Wikimedia CH presents its progress report for the first half of the year 2026. This period has been shaped by two significant events: the 25th anniversary celebrations of Wikipedia and the 20th anniversary of Wikimedia CH, as well as the development of our organisation’s strategy for the period 2026–2030. This process will reshape our priorities and structure in the years ahead. Conversations with the community and partners about what we have learnt are ongoing and will feed into the next phase of synthesis and planning.
Across the programmes, the first half of the year demonstrated a clear strategic direction. The Education programme began integrating Wikimedia tools into platforms that Swiss teachers already use, shifting the focus from one-off workshops to sustainable classroom integration.
The GLAM programme advanced co-creation projects in which openly licensed cultural heritage found new institutional uses. The Innovation programme positioned Wikimedia CH at the centre of the movement’s response to AI, framing Wikimedia platforms as critical public knowledge infrastructure and building coalitions to influence the development of a rapidly changing knowledge ecosystem.
The Community programme supported grassroots and community-led activities across all language regions, expanding local formats and improving contributor accessibility. Advocacy work gave the chapter a voice in international discussions on open knowledge and digital rights, ranging from the Political Tech Summit in Berlin to UN events in Geneva.
During this period, capacity was strengthened in several areas: communications, programme reporting and impact measurement, and community support in the Romandie. Several freelance specialists were brought in to handle the increased workload of the jubilee year, and preparations for the first Italian-speaking itWikiCon in Switzerland required additional advisory expertise. We also engaged an external agency to support our ongoing awareness campaign throughout the jubilee year.
Operationally, we advanced risk mitigation and crisis communication planning in preparation for a rapidly changing landscape. The ongoing implementation of Salesforce Marketing Cloud has brought email campaigns fully in-house, shifting from outsourced to internally managed digital marketing.
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The full Progress Report 2026