Projekt:Podcast/Avsnitt 345
Avsnitt 345
Inspelningsdatum: 31 januari 2026
Publiceringsdatum: 5 februari 2026
Lyssna:
Extern länk: https://wikipediapodden.se/wikimedia-futures-lab-jeromi-mikhael-345/
Programanteckningar
Programledare är Jan Ainali.
Special episode
This is the fourth episode in a series of ten short interviews recorded at the Wikimedia Futures Lab in Frankfurt. In this episode, recorded on day two, we meet Jeromi Mikhael from Wikimedia Indonesia and WikiPortraits.
Transcript
Welcome to Wikipediapodden and this series of interviews from the Wikimedia Futures Lab in Frankfurt the last weekend of January 2026. My name is Jan Ainali. Here we will meet participants, panelists and organizers to give you an idea of what happened at the lab. The interviews took place over three days with the first one just before it started and the last just after the closing ceremony. So you will get to gauge where the attendees were at each point in time. This is the fourth episode of ten recorded on day two.
My name is Jeromi Mikhael. I joined Wikipedia from 2017 but I didn't get into the community part until like 2023 during the Wikipedia. I'm affiliated to what I feel like three communities. The first one is the Wikimedia Indonesia but I didn't feel like I was part of it because I was a member that's registered but Wikimedia Indonesia supports several communities. One of them which is the Jakarta Wikimedia community and I am actively part of it like being involved in projects, being involved in grants and being involved in like the monthly meetings of the community and lastly I'm also part of the Wikiportraits which is like a community where we contribute portraits to the English Wikipedia and other Wikipedias and I also actively take portraits for them but I haven't been involved in the project and grant but I'm really active in the group I feel.
And we're here at the Wikimedia Futures Lab and this was a process where you had to apply to come here. Why did you want to come here?
I was actually recommended by one of the staff in the ESEAP region which is Yvonne. He said that you can apply for this. I think you would be a great fit for this and I actually tried to apply. One of the materials that I applied for was my previous presentation at the Wikimedia which is like covering the protest in Indonesia in August 2025 and I write about what I did, what I presented and I actually got accepted. I was actually surprised to know that I am one of the two Indonesians to get accepted into this conference with the other one being like the staff responsible for the ESEAP Hub so I feel really honored to be able to participate in this conference.
And we heard a little bit and got some great talks about content consumers and contributors. What of those have you felt also resonate with your experience in your communities?
I think the one that most resonates with me is contributor because looking back the AI thing doesn't really resonate with us but the contributor thing has been the most resonant because we in the Indonesian Wikipedia, I am an admin at the Indonesian Wikipedia. The most problematic thing that we have to face is the contributors because we have had an influx of younger contributors who come into Wikipedia but they wreak havoc on most of the Wikipedia instead of making constructive contributors and the one big question that we're facing right now is how to make these younger contributors be productive. It's like a problem that has been discussed and the division of the younger and older contributors has also been discussed in the future so I feel that what is presented during the lightning talks during the breakout room will be very much helpful for us to resolve this problem.
And we're only just halfway through the conference or the event. Do you already feel like there's something you know oh I'm gonna bring this home and try in my community or are you getting some inspiration from something?
Definitely as I've mentioned before like the talks about attracting the younger and older contributors has already been much of a problem in the Indonesian Wikipedia. Basically for the past few years most of our contributors were older people who had not much to do are in their pension ages and recently we have like an influx of younger editors so I believe that this discussion about attracting young editors the tips and tricks and the best practices would be very much helpful to us to attract useful younger editors that will do constructive contribution instead of wrecking havoc. And the second part is about AI. We've had much talks about the AI in the Indonesian Wikipedia but it was not as in-depth as this because the futures have bring as much experts from different disciplines ranging from communication to computer and etc. And I feel that the insights that I get from this conference would be very much helpful to develop our own policies our own guidelines and our strategies in facing the coming of AI to Wikipedia and other wiki projects.
That's excellent that you're already feeling that. Thank you Jeromi for joining the podcast and I hope you have a great conference.
Definitely.
This was the fourth interview out of ten. When all are published you will find them on Wikimedia Commons both in the Wikimedia Futures Lab and Wikipediapodden categories and of course on Wikipediapodden.se under the Wikimedia Futures Lab tag. There you can also find other episodes in English.