AFRICOM: Connecting Africa's Heritage to the World
Lorna Abungu, International Council of African Museums (AFRICOM), Kenya
http://africom.museum
In 2004, AFRICOM (the International Council of African Museums) joined museums around the world in using the top level domain ".museum". For the past year, AFRICOM has been developing it's new web site with a view to not only providing up to date and useful information about the organisation and its activities, but also about heritage news around the world that relates to Africa and its heritage organisations. The development of the website went through numerous technical hitches, and was further complicated by the necessity to translate the over 300 pages from English to French. The site offers a virtual tour of Africa and its museums, an interactive membership map, and will soon AFRICOM's entire database of heritage professionals will be available in an online database (currently being developed with the assistance of MuseumDepot Foundation and CrossMarx of the Netherlands). The demonstration will show the complexity and diversity of the site, and will examine the various challenges faced in its development over the course of 2005, and the current challenges faced by the small staff at the AFRICOM Secretariat for its maintenance. It will also discuss the possibility of its improvement and expansion to better serve the African heritage community on the continent and beyond.
Demonstration: Demonstrations [Close-Up]
Keywords: Africa, museums, heritage, culture, website development
