Reconceptualizing Digital Objects around Cultural Articulations

全球范围内正在进行大量的工作，利用可以数字化并通过信息网络传播知识的技术来使藏品变得可用。图书馆、档案馆、博物馆和其他传统的知识和信息机构走在了这些倡议的前沿。对通过数字化进程将不同的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。这些标准化进程的动机是需要对不断增长的数字收藏进行编目，以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，一个关键的问题已经出现：博物馆等围绕这些知识对象放置的表现形式是基于对它们所指对象的背景、文化用途和意义的深入了解吗？标准化学者自己也承认，以快速检索为目标，对象的含义和描述可能反过来会被牺牲。在实践中，已经出现了公共机构以效率为导向的优先事项与产生这些知识对象的不同背景之间的不连续。在这个意义上，在本地化和特定于文化的环境中发展和流通的知识被反语境化为一个信息系统，该信息系统维持没有背景意义的特别的外部强加的标准。这项建议是Ramesh Srinivesan博士和剑桥大学人类学与考古博物馆(通过高级人员和助理馆长Robin Boast博士)的合作，目的是(1)开始分析和阐明临时外部标准与本地化的文化背景知识表达之间的差异，(2)设计、部署和评估一个信息系统，该系统能够在不牺牲系统内数据互操作性的情况下，对物品进行多种本地解释。它包括与两个全球土著社区进行为期3年的努力，这两个社区已经打开了与PI/博物馆合作的大门，这是建立在以前伙伴关系基础上的。它们是：美国新墨西哥州祖尼普韦布洛的祖尼社区，以及正在确定的另一个社区。目前正在讨论几种可能性，并将在未来三个月内最后敲定。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方面进行的重要工作，特别是侧重于文化和话语差异的本体论和分类。这项建议的贡献和更广泛的影响将是：(A)详细和有条不紊地调查当地土著社区持有的数字物品相对于它们在现有数字博物馆标准系统中的不同表现形式/本体论，(B)了解数字物品及其再循环对其原社区的影响。这些影响将通过定性和定量相结合的方法来理解和描述，这些方法包括调查管理的社会网络分析、实地笔记、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背景真实性。(D)制定一种新的方法，使公共机构能够以咨询来源社区和其他不同知识社区的方式维持数字收藏。(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.