Citizen Media - Kenyan Election 2007

A big thank you to all Kenyans both here at home and abroad who are blogging this election. Whether it is the live blogging of results or sharing your thoughts and fears it is good to hear so many voices. Thank you also to all of you who have left comments and sent emails over the election coverage on this blog or on something you may have read on KenyaUnlimited. Comments and interaction are an integral part of the blogging process; your efforts are also appreciated.

What we are doing is revolutionary in terms of local news coverage and in generating local web content; imagine the impact we will have on coverage of the 2012 election. There are a couple of reasons why this blogging effort is important:

• We are showing that citizen media is alive and well in Kenya.
• We are showing that Kenyans regard the Kenyan citizen media is a valid source of information.
• We are showing that citizen media can react and publish faster than the main stream media in Kenya.
• We are showing that you do not have to be “on the inside” within the ECK nerve centre at KICC or within a major media house to report on what is going on with the election with authority.
• We are showing that the internet is a valid tool for spreading and sharing information.
• We are showing that the Kenyan street is aware and articulate.
• We are creating local and original web content.

And perhaps most importantly (for our brothers and sister in the main stream media)

• We are showing that citizen media and the main stream media can not only co-exist but even compliment each other.

Now a call to arms literary rather than literally, if you have a blog write your thoughts about this election. Whether you are in Kenya or not, whether you are Kenyan or not. We need more voices from the wanainchi writing about their country. If you have left a comment or sent an email and do not have a blog, please start one. If you can send an email believe me you have enough technical skill to write and post a blog post. Register at WordPress.com for free and you’ll be on your way. Then register on the Kenyan Blogs Webring (KBW), which is also free, and you will have a wide readership from your first post.

This is very important for those of you who have asked me to remove certain KBW members from the webring or remove their posts from the KenyaUnlimited Aggregator as you do not agree with what they are saying. Many of you already have own blogs yet I notice that your own blogs are silent on the issues you raise with me. If someone writes something you disagree with by all means let your voice be heard as you present your counter view, and the best place to do this is on your own blog (which if you are a KBW member will appear on the same aggregator where the post you objected to appeared).

Finally, I have been getting many requests asking if you can reproduce the content on this blog in your newspapers, aggregators etc. Everything on my blog is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence.

This means you are free to:

• Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work
• Remix — to adapt the work

Under the following conditions:

• Attribution. You must attribute the work to me. A link to the original blog post with a line saying written by Mentalacrobatics or written by Daudi Were should be fine.

I think that is fair. You can read a short version of the license here or if you are very particular about these kinds of things you can read a full version here.

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