Catherine McDermott and Chris Hutchison's parallel session, entitled Project Kingston Africa, was held at Africa Gathering on 25 April 2009.

15. The Digital Dimension
'Culture & Heritage Informatics'
A final-year under-graduate
programme for students in
Computing & Information Systems.
•The cultural economy
•Representation, interpretation, &
diversity
•Digitisation, digital curation, digital
asset management
•Virtual communities & the
participatory museum
•Software tools for indigenous
knowledge management

16. The Digital Dimension
The 'cultural economy' …
"wealth is no longer reckoned in terms of
physical assets alone. In fact, in the
knowledge economy that characterises the
twenty-first century, intellectual property,
or the product of the mind, have become
more important than physical wealth in the
form of buildings and other physical
assets."
Isaac N. Mazonde, Introduction to
Indigenous Knowledge Systems and
Intellectual Property in the Twenty-First
Century: Perspectives from Southern Africa.
CODESRIA, 2007, p.1

17. The Digital Dimension
Many C&HI students undertake
projects relating to Africa's
intangible heritage and indigenous
knowledge systems.
Material culture and intangible
heritage of Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana,
Ivory Coast, Angola, South Africa,
Ethiopia, and throughout Africa,
captured and catalogued, with
metadata, in digital asset
management systems such as
StreetPrint, Omeka, and
CollectiveAccess.

18. The Digital Dimension
As far as possible, student projects
are client-based, e.g. Uthango
Social Investments & Second Life
Africa.
Also developing research
collaborations with UCT (SA),
Makere University, University of
Dar es-Salaam, Kigali Institute of
Education, District 6 Museum, ...

19. The Digital Dimension
Oral histories, traditional songs,
basket-making, weddings, weaving,
folklore, music, ...

20. The Digital Dimension
Indigenous rights management
software protects native
knowledge, from traditional
medicines and healing through
folklore and iconography.