Hello,

When I proposed this project, I couldn't imagine it would be a success. I was just checking the archives, and I remember that, back in late 2010 i called for a meetup so as to suggest this project but we had to cancel it due to lack of quorum. But then, somehow, the disillusionment faded and people became more and more enthusiastic in participating in this project.

i also remember back then when we were only four of us (Oscar, Oliver, Dennis and myself) at our first meetup at Java -- and we wanted to start up a chapter. From the four initial members, we have grown exponentially within 6 months to around 50 members on this list. I am really proud of us! Really!

From a boys' only team to almost a 75%:25% male:female chapter. I really feel that I need to highlight some of these flashbacks so that we (or at least I) can realize and appreciate where we've come from.

I would like to congratulate you all for the success of this project, and most importantly, I would like to congratulate on-the-ground team members who sacrificed their time off work, off internships and off university and went to these schools in order to ensure that students in Nyeri, Kakamega and Mombasa could have free access to Wikipedia.

I would also like to send my condolences to those who couldn't make it like Samson Maosa. I extend my condolences to the Nyeri team whose laptops were virus-infected.

But, as David hinted in his most recent email, this is not the end. This was just a pilot. For those of you who were with me since the start of this project, you might remember that we had a list of 10 regions. So we still have a lot of work ahead of us. And I think that we all agree that we need to design an offline version of Wikipedia that is custom-made for Kenyan students. I therefore hope that this project will not end here.

FYI- One of the Foundation's strategic priorities lies in investing in mobile Wikipedia and offline products. Speaking of offline products, has anyone of you ever heard of WikiReader? It's a device that you could use to access Wikipedia without internet connectivity and which you could update newer articles whenever you connect it to the internet. It goes for just $100 on Amazon. Just thought I'd let you know of this incredible device.

BTW -- this might be slightly off-topic, but I'd thought that I'd let you know that I was informed that we arguably have the most multi-national chapter mailing list in the Wikimedia community!!!

Warm regards,

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Abbas Mahmood

t | +254722215101

f | www.facebook.com/abbasjnr

s | abbasjnr

Wikimedia Kenya Member

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