Module#3 Weblog#1 by Dilip Verma

The Indigenous Knowledge Project

This project is run by the Information Technology & Electrical Engineering of The University of Queensland Australia. The site is not current having been last updated in July, 2008 and the most recent publications are from 2006. However, it is an interesting site on IK management software. The stated objective of the site is to see how IT can be used to allow Indigenous communities to conserve their IK and culture in a sensitive way. The project aims to work with the custodians of IK to develop suitable software that preserves IK while respecting Indigenous protocols with respect to access. It also emphasizes the importance of maintaining ownership and control of  IK within the community.

Web site: http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~eresearch/projects/ikm/index.html

Web Site Links

The site offers some interesting papers such as “Software Tools for Indigenous Knowledge Management” http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~eresearch/papers/2003/IKM_software.pdf but of  most interest is the software that the project has developed for IK management.

There is the XML Metadata Editor/Generator Application (XMEG), which allows the user to record metadata onto an IK media file, not only to describe the content, but also to restrict access.

My particular interest is the demo they have created of an Indigenous Knowledge Web site: Indigenous Knowledge Web Demo http://maenad.itee.uq.edu.au/kweb/