Culture and Technology
The internet has become the fastest growing instrument of communication in the history of civilization. It has transformed cultural industries in Canada and abroad, in terms of opportunities and threats. In terms of opportunities, the World Wide Web has fostered cultural exchange, the sharing of ideas, and the adaptation of customs, icons and symbols to rejuvenate and create hybrid traditions. In fact, the internet has emerged as the new medium to transcend traditional public space. Once connected, cybercitizens can journey to a multitude of places and ideas they would not have imagined possible. Moreover, these ideas and dissemination of information and images costs much less than traditional publishing products.
These virtual communities of people interested in the same subjects have usurped the traditional meeting grounds for people interested in similar subject matter, to come together in a borderless world, in the sharing of information and ideas. It allows access to different cultures around the planet, while encouraging the recognition of other cultural values and identities.
Technology (multimedia, databases, Internet) is an ideal research and teaching tool in anthropology, museology, and the preservation and transmission cultural values to present and future generations. The traditional intermediaries of culture have always been museums, galleries, libraries and archives.
The documentary heritage in libraries and archives constitute a major part of the world's collective memory and reflects the diversity of languages, peoples, and cultures. However that memory is fragile because a considerable proportion of this material has begun to disappear due to "natural" causes: paper affected by acid and crumbling to dust, and film and magnetic tape degrade over time. The transition to the World Wide Web, electronic journals and online databases now form an integral part of our cultural heritage and history. More importantly, this cultural heritage treasure trove has become accessible to many people.
In this sense, technology has become the new intermediary of culture, allowing cybercitizens around the world instantaneous access to global libraries, information, and resources. While technology represents a society's gateway to life-long learning, and the medium to protect cultural heritage, it is also a double-edged sword. In a context of instantaneous communication, there is a genuine risk of appropriation of intellectual property. The easy dissemination of information has created problems of copyright regulation, making copyright protection laws mandatory in this digital age. Some of these cases are currently wending its way through the courts. The other paradox is, technology can impose its own standardization of thinking and doing. Instead of celebrating diversity, it can have the converse effect of embracing uniformity of culture.
Copyright and Privacy Legislation
Copyright is a complex issue that impact on the selection of materials for digitization. Consulting information on what is covered by copyright is key to selecting materials for digitization. Currently, many cultural institutions have a policy of avoiding the complexities of copyright law by digitizing materials that have passed into the public domain, and are no longer covered by copyright restrictions.
Apart from copyright, privacy is the other minefield when digitizing cultural heritage materials. Regarding the issue of privacy concerns, a distinction must be made between public and public information. For example, there is a difference between public information gained through the Information and Privacy Act, and the oral and written histories, photographs and other artifacts that reside with an individual or groups of individuals. One requires going through the cumbersome process of applying for formal consent from an institution whereas, the other usually requires the approval and written consent of an individual or group.
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