|
9 December 2004
| When: |
From 3pm to 4pm, Friday 10 December
|
| Where: |
Building 30, Casuarina Campus, Charles Darwin University
|
Misperceptions of parallels between nineteenth century British explorers and twenty first century Australian databasers is the focus of a free seminar being held at Charles Darwin University on Friday.
Dr Helen Verran from the University of Melbourne will present the seminar.
“In the nineteenth century scores of British scientific expeditions of discovery contributed to the assemblage of a vast imperial archive. They collected specimens of plants, animals, soils, 'other' humans, languages and number systems, among other things,” Dr Verran said.
“In the twenty first century it is usual to think of databases held by various contemporary institutions by analogy to that vast imperial archive. This metaphor regards the data items that populate those databases as virtual specimens.
“I suggest that this set of ordinary understandings hides some significant characteristics of twenty first century databasing. It has us misunderstanding knowledge economies in general.
“Some inadequacies of these conventional understandings of twenty first century databasing are usefully revealed by taking seriously the challenges and possibilities offered when investigating how digitising technologies might facilitate Indigenous natural resource management and intergenerational transmission of knowledge in doing collective memory.
“Working with Indigenous knowledge traditions helps us to develop a deeper understanding of general relations between digitising technologies and knowledge,” Dr Verran stated.
A map of the Casuarina Campus can be accessed at: www.cdu.edu.au/campusmaps
|
