Wiki Entrepreneurs are a new concept in GLAM work. The Wiki Entrepreur initially attends an intensive month-long open movement training course. They then return to their home country to activate and support a Wikipedia based community, educating and sustaining GLAM programmes and ultimately creating a need for open access entrepreneurs to serve their community.

 Meet the Wiki Entrepreneurs:

Michael Mutisunge Noel Phoya is a Malawian artist, author, and filmmaker mainly interested in pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial Malawi/Africa, globalisation, and new media in Africa. He is also interested in the sharing of knowledge especially through Open Educational Resources (OER).

His multi-disciplinary approach encompasses text, digital film, photography, and the web. He also facilitates learning platforms for Malawian artists and arts/culture/heritage organisations, and advocates for the growth of the arts in Malawi through live-recorded shows and public lectures.

Since 2000, he has been redefining platforms for publishing in Malawi and Africa by using non-traditional means. These have included a handmade book with 5 artisans involved [Malawi’s first], an audio book [again, Malawi’s first], and a web-based heritage portal.

He runs Kupeza Chambo, a virtual and physical artistic intervention space where Malawi’s heritage is celebrated.

He is the author of the funny travelogue ‘Walks of Life, the Other Side of Malawi’ (Central Africana 2011) and ‘Malawi, Lake of Stars’ (Central Africana 2011). His latest work appears in ‘A Memory this Size – The Caine Prize for African Writing 2013’ (New Internationalist 2013). He is a Committee Member of the Society of Malawi. Read Michael’s blog about being Malawi’s Wiki Entrepreneur here.

Abel Asrat was born and bred in the city of Addis Ababa, from a small family where his father works as a researcher and his mother as a cloth designer. When he was born, he had a four minute privilege of becoming the only child in his family before his sister joined him as a twin.

In 2007, he joined University to pursue his higher education and joined Mechanical Engineering after failing to make it to Architecture which had been his interest ever since he was an 8th grader. Despite pursuing the field of study in Mechanical Engineering, he was  interested in exploring and sorting his “life puzzle” to get a clear picture of his interests. Time after time it become apparently clear to him that he was not destined for Engineering, but communication. As a result he start to read, write and connect with people.

Unlike most of the students at his University, Abel took risks  to express his views from the university dormitories to senate halls. As a result of his active networking and connections, he built an everlasting impact in his university prior to his graduation.

His aspiration in life is to break through people’s fear in exploring themselves, and letting them become what they really want to be. He also believes that information plays a vital role in enabling people to map their interest destination and reach their goal.

In the past few years Abel has had the opportunity to work with different initiatives. These include AIESEC Ethiopia (the largest international youth organisation), where as an AIESEC member Abel initiated the opening of the AIESEC Mekelle Local Committee. He has also served as a Google Student Ambassador, Global Voice Member and Chair Person for a student-based initiative called Help for a Drop of Water. Abel has always enjoyed organising and volunteering at events such as Barcamp Ethiopia and TEDx Addis. Currently he is working as a Wikipedian In Residence for the WikiAfrica project initiated by the Africa Centre.

Abel is writing a blog about his experiences as Ethiopia’s Wiki Entrepreneur.