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).
* Share Your Knowledge WHY -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPWc18LswRM
* Share Your Knowledge HOW -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpYmtRmPdUc
you find the videos also on Wikimedia Commons [1]
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".
[1] On Wikimedia Commons - Share Your Knowledge video 1 WHY (with final link to
glamwiki.org)
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Share_Your_Knowledge_1_Why_glamwiki.…
On Wikimedia Commons - Share Your Knowledge video 2 HOW (with final link to
glamwiki.org)
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Share_Your_Knowledge_2_How_glamwiki.ogv
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
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