Indigenous Media in Mexico: Culture, Community, and the State

Videography is a powerful tool for recording and representing aspects of human society and culture, and anthropologists have long used – and debated the use of – video as a tool to study indigenous and traditional peoples. Indigenous people themselves, however, have increasingly turn video towards their own cultural and […]

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Wampum, Sequoyan, and Story: Decolonizing the Digital Archive

For some years, the Cherokee Nation has hosted a digital archive that includes stories in the Cherokee language, available to anyone who registers for the Nation’s free online language classes or requests them to be sent in DVD format. On the ᏣᎳᎩ ᏗᎧᏃᎮᏍᏓ & ᏗᎧᏃᎩᏓ /tsalagi dikanohesda & dikanogida/ Cherokee […]

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Indigenous Knowledge Management in the Kelabit community in E. Malaysia: insights & reflections for contemporary KM design

Knowledge audits and assessment help organisations to identify the status of knowledge processes and develop strategies to manage their knowledge-based assets. The structure of Indigenous Knowledge Management Systems (IKMS) is different from the organisation’s Knowledge Management (KM) systems and mainly based on the tacit and implicit knowledge forms. Hence, the […]

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Technology Intervention for the Preservation of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH)

This paper presents the initial outcomes of a key scoping study undertaken to explore the role of augmented reality and motion detecting technologies in the context of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) for museums related environments. Initial prototypes are in the form of an interactive infrared camera based application for children […]

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Integrating cultural factors in user-interface design: the case of the Nasa Colombian native people

The research context of this thesis is the inter-cultural development of computer tools. The thesis considers as case study the Nasa people, a Colombian native society, which preserves different traditions and cultural particularities. The research questioning emerges from the sociocultural differences between a rural society, such as the Nasa, and […]

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Towards appropriate user interface design preserving rural African communication practices

This mini-thesis examines different socio-cultural norms and communication behaviours of indigenous communities. In spite of existing Information Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructural challenges, the software solutions that have been designed for rural communities have been a major concern. In this thesis, qualitative methodologies were used with deliberate sampling of two village […]

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Survivance: An Indigenous Game for Change

Historical trauma caused by colonization has had generational effects on the mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual wellbeing of Indigenous communities. Survivance is a social media game for change that brings players through the Indigenous hero’s journey on a path to recovery through quests and acts of survivance. This paper briefly […]

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Exploring Respectful Design Directions for Indigenous Communities

Projects focusing on preserving cultural heritage are most usually instigated by a researcher. Yet, the question arises ‘whether such projects are beneficial for the studied communities?’ This paper describes the first part of a co-reflective, design research case study exploring through design the dynamics of the disappearance of culture heritage. […]

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A Lifeline for Endangered Languages

During a gruelling interview at the All Things Digital conference, on May 28th, Walt Mossberg cut off the Apple C.E.O. Tim Cook mid-sentence to raise an uncomfortable subject for the company. “There is a level of control that you exercise—curation, one might say, not just in your app store but […]

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Ojibwe Language Revitalization, Multimedia Technology, and Family Language Learning

Although Indigenous language loss and revitalization are not new topics of academic work nor new areas of community activism (e.g., King, 2001; Grenoble & Whaley, 2006), increased attention has been paid in recent years to the ways that new technology can support efforts to teach and renew endangered languages such […]

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Wathaurung use technology to take control of their cultural heritage

For over 25,000 years, the land around Ballarat, Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula has been inhabited by the Wathaurung people. Traditionally, important cultural knowledge was passed down the generations through word of mouth. Today, a simple yet groundbreaking piece of mapping software is allowing the Wathaurung to pinpoint and record […]

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Globalization, Negotiating Technology, and Indigeneity in Nepal

This paper explores how indigenous peoples negotiate with their state and mainstream narratives by glocalizing indigenous political and cultural identities through virtual spaces offered by digital technology or information and communication technology (ICT). The first section makes an announcement of its concern about how globalization and indigeneity at some points […]

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Never Neutral: Critical Approaches to Digital Tools & Culture in the Humanities

But technology is never neutral and I’m starting to see pause and critique as part of my charge, too. This opening quote is from Robin Camille Davis, Emerging Technologies & Distance Services Librarian at John Jay College of Criminal Justice at CUNY. An “Emerging Technologies Librarian” is one of several digital […]

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Remediating sacred imagery on screens: Yolngu experiments with new media technology

When I first arrived in the Yolngu township of Galiwin’ku to undertake fieldwork for my doctoral thesis at the University of Melbourne and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, almost a decade ago to the day, a particular research question had been on my mind for some time. Over […]

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Introducing Indigenous Knowledge Governance into ICT-based Indigenous Knowledge Management Systems

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for Indigenous Knowledge Management (IKM) have been designed using the conventional approach of creating and manipulating databases of knowledge. This typical approach of IKM generates the issues of indigenous knowledge governance, de-contextualisation and data manipulation. Hence, the main research question of this study is “How […]

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Modeling ICT Adoption Factors for the Preservation of Indigenous Knowledge

Indigenous Knowledge (IK) has many social and economic benefits. However, IK is at the risk of extinction due to the difficulties to preserve it as most of the IK largely remains undocumented. This study aims to design a model of the factors affecting the adoption of Information and Communication Technologies […]

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From the Árran to the Internet: Sami Storytelling in Digital Environments

This essay investigates the use of storytelling in the process of cultural and linguistic revitalization through specific contemporary examples drawn from the Internet. By examining instances of adaptation of Sami tales and legends to digital environments, I discuss new premises and challenges for the emergence of such narratives. In particular, […]

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Why is it so hard to try something new in ICT4D?

How do you get aid workers to think about new ways of doing things and ensure technologies or tools introduced work in the local context and lead to sustainable change? As impact and scale become increasingly important, Laura Walker Hudson uncovers the barriers to making innovations work at an organisational […]

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Information Technology and Indigenous Communities: symposium publication

This document sets out key issues identified in the final plenary session at the AIATSIS research symposium on information technologies and Indigenous communities. Over 70 papers were presented at ITIC on the use of information technologies by Indigenous peoples. Illustrating the strength and vibrancy of the sector, presentations were delivered […]

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The Preservation of Canadian Indigenous Language and Culture through Education Technology

This study was a preliminary investigation into the preservation of Indigenous language and culture through educational technology. Using the research methods of an online questionnaire, on-site visits, semi-structured interviews and reflective journals, I examined current methods adopted by Aboriginal Language and Culture (ALC) teachers in British Columbia. This article provides […]

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A Framework to Assess Participation and Empowerment Impacts of ICT4D Projects

Community participation in ICT-for-development (ICT4D) is sometimes portrayed as a ‘magic bullet’, which will inevitably lead to better project outcomes and the empowerment of marginalised participants from the local community. This paper takes a critical approach to participation, drawing on dual roots of participation in Development Studies and Information Systems, […]

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Intellectual Property, Traditional Knowledge and Traditional Cultural Expressions / Folklore: a Guide for Countries in Transition

This guide aims to help countries in transition decide whether and how best to protect traditional knowledge (TK) and traditional cultural expressions (TCEs) held by indigenous peoples and local communities. It describes the intellectual property (IP) concepts involved in protecting TK and TCEs and outlines existing international, regional and national […]

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Human Rights and Access to Information and Communication Technologies

The world is going through a profound change where advances in Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) have tied nation states into an increasingly complex web of development, thus prompting the extreme importance of access to ICTs. Article 27 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) provides that ‘everyone has […]

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Integration of indigenous knowledge with ICTs in coping with effects of climate change

Climate change threatens production’s stability and productivity. In many areas of the world where agricultural productivity is already low and the means of coping with adverse events are limited, climate change is expected to reduce productivity to even lower levels and make production more erratic. To help cope with the […]

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Chuck a Copyright on It: Dilemmas of Digital Return and the Possibilities for Traditional Knowledge Licenses and Labels

Abstract: This article focuses on the creation of an innovate network of licenses and labels delivered through an accessible, educational, and informative digital platform aimed specifically at the complex intellectual property needs of Indigenous peoples, communities, and collectives wishing to manage, maintain, and preserve their digital cultural heritage. The Traditional […]

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