Hi Asaf,
Yep, I'm seriously considering taking this up with the Archives, although I'm not yet 100% sure (I've still got to sort out lots of personal stuff).
Anyway, I fully agree with you that in a optimal case, it is the cultural institution that is supposed to cater for the associated costs of a Residency. However, in this case, not only is the Kenya National Archives under-resourced, but most importantly, it is a long, tedious and bureaucratic process of getting funds for a foreign, non-priority project from a government institution. I said foreign, because, AFAIK, there has been no other Sub-Saharan Archive that has partnered with Wikimedia (and has tangible results that we could use as a case study), so the lack of precedence presents higher risks (from the Kenyan Archives point of view). I also say foreign, because to the Kenyan Archives, Wikimedia is a foreign institution. And the Kenya National Archives has a long history of US-based institutes that've come to them with the intention of plagiarizing their content. (The Archives Director even showed me one of the lawsuits that the Archives has against a US institute), so therefore, the Archives is understandably skeptical of any such partnerships. I said non-priority, since rather than put Kenyan content on Wikimedia projects, the Archives would rather spend their little resources on, say, improving their own website, or buying better assets (computers, storage devices) or opening up another facility in Western Kenya. Therefore, with all these challenges they are facing, there is absolutely no way that the Kenya National Archives (or quite appropriately, the Ministry of National Heritage) will fund this project. I think that WikiAfrica could probably second what I'm saying: as far as I know, all their GLAM projects so far (in Cameroon and in South Africa) have been funded by either the Orange Foundation, or the Lettera27 Foundation.
Oscar, absolutely, I'm not expecting this to be a one-man job.
Regards,
Abbas.
From: abartov@wikimedia.org
Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2012 15:28:29 -0800
To: wikimediake@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Wikimedia Kenya] WiR at the Kenya National Archives
I'm glad to hear about the interest from the national archives, and congratulate Abbas on his efforts bearing fruit. Do I understand correctly that Abbas intends to fill that role himself?
A word of advice: please make sure you don't commit prematurely to something you might not be able to keep. E.g. if the plan relies on WMF funding, it is certainly too early to sign anything, before the plan was reviewed by the GAC and WMF and a grant was approved. I should point out in advance that we generally consider WiR's salaries to be the responsibility of the host institution, as we think the bigger benefit accrues to it. Nevertheless, context matters, of course, and this is not a "no", to be sure.
Cheers,
Asaf
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