The fourth arms industry wikithon welcomed a smaller, more intimate group than before. Perhaps the location change also added to this feeling of working in hiding, somehow. Despite the smaller cohort, spirits were really high, with first time participants being really excited to dive in. As always, the wikithon began with a recap of the purpose of the project, along with technical and practical instructions of how to edit a Wikipedia page, how to correctly engage with sources of information, and how to use the community-driven features of the platform, such as the ‘Talk’ pages. Before diving in, our facilitator emphasised the proper methods of caution to consider when editing Wikipedia pages – from only consulting published resources and refraining from any original research and analysis of these materials, to personal privacy strategies for keeping ourselves and each other safe.
There seemed to be three categories that participants naturally found their way in. The first was first time participants, who spent the session familiarising themselves with the interface structure and steps of editing a Wikipedia page. One of the participants in this group was using LinkedIn as a source of research, stating that these profiles were a good way of identifying someone’s affiliation with a particular company or event. Once this link was established, they could cross-reference any publication found against this information, legitimising their research. While the participant did come to find that their outcomes would have been considered original research (and therefore against the wikithon’s working methodology), they did start to gather appropriate secondary research on Rocket Lab and collate it for future reference.
The second category were the solitary editors, participants that were already very familiar with the structure of the wikithons and with a wealth of knowledge and skill in Wikipedia editing. One of these participants was particularly interested in translation, and the parity between the information contents of a translated Wikipedia page. They set out to research ways of developing an up-to-date and more accessible version of Manypedia, a tool showcasing the Linguistic Points of View of different communities on Wikipedia, as well as comparing and contrasting translated information for cross-cultural research and identification of bias.
The third group was formed around one of the facilitators, who wanted to continue a collective effort of researching long-range acoustic devices (LRADs), which was started in a previous wikithon. The main focus was editing the page of LRAD manufacturer Genasys, using their products page, as well as secondary research regarding the use of their products by different European countries. This research started due to suspicions of Genasys LRADs being used during the March 15 2025 anti-corruption protests in Belgrade, Serbia. This research then brought participants to look into Greece’s use of LRADs for refoulement in 2021, which enabled them to add content to the Genasys page about their distribution of LRAD’s in Greece. This research also led to very interesting discussions around the decibel range of sonic weapons and long-range acoustic devices, their different military uses and the effects these technologies have on the human body.
The group published an edit to the page, adding a section of Latvia’s purchase and use of anti-drone systems and sound devices, with information pulled from the Baltic News Network and NT Service. In 2024, the Latvian State Border Guard (VRS) procured ‘high-power speaker devices’, supplied by UAB “NT Service”, a company registered in Lithuania, to be used by the Belarusian border and border crossing points of Latvia. The procurement follows an amendment passed in the previous year that provides VRS the right to use psychological assault sound devices. The claimed volume of the device is 80 decibels in ‘normal mode’ at 800m distance, corresponding to the devices listed on the product page of UAB “NT Service” which claim 138-142 dB peak at 1m range. This edit, however, was later deleted by a Wikipedia editor, on account of both cited sources describing the products as ‘sound systems’ or ‘sound devices’, not explicitly as LRADs.