Hi all, I just wanted to let you know that I am part of a working group involved in the digitization of the Kenya News Agency archives. The KNA was established in 1943, and is a photographic library that was used in the past decades by journalists to document various pre-colonial events such as the MauMau struggle. They have lots of content that are a national treasure, yet most of their photos are stored in metallic cabinets at Jogoo House, due to budgetary constraints. The KNA would therefore like to digitize its content so as to increase access and has started up a small working group to figure out the best way(s) to go about this. I'll update you guys with more info about the digitization after we have our first meeting. Regards,Abbas.
On Thu, Jul 19, 2012 at 6:56 AM, Abbas Mahmood abbasjnr@hotmail.com wrote:
Hi all,
I just wanted to let you know that I am part of a working group involved in the digitization of the Kenya News Agency archives. The KNA was established in 1943, and is a photographic library that was used in the past decades by journalists to document various pre-colonial events such as the MauMau struggle. They have lots of content that are a national treasure, yet most of their photos are stored in metallic cabinets at Jogoo House, due to budgetary constraints.
The KNA would therefore like to digitize its content so as to increase access and has started up a small working group to figure out the best way(s) to go about this.
I'll update you guys with more info about the digitization after we have our first meeting.
Sounds excellent, Abbas.
I hope you mention this on the cultural partners list as well, to get the benefit of int'l experience as well.
Cheers,
Asaf
Report to the Board: Digitization of the Kenya News Agency Archive Prepared by: Abbas MahmoodPrepared for: Wikimedia KenyaDate: August 2, 2012Background & Context I was invited to join a digitization working group created by the Kenya News Agency & the Kenya ICT Board that was aimed at laying a strategy for the digitization of KNA's content. Last week, the working group had our first meeting, and my main goals were to 1) talk about non-commercial use of content, 2) use the Aljazeera Creative Commons Repository as a case study, and 3) learn from other stakeholders that were involved. KNA has a repository of (mainly) photos (6,000+) related to Kenya’s history and culture dating back to the pre-colonial era. But due to budgetary constraints, the photos are stored in non-ideal conditions and their risk of damage or deterioration is therefore high. Moreover, their content is currently underutilised due the difficulty in retrieving the photos and lack of public awareness. The working group has around 20 members with folks coming from different backgrounds: studio producers, film makers, Kenya National Archives staff, AMREF Library staff, Bank of Africa staff, Creative Commons staff, freelance photojournalists, Ministry of Information & Communication staff, Kenya ICT Board staff and myself.
We had our first meeting last week in Limuru and my task was to talk about non-commercial use and to talk about the Aljazeera Creative Commons Repository.
Summary It was agreed that one of the potential customers of this project will be Wikipedia; and that some of the content will be donated to Wikimedia under a free licence. (Note that the digitized repository will be used for commercial purposes, but we’ll get a small content donation for purposes of publicity and awareness).
Also, some of the photos that KNA has are caption-less or lack the relevant metadata. It was suggested that we(the working group) explore the use of online collaboration (such as wikis or social media) to engage with the public and inquire about photos which don’t have known descriptions. We therefore expect citizen engagement to help us in identifying some of the photos.
[We discussed lots of other issues which I have intentionally omitted since 1) the final report is not out yet; and 2) it’s not relevant to you guys.] Conclusion
We are now creating a proposed roadmap on the way forward which will be presented, next week, to the Permanent Secretary of Information & Communication, Dr. Bitange Ndemo, for final approval before we proceed with this project.
Sorry, the earlier report had some minor corrections. Below is a rectified version. Thanks,Abbas.
From: abbasjnr@hotmail.com To: wikimediake@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2012 09:33:48 +0000 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia Kenya] Kenya News Agency archive
Report: Digitization of the Kenya News Agency Archive Prepared by: Abbas MahmoodPrepared for: Wikimedia KenyaDate: August 2, 2012Background & Context I was invited to join a digitization working group created by the Kenya News Agency & the Kenya ICT Board that was aimed at laying a strategy for the digitization of KNA's content. Last week, the working group had our first meeting, and my main goals were to 1) talk about non-commercial use of content, 2) use the Aljazeera Creative Commons Repository as a case study, and 3) learn from other stakeholders that were involved. KNA has a repository of (mainly) photos (6,000+) related to Kenya’s history and culture dating back to the pre-colonial era. But due to budgetary constraints, the photos are stored in non-ideal conditions and their risk of damage or deterioration is therefore high. Moreover, their content is currently underutilised due the difficulty in retrieving the photos and lack of public awareness. The working group has around 20 members with folks coming from different backgrounds: studio producers, film makers, Kenya National Archives staff, AMREF Library staff, Bank of Africa staff, Creative Commons staff, freelance photojournalists, Ministry of Information & Communication staff, Kenya ICT Board staff and myself.
Summary It was agreed that one of the potential customers of this project will be Wikipedia; and that some of the content will be donated to Wikimedia under a free licence. (Note that the digitized repository will be used for commercial purposes, but we’ll get a small content donation for purposes of publicity and awareness).
Also, some of the photos that KNA has are caption-less or lack the relevant metadata. It was suggested that we(the working group) explore the use of online collaboration (such as wikis or social media) to engage with the public and inquire about photos which don’t have known descriptions. We therefore expect citizen engagement to help us in identifying some of the photos.
[We discussed lots of other issues which I have intentionally omitted since 1) the final report is not out yet; and 2) it’s not relevant to you guys.] Conclusion
We are now creating a proposed roadmap on the way forward which will be presented, next week, to the Permanent Secretary of Information & Communication, Dr. Bitange Ndemo, for final approval before we proceed with this project.
_______________________________________________ WikimediaKE mailing list WikimediaKE@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediake
Thats tremendous progress Abbas!
Some things we can do in return as Wikimedia volunteers:
*Perform digital image restorations for free.
*DYK's (Did You Knows) are also a good way on Wiki to tell the world of that unique piece of photo we have in Kenya.
*Write articles around the media files /photos
*Almost certain(since I can't speak on behalf) that the Foundation shall put up a blog entry highlighting the donations.
*And the recent punchline by the US Archivist ,David Ferriero;
: "If Wikipedia is good enough for the Archivist of the United States, maybe it should be good enough for you."
Twende mbele.
//Stephen.
On 8/2/12, Abbas Mahmood abbasjnr@hotmail.com wrote:
Sorry, the earlier report had some minor corrections. Below is a rectified version. Thanks,Abbas.
From: abbasjnr@hotmail.com To: wikimediake@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2012 09:33:48 +0000 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia Kenya] Kenya News Agency archive
Report: Digitization of the Kenya News Agency Archive Prepared by: Abbas MahmoodPrepared for: Wikimedia KenyaDate: August 2, 2012Background & Context
I was invited to join a digitization working group created by the Kenya News Agency & the Kenya ICT Board that was aimed at laying a strategy for the digitization of KNA's content. Last week, the working group had our first meeting, and my main goals were to 1) talk about non-commercial use of content, 2) use the Aljazeera Creative Commons Repository as a case study, and 3) learn from other stakeholders that were involved. KNA has a repository of (mainly) photos (6,000+) related to Kenya’s history and culture dating back to the pre-colonial era. But due to budgetary constraints, the photos are stored in non-ideal conditions and their risk of damage or deterioration is therefore high. Moreover, their content is currently underutilised due the difficulty in retrieving the photos and lack of public awareness. The working group has around 20 members with folks coming from different backgrounds: studio producers, film makers, Kenya National Archives staff, AMREF Library staff, Bank of Africa staff, Creative Commons staff, freelance photojournalists, Ministry of Information & Communication staff, Kenya ICT Board staff and myself.
Summary It was agreed that one of the potential customers of this project will be Wikipedia; and that some of the content will be donated to Wikimedia under a free licence. (Note that the digitized repository will be used for commercial purposes, but we’ll get a small content donation for purposes of publicity and awareness).
Also, some of the photos that KNA has are caption-less or lack the relevant metadata. It was suggested that we(the working group) explore the use of online collaboration (such as wikis or social media) to engage with the public and inquire about photos which don’t have known descriptions. We therefore expect citizen engagement to help us in identifying some of the photos.
[We discussed lots of other issues which I have intentionally omitted since
- the final report is not out yet; and 2) it’s not relevant to you guys.]
Conclusion
We are now creating a proposed roadmap on the way forward which will be presented, next week, to the Permanent Secretary of Information & Communication, Dr. Bitange Ndemo, for final approval before we proceed with this project.
WikimediaKE mailing list WikimediaKE@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediake
On Thu, Aug 2, 2012 at 3:01 AM, Stephen Wanjau stevewanjau@wikimedia.or.ke wrote:
Thats tremendous progress Abbas!
Yes, thanks, Abbas, for this report, and I applaud your decision to share it in this manner with the WMKE membership!
One point I'd like to highlight is that we should be quick to offer mass volunteer effort _for the commercial repository_. We should generally stand for the principle of "cultural artifacts created with public funds should belong (and be made accessible) to the public", and (at least somewhat) resist the commercialization of these old photos. We should also remind everyone that at least the pre-colonial ones are no doubt out of copyright and _do_ in fact belong to the public.
Of course, if it's either a commercial repository or no digitization at all, it's certainly better to have a commercial repository, to at least ensure the survival of this material given the deterioration of the physical sources. But it is not in our interests to provide free labor to commercial enterprises.
One way to go about it would be to do our best with the "small subset" of images that would be donated to Wikimedia, per Stephen's excellent suggestions quoted below. After a while, we could present glowing results with the small subset -- improved metadata, dating, setting in context, etc., -- and contrast them with the inert digital objects in the commercial repository. Perhaps that would make our point and convince decision-makers to free up additional content.
Cheers,
Asaf
Some things we can do in return as Wikimedia volunteers:
*Perform digital image restorations for free.
*DYK's (Did You Knows) are also a good way on Wiki to tell the world of that unique piece of photo we have in Kenya.
*Write articles around the media files /photos
*Almost certain(since I can't speak on behalf) that the Foundation shall put up a blog entry highlighting the donations.
*And the recent punchline by the US Archivist ,David Ferriero;
: "If Wikipedia is good enough for the Archivist of the United States, maybe it should be good enough for you."
Twende mbele.
//Stephen.
Asaf, See my responses inline: From: abartov@wikimedia.org Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2012 08:55:55 -0700 To: wikimediake@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimedia Kenya] Kenya News Agency archive
On Thu, Aug 2, 2012 at 3:01 AM, Stephen Wanjau stevewanjau@wikimedia.or.ke wrote:
Thats tremendous progress Abbas! Yes, thanks, Abbas, for this report, and I applaud your decision to share it in this manner with the WMKE membership! Thanks!
One point I'd like to highlight is that we should be quick to offer mass volunteer effort _for the commercial repository_. Indeed. Right now, it is not yet clear if we'll need more manpower, but yes, I'll definitely consider calling in more volunteers as and when needed.
We should generally stand for the principle of "cultural artifacts created with public funds should belong (and be made accessible) to the public", and (at least somewhat) resist the commercialization of these old photos. True. I can boldly claim that I tried by very best to preach non-commercialization (along with my colleague from Creative Commons). But really, we were less 10% of the quorum that were talking about this, and I can only hope that our cries did not fall into deaf ears. However, on the bright side, I appreciate that we were invited to talk about non-commercialization -- and this shows that they were interested in us, and would consider our option. Moreover, I can say that the Kenya ICT Board is becoming a supporter of Creative Commons, and they are even considering licencing the Kenya Open Data Initiative under a CC licence, so I don't expect that much resistance from them :-) We should also remind everyone that at least the pre-colonial ones are no doubt out of copyright and _do_ in fact belong to the public. Ha! I didn't know about this. Is there a law or something that I can use to back this argument? At the workshop, we did talk about the legal stuff and copyright infringement -- so this is definitely something I will raise in our next meeting.
Of course, if it's either a commercial repository or no digitization at all, it's certainly better to have a commercial repository, to at least ensure the survival of this material given the deterioration of the physical sources. But it is not in our interests to provide free labor to commercial enterprises. Precisely. If all the work will be outsourced, then there is no need to involve volunteers. However, depending on how much content will be donated to Commons, we might need some volunteers to do the work from our end.
One way to go about it would be to do our best with the "small subset" of images that would be donated to Wikimedia, per Stephen's excellent suggestions quoted below. After a while, we could present glowing results with the small subset -- improved metadata, dating, setting in context, etc., -- and contrast them with the inert digital objects in the commercial repository. Perhaps that would make our point and convince decision-makers to free up additional content.
+1. Thanks for the feedback, Abbas.
On 2012-08-05 17:31, David Mabiria wrote:Big ups @Abbas so far for that initiative & representation, if they are to outsource the job, why not suggest they give it to wikipedians due to our extensive expertise in this field! Thsts ma thought, regards.David, As with all other (outsourced) projects undertaken by the Kenya ICT Board, a tender will be transparently advertised on their website(http://www.ict.go.ke/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=40...) and the best bid will be selected. (I can't officially speak on behalf of the Kenya ICT Board, but this is what I expect to happen). RegardsAbbas.
From: abbasjnr@hotmail.com To: wikimediake@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Fri, 3 Aug 2012 05:53:07 +0000 Subject: Re: [Wikimedia Kenya] Kenya News Agency archive
Asaf, See my responses inline: From: abartov@wikimedia.org Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2012 08:55:55 -0700 To: wikimediake@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimedia Kenya] Kenya News Agency archive
On Thu, Aug 2, 2012 at 3:01 AM, Stephen Wanjau stevewanjau@wikimedia.or.ke wrote:
Thats tremendous progress Abbas! Yes, thanks, Abbas, for this report, and I applaud your decision to share it in this manner with the WMKE membership! Thanks!
One point I'd like to highlight is that we should be quick to offer mass volunteer effort _for the commercial repository_. Indeed. Right now, it is not yet clear if we'll need more manpower, but yes, I'll definitely consider calling in more volunteers as and when needed.
We should generally stand for the principle of "cultural artifacts created with public funds should belong (and be made accessible) to the public", and (at least somewhat) resist the commercialization of these old photos. True. I can boldly claim that I tried by very best to preach non-commercialization (along with my colleague from Creative Commons). But really, we were less 10% of the quorum that were talking about this, and I can only hope that our cries did not fall into deaf ears. However, on the bright side, I appreciate that we were invited to talk about non-commercialization -- and this shows that they were interested in us, and would consider our option. Moreover, I can say that the Kenya ICT Board is becoming a supporter of Creative Commons, and they are even considering licencing the Kenya Open Data Initiative under a CC licence, so I don't expect that much resistance from them :-) We should also remind everyone that at least the pre-colonial ones are no doubt out of copyright and _do_ in fact belong to the public. Ha! I didn't know about this. Is there a law or something that I can use to back this argument? At the workshop, we did talk about the legal stuff and copyright infringement -- so this is definitely something I will raise in our next meeting.
Of course, if it's either a commercial repository or no digitization at all, it's certainly better to have a commercial repository, to at least ensure the survival of this material given the deterioration of the physical sources. But it is not in our interests to provide free labor to commercial enterprises. Precisely. If all the work will be outsourced, then there is no need to involve volunteers. However, depending on how much content will be donated to Commons, we might need some volunteers to do the work from our end.
One way to go about it would be to do our best with the "small subset" of images that would be donated to Wikimedia, per Stephen's excellent suggestions quoted below. After a while, we could present glowing results with the small subset -- improved metadata, dating, setting in context, etc., -- and contrast them with the inert digital objects in the commercial repository. Perhaps that would make our point and convince decision-makers to free up additional content.
+1. Thanks for the feedback, Abbas.
_______________________________________________ WikimediaKE mailing list WikimediaKE@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediake
On Thu, Aug 2, 2012 at 10:53 PM, Abbas Mahmood abbasjnr@hotmail.com wrote:
One point I'd like to highlight is that we should be quick to offer mass volunteer effort _for the commercial repository_.
Indeed. Right now, it is not yet clear if we'll need more manpower, but yes, I'll definitely consider calling in more volunteers as and when needed.
Er, as the rest of my message hopefully made clear, there was a tragically missing "not" after "should" in my comment above... :)
Asaf
wikimediake@lists.wikimedia.org