QUESTION AND ANSWER FOR WIKIMEDIA KENYA BOARD CONTENDERS.

1. Why do you think you suit to be in the board of WMKE?

I am hardworking,assertive,dedicated which means I will spend whatever time and resources I have to accomplish the tasks that Wikimedia Kenya assigns to me.I am also creative thus enabling me to think outside the box so as to make Wikimedia Kenya better.

Since am enthusiastic about Wikimedia and its projects, I will serve as a source of inspiration and motivator to the members and others who support the good course.

Have been in Wikimedia for a year and having participated in some of the activities such as being a wikipedia editor,contributor to wiki-commons,attended all meet-ups and I have been involved in the mombasa outreach; I have experience to serve as a board member since I share in the vision and goals of wikimedia kenya.

2.What is your take on the level of participation of members in WMKE projects/meetings/mailing list? Anything you think should be done differently?

The level of participation is low.Wikimedia kenya has quite a number of members both active members and inactive.There are members who are active in the mailing list and never turn up for meetings or participate in the projects,there is another group of members that are always there for meetings but don't often participate in the mailing list and there is the last group that is all round; they participate in the mailing list, meetings and projects.

Every member who shows any form of participation is important,however if we could have members that participate in the mailing list,projects and show up for meet ups will enable us to take wikimedia kenya to a new level.Therefore my take will always be; go an extra mile in everything and that will always enable Wikimedia Kenya to meet its goals.

Meetings should have a set date every month if that how often we agree to be meeting so that when everyone is making a schedule they can set that day aside.This I believe will enable more members to attend the meetings.

3. As a board needs members with different skills (e.g. administrative, financial, public relations etc), please tell us which particular skill set have you worked in previously, like in another society or organization?

I work with an organisation called Kibera Mtaani initiative which deals with children and education in Kibera.We are a group of few volunteers but everyone has a defined role.In my case it is the administration where I basically plan for the next meetings and what we need to prepare for it.Apart fom this,I have acquired other leadership skills from working closely with leaders in organisations that am involved with such as the societies and club in my universities.

4.Which languages have you worked in so far? And what is your position on both a language policy and a language strategy for WMKE?

I have in English and kiswahili.. I intend to push a 4th language on the table after Kikuyu which is the 3rd language. My language strategy would be to start with one or two other popular languages in Kenya and try to build a community around them. This can be greatly boosted by the fact that I will have set outreaches across various towns. An interesting perspective is different towns mostly have different indigenous people speaking different languages. Working closely with the outreaches then it is easier to harness the power of the communities around directly through the outreaches. Once we get firm ahold of one or two languages then we popularize the exercise hence drawing the attention of other language-speaking communities.My strategy will draw together the different strands of language revitalisation to create an overaching framework for the activities and endeavours of WMKE

5.How would you best deal with the issue of editor attraction and retention in our local chapter so as to ensure the growth of WMKE as a whole?

I would attract more wikipedia editors in Kenya by engaging more and more students and IT communities around the country and exposing them to the wikimedia foundation,its objectives and editing wikipedia through community forums,outreach or social networks.I would also creating new groups specifically for "Editing Wikipedia" in all social sites with details on how it can be done.

I would start an editing competition where I would reward the participants for a start, with time they would be integrated since we would have them participate in the outreaches and teaching others how to edit wikipedia.

I would also approach different groups of people differently for example if am targeting the youth most of them would love to write about entertainment.Therefore this would make sure the editors are retained since they write about something they love.Engagement, discovery and appreciation keeps them coming back.So we could have grading maybe for the top editor the one who has made many edits so as to encourage them.

6. Now that we are an independent chapter, how do you plan to raise funds supposing the parent Wikimedia Foundation won't avail funds to run the aforementioned project?

I would apply the model of open source communities where members help the projects by crowd sourced capital. This is easy in Kenya since most people have embraced online digital media especially social media. I would actively engage people through forums as well as posting the events and progress on a blog. This way people could monitor the on goings of the chapter. Kenyans have before come together to raise funds for various things including the famous Kenyans 4 Kenya when they raised money to help the starving in drier parts of the country. This initiative was

run mainly on social media and they were able to raise good money.

I could use the same approach since if kenyans get to know what wikimedia foundation and specifically wikimedia kenya is all about I have no doubt they would give donations to support us.

Therefore since most of the community has joined social media it could be a platform to use to get donations.Donations could be sent through mobile money transfers such as M Pesa that are available everywhere in the country.

7. What kind of a project/ activity would you envision WMKE and its members undertake in order to fulfill the objectives of Wikimedia Foundation as a whole?

Going by the Wikimedia objective of sharing in the sum of all knowledge freely with every single human being, I would thrive to set up various outreaches in various parts of the country not just in Nairobi as it has always been. Then build vibrant communities around these outreaches. Each outreach would be headed by a chosen person that will be hands on with all the on goings of the projects and overseeing the success and failures of the outreaches.

I would be in constant communication with those people at least twice a week. In these communications, I can gather what is going on and what needs to be implemented or improved. On the main blog, I'd also invite them as guest writers so that they can be posting bi-weekly blog posts. This will go a long way in engaging the community and making sure it's vibrancy doesn't die off.

I can also be organising Skype or physical meetings like once in a month or 2 so that we can meet and evaluate the progress we are making and whether we are achieving the Wiki goals.