Re: Wikipedia at 25: A Wake-Up Call (essay)

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Bien à vous

Rachida Roky
Professeure de l'enseignement supérieur
Département de Biologie
Faculté des Sciences Ain Chock
Université Hassan II de Casablanca
Réseau de lecture au Maroc

0661206701 - E-mail :  [email protected]

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On Wed, Apr 29, 2026 at 7:15 AM James Heilman via Wikimedia-l <
[email protected]> wrote:

> I would not call adopting "generative AI" radical at this point in
> time, more just following a fad. Tons of folks are sinking many many
> billions of dollars into it and we are not going to out AI them. Us
> becoming a search engine or us dropping tons of money into AI is not
> something we should do in my opinion. We should concentrate on becoming an
> even better encyclopedia and making the format more modern and more
> interactive. But I think the fundamental idea remains good. Readership may
> fall but will hopefully stabilize. We can function with less money if we
> need to.
>
> James
>
> On Wed, Apr 29, 2026 at 7:47 AM Christophe Henner via Wikimedia-l <
> [email protected]> wrote:
>
>> All of those ideas are right and very correct, but I fear that when you
>> enter the realm of -20% YoY they are not going to do much.
>>
>> Radical drops require radical changes.
>>
>> @James Heilman <[email protected]> I have no idea how to answer
>> your comment honestly. Becoming niche means community and ressources shrink
>> too. How do you fill in the existing gaps, how do you maintain articles up
>> to date, how do you create the content in all languages if we don't have
>> people or ressources and when we refuse the adoption of generative AI?
>>
>> --
>> Christophe
>>
>>
>> On Wed, 29 Apr 2026 at 05:39, Gnangarra via Wikimedia-l <
>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> Video contests and usage isn't able to be properly supported.  We wait
>>> for the WMF to enable .mp4 uploads to enabled through upload wizard,
>>> followed by offer them in .mp4 or a behind the server conversion. Currently
>>> we have one semi reliable tool with video2commons, the uploaded has to use
>>> an alternate local conversion beforehand.  These are significant barriers
>>> to video, once we over come that there is a whole new world of complexity
>>> around copyright to be addressed .  The WMF frequently tells the Commons
>>> community there is direct support available to improve Commons not matter
>>> what is needed.  One day our media system is going to collapse as the
>>> fundamental project has had zero support for even basic infrastructure in
>>> nearly 10 years
>>> Boodarwun
>>> Gnangarra
>>> 'ngany dabakarn koorliny arn boodjera dardon nlangan Nyungar
>>> koortabodjar'
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, 29 Apr 2026, 10:48 Adam Sobieski via Wikimedia-l, <
>>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Christophe,
>>>> James,
>>>> Galder,
>>>> All,
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Hello. Building on Galder's points, I had a quick idea: what about a
>>>> periodic contest for short videos showcasing "encyclopedia of the future"
>>>> concepts and ideas?
>>>>
>>>> As envisioned, each year, there would be category winners, e.g., prizes
>>>> for innovative technical concepts and ideas, graphic design, UX design, and
>>>> video production, and there would be overall grand-prize winners.
>>>>
>>>> All of the entries could be viewed by the Wikimedia community. Perhaps
>>>> the community could vote on the entries or, perhaps, instead, there would
>>>> be an elected contest committee and appointed judges for the contest's
>>>> categories and grand prizes.
>>>>
>>>> Regardless of its important details and particulars, a periodic contest
>>>> would be a fun means to gather and celebrate concepts and ideas from around
>>>> the world.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Best regards,
>>>> Adam Sobieski
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ------------------------------
>>>> *From:* Galder Gonzalez Larrañaga via Wikimedia-l <
>>>> [email protected]>
>>>> *Sent:* Tuesday, April 28, 2026 2:20 PM
>>>> *To:* Wikimedia Mailing List <[email protected]>
>>>> *Cc:* Galder Gonzalez Larrañaga <[email protected]>
>>>> *Subject:* [Wikimedia-l] Re: Wikipedia at 25: A Wake-Up Call (essay)
>>>>
>>>> Thanks, Christophe, for commenting this issue again.
>>>>
>>>> Some years ago, when the WMF was receiving enough money to hire, pay
>>>> waves and distribute to the movement, some of us were working on
>>>> multimedia, interactivity, children encyclopedias, inter-project
>>>> integration and many other things to make our platforms better. Every
>>>> suggestion to the WMF to go on that direction, not because we said it, but
>>>> because we had an actual strategy to become the center of the free
>>>> knowledge ecosystem by 2030, was treated with disdain. Every proposal for
>>>> innovating on free knowledge was dismished. Every breakthrough technology
>>>> was instantly rejected.
>>>>
>>>> Now we are seing the result: readership is down, we are further away
>>>> from being the center of the free knowledge ecosystem, and there's less
>>>> money, so we can't innovate because innovation is expensive.
>>>>
>>>> We still can make things better. But the attitute towards innovation
>>>> should change. Or just be happy with our one generation wonder.
>>>>
>>>> If someone who has power to change things wants to hear suggestions, I
>>>> think they will receive very good ideas that should be working five years
>>>> ago. They only have to ask and hear.
>>>>
>>>> Best,
>>>>
>>>> Galder
>>>> ------------------------------
>>>> *From:* James Heilman via Wikimedia-l <[email protected]>
>>>> *Sent:* Tuesday, April 28, 2026 6:40 PM
>>>> *To:* Wikimedia Mailing List <[email protected]>
>>>> *Cc:* James Heilman <[email protected]>
>>>> *Subject:* [Wikimedia-l] Re: Wikipedia at 25: A Wake-Up Call (essay)
>>>>
>>>> We have had falling readership for years now (when it comes to health
>>>> content at least). And yes lately this has picked up. People are turning to
>>>> AI for answers, Google "search engine" now provides AI answers at the top
>>>> and then the rest is mostly adverts and their partner Mayo Clinic.
>>>>
>>>> We missed video, when Youtube exploded in popularity as a learning
>>>> platform. We had a collaboration with Ozmosis for video content but the
>>>> community sent them away. We are only just now developing infrastructure to
>>>> determine if people watch the small number of videos we currently have
>>>> (with some saying this is not needed as they believe the answer is few).
>>>>
>>>> Yes we are turning into a niche product. The internet has turned into a
>>>> walled garden, with folks staying within their apps like Twitter, Facebook,
>>>> Youtube, Instagram, etc.
>>>>
>>>> But what should we do? Some of us are working on introducing limited
>>>> video but growth is slow. We fund abstract Wikipedia to the toon of
>>>> millions. Revolutionary projects are hard to invent. This is not something
>>>> the WMF can solve. But us being more of a niche project is also not the end
>>>> of the world.
>>>>
>>>> James
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Apr 28, 2026 at 5:32 PM Christophe Henner via Wikimedia-l <
>>>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> 3 months later, a new statistic: mobile page views dropped by 19% in
>>>> one year.
>>>>
>>>> We are back to the mobile traffic levels of 2018.
>>>>
>>>> https://stats.wikimedia.org/#/all-projects/reading/total-page-views/normal|bar|2016-01-01~2026-04-28|(access)~mobile-app*mobile-web+agent~user|monthly
>>>> <https://stats.wikimedia.org/#/all-projects/reading/total-page-views/normal%7Cbar%7C2016-01-01~2026-04-28%7C(access)~mobile-app*mobile-web+agent~user%7Cmonthly>
>>>>
>>>> At this rate, our mobile traffic in 2026 will be at the levels of
>>>> pre-2013. 2013...
>>>>
>>>> In the meantime, Ericsson is reporting a global mobile usage growth of
>>>> over 20%
>>>>
>>>> https://www.ericsson.com/en/reports-and-papers/mobility-report/dataforecasts/mobile-traffic-update
>>>>
>>>> When I published my essay, I mostly received gentle to aggressive push
>>>> back. Back then I was displaying a 8% drop. Now a 20% year over year.
>>>>
>>>> Why did I pick mobile traffic? Because historically bots are less using
>>>> desktop browser UAs which makes the data a bit more reliable for trends.
>>>>
>>>> 3 months ago I said we had 24 months ahead of us before irrelevancy.
>>>> Well at this rate, in two years we will have lost half of our traffic. And
>>>> the sad part is that those downhill trends tend not to slow down.
>>>>
>>>> And what now? Well being very blunt, there's only one body in our
>>>> movement that can muster leadership, energy and resources to tackle this
>>>> topic head on, that's the board of trustees.
>>>>
>>>> And if 20% doesn't trigger fast and real actions, I have no idea what
>>>> would.
>>>>
>>>> PS: yes this email is written with a lot of emotion, but minus 20% YoY
>>>> should trigger that reaction in everyone.
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Christophe
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Sat, 10 Jan 2026 at 00:40, Christophe Henner <
>>>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hey everyone,
>>>>
>>>> I struggled with the object, the most honest one would be "Last exit
>>>> before irrelevance" but that would be a bit violent.
>>>>
>>>> So, Wikipedia turns 25 next week. I've been here for over twenty of
>>>> those years, including stints chairing Wikimedia France and the Foundation
>>>> Board. And honestly? I'm worried. Scared to be honnest.
>>>>
>>>> Over the last years, I've been regularly crunching data and sharing on
>>>> different channels my worries. But in the last few weeks I decided to make
>>>> a much more structured "essay" of my findings
>>>>
>>>> Since 2016, the internet nearly doubled in size.
>>>>
>>>> Our page views? Down. New editor sign-ups? Down 36%.
>>>>
>>>> The people keeping this thing running are working harder than ever, but
>>>> there are fewer of them every year.
>>>>
>>>> I wrote it all up: the numbers, what I think went wrong, what I think
>>>> we need to do about it. Fair warning: it's long, it's opinionated, and some
>>>> of it will probably make you mad.
>>>>
>>>> *Here it is: * https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Schiste/what-now
>>>>
>>>> I'm not trying to be doom and gloom for the sake of it. I genuinely
>>>> believe we have maybe two years to make some hard calls about AI, about
>>>> money, about who we're actually serving. After that, the window closes and
>>>> we become irrelevant.
>>>>
>>>> Could be wrong. Hope I am. But I'd rather we have this argument now
>>>> than wish we had later. Well I'd rather we had this argument two or four
>>>> years ago, but now we will make do.
>>>>
>>>> Read it, tell me where I'm off base. Let's argue and debate. That's
>>>> what talk pages are for, right?
>>>>
>>>> PS: Foundation board mailing list is bcc'ed, change cannot happen
>>>> without their commitment. And fast.
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Christophe
>>>>
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>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> James Heilman
>>>> MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian
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>>>
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>
>
>
> --
> James Heilman
> MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian
> _______________________________________________
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