Mobile phone company Orange has announced that they will be providing access to Wikipedia free to all their subscribers in Africa. The offer will be available progressively in all the 20 countries where they are active on the continent. Wikimedia Foundation and Orange signed a partnership.
Wikipedian in Residence at the Africa Centre
Mr Francis Awinda will be collaborating with the Africa Centre for the WikiAfrica Project.He has been working since 2003 as information officer at International Council of African Museums(AFRICOM). His training and experience is focused on African heritage and on the use of web technology for digitization and dissemination of information in public libraries and cultural institutions. In 2010 he participated in the workshop Wikimedia@MW2010 at Museums and the Web conference in Denver.
African GLAMs: Cultural Institutions Contributing to Wikipedia and Wikimedia Projects with African Contents
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.
GLAMs related to Africa based outside Africa
NEW Katholieke Universiteit Leuven - Institute for Anthropological Research in Africa, Leuven, Belgium
NEW Butterfly Works, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Butterfly Works supports WikiAfrica.
NEW Artistic collections of Sfroza Castel - Extra-European Collections, Milan, Italy
Festival de Cine Africano de Tarifa, now Festival de Cine Africano de Còrdoba. Spanish cinema festival specialized in African cinema providing film descriptions and biographies of filmmakers and experts in CC BY-SA (texts only).
Festival del cinema africano di Verona. Italian cinema festival specialized in African cinema providing film descriptions and biographies of filmmakers and experts in CC BY-SA (texts only).
Wikimedia chapters supporting the collaborations with institutions with African contents
NEW Wikimedia España
NEW Викимедија Србије (Wikimedia Serbia)
NEW Wikimedia CH
Wikimedia Italia
News in brief
Training for Wikipedians in Residence, March-May 2012, Milan. Three months side-by-side training for Wikipedians in residence, lettera27 Foundation in collaboration with Wikimedia Italia.
