20 years later: What the Wikimedia movement can teach us about the future of a sustainable internet

Session Format: Panel Discussion

How can Africa build a sustainable internet that remains open to everyone’s participation? This question is pertinent at a time when online spaces for discussion are shrinking, regulated through centralized platform policies, bought by billionaires, or built around targeted advertising and data-tracking. In this panel conversation, we will explore what insights the Wikimedia movement in Africa can offer. Individual contributors across the continent create and maintain knowledge projects like Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons. Their everyday actions and the projects that they launch reflect what they believe the future of the Internet in Africa can look like. The decentralized, community-led model of the Wikimedia Movement can be one approach to building a sustainable internet for the continent - an internet that serves and includes local communities who can actively shape the future that they want. This panel will feature members from the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia movement in Africa who will share stories and lessons from 20 years of Wikimedia, and how these can help identify solutions to building a sustainable Internet future for all.