[Wikimedia Kenya] Kenya News Agency archive

[Abbas Mahmood]

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.___
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Re: [Wikimedia Kenya] Kenya News Agency archive

[Asaf Bartov]

On Thu, Jul 19, 2012 at 6:56 AM, Abbas Mahmood  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
-- 
Asaf Bartov
Wikimedia Foundation 

Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
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Re: [Wikimedia Kenya] Kenya News Agency archive

[Abbas Mahmood]

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. 
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Re: [Wikimedia Kenya] Kenya News Agency archive

[Abbas Mahmood]

Sorry, the earlier report had some minor corrections. Below is a rectified 
version.
Thanks,Abbas.

From: abbas...@hotmail.com
To: wikimediake@lists.wikimedia.org
Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2012 09:33:48 +
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. 
  

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Re: [Wikimedia Kenya] Kenya News Agency archive

[Stephen Wanjau]

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  wrote:
>
> Sorry, the earlier report had some minor corrections. Below is a rectified
> version.
> Thanks,Abbas.
>
> From: abbas...@hotmail.com
> To: wikimediake@lists.wikimedia.org
> Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2012 09:33:48 +
> 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  
> 


-- 
*"Better Late Than Never, But Never Late is Better"*

"Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in
the sum of all knowledge."  Help us make it a reality!
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Re: [Wikimedia Kenya] Kenya News Agency archive

[Asaf Bartov]

On Thu, Aug 2, 2012 at 3:01 AM, Stephen Wanjau 
 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 Bartov
Wikimedia Foundation 

Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
https://donate.wikimedia.org
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Re: [Wikimedia Kenya] Kenya News Agency archive

[Abbas Mahmood]

Asaf,
See my responses inline:
From: abar...@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  
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.
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Re: [Wikimedia Kenya] Kenya News Agency archive

[Abbas Mahmood]

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=404:tenders&catid=76:hot-topic&Itemid=205)
 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: abbas...@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: abar...@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  
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.
  

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Re: [Wikimedia Kenya] Kenya News Agency archive

[Asaf Bartov]

On Thu, Aug 2, 2012 at 10:53 PM, Abbas Mahmood  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
-- 
Asaf Bartov
Wikimedia Foundation 

Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
https://donate.wikimedia.org
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