Empowering Women as Knowledge Creators through Open Education Initiatives

When Tri Astari addressed the Open Education Conference 2026 (OpenEd26) on October 27, 2026, she highlighted that increasing the visibility of women in open knowledge requires ensuring that women have opportunities to become active contributors and creators of knowledge, diff.wikimedia.org reported.

That principle formed the core of the lightning talk, titled “Bridging the Gap Between Learning and Contributing: Women in Open Knowledge,” delivered during the virtual event held from October 27 to 29, 2026. As the founder of the Wikimedia Women Community, also known as WikiPerempuan, Astari used the international platform to share how structured mentorship and community support transformed participants from passive learners into active contributors.

Implementing the SheSaid Campaign in Indonesia

The presentation centered heavily on the practical application of the SheSaid campaign across Indonesia, which ran from October 27 to December 30, 2025. Originally initiated globally by Wiki In Africa through the Wiki Loves Women initiative, the campaign aims to elevate women’s representation specifically on Wikiquote.

Led locally by the Wikimedia Women Community, the Indonesian rollout combined educational workshops with direct contribution opportunities. Over the course of the campaign, participants were introduced to foundational concepts across several platforms, including Wikiquote, Wikimedia Commons, and Creative Commons licenses.

Rather than treating instruction as a standalone exercise, the initiative guided participants through four distinct stages: learning, practicing, contributing, and connecting with the community. Participants learned how to find and verify quotations by women, utilize openly licensed images, design quotation posters, and publish their work directly onto Wikimedia projects.

Scaling Participation and Open Knowledge

The numbers from the inaugural Indonesian campaign point to a broad reach across multiple regions. The initiative brought together 315 participants alongside 15 community partners and organizations, spanning activities across seven cities and regencies.

Those efforts translated into concrete additions to the open knowledge ecosystem, yielding 2,810 new Wikiquote articles featuring women’s quotations and 94 documented media items. Furthermore, participants learned practical open-licensing requirements, ensuring that artworks and resources they created could be shared on Wikimedia Commons under CC BY licenses for public reuse.

Reflecting on these outcomes during the OpenEd26 conference, organizers emphasized that access serves merely as an initial entry point. True inclusion relies on pairing access with practical exercises, ongoing peer support, and clear pathways to meaningful contribution.