The Ulwazi Programme is a ground-breaking initiative and is growing from strength to strength so its fitting that its starting to get the recognition it deserves.  The book is freely available from MILE and is well worth a read as it highlights the best projects (in art, heritage, sustainable development and social justice) the city has to offer.

Switched-on solution to saving Indigenous Knowledge

More on the book …

Interpreting the /Xam Narratives of the Bleek and Lloyd Collection

The Bleek and Lloyd Collection consists of the notebooks in which William Bleek and Lucy Lloyd transcribed and translated the narratives, cultural information and personal histories told to them in the 1870’s by a number of /Xam informants. It represents a rare and rich record of an indigenous language and culture that no longer exists. The /Xam materials have exerted a fascination for anthropologists and poets alike. They are compromised, mysterious, and yet essential. How does one begin reading texts that are at once so compromised and so unique?

Bushman Letters: Interpreting /Xam Narratives is an unusual and important book for it examines not only the /Xam archive but also, and in the first instance, the critical tradition that has grown up around the archive as well as the hermeneutic principles that inform that tradition. It critiques these principles and offers not so much alternative readings as alternative modes of reading. The book accomplishes two things: it shows the problems with the ways that the materials in the Bleek and Lloyd Collection have been approached by previous critics, and it suggests what their interpretations have left out in the course of its own detailed and poetic readings of a number of narratives. The book must be described as metacritical: it is criticism about the critical tradition that has grown up around the /Xam archive and in the fields of folklore and mythology more widely.

Bushman Letters addresses a curiously neglected area in the burgeoning literature on the Bleek and Lloyd collection: the texts themselves. In doing so, the book makes a substantial contribution to the study of oral narratives in general and to the theoretical discourse that informs such studies.

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Two decades after its birth, the World Wide Web is in decline, as simpler, sleeker services — think apps — are less about the searching and more about the getting. Chris Anderson explains how this new paradigm reflects the inevitable course of capitalism. And Michael Wolff explains why the new breed of media titan is forsaking the Web for more promising (and profitable) pastures.

Read the full article …

After using it for a few months, and as the digital archive takes shape, it looks like we made the right decision.  Omeka easily handles a large number of documents, which can be organised by collection.   Each document can also be assigned a series of tags, creating a folksonomy that can be searched across collections.  The default metadata for each item is Dublin Core, while you can also include Document Type metadata.  All of this information is searchable.  The actual document, loaded as a machine-readable PDF, can be viewed directly in the browser from the item page (along with the document metadata) or downloaded and viewed on your computer.

All in all, a promising start to what looks to be an exciting project.

Award winning broadcaster and oral historian Alan Dein walks down the Caledonian Road, telling the story of the north London street through the voices of the people who live and work on it.

Download the mp3 audio guide and PDF map to play as you walk down “the Cally” or use the interactive map at www.guardian.co.uk

A section is devoted to townscape – the quality of urban environment that reaches beyond individual buildings. Durban’s historic architecture is described with descriptions of the significant works of architecture to be found in and around the city: the City Centre; Point and Beachfront; the Berea and inner suburbs; and the newly incorporated areas to the north, south and west. A list of appropriate publications is included as well as lists of local tours, museums and galleries. The guide also incorporates a set of excursions for those wishing to explore the City, whether by foot, car or taxi.

All in all, a pretty good read.

The guide is currently available only in physical format at a cost of R80.00 including post and packaging. Orders can be e-mailed to David Bennett  david@burvest.com.

Durban Guide

Web 3.0 from Kate Ray on Vimeo.

In a similar vein but in the context of Web 2.0 and archives, here is a presentation on ‘Linked Data and Archival Description’ by Mark Matienzo.

More on the project …
The Digital Namibian Archive (DNA) is an innovative project that brings together international partners to develop a rich digital resource that reflects the diversity of voices and cultural stories of Namibian people to individuals throughout the United Sates, Africa and the world.

This collaborative project, lead jointly by Utah Valley University (UVU) and the Polytechnic of Namibia operating in conjunction with the Namibian National Archive, makes resources available to the public for research and outreach. The digital archive makes accessible on the Internet a rich resource that reflects the diversity of voices and cultural stories of Namibian people.

The urgency driving this project is the aging of individuals who hold the region’s stories of strength, survival and struggle for political self-determination.   These stories may disappear with the passing of elders who hold the oral traditions of the indigenous peoples and the personal stories of individuals who participated in the former South West Africa’s struggle for freedom.

The Digital Namibian Archive will also gather and preserve images of independence, photo negatives of the colonial period, documents of transition, and other artifacts.  The project will gather additional resources on indigenous peoples, former colonisers, the political resistance, and the transition to independence.

Website: http://dna.polytechnic.edu.na