Talks and Workshops

The Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library has been building one of the world's largest academic networks in the world among local and international scholars for cooperative building and dissemination of knowledge about the region through the creative use of digital technology. A core part of this project is building a GIS model of the entire plateau, and connecting that to a broad spectrum of texts, images and videos representing life and work in specific communities using a multilingual digital library system; in addition we are building communication processes for promoting coordination and mutual awareness. We believe such work has great potential for enabling these communities to better access information themselves, as well as represent themselves and their traditions to each others and the international community.

My presentation will focus on our innovative tools for working with videos in this context, involving the time-coding of multilingual transcripts/translations of audio-video materials ranging from musical performances, oral interviews, crafts training and production, literature readings, day to day life, oral histories and the like. This system allows one to view media and transcript in time synchronization with each other, switch back and forth between different languages, and also embed various forms of analysis. In this way, video and audio become open to creative and highly specific uses far beyond the traditional documentary, including uses for training, promoting community awareness, developing appreciation of local traditions, documenting local knowledges and histories and so forth. My presentation will also show the broader system linking these video presentations to sophisticated image presentations and GIS-mapping for specific communities.