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1. Concept of Networking Cultural Heritage How familiar is your organization and its constituents with the terms of this vision and with the current issues that have to be grappled with to make this vision a reality? Very familiar |
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2a Given this definition of advocacy, how does your organization advocate for networking cultural heritage? One of the GII's main objectives is to identify issues that pose barriers to a networked cultural heritage and to develop projects and programs to address these issues. We work with other cultural heritage organizations to reach concensus on approaches for overcoming these barriers. Our advocacy thus focuses on problem identification and awareness, andpromoting community-based solutions. |
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2b Do you have a different working definition of advocacy than the one we offer here? No, but we are more pro-active in our advocacy than this definition implies. The Institute "argues and gives voice to a cause" and looks for, or creates, opportunities to promote that voice. |
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2c Projects? Of the projects that your organization participates in, which are related to digital networking? Since digital networking of cultural heritage information is at the core of our mission, all our projects are relevant, although some are more focused on this activity than others. The projects that fall under our Network Initiatives Program (i.e., MESL, private/public partnership models, G-7 Multimedia Access to World Cultural Heritage, Research Agenda for Networked Cultural Heritage") are particularly involved in digital networking. |
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2d Partners? If you collaborate with partners in any networking advocacy activity, who are they? To date, our most active collaboration has been with CNI and ACLS in sponsoring the effort that resulted in "Humanities and Arts on the Information Highway: A National Initiative" and eventually evolved into NINCH. We also collaborate with the partners in the CIMI consortium. One of the tasks of the CIMI Executive Committee (on which the GII holds a seat) is advocacy on interchange standards for museums. |
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2e Measure Success? How do you measure the success of your networking advocacy projects? By their reception with the cultural heritage community, by their use as a springboard for follow-up projects in the community, and by their acceptance among policy makers who have decision making powers and influence in governments or industries. |
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2f Target? Besides NINCH members, what groups should NINCH target for advocacy? a) Policy makers in the Clinton administration, and in subsequent administrations; b) Policy makers in other sectors (e.g., science and technology) c) The general public, particularly the segments that value arts and humanities for their enjoyment value.
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For the organization: We need to understand the sentiments and political realities of policy makers on networking issues. This would help us to better target our programs and ensure that all our programs have at least some component that speaks to these sentiments and realities. For our staff: Focused, educational materials on key networking issues. Short, succinct, "in-a-nutshell" type technical information sheets would be useful, particularly if they were organized along the lines of outlining a particular problem, identifying work that is underway to address the problem, and reviewing some of the outstanding issues that surround the problem. Some sample topics might be "The Economics of Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials," "Intellectual Property Rights Issues for Artistic Works in a Digital Environment," "Research Needs for Digital Cultural Information," "The Role of Standards in Fostering Networked Access to Cultural Information", etc. |
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4 --intellectual property (copyright law, fair use, licensing) 2 --standards (vocabulary/description/data; cataloging; technical, etc.) 1 --access 5 --economics 3 --internationalism (Note: The GII interprets this as global collaboration.) 6 --preservation
<David -- FYI, we had a tough time with assigning ranks to some of these issues; in particular, two sets of items presented "close calls" -- internationalism and intellectual property ("3" and "4") and economics and preservation ("5" and "6") -- DZ> |
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