Overview

Meta-Wiki (often called Meta or Wikimedia Meta) is the multilingual coordination wiki for the Wikimedia movement. Unlike individual projects such as encyclopedias or subject wikis, Meta focuses on matters that affect more than one Wikimedia project: shared policies, community discussions, project proposals, and documentation about how the network of projects operates.

Content and functions

Meta contains a broad mix of material used by contributors, organizers, and the Wikimedia Foundation. Typical content includes:

  • Cross‑project policies and guidance that inform multiple Wikimedia sites.
  • Community proposals, Requests for Comment (RfCs), and coordination pages for events and campaigns.
  • Documentation of technical systems, global templates and modules, and interwiki mappings used to link projects together.
  • Administrative pages about governance, grants, legal questions, and processes for new projects.

Structure and tools

As with other Wikimedia sites, Meta runs on the MediaWiki platform and uses namespaces, talk pages, and templates to organize material. It also hosts tools and notices that can be applied across multiple projects. Many Wikimedia volunteers and staff use Meta as a central place for announcing cross‑project initiatives, tracking translation needs, and maintaining shared resources.

History and development

Meta developed as the movement’s central discussion space to help coordinate activities that extend beyond single projects. Over time it became the standard location for drafting movement‑wide policy, assessing new project proposals, and maintaining documentation that supports contributors across languages and sites. It evolved alongside other infrastructure projects as the Wikimedia community grew more global and interconnected.

Importance and relationships

Meta acts as a bridge between volunteer communities and organizational structures. It complements project‑specific sites and related initiatives (such as data repositories and local community wikis) by providing a place for shared decision‑making and record keeping. For convenient cross‑linking, many wikis use the interwiki prefix "m:" to point to Meta pages.

Access and examples

Anyone interested in movement‑wide topics can read and usually participate on Meta. For example, project contributors may link from their site to Meta using the interwiki prefix; on Wikipedia the shorthand m: is commonly used to direct readers and editors to relevant Meta pages. Meta is therefore both a practical resource and a historical archive of the Wikimedia movement’s decisions and discussions.