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Africa report

Lagos Black Heritage Festival and Case Studies

By Iopensa, Awinda, Elitre, Stephen, Isla

The Lagos Black Heritage Festival

Parade at the Lagos Black Heritage Festivals

Mr Francis Awinda, Wikipedian in Residence for the WikiAfrica project at the Africa Centre presented the need and importance of the project at the prestigious Lagos Black Heritage Festival on the 4th of April 2012. The lively discussion on the need to Africanise wikipedia was held at the Kongi's Harvest Art Gallery at Freedom park in Lagos in the presence of distinguished participants led by renowned Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka who is the patron of the festivals and other Professors from Universities in Italy, USA,Somali and Nigeria, Students as well as staff from the Lagos National Museum, Onikan.

The festival was a golden opportunity for WikiAfrica to interact physically with potential individuals and organizations that can be involved in this groundbreaking initiative. At the end of the presentation the participants recognized the need for WikiAfrica in presenting factual content about Africa which saw inquiries on "how to be" involved from various organizations and individuals.It was good to know most participants at the conference were familiar with Wikipedia and after the presentation all of them agreed to the fact that more needs to be done in presenting the African content.

Currently discussions are going on with Global Tourism and cultures magazine, Lagos National Museum,Onikan and the Museum of Antiquities of Contemporary African Art to be involved as content partners.

We thank Lettera27 for the generous support in ensuring WikiAfrica was fully represented at the festivals.

Museum and Web 2012 Conference

Through the scholarship award from David Bearman and Jennifer Trant, Mr Francis Awinda attended Museum and the Web conference from 12th to 15th April 2012 at the Sheraton and Marina in San Diego, California.The conference looks at museums in relation to web technology as a tool for developing the various faculties within them and to paraphrase the conference statement its "An annual conference exploring the social, cultural, design, technological, economic, and organizational issues of culture, science and heritage on-line"

The conference had and always has a diverse presentation of participants from Galleries,Libraries,Archives and Museums as well as exhibitors presenting new technologies. During the pitching sessions which democratizes the topics to be discussed from the participants,a wide array of knowledge and tools for developing online presence were discussed as well as individual participants got opportunity to share what they are involved in. It was an honor to discus with other participants what WikiAfrica intends to achieve and why we think its important to generate factual and expanded information about Africa in Wikipedia.

I thank my benefactors David Bearman and Jennifer Trant and the entire Museum and the Web team co-chaired by Nancy Proctor and Rich Cherry!

Case studies WikiAfrica/Share Your Knowledge

WikiAfrica and Share Your Knowledge are currently producing case studies about the institutions involved in both projects. The case studies follow a standard format, which includes

  • Infobox with a summary of the collaboration
  • Overview on the institution
  • History of the collaboration
  • Uploads on Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects, and feedback from the community
  • Contents analysis
  • Contents samples: articles, images, documents...
  • Press releases, presentations, events linked to the collaboration
  • Related articles, external links, categories.

Elitre is specifically focusing on this task and we are planning to highlight 2-3 institutions each month. At the moment you can read in Italian and English the case studies of Cariplo Foundation, African Film Festival of Còrdoba-FCAT (please refer also to Spain report for this month) and Festival del Cinema africano, dell'Asia e dell'America Latina di Milano (in italian) - see also Italy report for this month. All case studies are listened in the GLAM collaborations on Wikipedia in Italian.

Potential GLAMs - Still in Talks

  • Nairobi Railway Museum have accepted to collaborate with Wikimedia Kenya to have their content on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. Wikimedia Kenya has planned to undertake this project under a pilot for three months to ascertain the deliverables and probably extend the partnership. There will a non-paid Wikipedian in residence who will be going there to teach museum staff how to edit and contribute to Wikimedia, organise backstage tours for Wikipedians among other duties.
  • Kenya National Archives are still reviewing a proposal that was sent to them regarding GLAM. Hopefully the results shall be out by the time the next newsletter shall be published.

The following have expressed interest in working as GLAMs with WikiAfrica:

  • South African Heritage Resource Agency, South Africa
  • Name your hood, South Africa
  • Curate Africa, South Africa
  • IZIKO Museums of Cape Town (14 museums in the Cape Town area) www.iziko.org.za, South Africa
  • Western Province Government – Department of Heritage, South Africa
  • Western Province Government – Department of Museums (in charge of 26 museums in the Western Cape), South Africa
  • First Floor Gallery Harare, Zimbabwe
  • National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe
  • National Archives of Namibia, Namibia
  • National Herbarium of Tanzania (http://vimeo.com/11736032), Tanzania
  • TARA – Trust for African Rock Art, Kenya, www.africanrockart.org
  • Kuona Trust, Nigeria www.kuonatrust.org
  • National Commission of Museums and monuments, Nigeria, http://www.nigerianmuseums.org
  • Digital Archive,Rock Art Research Institute, Origins Centre, Wits University, South Africa, www.SARADA.co.za

African GLAMs: Cultural Institutions Contributing to Wikipedia and Wikimedia Projects with African Contents

  • NEW Abasuba Community Peace museum http://www.abasuba.museum
  • GALA-Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action http://www.gala.co.za
  • The Archival Platform http://www.archivalplatform.org
  • M-Net African Film Library http://www.africanfilmlibrary.com
  • Out in Africa Film Festival http://www.oia.co.za
  • Encounters Documentary Film Festival http://www.encounters.co.za
  • Africa Centre is a cultural platform based in Cape Town supporting and producing cultural projects and initiatives. In 2011 the Africa Centre adopted the CC BY-SA on its online documentation and in November launched a call for a Wikipedian in Residence in charge of contributing to WikiAfrica and coordinating more GLAM outreach in Africa.
  • doual'art: a cultural non profit organization focussed on contemporary art and urban research in Douala. Since 1991 doual'art produces public art and collects documentation about its city. doual'art provides all of its online documentation in CC BY-SA: project descriptions, artworks descriptions, biographies of artists and experts.
  • Chimurenga is based in Cape Town. The Chimurenga Library is a repertoire of magazines which influenced writing and thinking in Africa; the website is in CC BY-SA.
  • Kër Thiossane, an art centre, residency space and training facility based in Dakar. The centre provided training to intellectuals, artists and authors in Dakar on how to contribute to Wikipedia and wiki websites.

Wikimedia chapters supporting the collaborations with institutions in Africa and with African contents

  • Wikimedia Kenya
  • Викимедија Србије (Wikimedia Serbia)
  • Wikimedia CH
  • Wikimedia España
  • Wikimedia Italia
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