Sorry, the earlier report had some minor corrections. Below is a rectified version.
Thanks,Abbas.
From: abbasjnr(a)hotmail.com
To: wikimediake(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2012 09:33:48 +0000
Subject: Re: [Wikimedia Kenya] Kenya News Agency archive
Report: Digitization of the Kenya News Agency Archive Prepared by: Abbas MahmoodPrepared
for: Wikimedia KenyaDate: August 2, 2012Background & Context
I was invited to join a digitization working group created by the Kenya News Agency &
the Kenya ICT Board that was aimed at laying a strategy for the digitization of KNA's
content. Last week, the working group had our first meeting, and my main goals were to 1)
talk about non-commercial use of content, 2) use the Aljazeera Creative Commons Repository
as a case study, and 3) learn from other stakeholders that were involved.
KNA has a repository of (mainly) photos (6,000+) related to Kenya’s history and culture
dating back to the pre-colonial era. But due to budgetary constraints, the photos are
stored in non-ideal conditions and their risk of damage or deterioration is therefore
high. Moreover, their content is currently underutilised due the difficulty in retrieving
the photos and lack of public awareness.
The working group has around 20 members with folks coming from different backgrounds:
studio producers, film makers, Kenya National Archives staff, AMREF Library staff, Bank of
Africa staff, Creative Commons staff, freelance photojournalists, Ministry of Information
& Communication staff, Kenya ICT Board staff and myself.
Summary
It was agreed that one of the potential customers of this project will be Wikipedia; and
that some of the content will be donated to Wikimedia under a free licence. (Note that the
digitized repository will be used for commercial purposes, but we’ll get a small content
donation for purposes of publicity and awareness).
Also, some of the photos that KNA has are caption-less or lack the relevant metadata. It
was suggested that we(the working group) explore the use of online collaboration (such as
wikis or social media) to engage with the public and inquire about photos which don’t have
known descriptions. We therefore expect citizen engagement to help us in identifying some
of the photos.
[We discussed lots of other issues which I have intentionally omitted since 1) the final
report is not out yet; and 2) it’s not relevant to you guys.]
Conclusion
We are now creating a proposed roadmap on the way forward which will be presented, next
week, to the Permanent Secretary of Information & Communication, Dr. Bitange Ndemo,
for final approval before we proceed with this project.
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