference 2025 and the videos of the recorded sessions on Commons:Category:Wikisource Conference 2025 - Session videos.
Wikimania Nairobi
[edit]
- wikimania:2025:Program/Music in the Wikiverse: from Wikisource to the world by OrbiliusMagister.
- wikimania:2025:Program/Wikisource in Uganda : Our experience and best practice recommendations by Nanteza Divine Gabriella.
- Wikisource Meetup, see some of the notes here.
Other meetings
[edit]- Interested in Wikisource? Discuss and Share at Central Asian WikiCon 2025
- and Wikisource: When two cool kids play together! at d:Event:Wikidata and Sister Projects
...
In other developments from community
[edit]Wikisource Reader App
[edit]
A Wikisource reader application was launched in 2025 for Android users to help book lovers access and read books that have been completely proofread and transcluded by different Wikisource communities. The app utilizes the power of Wikidata to access the bibliographic metadata of books stored in Wikisource projects and fetch the lists from there. Currently the app is readily available for 27 languages, that have enriched metadata of books following the bibliographic data model on Wikidata. The app has a clean and beautiful user interface, with all kinds of different cool features which enhances book reading experiences.
Others
[edit]To go further, some diff posts:
- (French) Rencontre francophone de l’AWA : Introduction à Wikisource et son utilité
- (English) Wikisource and Wikidata together: lessons from the Wikisource Conference
- (English) Wikisource Volunteers Reunite After a Decade at the International Wikisource Conference 2025 in Bali
- (English) Empowering Open Knowledge: Celebrating week of International Women’s Day with Kannada and Tulu Wikisource Workshop
- (English) Another milestone for Wikisource Loves Manuscripts Philippines
- (English) Wikisource: Preserving the Past for the Future
- (English) Reviving Odia Wikisource: Celebrating Classical Odia Language Week 2025 and Odia Classical Language Day
- (English) AWA Anglophone Meetup for May 2025: From Forgotten Pages to Global Libraries
- (English) WILMA PH training program kicks off, runs until November 30
- (English) Proofreading as a Collective Act of Care: Introducing the “Wikisource Loves Proofreading Campaign 2025”
- (English) My Journey Through the Wikisource Bootcamp 2025 by the Free Knowledge Africa
- (English) Building a Wikisource Community in Uganda: Training, Inclusion and Celebration
Other news:
- The Madurese Wikisource was created October 2025.
- The Minangkabau Wikisource was created October 2025.
- After 10+ years of inactivty, the Faroese Wikisource is proposed for closure
| Month | January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of discussions | 4 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
