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