Head Full of Ideas | Sanchari

My head is crammed to the full with ideas right now. They have not yet acquired a concrete shape but are rather floating like clouds in my mind while I try to decide which one is shaped best - the one which would best fit with my research. Alright, enough of similes.So, I'm in the stage where I have to narrow my research topic down to one particular aspect or problem that I want to focus on. Digitisation of museums and libraries in itself is still a very broad topic, though I am getting new ideas and potential tools that can be used from some of the courses that I have taken.


The crowdsourcing project interests me, but even as I contemplate it, the question arises in my mind as to whether it would be as effective and successful in developing countries as it is in developed countries. Firstly, people in developing countries, like India, for instance, do not always have access to internet services, but even when they do, would the high-resolution images used in the projects be available to them via the poor internet connection? Then comes the question of the willingness to contribute and volunteer.Would people participate in the crowdsourcing projects? What would their incentive be?It is certain that there will be a group of individuals who would actively volunteer and participate in the project, but the rest would either be ignorant about it or unwilling to volunteer. It brings up the problem of class division. Only the affluent and educated people who have access to the internet can or will volunteer,but what about the rest of the population? I'm uncertain whether a crowdsourcing project can be considered successful if most of the population are not involved in it.

Another significant issue that came up is whether or not digital documentation is a solution for the problem of preservation of cultural heritage. In the "Contesting and Documenting Heritage" class, we had an intriguing discussion on this matter, where Gabriella said that she didn't believe that digital documentation was really the ultimate solution, or, as she put it, the 'elixir' for preservation. By concentrating only on digitisation, it was as if we were more concerned with the tools rather than the goal. Digital documentation is, firstly, an expensive project, which is hard to implement in developing countries. Also, even if the documentation project proves to be a success and all the databases of a museum or a library have been recorded in digital form, what then? The dilemma lies more with the aftermath of documentation than the actual process. Developing countries are riddled with shortage of funds and adequate resources, lack of technical experts, use of obsolete machinery and the absence of a systematic framework for the maintenance of the digital databases.

Another concern with digital documentation is the infringement of copyright. For instance, when the databases of a museum are digitised and introduced into the public domain, there are in danger of being misused and misinterpreted. The only way to control access to information is to make it available only to a certain group of people, but does that not reinforce the concept of a privileged class of people?

At present, all these diverse thoughts and questions are making me think and rethink the precise problem area I want to focus on. Until then, cloudy weather in my brain!