Hi Oliver,
I am including Heather Ford and Abbas Mahmood in this reply.
Hello everyone!
I'm sure at this point you have read my post on the Wikimedia KE mailing list about traveling to Kenya to collect stories about Wikipedia to share with the world.
Last October, my former colleague Aaron Muszalski (who is no longer with Wikimedia) reached out to you about a similar trip. Being a dedicated optimist, I'd like to follow up with that and do everything I can to gather stories from Kenyan Wikipedians to communicate to the world what Kenya is doing for the movement.
As I stated earlier, 2 stories that look promising at the moment are the work that many of you did last year with the project for Kenyan Schools (33 schools! How many young minds is that? I know SOMEONE has something to say) and the story of a man who built an airplane from scratch: Mr.Orville Wri-- er, I mean Gabriel
Nderitu: http://physicsworld.com/blog/2010/10/kenyan_physics_graduate_builds.html
As for the project for Kenyan schools - does anyone have knowledge of the effects of your work traveling to the 33 schools you went to? Has anyone kept in touch with the teachers / administrators / students who you met? My story collection is not limited to editors of Wikipedia, but everyone affected by Wikipedia and rural school children who can read Wikipedia and get a better sense of the world is a good story to tell!
Alex Wafula has suggested that I cast a wider net and reach out to Uganda and Tanzania too. I agree with him, It's better to cast a wide net and then narrow down the search based on geography and effeciency of travel. So if anyone knows any editors from there, I'd like to speak with them.
Also - I don't speak Swahili, but I'll be looking through talk pages using Google-translate, so I may ask a few of you for help with translation if that isn't too much of a problem:)
My tentative dates for travel are somewhere between the 19th of May and the 10th of June.
I think it would make sense to keep all future communications on the Wikimedia KE mailing list? If anyone disagrees, let me know. This way we can potentially invite more people to contribute stories.
I look forward to meeting with all of you and am optimistic about making this happen!
Victor
On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 6:21 AM, Oliver Stegen
<info@oliverstegen.net> wrote:
Dear Victor,
Thanks for your message.
I would have recommended that you contact
the Wikimedia Kenya mailing list but Oscar Limoke beat me to it J
Your primary contacts at WMKE should be
our newly elected board members: Ann Njeri, Alex Wafula, Steve Wanjau, Oscar
Limoke and David Mugo (duly copied onto this message, apart from Ann for whom I
don’t have an email address).
Karibu sana
Kenya (= you’re very
welcome in Kenya)!
Oliver
Hi!
My
name is Victor Grigas and I'm a storyteller with the Wikimedia Foundation in San Francisco. I'm
chronicling the inspiring stories of the Wikipedia community from around the
world. Stories are critical to inform and inspire the general public to support
the Wikipedia movement by donating their money or to become volunteers
themselves.
I
spoke with Asaf Bartov, and he told me you would be a good person to speak
with.
After
seeing this inspiring story about Kenya's very
own Gabriel Nderitu -
http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/10/26/kenyan-man-builds-airplane-in-yard-based-mostly-on-wikipedia-entries/
and
hearing about the 'Project for Kenyan Schools', I thought that it might be
fruitful to plan a trip to Kenya
to interview Kenyan Wikipedians face-to-face.
I
would need to confirm that I have at least 15 people to speak with who may have
interesting stories about Wikipedia to make the trip worth the money. If
needed, I could hire a translator. My understanding is that iHub in Nairobi hosts
Wiki-meetups once a month. It may be feasible to attend a meetup there and
interview people individually after that?
Please
let me know what you think, I would very much like the opportunity to represent
Wikimedia Kenya
in the fundraiser this year.
I
am sending this message to everyone I can reach at Wikimedia Kenya. Please
let me know if there is a more formalized process to reach people.
Thank
you for your time,
Victor
Grigas
[[user:Victorgrigas]]
vgrigas@wikimedia.org
--
149 New Montgomery
Street 6th floor
--
Victor Grigas
Wikimedia Foundation
149 New Montgomery Street 6th floor
San Francisco, CA 94105
