Language Onboarding and Development/Annual Plan 2026-27

Group:	Language Onboarding and Development
Team members:	Srishti Sethi, Tolu Ayodele, Mary Munyoki, Eduardo Medina, Uzoma Ozurumba , Nik Gkountas

Summary

The 2026–27 plan focuses on implementing Language Lifecycle dashboards tailored to support specific stages of the Lifecycle of a Language. The dashboards surface the most relevant priorities and signals that help communities strengthen their projects at the right time depending on the stage of a language edition either incubating, new, small or medium.

By the end of Q1, refine and validate the Wikipedia Starter Kit through iterative testing across 100+ new and small wikis, resulting in driving measurable gains in editing activity improving early-stage Wikipedia growth across the new-to-small Wikipedia lifecycle stage.

By the end of Q4, design , develop and test a feature set for Small to Medium a language lifecycle sensitive approach that will provide essential tasks, tools and resources for making progress towards becoming a Medium Wikipedia, with an evaluation for testing and providing feedback

Context & Proposed work

Over the last 3 years, experimental approaches laid important groundwork to inform our planning this year. Several experiments have already been carried out under this initiative, yielding valuable learnings. The Language Onboarding Experiment 2024 tested whether moving incubating languages directly to production with modern editing tools would boost activity, and found that technical improvements alone are insufficient, growing the editor base and enhancing community onboarding is essential. Building on that, the Engage Native Speakers to Improve Vital Content in Small Language Wikipedias experiment explored approaches to increase editing activity by reaching native speakers where they are, guiding them through contribution paths, and providing tailored onboarding and support. Beyond tooling and experiments, the initiative has also surfaced recommendations (2023‑24) that emphasize both infrastructure and social pathways for onboarding such as simplifying new language setup, strengthening onboarding experiences, increasing outreach, improving documentation and discoverability, and building community support networks. These experiments enriched our understanding of the challenges in different life cycle stages of a language; incubating, new and small and provided a foundation to brainstorm longer term solution efforts.

Building on our learnings so far, in October 2025 we started exploring targeted approaches that would present an opportunity to inform and implement stage-specific interventions that strengthen Wikimedia’s language projects throughout their lifecycle addressing the unique needs of each stage. As of June 2026, we deployed the first iteration of the Wikipedia Starter kit and rolled it out for testing in 20+ Wikipedia Administrators. In July 2026- Dec 2026, we plan to continue building on the Wikipedia Starter Kit through iterative testing deploying it broadly across 100+ new and small wikis and monitoring the editing activity. Our hypothesis is to monitor and observe whether this approach results in a higher proportion of Wikipedia administrators driving measurable gains in editing activity improving early-stage Wikipedia growth across the new-to-small Wikipedia lifecycle stage. In Q3 & Q4 we plan to develop and test a feature set for the small to Medium life cycle stage with an evaluation of feedback from Wikipedia Administrators.

Deliverables

Q1 & Q2 Deliverables (New to Small LifeCycle Dashboard Feature Set)

Improvements and Enhancements: Implement targeted improvements to enhance performance, usability, stability, and overall user experience.
Starter kit Pilot Launch to be launched early August to a wider group of wikis.
Language Onboarding Integration: explore Integration language onboarding capabilities including adding new languages
Additional Essential Tasks: Implement additional essential tasks & add option Include community-suggested tasks and feedback from Wikipedia admins
Code Organization and Unification: Refactor and standardize the codebase to improve maintainability, consistency, and development efficiency.

Documentation: Create and update technical and user documentation to support development, deployment, and ongoing operations.

Q3 & Q4 Deliverables (Small to Medium LifeCycle Dashboard Feature Set )

Define Feature Set: Establish and prioritize the features to be delivered based on user needs for small wikis on their journey to medium wikis
Develop and Refine Mockups: Design and iterate on feature mockups to validate user experience and requirements.
Development: Build and integrate approved features following established technical and engineering standards.
Testing and Optimization: Conduct comprehensive testing and performance optimization to ensure a reliable and efficient product.

Rollout: Deploy completed features to production and monitor adoption, performance, and post-release feedback.