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