Wikimedia Foundation

4 August 2026, San Francisco — The Wikimedia Foundation, the global nonprofit that operates Wikipedia, today announced the appointment of Rena Kokalari as its new Chief People Officer. Rena brings more than 25 years of experience leading People and Culture teams across humanitarian, technology, finance, and media sectors.

The Wikimedia Foundation is a nonprofit organization guided by values centered on shared purpose, continuous improvement, welcoming participation, and open, curious dialogue. We aim to advance a more informed and inclusive world through our support of knowledge sharing and access, and recognize that this work begins with how we operate as an organization.

Paris, France, 22 July 2026 — This week, Paris hosts Wikimania 2026, the twenty-first edition of the flagship annual conference that celebrates Wikipedia, Wikimedia projects, and the global community of volunteers (Wikimedians) who make them possible. Taking place from 21–25 July 2026, this marks the first time the annual gathering is hosted in France with more than1,200 anticipated attendees in-person from around the world.

The digital commons are under threat: with the advent of generative AI, bots have officially . Last year, the Wikimedia Foundation shared our concerns around drops in human traffic on Wikipedia. We also reported a significant increase in bot traffic to Wikimedia projects — largely coming from crawlers that extract content to train generative AI systems.

UPDATE — On 10 July 2026, the Wikimedia Foundation was notified by Ofcom that Wikipedia is not currently deemed a Category 1 service under the Online Safety Act (OSA). However, as part of that announcement, Ofcom informed the Foundation that Wikipedia will remain on a “watch list” of platforms that do not currently qualify as Category 1 services, but that could become Category 1 at any point in the future, should Ofcom choose to reassess its decision.

New York City (9 July 2026) — The Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia NYC, the United Nations Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies (UN-ODET), and the United Nations Office of Information and Communication Technology (UN-OICT) came together to host the second-ever UN “edit-a-thon” as part of UN Open Source Week 2026 inside the UN headquarters in New York City on 22 June 2026. A Wikipedia edit-a-thon brings together volunteers to create and improve articles on specific topics on Wikipedia.

On 8 July 2026, the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that hosts Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, was — for the sixth time — denied permanent observer status at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Africawide, 24 June, 2026 — The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), in partnership with the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that operates Wikipedia, are today announcing three journalists from Africa as recipients of the Open the Knowledge Journalism Awards. The winning stories, covering migration, youth sports and maternal health, are being recognized for helping highlight meaningful stories in Africa.

Add to your knowledge every day to earn a prize and bragging rights with a new Reading Challenge, featuring Baby Globe, Wikipedia’s 25th birthday mascot. Engage your curiosity and deepen your knowledge with the Wikipedia app’s 25-day Reading Challenge. Wikipedia is kicking off this app initiative to celebrate its 25th birthday, a year-long event paying tribute to a quarter century of the online free encyclopedia.

13 May 2026 – The Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, celebrates becoming a member of the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA), a multi-stakeholder initiative endorsed by the United Nations that promotes the discovery, development, and use of digital public goods (DPGs) — open-source software, dataset, AI models, and content — to advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).