Transcript of Opening Remarks 2024_March_19 PID presentation

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Welcome everybody to today's webinar.

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My name is Joy Owango.

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I'm the Executive Director

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of the Training Center in Communication.

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And today, which is based

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at the University of Nairobi in Kenya.

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And today we are introducing

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our open infrastructure program,

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Africa PID Alliance.

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And we are working closely with our partner DataSight

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in this webinar on ensuring indigenous knowledge

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and cultural heritage preservation.

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And we have amazing speakers with us.

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And we have speakers from Australia.

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We have speakers from Japan, Kenya, and also Nigeria.

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And with us is Professor Leslie Wiebon

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from the Australian National University in Canberra.

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We have Jens Klump.

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He is the group leader on exploration

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and through the cover,

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Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization

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and the Government of Australia,

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that is the CSIRO, who is the president of IGSN.

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And then we have a representative

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from the Government of Kenya, Dr. Kiprop Lagart.

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He's the Director of Culture

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at the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife, Government

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at the Government of Kenya.

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And we have Mr. Rory Edmonds.

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He's the samples community manager at DataSight.

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And we have Boson Obileye,

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who is the original engagement specialist

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for Africa at DataSight.

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So what we are going to take you through is the need

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to provide assistance identifiers

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on indigenous knowledge, cultural heritage,

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and for cultural heritage.

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And this is something very dear to us

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at Training Center and Communication

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through our open infrastructure program,

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because we've noted thanks to helicopter science,

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there's quite a huge loss

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on indigenous knowledge and cultural heritage.

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So the question is, how are we going to mitigate this,

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especially when you're looking at the research lifecycle?

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So our project aims to mitigate this particular problem

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and we're not doing this in isolation.

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We are working with various stakeholders

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and DataSight is one of them.

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And we are truly excited to work with the Government of Kenya

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through the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife

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in the community engagement and creating awareness

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on the need to have assistance identifiers

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for cultural heritage and indigenous knowledge.

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And before we get into it, as I said,

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I'm truly honored to have speakers from all over the,

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from diverse parts of the world

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and from different time zones.

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So bearing in mind this different time zones

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will be really strict on time

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so that we are considered to our speakers.

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Now, without further ado,

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I'm going to introduce the Africa PID Alliance.

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As I said, this is an open infrastructure program

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which was launched by the Training Center

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for Communication last year.

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And one of the activities we are doing

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is we are looking at producing persistent identifiers

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in Africa, especially focusing on three areas,

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indigenous knowledge, cultural heritage and patents data.

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Now, let me take you through what we are trying to achieve

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and how we are working with our partners

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to achieve this goal.

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So we intend to empower African research

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through leveraging PIDs

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for enhanced data management and collaboration.

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With our vision being securing the future

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of African indigenous knowledge and cultural heritage

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and supporting African scientists and inventors

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to realize their research and innovations.

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We come from the school of thought

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that now being the digital era

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and Africa really needs to be part of the conversation.

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And this is one of the reasons why in the Africa PID Alliance,

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we are going beyond indigenous knowledge

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and cultural heritage.

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You're also looking at patents data

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because it is part of the life cycle as well.

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But then the most interesting thing,

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when you look at it,

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when you look at from an indigenous knowledge perspective,

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80% of people living in sub-Saharan Africa

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are almost completely dependent

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on folk medical practices.

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It's no wonder that the universities in Africa

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are heavily involved,

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especially the schools of health sciences

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and heavily involved in ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology

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because we are the first go-to process

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in any medical practice will be indigenous knowledge.

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So we will take you through some of the institutions

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that have committed to provide data and use cases for us.

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And we are happy to say we are getting an increased number

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of institutions ready to work with us on this project.

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So another fact that what we intend to do

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is that we want to change the narrative.

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As I said, we want to be part of the conversation

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whereby we're not only producing persistent identifiers,

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but we are looking at innovative ways

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to produce persistent identifiers

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that will support indigenous knowledge and cultural heritage.

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We are not fighting the ecosystem.

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We are working closely with the ecosystem

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to provide a variety of solutions

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that can help me to get this childhood vision.

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So how we intend to do this is

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we are looking at an hope on existing technology.

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We'll take you through that technology.

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And through that, we want to ensure the creation,

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storage governance and management of African content.

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The other thing is that we want African content

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and data storage in Africa.

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And we are really grateful for the several partnerships

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that exist.

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We want to promote African content

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and we want proper representation of African output

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in global databases.

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But we are also seeing that this is not an African problem.

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It's predominantly a global South issue.

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So we are starting from Africa

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and this is the kind of technology

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which truly can be replicated in other parts of the world.

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One of the things you've also noted

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is that as much as,

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and this is something the data site is going to be talking

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about, especially with the global,

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with the GAP program.

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Because one of the things we are seeing is that

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there is, as much as we're talking about persistent

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identifiers, there is a low capacity

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on understanding what this technology is about.

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So one of the activities we are going to roll out,

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we are actually beginning to roll out,

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is building up a material of early and mid-level career

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researchers, especially in data science,

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knowledge management, focusing on scholarly infrastructure.

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Because we've been talking to quite a number of universities

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and I can assure you there are select librarians

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and knowledge managers who actually understand

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this ecosystem on persistent identifiers.

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And it's quite unfortunate.

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So as much as you are introducing new technology,

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we also need to build the capacities of our knowledge managers

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so that they understand what it is that,

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what, what, how this technology can actually be

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narrowing down in these two areas,

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based on this webinar, indigenous and cultural heritage,

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how they're able to connect the dots

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on the contribution of indigenous knowledge

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and cultural heritage to the research output.

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Don't get me wrong, this is already being done

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from a data perspective.

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So you can find that you have your research output,

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you have the persistent identifier assigned

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to the research output, you have the persistent identifier

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assigned to the data that comes out of it

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or that contributed to it.

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But then there's a disconnect between the indigenous knowledge

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and the cultural heritage to the research output.

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And also it leads to innovation.

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And these are conversations we are increasingly seeing

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with our librarians.

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So we are truly excited to have,

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to be part of the conversation in mitigating it.

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So far so good.

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So as I said, we started last year,

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we've already launched our annual report.

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But most importantly, we also launched our data privacy

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and protection policy.

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And we are building on what already exists globally,

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but most importantly, we are leveraging

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on the data policy of the African countries

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that have actually created data acts.

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Like in East Africa, for sure our data,

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the only two African, two East African countries

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that have created a data protection policy app

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that is Kenya and Uganda.

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But we are looking at including various countries

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that have started, that have created their policies,

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their data protection policies so that we can include it

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within the docket privacy data protection policy.

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As I said, we're trying to make this as unique as possible

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to the continent and something at the same time

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that can be replicated.

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Another thing that we've done is that we've created

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a traditional open working group.

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And we are happy to say it includes

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the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife.

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We have representatives from the Ministry of Tourism

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and Wildlife, local contexts who have been phenomenal

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in coming up with a traditional or they're known

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as biocultural labels or the TK labels,

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the traditional labels, which will aid in also

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in the process of trying to find a solution

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in how you can identify various types of metadata

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to traditional knowledge and data sites as well.

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I say that we release a community statement

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on the fact that it's about time

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Africa started producing assistance identifiers.

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And it's about six weeks in and I'm really happy to say

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that we have over a half hundred signatories,

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both institutions and individuals,

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stating yes, it's about time

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that we started producing this

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and making it unique to our needs

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because this is something that is, as I said,

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this problem on the loss of cultural heritage

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and indigenous knowledge has been quite chronic in Africa.

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And we are going to get a case study actually from Kenya

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on one of the losses from Lake Bogoria

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where we are continuously using billions in shillings.

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And this is indigenous knowledge

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and also at the same time cultural heritage,

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which where we are seeing universities

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have been coming from the global north

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have been coming into Africa,

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they've been conducting the research,

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money had been made out of that indigenous knowledge

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and slash cultural heritage

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with nothing coming to the country.

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So it's about time we started producing these pages.

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We are part of this narrative,

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actively part of this narrative.

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And I'm happy to say, yes,

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this process has begun with the production

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of a digital object container.

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We are not working in isolation.

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As I said, we are not working with isolation.

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We are working, we are getting support

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from the DOI Foundation,

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the Corporation of National Research Initiatives.

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And I'm so happy to say we've already signed

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a project MOU with Crossref and Data Science.

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So this is the beginning of a series

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of committee engagement activities you're going to see.

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And we started conversations with IE RETI as well,

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which is one of the Registration Agencies

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of the DOI Foundation.

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We want to win your trust as much as

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we are producing a digital object container.

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We are leveraging on existing technology

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so that it is not something that you'll end up questioning

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but it is building up on existing technology

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that will support you,

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but just improving it so that it is relevant to you.

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The digital object container identifier

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is what we started producing.

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And I'm really happy to say we have a fast draft

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of this PID and it is actually a multi-linear PID.

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And the data centers, our primary data center

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is at the Kenya Education Network.

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It's an end-run based in Kenya.

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And we've already started conversations

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with the Zambia Research Education Network in Zambia.

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And we are using a Recycle Data Management System

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by Invinio.

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And it's also what is being used for the user interface.

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And the digital object management is from Podra,

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which is owned by the operation

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of National Research Initiatives.

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So basically we are literally leveraging

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on existing technology to produce our digital object

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container, API and registry.

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So how does it work?

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I said it is a multi-linear platform.

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So visualize, I like using an analogy of a wrapper.

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From some of the founders I've been telling

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that they're calling it a DOI wrapper.

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But one of the universities actually roads universities

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in South Africa use the analogy of Lord of the Rings.

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It is the one ring that holds them all or rolls them all.

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So the digital object container, the way we've made it

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is that it is multi-linear in nature

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to accommodate different types of PIDs.

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Such that you can connect an object to the various PIDs.

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So visualize the digital object container

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and you have your indigenous knowledge.

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So if there's any publication that is associated

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with that indigenous knowledge, there's an ID

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that is assigned to it.

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If there's any data set, there's an ID that is assigned

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to it, whether there was a project,

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whether there was a founder that was associated with it,

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it is all put within that container.

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And all of them speak to each other.

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So we are really happy to state that

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we've already been given credentials from Crossref

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and this society also and RAID as well,

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which provides the identifier for projects.

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And we're in conversations with the founders of ARC Keys

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to see how compatible it will be within the container.

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As I said, this entire container is multi-linear

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and each container will have identifiers

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connecting to one individual object.

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So it is so easy for you to connect the dots

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of indigenous knowledge and the various outputs

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that came out of it, whether it is cultural heritage

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or whether it is patent data.

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So we presented the digital object container

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to the board, last week to the board

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of the Africa PID Alliance.

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And this is just the first face that you see.

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And one of the things that we are looking at,

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as I said, we are looking at this from an African perspective.

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So one of the interfaces, some of the interfaces

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we are going to create will be

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in the African Union languages.

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These are integration languages that connect this continent.

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So we are looking at French, Portuguese,

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English, Swahili, and English, Swahili, and Arabic as well.

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And the reason why we are doing this

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is because this continent is extremely diverse

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with a variety of languages.

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You're looking at over 2,000 languages.

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And we feel that it's about time

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that we started producing solutions

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that also speak to our African Union languages.

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And this is also something that, as I say,

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can be replicated in other parts of the world.

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So with this same technology,

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you can also replicate it also

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within your representative languages.

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As I say, that we have some use cases

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from when we started.

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And we have Rhodes University

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that have been very interested in working with us.

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The Kenyan Intellectual Property Institute

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at the University of Nairobi.

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This is the University of Namibia,

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the Mubimbili University of Allied Sciences.

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Now, all of these have one thing in common.

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They all have either schools or institutes

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or department of indigenous knowledge

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or topical or traditional medicine or cultural heritage.

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And they are all organized in a manner

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whereby those institutes

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either have research fellows and hate and innovations

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have come out of those indigenous knowledge

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or out of that indigenous knowledge and research output.

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So basically it covers the entire life cycle

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of what you're looking at.

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What contribution does indigenous knowledge

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contribute to research, innovation and commercialization?

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These are universities that have actually organized

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their ecosystems to cover all that.

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And in the case of the Mubimbili University

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of Health Sciences,

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we're really proud of that institution

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because their Institute of Traditional Medicine

19:58.840 --> 20:01.800
is so organized to the point that it is self-sustainable

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and it is supporting the universities

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actually providing revenue for the university.

20:06.680 --> 20:10.160
So they are very keen to see how they're able to connect

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the dots of the traditional knowledge

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to the research output, innovation

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and the commercialization as well

20:16.400 --> 20:18.280
and the patents that come out of it.

20:20.240 --> 20:21.640
We've been very busy, as I said,

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we've been involving quite a number of indigenous,

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quite a number of community engagement activities.

20:28.200 --> 20:30.120
Also, we've gone over our partners Cross-Trip Window

20:30.120 --> 20:31.240
in Nairobi.

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We've been involving quite a number of conferences.

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This was also hosted by Codata as well.

20:36.560 --> 20:40.120
And what we are seeing, what we are learning

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is that it's a PID is definitely a name type.

20:43.480 --> 20:45.200
It needs to solve two issues.

20:45.200 --> 20:47.720
It needs to solve persistence and accessibility.

20:47.720 --> 20:49.760
It's just, we need to,

20:49.760 --> 20:52.600
we know we are coming from a continent

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that has various political economic dynamic challenges.

20:57.760 --> 21:00.360
But when we are introducing a new technology,

21:00.360 --> 21:03.880
we should be cognizant of introducing a technology

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on persistent identifiers that solves accessibility

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and persistence, not just persistence.

21:10.360 --> 21:12.600
And this is something we are learning

21:12.600 --> 21:15.640
and seeing from the librarians.

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They just don't want just persistence.

21:17.760 --> 21:20.560
They want different types of identifiers

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that can also make their work accessible.

21:24.040 --> 21:27.200
We need to, we are looking at being more proactive

21:27.200 --> 21:32.160
in sharing of data and working on strategic plans

21:32.160 --> 21:33.840
with research and data managers

21:33.840 --> 21:38.040
so that we can have more strategic ways of sharing our data.

21:38.040 --> 21:40.200
And we need to go beyond technology

21:40.200 --> 21:42.640
and having strategic awareness

21:42.640 --> 21:46.520
on how these PIDs can help in increasing our visibility.

21:46.520 --> 21:48.400
We need to make data accessible.

21:48.400 --> 21:51.200
We want to make it as affordable as possible.

21:51.200 --> 21:54.840
I am proud to say that the persistent identifiers

21:54.840 --> 21:57.720
has been this draft of the persistent identifier

21:57.720 --> 21:59.680
that we produced, was produced

21:59.680 --> 22:01.960
and he's been produced in Kenya.

22:04.160 --> 22:06.760
And with support from technical partners

22:06.760 --> 22:08.200
from Africa as well.

22:08.200 --> 22:09.320
So this is possible.

22:09.320 --> 22:12.200
It is possible to produce persistent identifiers in Africa.

22:12.200 --> 22:15.720
And of course we are leveraging on existing technology.

22:15.720 --> 22:17.840
One of the things that we are looking at in the future

22:17.840 --> 22:22.520
is that we want to open an investment fund whereby

22:22.520 --> 22:25.400
we are going to allocate funding for,

22:25.400 --> 22:27.320
we are working with external funders

22:27.320 --> 22:29.440
and external investment funders

22:29.440 --> 22:32.280
on providing an invest in open research fund

22:32.280 --> 22:34.840
where we are going to support organizations

22:34.840 --> 22:38.840
and institutions that are going to focus on infrastructure

22:38.840 --> 22:42.200
and persistent open sharing of knowledge.

22:42.200 --> 22:44.760
Because as I said, those are the two areas we noted

22:44.760 --> 22:47.400
that there is a challenge understanding this ecosystem

22:47.400 --> 22:49.760
and also building on this infrastructure.

22:49.760 --> 22:51.640
And I said, it's extremely agnostic.

22:51.640 --> 22:55.800
We are not siding with any part,

22:55.800 --> 22:58.440
we are not looking at any type of persistent identifier

22:58.440 --> 23:01.280
but then it's extremely agnostic

23:01.280 --> 23:06.280
because our digital container is agnostic

23:06.400 --> 23:09.640
and can accommodate various types of identifiers.

23:11.040 --> 23:14.240
We are working in line with agenda 2063

23:14.240 --> 23:18.560
which is the agenda for the continent, the Africa we want

23:18.560 --> 23:20.160
and in line with the SDGs.

23:20.160 --> 23:23.160
But there's one you need to look at in terms of Agenda 2063

23:23.160 --> 23:25.040
that is aspiration five go 10,

23:25.040 --> 23:26.800
which states that we need to look at,

23:26.800 --> 23:29.600
we need to build and leverage on world class infrastructure

23:29.600 --> 23:31.200
to support the continent.

23:31.200 --> 23:34.800
So we are heavily looking using that agenda,

23:34.800 --> 23:38.480
building on that aspiration to produce this persistent

23:38.480 --> 23:40.800
identifier and build on partnerships

23:40.800 --> 23:43.080
so that we are able to support this challenge.

23:44.240 --> 23:48.280
As I wind up, we've been involved in quite a number of,

23:48.280 --> 23:50.680
as they say, indigenous knowledge activities.

23:50.680 --> 23:52.400
As you can see, this is the past,

23:52.400 --> 23:54.240
one of the, the fact of many.

23:55.440 --> 23:58.160
With this webinar we are hosting with data site.

23:58.160 --> 24:00.160
We've been invited by the government of South Africa

24:00.160 --> 24:02.600
to present also our identifier,

24:02.600 --> 24:06.560
but also tomorrow we are going to presenting at the FDO.

24:07.720 --> 24:09.720
As I wind up, all I'm saying is that

24:09.720 --> 24:11.680
we cannot work in isolation

24:11.680 --> 24:18.680
and you will see the same kind of trade thought process

24:19.200 --> 24:21.640
coming from our partners from data sites.

24:21.640 --> 24:24.640
And also you're going to hear some of the challenges

24:24.640 --> 24:29.640
from the government of Kenya that they have faced

24:30.040 --> 24:32.080
and how you're working with partners

24:32.080 --> 24:34.600
to make sure that we can increase the visibility

24:34.600 --> 24:37.920
of protect our indigenous knowledge and cultural heritage,

24:37.920 --> 24:39.520
but also increase the visibility

24:39.520 --> 24:41.920
and have proper representation

24:41.920 --> 24:44.880
of our indigenous knowledge and cultural heritage.