Bridging and Preserving World Cultures Through Global e-Infrastructure

By Faridah Noor Mohd Noor, Dept of English, University of Malaya, Malaysia

Introduction
Culture is the epitome of every civilization. It represents what people think, do and produce.1. Hence, this will include “language, ideas, beliefs, customs, taboos, codes, institutions, tools, techniques, works of art, rituals, ceremonies, and symbols”. Each society has its own socio-cultural system which is practised, preserved and transmitted to the next generation. As time moves on, people and their societies change. Cultural change is also inevitable. Therefore, these cultures need to preserved in their traditional form as much as possible before they get intermingled with modern practices and are slowly forgotten.
Digital repositories of these cultures can be created with each nation depositing their archives for world cultural repositories. Works of arts, artifacts and even cultural performances can be digitized and archived for future retrieval. A new world order must bridge and enhance understanding among different cultures of nations and with today’s technologies of high speed advanced network and massive cloud storage, live world cultures and their digital archives can be remotely experienced, shared and exchanged.

Global e-Infrastructure
Asia Pacific Advanced Network (APAN) and TransEurasian Information Network (TEIN) are two major dedicated advanced networks for research and education connecting various regional National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) of countries in The Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australasia. APAN is a non-profit international consortium established on the 3rd of June 1997 and the network covers the expanse of Asia Pacific Region from North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand with multiple connectivity that concentrate on intra-Asia economies. TEIN was launched on 5th of December, 2001 as the link between Korea (KOREN) and France (RENATER) with the former serves as a gateway to APII and the latter to GÈANT. Subsequent generations of TEIN saw the expansion of large-scale research and education network linking GÈANT/GÈANT2 to national networks in nearly all Asian countries including Australia and New Zealand (TEIN3).
The availability of these heterogeneous and geographically dispersed NRENs at various points in countries of the world will enable the exchange of digital data between these points. They can facilitate world communities to interactively participate by contributing and sharing media content containing research data, information, and cultural content. Moreover, live performances such as concerts, theatres, and dances can be enjoyed simultaneously by audiences at different venues across continents. Cultural contents include, as examples, digital archives of museum artifacts, audio and video recordings of culture, and 3-D motion-captured of dance movements.

Digital Culture and Heritage Initiatives
APAN and TEIN share common goals in promoting not just advanced network but also applications that include applications in the social sciences, arts and humanities. Since its inception in 2004, e-Culture Working Group of APAN is slowly gaining prominence. Recent meetings have been able to attract even researchers in the sciences and engineering. The topics discussed range from large-scale digitization of Angkor Watt using laser technology,
farming traditions of rice farmers, social impact studies of Tsunami-hit areas, to issues in social computing of Second Life, Facebook and Twitter. TEIN, on the other hand, has been promoting cyber-performance starting from streaming uncompressed DV-format of live Mak Yong Dance (A Malay Dance Theatre) during the launch of TEIN2
and the recent intercontinental dance performance between Kuala Lumpur and Stockholm during TEIN3 extension to South Asia.

Concluding Remarks
In conclusion, global e-Infrastructure breaks geographical divide and bridges world cultures by bringing together different cultures across continents with the hope of promoting mutual respect and understanding and the preservation of world cultures.