When explaining the failure of information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) projects, researchers often turn to differences between how designers perceive and users experience the context of technology use. According to these explanations, ICT4D projects fail because designers take an uninformed stance toward context. The ICT4D literature offers four approaches for how […]
2014 • Brazil • challenges • design • failure • ICT4DDetermining Requirements within an Indigenous Knowledge System of African Rural Communities
Eliciting and analyzing requirements within knowledge systems, which fundamentally differ so far from technology supported systems represent particular challenges. African rural communities’ life is deeply rooted in an African Indigenous knowledge system manifested in their practices such as Traditional Medicine. We describe our endeavors to elicit requirements to design a system to support the accumulation and sharing […]
2010 • Africa • ethnography • Herero • indigenous / traditional knowledge • intangible • knowledge systems • Namibia • user requirementsStrangers on the Land: Place and Indigenous Multimedia Knowledge Systems
Leggett and Dyson are non-indigenous Australians interested in the potential of designing new media applications that are sensitive to and productive for indigenous peoples. Their research has focussed on development of new media systems that reflect indigenous world-views, particularly with relation to established knowledge-sharing protocols. They demonstrate that there is […]
2008 • cultural protocols • design • indigenous communities • knowledge sharing / exchange • knowledge systems • new media • representation • user interfaceLocally Situated Digital Representation of Indigenous Knowledge: Co-constructing a new digital reality in rural Africa
Digital re-presentation of indigenous knowledge remains an absurdity as long as we fail to deconstruct the prevalent design paradigm and techniques continuously re-framing technology within a western epistemology. This paper discusses key challenges in attempts of co-constructing a digital representation based on experiences from a longitudinal community-centred research project in […]
2012 • Africa • design • digital • indigenous / traditional knowledge • representation • situated • western valuesFree Books! a list of free e-pubs in the Ethnos Project Resources Database
Happy New Year! Here, have some free books! This collection of 29 e-publications spans the years 2002-2014 and contains over 3,000 pages of top-notch scholarship, hard-earned field wisdom, best practices and more. Yes, the list is a bit eclectic (and some items are fraying around the digital edges), but it […]
e-publications • Ethnos Project • free books • outlink • resources databaseAn Integrated Platform Supporting Intangible Cultural Heritage Learning and Transmission
The paper offers an experience-based viewpoint on two key phases of the development of an Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)-based system: the definition of requirements and identification of related criteria and methodology for its evaluation. In doing so, it refers to the unique context of the i-Treasures EU project, which […]
2014 • cultural heritage • education • evaluation • human computer interaction • ICTs • information system • intangibleShiny Objects and Salvation: Navigating New Technologies for Intangible Cultural Heritage Preservation
Mark Oppenneer, Ethnos Project Director, presented this keynote address at El Primer Congresso Internacional Patrimonio Cultural y las Nuevas Tecnologias. The conference was held at El Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) in Mexico City, December 2014. See the video side-by-side with the presentation slides Learn more about the […]
2014 • appropriate technology • cultural heritage • culture | preservation • INAH • indigenous / traditional knowledge • intangible • language | preservationEl Primer Congresso Internacional Patrimonio Cultural y las Nuevas Tecnologias
This conference was held on 3-6 December, 2014, in Mexico City at El Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH). The National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) has a mission to safeguard cultural heritage by looking to stay ahead in the application of new technologies for the conservation, research […]
archeology • cultural heritage • culture | preservation • emerging technology • INAH • intangible • technologyInuit Identity and Technology: An exploration of the use of Facebook by Inuit youth
This thesis engages in a broad discussion of technology, communications, identity, and cultural change in the Canadian Arctic. Using an ethnographic methodological strategy, it looks at how a group of Inuit college students in Iqaluit use the online social network Facebook. It was found that Inuit youth are intensive users […]