I usually use the Kenyan Constitution (Article 35 in the Bill of Rights) to argue my standpoint:
"...every citizen has the right to access to information held by the state or any information that is held by another person and that is required for the exercise or protection of any right or fundamental freedom."
--Abbas.
From: stevewanjau@wikimedia.or.ke Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2012 09:46:49 +0300 To: wikimediake@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimedia Kenya] Kenya National Archives and other GLAM projects
Hello Wikimedians!
As the talks and discussions for partnerships fair on, we also need to be preparing in the background some tools that will be handy during the collaborations with the institutions in question.
Such tools include but not limited to; Wikimedia commons KE licence templates, Customized barnster awards for members who contribute to WP:KENYA etc.
From my English understanding of the Kenya copyrights act , (since I ain't no lawyer: ) I understand that the copyright act of Kenya has some special provisions for local works of art and photography. You can get a copy of the copyright act at [1].
Please Note: Am not a lawyer and I have no legal background locally and internationally and thereforeany advise that I give should not be taken as any form of legal advise.
On Mon, Jun 18, 2012 at 3:03 PM, Iolanda Pensa <iolanda@pensa.it> wrote:
dear all
to involve institutions I think a good strategy is - as Stephen suggests - to start. Below some hints related to my experience with GLAMs within Share Your Knowledge and WikiAfrica projects.
all the best
iolanda
1. if it can be useful we just made two short videos about GLAMs, Creative Commons and Wikipedia (in English, the voice was recorded in south africa by the Africa Centre and one of them is the voice of Francis Awinda - wikipedian in residence at the Africa Centre from Kenya).
2. it can be productive to focus on specific contents. for example you can ask a publisher to release with the open license cc by-sa only the biography of their authors and their book description; for an archive the story of the institutions (often already on their website); for an NGOs some of their promotional publications. those are contents institutions wish to share and they have less troubles in sharing. once they get started is easier to get more because they see how their contents are used.
3. Public archives and museums are often the most difficult institutions to involve in contributing to Wikipedia because - also if they understand - they do not know who can take the decision. Often they also require a formal agreement (which makes the collaboration even longer). it can be useful to target also NGOs, foundations and other private institutions, to get started and to be able to then tell the public sector "hey, THEY are already doing it".
Il giorno 18/giu/2012, alle ore 06:20, Stephen Wanjau ha scritto:
Hello Folks!
I have been physically following up on the subject of this email (together with Abbas and Alex) for sometime now and it seems the logistics and the speed with which these institutions are planning this are so slow that I feel I cant wait any longer. Those of you who have worked in the Kenyan government or for the Kenyan government definitely understand my concerns regarding the periods that they would take to decide on such a simple thing on what to do - probably call an AGM of the stakeholders.
In most of the cases, these guys do not understand the online stuff or even how the internet works let alone Wikipedia (which is our work anyway). At the end they will come to appreciate that it is a good thing - which it is always is.There was a time when we visited the Kenya Railways museum and the curator there was always confusing their institutional website with Wikipedia. He thought Wikipedians job is to improve organizational websites! we clarified and made it clear about this and on the next meeting he was at it again!
On our meeting with another directorate of the National Museums of Kenya, he asked whether he could find Wikipedia on Google search. the exact conversation was as below.
Alex: Hello, My name is Alex and am here with my colleague Steve and we work at Wikipedia. Wikipedia is ...blah blah blah....
Museum directorate: Do you mean if I search Wikipedia on Google I will find it? (Was just hilarious:)
Personally, I have not spoken to Kenya Archives about GLAM (though Abbas did). But I think we should just go ahead and organize editathons at this premises and this is why.
On Sunday 17th 2012 I was to meet with a friend in town who was running late and so I decided to part with 50 Kenyan shillings ($0.5) and enter the premise (Kenya National Archives) just to see what it holds. Plus I did not want to stand along the streets or sit on the benches due to the frequent IED attacks in Nairobi. It is rich in artifacts and even books about history of Kenya, royal visits to Kenya, Kenyatta's famous chair and to crown it all they have a library with articles about all these treasures. The receptionist in fact encouraged me to take photos with a camera even before I asked for permission. She even encouraged me to become a member of their library and I only needed to part with 200 KES for a year as subscription to access the material plus the artifacts of course.
My question is, can't we pay for this subscription and start using the library to write articles about Kenya now that they have offline references there? Probably on Weekends or even weekdays depending on the time one is free. I think the chapter can cushion the subscriptions if that would hinder any Wikipedian from accessing the facility. The internet shall definitely be provided.
Kenya is still dark and still in the dark continent. Can't we illuminate it with some light......?
My thoughts.
//Stephen -- Wikimedia Kenya Board Member & Treasurer
-- Wikimedia Kenya. "Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge." Help us make it a reality! Donate to Wikimedia
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