After ‘global village’, the next big thing is ‘global culture’. At least that is what seems to be on the cards with the way cultural heritage – collections of art, books, documents, photographs etc, are being digitised for international accessibility. If ‘global culture’ becomes a reality, educational research and study of heritage and culture will become something as it was never before:

• Accessibility to libraries, museums and archives across the world will improve both quantity and quality wise.
• Secure accessibility of resources with long-term preservation of complex digital exhibits.
• Enable easy search and retrieval of high-quality information on heritage.

e-Culture and education: The boon
e-Culture has surely come as a boon to the study of culture and heritage. Apart from some of the above obvious benefits, the phenomenon has also enabled access to some of the rarest parts of world history, which otherwise would have been no where near approachability. Take for instance the ‘Virtual Vietnam Archive’ done by the Texas Tech University with an aim to preserve the record of individuals, provide greater understanding of their experiences and include records of veterans’ organisations.

Moving on similar line is the Cambodian Genocide Programme (CGP) initiated by the Yale Centre for International and Area Studies, Yale University. Since 1994, the project has been studying the event to learn as much as possible about the tragedy.

In yet another tryst, the Archives of African American Music and Culture (AAAMC) along with the Indiana University is documenting various musical idioms and cultural expressions of Afro-American culture from the post-World War II era. It supports scholars worldwide through Internet. Some of the collections of AAAMC are: IPR Documentary, ‘Black Radio: Telling it Like It Was’, Africana Encarta Encyclopedia comprehensive encyclopedia of Black History and culture on CD-ROM etc.

Online availability of bibliography on specific subjects, online lectures, virtual visit to museums etc have become a regular practice among students. Another good news for culture students could be the fact that e-Culture also brings with it a host of career possibilities in terms of content creation/writing for cultural websites.

e-Culture and education: The bane
But as the world is, everything comes with a package of good and bad and the e-Culture and education pack is no exception to this rule. The first bane here is the question of authenticity. All the information on e-Culture might not be from known educational institutions so how would you decide the validity of the digital materials provided on the Internet? How would you ensure that all the sources of information are bonafide? Another crucial aspect is the control over such information’s intellectual property. The quasi-public status of university archives in many countries will complicate matters in future. For example, all items within the ‘Virtual Vietnam Archive’ are the copyright of the Texas Tech University. Although the university allows its usage for educational and other non-commercial purposes, there is no guarantee that this would continue for long. Another disturbing factor is the lack of localisation of the e-Culture projects, which makes the accessibility confined only to few English speaking students. For instance, there is no way a rural Hindi medium student can actually understand an online material on French history.

Focus of e-Culture projects
But whatever said and done, e-Culture is seen as a vital tool to educate today’s youth so that they can initiate compilation of scattered cultural information through preservation of not only the told history but also the untold stories of tribal and marginalised cultural communities, thereby achieving inter and intra continental cooperation.

Recognising this factor, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has initiated an online documentation of national treasures and cultural properties of the South Asian region which would create a regional databases on a single website. Further in order to save marginal communities and their cultures from moving into oblivions, the Asia Pacific Development programme has started a project on preservation of these marginalised communities – ‘Unsung Among Us’. The project is being carried out in the Indian state of Kerala situated in southern tip of Indian subcontinent.

Conclusion
e-Culture has created new opportunities for learning and entertainment among schoolchildren and university students. Digital culture and digital means will be an essential component of heritage in time.

But an optimal access will not come till we have provisions for transparent and fair copyright legislation and the removal of language barriers. Further, attention should shift from technology-driven to user-driven approaches through extensive involvement of content specialists outside the ICT field, such as those working in education, public relations and publishing. Maintenance of digital collections over time, through quality storage is another area that needs to be heeded.