Reconceptualizing Digital Objects around Cultural Articulations

全球正在开展大量工作，利用能够通过信息网络传播和传播知识的技术，使收藏品能够获得。图书馆、档案馆、博物馆和其他传统的知识和信息机构处于这些倡议的前列。对通过数字化进程将不同的收藏品联系起来的挑战的压倒性反应是使分类和描述系统标准化。这些标准化过程的动机是需要对不断增长的数字收藏进行编目，使用户能够更有效地访问它们并发现对象之间的联系。然而，一个关键的问题出现了：博物馆等放置在这些知识对象周围的表示是否是从对它们所指对象的背景、文化用途和意义的深入了解中创造出来的？标准化的学者们自己也承认，为了实现快速检索的目标，对象的含义和描述可能会被牺牲。在实践中，公共机构的效率驱动的优先事项与产生这些知识对象的不同背景之间出现了不连续性。从这个意义上说，在地方化和特定文化的环境中发展和传播的知识被解除语境化，成为一个信息系统，维持没有语境意义的外部强加的临时标准。这个提议是拉梅什·斯里尼瓦桑博士和剑桥大学人类学和考古学博物馆合作提出的（通过高级人员和助理主任，罗宾博士吹嘘，是（1）开始分析和阐明之间的差异特设外部标准与本地化的文化语境的知识表达，和（2）设计，部署，和评估一个信息系统，它可以容纳对象的多种本地解释，而不牺牲系统内数据的互操作性。它涉及与两个全球土著社区的三年努力，这两个社区已经打开了与PI/博物馆合作的大门，建立在以前的伙伴关系基础上。它们是：新墨西哥州（美国）祖尼普韦布洛的祖尼社区和另一个正在确定的社区。目前正在讨论几种可能性，并将在今后三个月内最后确定。因此，这项研究扩展了在标准制定，数字图书馆和科学的社会研究中进行的重要工作，特别是侧重于文化和话语差异的本体论和分类。该提案的贡献和更广泛的影响将是：（a）详细和有条理地调查当地土著社区内持有的数字对象的不同表示/本体，相对于它们在现有数字博物馆标准系统中的表示，（B）了解数字对象及其再循环对原始社区的影响。这些影响将通过定性和定量方法的结合来理解和描述，这些方法包括调查管理的社交网络分析，现场记录，参与者观察和访谈。(c)了解数字收藏如何在保持互操作性的同时保持上下文真实性。(d)制定一种新的方法，使公共机构能够以咨询来源社区以及其他不同知识社区的方式维护数字收藏。(e)将这项研究纳入研究生和本科生的新研究机会。

A vast amount of work globally is going into making collections accessible utilizing technologies that can digitize, and circulate knowledge via informational networks. Libraries, Archives, Museums, and other traditional institutions of knowledge and information are at the forefront of these initiatives. The overwhelming response to the challenge of linking disparate collections via the process of digitization has been to standardize systems of classification and description. These processes of standardization are motivated by the need to catalogue ever-growing digital collections to enable users to access them more efficiently and uncover connections between objects. However, a key question has emerged: Are the representations placed around these knowledge objects by museums, etc. created from a deep knowledge of the context, cultural use, and meaning of the objects to which they refer? Scholars of standardization themselves acknowledge that with the goal of rapid retrieval, the meaning and description of the object may in turn be sacrificed. In practice, what has emerged has been a discontinuity between the efficiency-driven priorities of the public institution and the diverse contexts from which these objects of knowledge were produced. In this sense, knowledge that is developed and circulated within a localized and culturally-specific environment is decontextualized into an information system that maintains ad-hoc externally-imposed standards devoid of contextual meaning. This proposal, a collaboration between Dr. Ramesh Srinivasan and the University of Cambridge's Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology (via senior personnel and Assistant Director, Dr. Robin Boast, is (1) to begin to analyze and articulate the differences between ad-hoc external standards versus localized culturally contextualized articulations of knowledge, and (2) the design, deployment, and evaluation of an information system that can accommodate multiple local interpretations of objects without sacrificing the interoperability of data within the system. It involves a 3 year effort with two global indigenous communities that have already opened their doors to collaboration with the PI/Museum that build on previous partnerships. These are: The Zuni Community of Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico (USA), and another community in the process of being determined. Several possibilities are being discussed and will be finalized within the next three months. This research therefore extends significant work conducted in standards development, digital libraries, and social studies of science, particularly focused on ontologies and classifications that are culturally and discursively differentiated. The contributions and broader impacts of this proposal will be: (a) The detailed and methodical inquiry into the differing representations/ontologies of digital objects held within local, indigenous communities relative to their representation in existing digital museum standard-systems, (b) An understanding of the impact digital objects and their re-circulation hold on their originating communities. These impacts will be understood and described via a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods that include survey-administered social network analyses, field notes, participant observation, and interviews. (c) An understanding of how digital collections can maintain contextual authenticity while remaining interoperable. (d) Develop a new methodology by which public institutions can maintain digital collections in a manner that consults source communities, as well as other diverse knowledge communities. (e) An integration of this research into new research opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students.