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Africa report

A month in Africa's GLAMs

By Isla, Francis, Stephen, Elitre

The following article is an update of GLAM activity from the last month (and a bit) across the African continent and beyond. The activities listed below have come from the work of two Wikimedia chapters, South Africa and Kenya, and from the WikiAfrica Project.

Wiki Loves Monuments, the African way

The international photo contest Wiki Loves Monuments 2012 is almost over and it is unveiling daily the winners from each participating country: it's time for a report about the experience of three African nations involved this year for the first time, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa, which enriched Wikimedia Commons with over 2,000 pictures. The article also includes a few remarkable stories from photographers.

All's well...

Following what might be referred to as "the Gibraltardrama", an unwarranted wave of contrast to the Gibraltarpedia GLAM project in these weeks, and after an interesting mention on a WikiProject report on The Signpost for October 22nd, which defined WikiAfrica as "unique", our project received a proposal of deletion as well. The request was made on the basis of the alleged redundancy with the regular wikiproject about Africa and the lack of activity, based uniquely on the examination of the talk of the project itself. The discussion unveiled that the very existence and purpose of GLAM projects is still unknown to many: the request was speedy closed and the sysop even advised against a merge-and-redirect of all the project pages in the future.

WikiAfrica Training

The Gambia National Museum, a WikiAfrica GLAM content partner had its first training on the basics of Wikipedia,uploading images as well as releasing contents using CC-BY-SA licenses. Mr Hassoum Ceesay, who is the Curator as well as the Director of Copyright at the Museum received the training and created an article about their museum on Wikipedia. The training was held on the 10th of October 2012 at the Hope Street Hotel in Liverpool during the Museums and Human Rights conference at the International Slavery Museum.

Potential GLAMs - Still in Talks

The following have expressed interest in working as GLAMs with Wikimedia Kenya:

  • Nairobi Railway Museum have partially accepted to collaborate with Wikimedia Kenya to have their content on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. The senior management requested copies of proposals to review them in detail. Wikimedia Kenya is in discussions on the best way to undertake this project, which would be the first of its kind. A preliminary study revealed that they have none of their collections digitized.
  • 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:

  • National Museum Malawi
  • Shimoni Slavery Museum, Kenya
  • Bamako-London Exhibition, UK/Mali
  • South African Heritage Resource Agency, South Africa
  • Name your hood, South Africa
  • IZIKO Museums of Cape Town (14 museums in the Cape Town area) www.iziko.org.za, South Africa
  • City of Cape Town Heritage Department
  • National Herbarium of Tanzania http://vimeo.com/11736032
  • TARA – Trust for African Rock Art, Kenya, http://www.africanrockart.org
  • Kuona Trust, Kenya http://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

The following GLAMs are at different stages of the Share Your Knowledge path. For in-depth Case Studies of long term partners, please see below, or look at this month's Italy report.

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

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


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I propose to take away the list of institutions. it's becoming too much. --Iopensa (talk) 09:50, 5 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]


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