Editorial

For our association, 2023 was a year in which we were able to give Free Knowledge a voice on many important platforms – whether at the Digital Summit, the Global Digital Compact, the Open Source Summit or re:publica. These are just a few examples of our presence at conferences and in networks where Wikimedia helped either to drive or to challenge political and technological decisions last year.

And that is particularly important in these times, because 2023 was also a year of drastic experiences: Many things have started to slip, familiar certainties are being called into question and many things are unsettling us. Even our last fundraising campaign reached its target by the narrowest of margins – but much to our relief, it got there in the end. Especially in these times, when polarization, disinformation and manipulation are increasingly distorting social debates, the Wikimedia projects with their commitment to neutral and reliable knowledge are beacons of reason, enlightenment and democracy.

Over the past year, with our activities, support and political work, we have created an environment with good conditions for the volunteers behind the projects, enabling them to keep focusing on their work for Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikibase, even after 20 years of this association’s history. We are extremely grateful for all their exclusively voluntary contributions.