WikiConference India 2011/Submissions/Preserving Cultural Heritage : Contributions from Elderly

Timestamp

07:05, 30 August 2011 (UTC)

Title of the submission

Preserving Cultural Heritage : Contributions from Elderly

Type of submission (workshop, tutorial, or presentation)

A presentation

Author of the submission

Richa Sharma

E-mail address or username (if username, please confirm email address in Special:Preferences)

sricha@gmail.com

State of your origin (Country, if you are not based in India)

Delhi, India

Affiliation, if any (organization, company etc.)

IIT - Delhi and BBDIT - Ghaziabad

Personal homepage or blog

www.iitd.ac.in

Abstract (maximum 500 words)

Information Technology has revolutionized the way we maintain, process and preserve the information and knowledge. One of the major aspect of knowledge is related to our ancestral roots - deep in where lies the cultural origins of any community. The Indian culture has been maintained through its festivities, museum, monuments of historical interest. But, Indian culture has varied colors and flavors and multiple dimensions to it. With modernization and influx of outside culture, we need to do more towards preserving our own culture and tradition. Many of the youngsters are not aware of most of traditions as those traditions got lost somewhere with newly found culture of nuclear families. The aim of this presentation is to highlight the need of preserving Indian culture and tradition and it proposes a solution towards this need. We propose that strengthening Wikipedia community by including contributions from elderly people would certainly be a positive step in the direction of maintaining and preserving Indian culture and tradition. These people are the ones who are most familiar with our heritage that has so far spread by the word of mouth. They can collate it down in the form of digital knowledge. With support of multiple languages on Wikipedia, their contributions seem feasible too. What needs to be done is a little bit of encouraging them and making them understanding the importance of preserving culture and tradition in digital form. Secondly, trainings should be arranged for them but it won't a big concern looking at the enormous experience that elderly people have. They have already so much of learning with them that they can easily pick up creating pages and adding information there. Third, such efforts should be bit more organized for two reasons: the context of culture is sensitive and, there should not be any chaotic details. A constructive approach in this direction would help wikimedia in enhancing its outreach and strengthening its community on one hand. On the other hand, youngsters in Information Technology would get more familiar with their culture and tradition. Moreover, elderly people would have a sense of connection to today's environment working on such projects and a sense of achievment by contributing to the society for cultural cause. In all, it would be a win-win situation where all the participants would get benefited.

Track (Community/Knowledge/Outreach/Technology)

Community/Outreach

Will you attend Wikiconference if your submission is not accepted?

Yes

Slides or further information (optional)