Information Studies

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Knowledge Management in Relation to Indigenous and Marginalized Communities in the Digital Era


Affiliations
1 DRTC/ISI, Bangalore 560059, India
2 Leech Lake Tribal College, Cass Lake, MN, United States
     

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This paper discusses: a) Some features of the emerging knowledge society including the convergence of information and communication technologies (ICTs) enabling seamless access, to a vast and varied information and knowledge sources from anywhere at any time, in the expanding digital space and concomitant globalization; b) a sizeable part of the rural population, especially in developing countries and the indigenous communities even in developed countries, do not appear to be fully benefiting by the developments mentioned above; c) However, there are attempts to use ICTs to reach out to indigenous and marginalized rural communities with a view to empowering them - e-governance, providing access to a variety of government documents, village kiosks, extending cellphone facilities, wireless technology, land-sat imaging and remote sensing, geographical information systems etc. d) Knowledge management (KM) at present largely relates to enterprise / institutional management, but its scope can be widened taking into account new parameters (e.g. culture, language etc.) and applied to community knowledge management - empowering rural and indigenous communities and enabling the sharing of the tacit community knowledge, as implied by equity and justice in governance; e) the wealth of knowledge, especially tacit knowledge, acquired by indigenous communities needs to be shared and used for the benefit of the nation as a whole and the global community of nations and nation states; e) how the judicious application of information and communication technologies supported by human intervention may be used to move toward achieving what is proposed above. We also mention some of the barriers to introducing new ideas in rural communities; and what types of knowledge, skills, and experience that information providers to such communities need to have are mentioned. Present some illustrative case studies. Concludes that librarians, information specialists, and media specialists (the gatherers, storers, and dispensers of knowledge) can lead the way to help these people, protect the indigenous and rural peoples' knowledge, homelands, and their very lives., and facilitate the exchange of ideas, building trust and understanding,, while exploring technological avenues in reaching out to the hitherto unreached.
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  • Knowledge Management in Relation to Indigenous and Marginalized Communities in the Digital Era

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Authors

A. Neelameghan
DRTC/ISI, Bangalore 560059, India
Greg Chester
Leech Lake Tribal College, Cass Lake, MN, United States

Abstract


This paper discusses: a) Some features of the emerging knowledge society including the convergence of information and communication technologies (ICTs) enabling seamless access, to a vast and varied information and knowledge sources from anywhere at any time, in the expanding digital space and concomitant globalization; b) a sizeable part of the rural population, especially in developing countries and the indigenous communities even in developed countries, do not appear to be fully benefiting by the developments mentioned above; c) However, there are attempts to use ICTs to reach out to indigenous and marginalized rural communities with a view to empowering them - e-governance, providing access to a variety of government documents, village kiosks, extending cellphone facilities, wireless technology, land-sat imaging and remote sensing, geographical information systems etc. d) Knowledge management (KM) at present largely relates to enterprise / institutional management, but its scope can be widened taking into account new parameters (e.g. culture, language etc.) and applied to community knowledge management - empowering rural and indigenous communities and enabling the sharing of the tacit community knowledge, as implied by equity and justice in governance; e) the wealth of knowledge, especially tacit knowledge, acquired by indigenous communities needs to be shared and used for the benefit of the nation as a whole and the global community of nations and nation states; e) how the judicious application of information and communication technologies supported by human intervention may be used to move toward achieving what is proposed above. We also mention some of the barriers to introducing new ideas in rural communities; and what types of knowledge, skills, and experience that information providers to such communities need to have are mentioned. Present some illustrative case studies. Concludes that librarians, information specialists, and media specialists (the gatherers, storers, and dispensers of knowledge) can lead the way to help these people, protect the indigenous and rural peoples' knowledge, homelands, and their very lives., and facilitate the exchange of ideas, building trust and understanding,, while exploring technological avenues in reaching out to the hitherto unreached.

References