WikiCite 2025

For the parent page, see WikiCite.

WikiCite 2025 will take place from Friday 29th to Sunday 31st of August!
in Bern (Switzerland) and online!

WikiCite 2025 is a three-day conference, summit, and hack day dedicated to the vision of creating an ecosystem for bibliographic data to serve as an open infrastructure for research, education, and information quality (specifically authority control) across the web.

A Wikimedia initiative to develop open citations and linked bibliographic data to serve free knowledge. WikiCite is a series of conferences and workshops in support of that goal. The project is based in the Wikidata ecosystem.

How does it work?: The 2025 edition proposes a new hybrid and modular format, designed to be replicable and decentralized. While the first day (Friday 29^th August) will take place on-site in Bern, the following sessions from Saturday 30^th to Sunday 31^st of August, 2025 will be online and will extend across time zones (Europe, Americas, Oceania), allowing broad international participation.: Find the schedule on the page of the programme.

Day 1—Friday: Wikidata Days: On-site in Bern. Institutional focus. Presentations by librarians, digital humanities scholars, and Wikimedia technical staff. Recorded and streamed.
Day 2—Saturday: WikiCite Community Retreat: Online and distributed. Presentations by librarians, digital humanities scholars, and Wikimedia technical staff with community-driven showcases.
Day 3—Sunday: Community & Wrap-up: More informal and participatory. Do-a-Thons, thematic discussions, and a final session to discuss future actions.

What are the key topics?: The event will explore major developments and shared challenges in the WikiCite ecosystem, including:

Federated Ontologies and Wikibase Federation: Coordination across decentralized Wikibase instances and aligning schemas across platforms
Wikidata and Library Catalog Integration: Case studies from Swiss institutions on using Wikidata for authority data and bibliographic infrastructure
Open Citations and Structured Bibliographic Metadata: Linking scientific publications, cultural heritage, and research outputs using Wikidata
Tooling and Technical Infrastructure: New tools for querying, editing, and visualizing WikiCite data (e.g. LOTUS, Scholia, SPARQL evolution)
Scalability and the Graph Split: Discussions on the Blazegraph replacement, SPARQL federation, and long-term architecture of Wikidata
Data Quality and Disambiguation: Examples like the “Swiss homonyms cleanup” and strategies for maintaining data integrity
Collaborative Models and Governance: How libraries, Wikimedia chapters, and research institutions are collaborating to co-maintain the bibliographic graph
Community and Innovation: Lightning talks, interactive do-a-thons, Wikidata games, and open proposal slots for emerging ideas

How to attend?: You have three options to watch the sessions:

Attend live BBB room: you'll be able to interact with the speakers and other participants. Note: if you join the Jitsi room, please be aware that we will be recording the call and broadcasting it live.
Watch the livestream of the sessions: great option if your connection or device doesn't allow BBB, or if you don't want to appear on the videos. You can find the links for each day on the schedule tables below.
Watch the replay videos later on Wikimedia Commons: to catch up in case you missed the live transmission, you can find the links for each day on the schedule tables below.

Which language will be used?: The main language of the event is English. Sessions in German, Italian and French are encouraged for Swiss and local showcases but it will be provided a service of translations.

Register to the event: We encourage you to sign up to the event on this page to receive updates. In order to register, you need to be logged in with your Wikimedia account.

Code of conduct: Please note that the entire initiative, including the presentations and discussions on various channels, is covered by the Code of Conduct for technical spaces. Please contribute in making the discussion spaces safe and welcoming for everyone.

Discussions and help: If you have questions or suggestions about the event, feel free to use the talk page. Announcements about the event are talking place on the same talk page, and on the Wikidata Telegram group.

History

The event will resume its activities after the hiatus that began with the 2020 edition, which was held entirely online. This edition aims to establish a standard for future initiatives that fosters direct collaboration, networking, and hands-on engagement with a defined balance of the on-line portions of the event, but with a clear in-situ component.

Past conferences

Location

The event will use a hybrid format, similarly to other WikiCon initiatives post-COVID, with a defined local hub that will be located in Bern (Switzerland).

Logo	Event details
	Friday – Swiss National Library Hosted at the Swiss National Library. This day is open to local stakeholders with a complete one-day event on a working day, making it more accessible to professionals. Located in the local “hub” and following the Wikidata Days format.^[2]
	Saturday & Sunday – University of Bern (Marzili campus) Held at the conference center in the Marzili campus of the University of Bern, oriented toward the global community of volunteers.^[1]

Organizing Committee

Wikimedia CH staff

This list include also temporary staff

Academic Committee

Core Academic Committee

It's mostly in charge of the definition of the programme for the Wikidata Days (first part) and invited guests

USS Nimitz; wing command Data analysis Afghanistan Warhammer Red cross

Enlarged Academic Committee

It's mostly in charge of providing support for the programme of the second part of the event and and evaluating community proposals.

Communicate and get involved

Hashtag: #WikiCite
Telegram: WikiCite and WikiCite Conference
wikicite-discuss mailing list
wikidata mailing list

Main partners

↑ ^a ^b The infrastructure will be better designed to support full online participation.
↑ The presentations will be more lecture-style, with some streaming available, but interactions from online participants will be limited.

[:0-1] The infrastructure will be better designed to support full online participation.

[2] The presentations will be more lecture-style, with some streaming available, but interactions from online participants will be limited.

[1]

[2]