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Hi guys,
As you may already know, yesterday I went to the Google Nairobi Office to meet Denis Gikunda, Africa Localisation Manager regarding the upcoming Wikimedia Kenya Chapter. Though the meeting was brief (partly because of Denis' hectic schedule and partly because the meeting started behind schedule), there were some quality discussions that took place. Below is what I managed to grasp:
First of all, Denis had a vague idea of the purpose, objectives and goals of what a chapter is all about. So I had to start off by debirefing him on what we were aiming to do as a chapter. I also told him what we wanted from Google:
*Some form of local support, whether financial or otherwise. Gaining local support is really vital for us - basing on what Delphine has been telling me. More often than not, guys from ChapCom usually ask me: "Do you have local support?" This is also seen with our counterparts - the South African Chapter - who have support from the African Commons Project. (And regarding supprot, I was also hoping to garner more from Omidyar, but this is proving difficult as I have not yet managed to get Stephen King's email address. Stephen is the guy that I was told to connect to, by Erik Moeller, Deputy Director of WMF). Denis did not explicitly say that he'll give us financial support, but what he was planning was for us to meet with the two Google COmmunity managers and we discuss the way forward with them present. I guess it is then that we'll know what kind of support we are to expect from Google.
*As Oliver had suggested, we also needed Google to give us some physical space with free internet connectivity so that anyone who needed to do some Wikimedia stuff would have internet access free of charge. Luckily, Denis had the perfect solution: the iHub at Ngong' Road. I'm not an IT geek but as far as I know, the iHub is some kind of center where there's free internet connectivity. So as long as you have your internet device, you'll be able to surf with ease. Denis connected me with Jessica Collaco, whose the Manager of the iHub. I am yet to hear from her so that we can plan our next move.
*We were to meet some multilingual folks in September and would also love to have someone from Google. Denis accepted the invitation: and he said he'd be free on Aug 30, 31st, or Sept. 9th. So, Oliver, please liaise with the multilingual folks to see if they'll be able to attend on any of those dates. September for Denis is a pretty busy month as they are expecting alot of guests, starting with the G-Kenya conference that's going to be held at Strathmore University. It's a free-of-charge conference, so if you want to attend/for more ddetails, just Google "G-Kenya" and go to their website for more info.
Also, if we were to expect some support from Google, then we should register with the local authorities so that we are a legally recognised entity. I think that this is beyond our scope - we cannot register unless we get the go ahead from ChapCom or the Board of Trustees. Us not being a legally recognised entity is one of our biggest challenges - since most NGO's such as the Ford Foundation and the Aga Khan Foundation CANNOT give support to an organisation that is not legally recognised. That's just protocol. Denis would have loved to have us registered as at September - which is virtually impossible.
Denis wanted us to prepare a short plan/presentation outlining our objectives, strategy, projected impact and challenges faced. After that, we should meet up with them to review it explore how they can assist.
Denis also liked the idea of targeting Swahili speakers, eg those located in Mombasa. he had also connected me with Chacha Maroa from Kenyatta University - he is a freelance translator who participated at the KWC and might be able to give us some support.
Delphine had also suggested the issue of one-off events and we were to doscuss this and more at our next meeting.
That's all from me, and bye for now.
Abbas.
PS - thanks Muddy for the willingness to support us:-)