WikiConference North America 2026 took place from September 24 to 27 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Over four days, over 200 participants gathered in the capital city of Alberta to deepen their understanding of the Wikimedia ecosystem, develop new skills, exchange ideas with fellow editors, and much more.

This year’s theme was “Building the Future of the Commons”. As technologies like AI reshape how information is produced and consumed, the Wikimedia movement has a unique opportunity to ensure the commons stay open, human, reliable, and inclusive. This theme sparked conversations across communities, the tech world, and cultural and educational ecosystems. One of the conference tracks also focused on empowering new contributors, while another allowed experienced users with extended rights to discuss the issues most relevant to them.

A pre-conference Culture Crawl was organized on Thursday, September 24. Visits to 13 different sites were offered, including the University of Alberta’s francophone campus, Campus Saint-Jean, the Art Gallery of Alberta (AGA), the Metro Cinema (Garneau Theatre), and the ᐄᓃᐤ (ÎNÎW) River Lot 11∞ Indigenous Art Park. The opening reception took place at the Mitchell Art Gallery and featured a performance by Annie Rauwerda of Depths of Wikipedia.

Over the course of the conference, 77 sessions were held on a wide range of topics, such as Wikimedia governance, GLAM, or community updates. Many sessions followed a lecture format, but some presenters also organized workshops, panels,etc.

On Friday, the conference opened with a keynote by Alan Sim/CambridgeBayWeather. Based in Nunavut, Sim shared his experience both as a longtime Wikipedia editor and as a contributor in Canada’s remote North. On Saturday, Dr. Stacy Allison-Cassin challenged Jimmy Wales’s vision of making the sum of all human knowledge accessible to everyone. She explored whether all knowledge really needs to be accessible to everyone, particularly knowledge from and about Indigenous communities.

The conference continued on Sunday, which also marked the kick-off of the Project Canadian STEM 2026 editathon, an initiative focused on improving coverage of Canadian STEM figures, discoveries, and achievements on Wikipedia and Wikidata. This editathon continued online throughout October. Overall, participants edited 75 articles and created 13 articles on en.wiki and fr.wiki.

Photo credits:
– WCNA Group photo – Sterling Dee – CC BY-SA 4.0
– Annie Rauwerda – Chris Woodrich – CC BY-SA 4.0
– City Hall tour – Chris Woodrich – CC BY-SA 4.0
– Stacy Allison-Cassin – Chris Woodrich – CC BY-SA 4.0