Determining 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 […]

 •   •   •   •   •   •   •   • 

Digital Namibian Archive

The Digital Namibian Archive (DNA) is an innovative project that brings together international partners to develop a rich digital resource that reflects the diversity of voices and cultural stories of Namibian people to individuals throughout the United States, Africa and the world. This collaborative project, lead jointly by Utah Valley […]

 •   •   • 

Research Project: Indigenous Knowledge Technologies

I recently received a note from Kasper Rodil, a PhD Fellow in Aalborg University’s Department of Architecture, Design and Media Technology, who shared with me a new website focused on Indigenous knowledge and technology (http://indiknowtech.org/). Below is an overview of the site and its current projects. indiknowtech.org Project Description From […]

 •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •   • 

The Herero people of Erindiroukambe: using tablet PCs to preserve indigenous knowledge

“Tablet PCs preserve indigenous knowledge” by Niall Firth, published 18 June 2012 in New Scientist Magazine issue 2869. Tablet computers could help villagers in the Kalahari desert preserve cultural knowledge and traditional techniques for future generations The Herero people know just what to do when a horse is too wild […]

 •   •   •   •   •   •   • 

IT System to Support Indigenous Knowledge Preservation

Originally published on the School of Information Technology blog (Polytechnic of Namibia) by Linus Kamati on 20 September, 2011. Local and traditional knowledge is shared orally within rural communities; such as through telling of stories. It is not recorded in text or electronically, it is accessible only through participation within the […]

 •   •   •   •   •   • 

A New Visualization Approach to Re-Contextualize Indigenous Knowledge in Rural Africa

Abstract Current views of sustainable development recognize the importance of accepting the Indigenous Knowledge (IK) of rural people. However, there is an increasing technological gap between Elder IK holders and the younger generation and a persistent incompatibility between IK and the values, logics and literacies embedded, and supported by ICT. […]

 •   •   •   •   •   •   •   •