2023:Evaluation
This report reviews and presents the findings from the evaluation for Wikimania 2023, which took place virtually and in person in Singapore, in August 2023. The report covers results from the attendee and scholar surveys, as well as the impact of our marketing, social media and media strategies. The results are presented through qualitative and quantitative information including demographics, as well as excerpts from social, digital and press media. The report was written by a team of colleagues from the Wikimedia Foundation Communications department.
Executive Summary
The largest Wikimania to date
In 2023, Wikimania returned to an in-person event in Singapore from 16-19 August, 2023 at the Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre, while maintaining a virtual component. 2866 Wikimedians from 142 countries attended - 761 in person and 2105 remotely - making this the largest Wikimania to date in terms of attendance. It was organized by the Core Organizing Team of the ESEAP region, who chose the theme "Diversity. Collaboration. Future."
Survey respondents were highly satisfied with the event (over 90%), and felt that it contributed to their learning and sense of belonging (over 90%). Respondents also reported feeling comfortable to participate. Scholarship recipients felt that the experience would encourage them to share lessons learnt with their communities and continue to improve their overall contributions to the movement.
Communications strategies were utilized to raise awareness about Wikimedia amongst youth in ESEAP, as well as the general public in the region and beyond. Unique and varied posts on social media helped reach a large audience, building momentum and awareness of the movement. Wikimedian of the Year and hot topics such as AI provided a hook for securing press content both regionally and internationally.
Program
- 300 main program sessions across 8 concurrent rooms
- 7 rooms were livestreamed; 4 rooms had live interpretation into 5 languages
- 1 open hacking space
- First ever WikiWomen Summit
- 5 days of in-person Hackathon
- 7 Wikimedia Basic workshops for beginners
- 40 posters at poster session
- 3 Learning Clinics
- Satellite events with National Library Board of Singapore, Google and more.
Session recordings are available on Commons.
Demographics
Who registered for Wikimania?
The following data was optional on the registration form. These statistics reflect those who chose to share this information.
- 142 countries represented
- 64% self-identified as men, 30% self-identified as women, 3% self-identified as gender diverse, 3% preferred not to say
- Most numerous age group was 25-34 at 32%, followed by 18-24 at 23% and 35-44 at 20%
- 34% had never attended a Wikimania before; 23% reported it was their second Wikimania, 43% had attended three or more
Evaluation methodology
We conducted a post event survey via Limesurvey for attendees:
- It was open from 19 to 28 August, 2023 (with an extension from 05 Sept - 22 September by popular demand)
- 30 questions, multiple choice and open ended
- Available in Arabic, Spanish, English, Bahasa Indonesia, French and Chinese
- Posted on Meta-Wiki, Diff, on-screen at Wikimania, and emailed to participants
- in-person gathering of key quotes
We had a strong response rate with 567 Wikimania attendees surveyed and respondents split roughly equally between in person (52%) and online (48%).
The number of responses gives us better than a 95% a confidence level (standard) with a 4% margin of error (better than standard) in terms of knowing that the survey represents the views of the attendee population.[1]
Evaluation results
"Overall I'm satisfied with Wikimania."
91.7% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that they were overall satisfied with Wikimania.
"I'm satisfied with the quality of the session I attended."
90.1% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that they were satisfied with the session quality.
"I gained knowledge and skills relevant to me."
89.1% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that they gained relevant knowledge and skills.
"I felt safe, respected and comfortable participating."
92.7% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that they felt safe, respected and comfortable participating.
"Wikimania made me feel like I belong to the Wikimedia movement"
91.7% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that Wikimania helped them feel they belong.
"What were your two favorite activities at Wikimania?"
"The eventyay platform was easy to navigate and use."
70.1% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that eventyay was easy to use.
"The eventyay platform was easy to navigate and use." (contributors who attended online only)
59.4% of respondents attending online agreed or strongly agreed that eventyay was easy to use.
Speakers
- 500 speakers
- 300 sessions
- 136 speakers answered the survey
"What worked well during your session?"
"I was very impressed with all the support and information leading up the the lightning talk session I was part of."
"Being an online participant I was a bit out of the loop so I really appreciated the session organisers being so proactive on Telegram and answering all my questions."
"It all ran really smoothly even though there were a lot of people involved - very impressive."
- 100 speakers: "Sharing what I know for others to learn"
- 97 speakers: "Engaging with other Wikimedians"
- 74 speakers: "Program submission and selection process"
- 58 speakers: "Speaker preparation"
"What could have been improved about your session?"
"I wanted more online interaction options."
"Less participation in my lightning talk. Maybe due to a lot of sessions were going on at the same time.
"15 and 20 min lengths are too short and leave no time for participants to engage."
- 31 speakers: "On-site or virtual session logistics"
- 19 speakers: "Recruiting new people to join my project or interest area"
- 19 speakers: "New ideas about improving my Wikimedia contributions"
Scholars
- 188 scholars attended Wikimania 2023
- ~60% increase from last in person Wikimania in 2019 (117)
- 1209 completed applications, offers were made to 217 (18% acceptance rate)
- Regions with the most scholars were ESEAP (~29%), Africa (~17%) and South Asia (~11%)
- Countries with the most scholars were Indonesia (20), India (13), Nigeria (8), Philippines (8)
- 177 scholarship recipients surveyed
What motivated scholars to attend?
Scholars wanted to connect with other Wikimedians in a global environment, exchange knowledge, and improve their Wikimedia contributions.
"What motivated me to attend Wikimania is to see the real world and meet people from across the world that came together who contributed in this Wikimedia Movement to support Wikimedia’s free knowledge. I also wanted to share to the people about my culture and indigenous language..."
"As a librarian with over ten years of experience in the University, my perception of Wikipedia was negative. My awareness and teaching used to be "avoid using Wikipedia for academic work".
When I saw an opportunity to provide citations in 2020, this changed and my ignorance of Wikipedia was unmasked.
The motivation to attend Wikimania in person was therefore to learn more about many platforms of Wikimedia besides sharing and networking so that I can take my contributions to the highest level."
"Teaching people to use Wikimedia especially for my community, Bajau. I would love to see Wikimedia grow!"
"How do you plan to contribute to the Wikimedia movement after Wikimania?" (scholarship recipients)
Some thoughts from the evaluation
"I'm very grateful to COT, crews, volunteers, participants, and all parties involved in Wikimania 2023. It's an honor for me to be there! You guys are awesome!"
"Wikimania has been an amazing experience to me, I'm very grateful to the Foundation for giving me the opportunity to be there for the first time. I have met and connected with amazing people, learn and understand many things that I could have never imagined!"
"In all Wikimania 2023 has been one of the best, well organised."
"I enjoyed the whole program even tho I attended online, everything was in order and they took us online attendees along in everything they did and it was amazing."
"It was very important to meet again and to restart Wikimania. It is truly a transversal meeting which allows to learn more about many things and to be exposed to different topics, projects, approaches and communities."
Social media reach
- 126 total social media posts
- 254,354 impressions (the number of times the post was shown in a person's feed)
- 128,281 reach (the number of people that saw the post in their feed)
- 7,898 video views (total number of times the video has been watched)
- 5,625 engagements (the reactions, comments, and shares on a post)
- 1.95% engagement rate (total engagements as a percentage of the impressions. 100 * (Reactions Comments Shares) / Impressions)
- Content from Wikimania
- Additional Reach through influencers: 1,146,000; Impressions: 5,988,000; Video views: 1,851,000
- Animated stickers on Giphy and Instagram had 49,000 sticker views
Creative assets: examples
- Get ready for Wikimania 2023! on Instagram
- What is Wikimania? | #Wikimania2023 on YouTube
- Get ready for the Wikimedian of the Year awards | #Wikimania2023 on YouTube
- Meet the 2023 Wikimedian of the Year winners on Instagram
- @WikiWomen2023 session on X
- Thank you Singapore for the biggest Wikimania ever! on Instagram
External Media reach
- Total ESEAP reach = 399 million
- Total non-ESEAP reach = 620.8 million
- Combined total estimated reach = 1 billion
Coverage from 12 August to 19 September.
Snapshot of ESEAP External media reach
- 399M - potential media reach.
- The top publications by reach were from the Straits Times (Singapore), Head Topics (Global) and goo (Japan)
- 78 - pieces of media coverage
- The two top publication locations were Japan and Malaysia. Japan's coverage was in relation to high levels of media syndication; Malaysia's coverage mostly revolved around the Wikimedian of the Year.
- 40 - positive sentiment score
- 39.7 % of pieces were ranked as "positive sentiment". 59% were "neutral". Only 1.3% were ranked "negative sentiment".
Wikimedians of the Year
- Coverage across radio, TV, and social media platforms drove greater awareness.
- Taufik Rosman and Eugene Ormandy were interviewed for BBC Sound’s newest tech show: Tech Life. Reach: 588,600,000
- Anton Protsiuk was featured by 8 media outlets. Reach: 10,372,200
- Pax Ahimsa was featured in Slate and Bay Area Reporter. Reach: 21,901,000
- Total estimated ESEAP reach = 16 million
- Total non-ESEAP reach = 620.8 Million
Highlighted coverage:
- "New Zealander takes out top Wikipedia award" by RNZ
- "Trans identity of Wikimedia awardee steers their work" by the Bay Area Reporter
Thought leadership
Secured key insight coverage on thought leadership, WOTY Awards, and Singapore’s local community from local news publications with 10.1M reach, both on Singapore and Malaysia’s communities.
Thought leadership-focused coverage was also heavily publicised and syndicated in Japan, driving the conversation towards Wikimania 2023 and key topics such as AI, ChatGPT and keynotes from Wikimedia leaders.
Estimated reach: 201 million
Highlighted coverage:
- "Can ChatGPT eat Wikipedia's lunch? Wiki doesn't think so" by The Straits Times
Trending topics
Topic insight-specific pieces on trending and relevant topics in today’s digitizing world from conference panelists and Foundation leadership also saw significant interest and traction from media.
Highlighted coverage:
- "Managing content: How Wikipedia uses AI" by Tech Wire Asia (62.3m reach)
- "Wikipedia Will Survive A.I." by Slate (11.1m reach)
Malay-focused topics
Coverage across Malay-focused preservation efforts were also syndicated to Indonesia, generating greater awareness of Wikimania 2023 and the Wikisource Loves Manuscripts initiative.
Highlighted coverage:
- "Over 60 Kadazandusun dialects uploaded on Wikipedia" by the New Straits Times (2.61m reach)
- "7000 Halaman Manuscript di Yogyakarta Didigitalisasi" by the Koran Tempo (estimate 17.5m reach)
Want more?
Check out the Wikimania event photos on Commons
