The WikiNusantara 2026 Pre-Conference, held at the Arsjad Rasjid Lecture Theatre at Hasanuddin University on Friday (10 April), featured a symposium titled “The Wiki World and Efforts to Preserve Languages” as its main event. The activity was a collaboration between Wikimedia Indonesia and the Directorate of Student Affairs of Hasanuddin University.
The Head of the Unhas Career Center, Burhan Kadir, S.S., M.A., said that the presence of digital platforms such as Wikimedia greatly helps efforts to preserve regional languages and literature. Digitizing languages is a strategic step in sustaining local culture amid technological developments.
“Language preservation and digitization are greatly helped by Wikimedia. Regional literary culture is becoming longer-lived and a strategic medium for promoting language preservation,” said Burhan, who is also a lecturer in regional literature at Hasanuddin University.
The Chair of Wikimedia Indonesia, Hardiansyah, explained that Wikimedia Indonesia is a partner of the U.S.-based Wikimedia Foundation, one of around 40 Wikimedia chapters in countries around the world. Wikimedia’s mission is to ensure that the knowledge people want to know can be accessed through the internet. In addition, Wikimedia Indonesia currently has around 20 staff members and continues to encourage collaboration with various universities, including Hasanuddin University.
The main agenda of the Pre-Conference was divided into two discussion sessions. The first session, on the theme Wikimedia Projects from a Researcher’s Perspective, featured two resource persons who are lecturers and researchers, Dr. Ika Alfina (Universitas Indonesia) and Prof. Nur Aini Rakhmawati (Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology). Both presented on using Wikimedia projects as a means of sharing scientific knowledge openly and expanding the dissemination of research results.
In the second session, the discussion addressed the theme Preserving Regional Languages in the Digital Era, featuring a philology expert from Hasanuddin University, Prof. Muhlis Hadrawi, together with Indonesian language expert Ivan Lanin. The session discussed the importance of documenting regional languages as part of efforts to keep the nation’s cultural heritage alive in the digital era.
Besides being known as an Indonesian language expert, Ivan Lanin is also a language editor and digital literacy advocate who actively promotes the proper use of Indonesian in digital spaces and is involved in various language content development efforts on the Wikimedia platform.
In addition to the symposium, the WikiNusantara 2026 Pre-Conference also included a training activity called WikiLatih, held in the morning. The training comprised three classes, WikiLatih Wikipedia, WikiLatih Wikidata, and WikiLatih Wikimedia Commons, which gave participants hands-on experience in creating and editing articles, managing data, and documenting digital media on the Wikimedia platform.(*/kmhs/fjr)
Editor: Ishaq Rahman
This article is an English translation of the original Indonesian report.