Museums in Libya 2.0 (English)

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Published research project providing online resources about museums in Libya with data fully obtained thanks to Web 2.0 tools and user generated content. The project was implemented to address two facts:
-- the lack of information about museums in Libya available in the website of the International Council of African Museums (AFRICOM,)
-- and the apparent lack of museum websites in Libya.

The research was presented as part of the international conference, "Inclusiva-net. New Art Dynamics in Web2 Mode," organized byr Medialab-Prado inMadrid, July 2007.

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Museums in Libya 2.0 (English)

  1. 1. “NO LIST AVAILABLE” Web 2.0 for Rescuing Libyan Museums from Institutional Oblivion Prototype for the Jamahiriya Museum in Tripoli lamusediffuse http://lamusediffuse.com Blanca García Pilar Gonzalo Bassam Nory Nawar Nouri Carlo Parente Jesús Sánchez …and other collaborators of lamusediffuse on the social web . INTRODUCTION lamusediffuse is a collaborative team exploring the forms, impact, and possibilities of electronic technologies in contemporary culture. We started as a group of Fulbright Scholars from different parts of the World, sharing a common interest in improving lives for individuals by improving access to culture through digital technologies and their creations. Now, some other collaborators are joining us improving our potential and outreach. We are interested in the Social Web’s possibilities for cultural dissemination and understanding among different areas of the world. We believe that social software has a huge potential for making culture accessible in and about developing countries and areas under conflict. That is why we are fully committed to implement initiatives on those cultural spheres of the world and using different languages to spread a diverse idea of culture on the web. We at lamusediffuse understand culture as a deglobalising space that brings together, displays and interweaves the planet’s diversity in a flexible, dynamic and open way. Therefore, far from wishing to present a countercultural attitude, lamusediffuse support culture, cultural networks and institutions. Not only do we not wish to be outside of those cultural networks, but our goal is to include in such networks those which, for a variety of reasons, are at risk of being excluded. To achieve this, we strive to have the aims of our research recognised on a global scale, connecting with other cultural environments, thereby enabling as many people as possible to enjoy, improve and be enriched by their contents. Obviously, the natural environment for our research team is necessarily the social web since it is flexible, Inclusiva-net · “No List Available” · www.medialab-prado.es ·
  2. 2. diverse, interactive, alternative and therefore overcomes many of the physical and institutional limitations associated with Web 1.0. .. AIM OF THE PROJECT lamusediffuse proposes the use of Social Web tools for the inclusion of not-dominant cultural expressions in the scopes of culture diffusion on the Internet. Accordingly with this objective, the project “Museums in Libya” is focused on two starting facts, the first is the lack of information about Libyan museums available in the website of the International Council of African Museums (AFRICOM) and the second is the apparent lack of museum websites in this country. As a consequence of this, the objective of our project has been overcoming both realities through the following actions: - overcoming the gaps of Web1.0 by using a methodology based on (Web 2.0) tools as a flexible, interactive and participative alternative option of information exchange. - proving Social Web academic usefulness and its tools as a valid and effective research tool, - palliating the lack of contents on Libyan museums on AFRICOM website by compiling, contrasting and structuring the information available on the Internet about the subject, - elaborating a reference map where gathering and locating the museums of Libya, - raising awareness about the online institutional forgetfulness situation of Libyan Museums at the present time in comparison with others in the rest of the world, - creating a methodological model for small museums and museums of developing countries or under conflict situations, reasonable in economic and maintenance terms, - encouraging museum professionals to Web 2.0 tools use as an economic, simple and effective solution to overcome any lack of computer science personnel or tools and digital technology, - emphasizing the importance and role of the Jamahiriya Museum of Tripoli and improving its online visibility for both international and local audiences, - finally, creating a reference document on the Libyan museums that will be published under a Creative Commons license of attribution and for non-commercial use. The ultimate aim of our research was therefore to create an Internet-based environment on museums in Libya focusing on the specific case of the Jamahiriya Museum in Tripoli. This portal attempts to be a reference for the study of Libyan museums and a model for museums with difficult socio-economic situations or those Inclusiva-net · “No List Available” · www.medialab-prado.es ·
  3. 3. located in parts of the world where creating and maintain a website is an extremely difficult feat. We hope that with our project, the message “No List Available” that currently appears on the AFRICOM website, will become an outdated portrayal of the information available on the Internet on Libyan museums. .. CONTEXT ... INTERNET IN AFRICA It can truly be said that Africa is the forgotten continent. Despite its enormous size, the presence of Africa in the media outside the continent is overwhelmingly insignificant. While this fact might first appear to be harmless or, at the very worst, impolite, it is nonetheless having an effect on all aspects of daily life in Africa, particularly in those areas where hunger, war and disease prevent inhabitants from living a minimally dignified life. However, we don’t give it much thought because it is the fruit of a passive attitude, oversight and laziness. Within the context of African famine, disease and war, the discourse on Internet, digital technologies and museums might seem unnecessary and even superficial. However, at lamusediffuse we firmly believe that one way of improving life in Africa is to improve the professionalism of African museums. The considerable lack of Internet technical infrastructure in Africa exacerbates the already low levels of international recognition since due to these limitations it seems that even the Africans themselves are unable to do anything to improve their own presence on the Internet. According to Ken Feingold1, the principal obstacles to Internet access in most of Africa can be summarised as follows: - Internet service is served and measured using the local telephone service and most providers charge for the time of the data transferred, so the problem of Internet is not only the cost in terms of time but in terms of money as well; - Broadband service is severely limited; - There is an urgent need for search engines and equipment especially configured for the technical circumstances. Internet access must therefore be considered a luxury in Africa, not to mention the existence of museums with updated websites. Consequently, and regardless of their budgets, African museums do not appear to have sufficient tools to develop and Internet presence. Furthermore, any hypothetical Internet audience inside Africa shares the same accessibility problems as the museums themselves. Hence, the commonly held and extremely optimistic belief that the web is “universally” accessible is clearly a very Inclusiva-net · “No List Available” · www.medialab-prado.es ·
  4. 4. partial vision of the world, at least inasmuch as Africa is concerned. In this regard, it is no wonder that African museums are less than highly motivated to start their own websites, let alone create an Internet audience. However, at lamusediffuse we believe that Internet is one of the best tools that could be implemented in Africa since it eliminates the need for other, more costly physical infrastructure and allows the information to be sent and received all over the world in real time. And this is why we want to contribute to Africa’s presence on the Internet. But this has not prevented the complicated situation of Internet in Africa, and particularly in Libya, from having an impact not only on the object of our study (the presence of Libyan museums on the Internet) but also on the investigation itself. This is because our research has been based primarily on the information published on the Internet to collect the necessary data as our scope was fundamentally the social web. Despite this, all of these technical difficulties have further reinforced our commitment and conviction about the need for this type of research. ... INTERNET IN LIBYA AND LIBYA ON THE INTERNET As in the rest of Africa, Internet is a serious problem in Libya. This is explained in the article entitled “Libya, the Internet in a Conflict Zone”2 which, despite having been published in 2004, continues to accurately portray the current state of the Internet in that country. The text underscores the close connection between the development of Internet in Libya and the political situation of the country ruled by the dictator, colonel Mohammad Muammar al-Qadafi, who has maintained a dictatorial Islamic regime since 1969. The article reveals that despite the political situation, the control over Internet access has been less repressive than in other Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia, where censorship is common practice, including the prohibition and blocking of websites that oppose the government: It is difficult for the Libyan government to roll back the privileges it granted its information society and to do what other Arab governments have done: grant a single company a monopoly over Internet service provision so as to limit the availability of oppositional websites and their impact on Libyan citizens.3 In fact, the latest report by Reporters without Borders on the freedom of Internet expression removed Libya from the list of “Internet enemy” countries because “Internet is not censored there”4. In addition, in the year 2005 Libya signed a cooperation agreement with UNESCO to develop information technologies entitled Inclusiva-net · “No List Available” · www.medialab-prado.es ·
  5. 5. the “National ITC Project for Capacity Building”, thanks to which the “Libian Higher Education Research Network” (LHERN)5 was be established. Hence, the political situation in Libya does not appear to the reason why museum website doe not exist in Libya. In fact, we were not even able to find any reason why the hypothetical presence of Libyan museums on the Internet could be considered counterproductive to the interests of the Libyan government. On the contrary, it would contribute to a greater understanding of Libyan history and culture and would foster increased recognition and tourism. However, our experience with Libya on the Internet has been truly discouraging. To date we have been unable to establish any direct contact with any professional currently working for a Libyan museum or anyone who could act as an intermediary. It is our belief that this situation causes a position of isolation which is totally counterproductive to professionals and the culture of Libya and is also a serious impediment to the projection of its culture on an international scale. ... LIBYA AND AFRICOM 90% of Libya’s surface area is located in the Sahara desert. Despite this and with a population of only 6,000,000 inhabitants, its currency is stronger than the euro. In this regard, the situation in Libya is notably different than that of the rest of the countries of Northern Africa, characterised by a situation of low economic development. On the other hand, owing to its location on the Mediterranean coast, Libya shares certain common characteristics with the countries of northern Africa such as acting a link between Africa, Europe and Asia and having an eminently Arabic and Muslim socio-cultural context. This geographical circumstance has made Libya a diverse country with a rich historical-artistic past. However, despite this cultural wealth, there is no information on any Libyan museum on the website of the International Council of African Museums (AFRICOM). In addition to Djibouti, Sao Tome, Príncipe, Equatorial Guinea and Somalia, Libya is one of six countries with no list of museums available on the AFRICOM website. We chose to focus on Libya because as a Mediterranean country with similarities to Spain it was easier for use to understand the socio-cultural context as compared to the rest of the countries without lists on the African museum organisation’s website. This helped to make the research more feasible in terms of scope and time. AFRICOM was established in the year 2000 as the result of a programme for Africa Inclusiva-net · “No List Available” · www.medialab-prado.es ·
  6. 6. of the same name initiated by the International Council of Museums (ICOM). Its main objective is to contribute to the development and improvement of museums in Africa. Libya falls, without a doubt, within the scope of AFRICOM’s activities, as indicated in Article 19.1 of Chapter IV of its bylaws where, along with Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania and Egypt, Libya is listed as part of the “North Africa” region. It is our understanding that overcoming the barriers currently affecting African museums, including Libyan museums, is one of the objectives of AFRICOM and, by extension, is also the responsibility of the International Council of Museums6. That is why we are concerned that two of the most important institutions which should be advocating for the interest of Libyan museums are not doing so. In an effort to avoid speculation regarding the absence of Libyan museums on the AFRICOM website, in November 2006 we sent an email to the Executive Director of AFRICOM at the time, Lorna Abungu. Our goal was to obtain information on the Internet situation in Libya and how it might affect the presence of Libyan museums on the Internet. We also wanted to know the specific reasons why there was no information on this country’s museums on the AFRICOM website. Unfortunately, our email was never answered, despite the fact that the director obviously had active access to Internet, as attested to by her rapid, frequent and effective responses to the questions raised on the AFRICOM mailing list. We therefore attributed her silence to a possible lack of relations between the AFRICOM administration and Libyan officials. However, months later we decided to try again and in May of 2007 we sent an email on the subject to the Internet mailing list. This time, we did receive an answer from Ms. Abungu, who was no longer the executive director of AFRICOM. In her response, available on the Internet along with our email message to the list7, Lorna Abungu told us that AFRICOM had also tried, without success, to learn something about museums in Libya. She stated that she had also tried to contact Libyan representatives in Kenya but received no answer. As Lorna Abungu explained it, AFRICOM provides website hosting and construction free of charge to any African museum that requests it. Therefore, the main reason why Libyan museums do not have websites would appear to be a lack of communication or interest on the part of Libyan authorities. Inclusiva-net · “No List Available” · www.medialab-prado.es ·
  7. 7. However, the absence of Libyan museums on the Internet is not limited to the AFRICOM website. We were also unable to find information on Libyan museums on the websites of the following important institutions on African culture: - Africalia: http://www.africalia.be - Observatory of Cultural Policies in Africa: http://ocpa.irmo.hr/index-en.html - Africa Union: http://www.africa-union.org It seems clear that the absence of Libyan museums on the Internet is notorious and that, sadly, none of the institutions that should be in charge of doing so are gathering information about them on their websites. Our research tries to demonstrate that thanks to Web 2.0 tools and a little bit of commitment and imagination, these information barriers can be overcome. ... WEB .0 AS AN ALTERNATIVE To research a country like Libya, deeply marked by its dictatorship and its Arab- African condition and location, is to research a subject that seems to spark very little interest. Consequently, the information sources – which are ultimately the distribution sources – are limited. On the other hand and, as described in the article, “Libya, the Internet in a Conflict Zone”8, Internet is a magnificent vehicle for sidestepping the official information sources in that country. Hence, numerous websites in opposition to the political situation in Libya raise their voices from the outside. Within this context, the blogs, wikis and all of the network establishment software in the Web 2.0 spectrum are being used with increasing frequency. Web 2.0 tools are based on exchange and collaboration and this is precisely the reason why they are becoming a very useful resource for the academic investigation of both the hottest current topes and the less popular ones. The different individual expressions which the social web accommodates provide space for less monopolised and hierarchical visions and opinions than those found in the traditional media. In the case of Libyan museums, they are nowhere to be found on the website of the organisations who claim to advocate for the development and visibility of African culture and museums. This is a powerful reason for turning to the use of social web tools as an alternative to the limited informative effectiveness of the said institutions and thereby palliating the deficiencies of official sources. Inclusiva-net · “No List Available” · www.medialab-prado.es ·
  8. 8. ... THE IMPACT ON MUSEUM PROFESSIONALS We believe that our research could be an important research tool for museum professionals given the shortage of organised and updated information on Libyan museums. A document like this one will provide professionals from other parts of the work with access to information on Libyan museums while reinforcing the sentiment of collective identity among the professionals in that country. Furthermore, providing a reference tool on Libyan museums will help to fight the serious problem of the illegal trade of works of art in this area of the world. On this subject, Kamal Shtewi, the person responsible for the Jamahiriya Museum in Tripoli, has already denounced the serious security breaches in the international media9. Apparently, this risk is not exclusive to the Jamahiriya Museum. In fact, the Sabratha Museum has had to send its most valuable pieces to other museums in Egypt. All of this led to Kamal Shtewi’s denouncement of the situation and the demand for better security in Libyan museums. ..METHODOLOGY Our project was structured in four basic phases (Identification, Cartography, Standardisation and Dissemination). The basic steps involved were as follows: - Identification of Libyan museums and their location. We have explored nomenclature differences by using different languages in our searches both on and off the Internet. - Searches for websites on the identified museums. - Location of the museums on a map of Libya. - Standardisation of the contents obtained on each one of the museums and specifically the Jamahiriya Museum in Tripoli. To do so, we used a basic screen that imitated the structure of a standard museum web page to provide the museum contents available on the Internet. - Conclusions - Dissemination of the research Our approach used social web tools as a flexible, interactive and participative option. This methodology is unlike other traditional research tools and information sources which, in the particular case of Libyan museums, did not appear to be effective enough. The idea was to overcome the weaknesses of Web 1.0 – as revealed by the apparent non-existence of websites on Libyan museums and the lack of available Inclusiva-net · “No List Available” · www.medialab-prado.es ·
  9. 9. information on the AFRICOM website – and be able to offer other information sources on Libyan museums on the Internet. In order to achieve this objective we decided to use the social web’s most popular and effective tools: - Blogger: a tool for publishing and sharing contents in blog format - Flickr: a web environment for publishing and sharing photos with the possibility of publishing comments, tags and links; creating and forming part of special interest groups and establishing social relationships between participants - Wikipedia: a collaborative encyclopaedia based on wiki technology - YouTube: a web environment for publishing and sharing videos with the possibility of publishing comments, tags and links; creating and forming part of special interest group sand establishing social relationships between participants - Technorati: an information tool on content syndication in relation to blog contents - del.icio.us: Internet environment for sharing links with the possibility of tagging, publishing comments and distributing the information selectively. One of the basic reasons why we chose these web environments was the fact that they allow you to share information and services created in a collaborative, which in turn provides the potential for more diversity in terms of opinions and information using a more personal approach than is possible with the habitual Web 1.0 services. Another advantage we discovered were the syndication options available for obtaining information on content publication and updating. This saved us from having to do complicated searches on the increasingly vast World Wide Web. In addition, the specific search tools could also be syndicated, thereby enabling us, within the scope of our possibilities, to “comb” the social tagging network with regard to Libyan museums. The popularity of these web environments among Internet users was another key factor in our choice. This guaranteed a wide range in our searches in addition to a broad and diverse potential range of information. But in addition to these social web tools, we also used other Internet resources such as search engines (Google and Google Scholar) and Internet databases (Art Index, Art Full Text, Lexis Nexis and Groove Art Online.) Finally, we also made use of other, non-Internet resources such as books, magazine and journal articles to supplement and contrast the information obtained. . IDENTIFICATION: DETECTING AND LISTING LIBYAN MUSEUMS The research process was characterised by being very long and tedious since there was no previous point of reference from which to begin our investigation. Our work Inclusiva-net · “No List Available” · www.medialab-prado.es ·
  10. 10. was based primarily on the search for increasingly specific terms in the different social web environments enumerated above. While the Web 2.0 tools have been crucial for finding information on some of them, social tagging converted our search process into a compendium of different languages, possibility and imagination. The linguistic diversity in Libya and on the social web made this research project even longer and more vast and complex. In this regard, we would especially like to mention the characteristics of social tagging10 and folksonomy as one of the principal utilities of the social web. According to the Spanish Wikipedia, folksonomy is: Folcsonomía, a calque of the English folksonomy, is a neologism for the process of collaborative categorising using simple tags in a flat name space, without hierarchies or predetermined family relationships. It is a practice that takes place in social software environments, the best exponents of which are the shared sites such as del.icio.us (favourite links), Flickr (photos), Tagzania (places), flof (places) or 43 Things (wishes). 11 Based on our experience, while folksonomy is useful and accurate for offering different perspective and ways of understanding a reality that is not unique, it is nonetheless an inexact searching/cataloguing method. Hence, the complex search process we have had to conduct in a multilingual and multicultural environment. However, it is also true that thanks to social tagging we have been able to find information which otherwise would have remained hidden in the sea of web contents. In any case, our perception is that the promises pursued by the Semantic Web or Web 3.0 of transforming contents into knowledge are, at least right now, an illusion: The Semantic Web is about two things. It is about common formats for interchange of data, where on the original Web we only had interchange of documents. Also it is about language for recording how the data relates to real world objects. That allows a person, or a machine, to start off in one database, and then move through an unending set of databases which are connected not by wires but by being about the same thing.12 Despite the limitations of social labelling - which might well be defined as an extensive rather than intensive source – it is our belief that the imagination is probably one of the researcher’s principal tools, especially in cases such as this one Inclusiva-net · “No List Available” · www.medialab-prado.es · 0
  11. 11. of primary studies. Therefore, despite the laboriousness of the process, the search for museums has been a true adventure. Throughout the process, we have learned to understand the world from a more diverse point of view and we have been surprised by the generosity of the marvellous individuals and organisations we have had the chance to deal with over the months. Furthermore, every time we found a museum that was “hidden” to Google and to academic sources, we realised that our research was making a positive contribution to changing things in favour of Libyan museums and museum professionals. We are therefore truly satisfied with the results because they are a humble yet significant first step in area of Libyan museums and provide additional information to that existing on the Internet and a model for institutions with socio-economic difficulties. Following an intense and meticulous search using the Web 2.0 tools mentioned above, we found indications of the existence of the following museums in Libya: 1. Al Khums, Leptis Magna Museum 2. Al Marj, Ptolemais Museum 3. Awbari, German Museum 4. Benghazi, Islamic Art Museum 5. Beni Walid, Beni Walid Museum 6. Ghadames (old city), Ghadames Museum 7. Jadu, Al Baruni Museum 8. Janzür, Janzür Museum 9. Qasr Libia, Qasr Libia Museum 10. Sabratha, Sabratha Museum 11. Sahhat, Cyrene Museum 12. Susah, Al Jabal al Akhdar, Apollonia Museum 13. Tocra, Tocra Museum 14. Tripoli, Archegological Museum 15. Tripoli, Islamic Art Museum 16. Tripoli, Natural History Museum 17. Tripoli, Epigraph Museum 18. Tripoli, La Medina Museum Inclusiva-net · “No List Available” · www.medialab-prado.es ·
  12. 12. 19. Tripoli, Prehistorical Museum 20. Tripoli, Ethnographic Museum 21. Tripoli, Jamahiriya Museum . CARTOGRAPHY: Geographical Location of Museums in Libya Once we realised how many museums there are in Libya and how important their collections are, we understood the need to project a professional image of the whole on the Internet. To do so, the next step consisted of drawing a map of museums in Libya, indicating the names and the most accurate locations possible of the museums we found. The result was an interactive map which also shows the information that is available on the Internet on each one of them. This map, along with the rest of the documents created during this research project, are available on our website (lamusediffuse.com) under a Creative Commons attribution licence for non-commercial use. . STANDARDISATION: ORGANISING THE INFORMATION ON THE JAMAHIRIYA MUSEUM IN TRIPOLI ON THE INTERNET From among the 20 museums found to date, we have selected the Jamahiriya Museum in Tripoli to develop a website prototype created using the contents obtained primarily using Web 2.0. tools. Jamahiriya is a museum of exceptional quality which, unfortunately, does not have its own website. As indicated above, there is a lamentable lack of information on the museum on the part of the most important organisations in charge of African culture and museums. Because of this, the creation of a website for this museum based Inclusiva-net · “No List Available” · www.medialab-prado.es ·
  13. 13. on the collaborative structure of the contents available on the Internet constitutes a necessary endeavour within the context of our research. There is ample documental evidence of the importance of this museum. UNESCO, the principal promoter of the museum, has made some of the documents surrounding its creation available on the Internet. One of these is the preparatory study written in 1977 entitle “National Museum of the Republic of Libya” by Jan Jelikek, Ivan Ruller and Peter Sewell at the request of UNESCO13. In addition, the study entitled “Agricultural Galleries Planned for the Libyan National Museum: an interview with Dr. Jan Jelinek”14, describes the specific plans for these galleries and their importance. The UNESCO has also posted on the Internet the keynote address of Federico Mayor Zaragoza, the Director General of UNESCO, on the occasion of the inauguration of the National Museum of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya in Tripoli on 10 September 1988.15 There are other articles which underscore the significant role played by Jamrihiya and the importance of its collection, such as the one entitled “The Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Museum: A first in the Arab World” written by Mounir Bouchenaki in the Museum magazine published by UNESCO.16 These are some examples of how conventional academic sources can demonstrate the importance of this museum, in addition to underscoring the seriousness of its absence on the leading international museum portals. But academic sources are not the only ones attesting to the importance of the Jamahiriya Museum’s collection. According to Wikipedia English, “The Jamahiriya Museum, built in consultation with UNESCO, may be the country’s most famous museum. It houses one of the finest collections of classical art in the Mediterranean”17. Some tourism companies also describe the quality of the Jamahiriya Museum. The following is an excerpt from the Lonely Planet Online Guide “Libyan Eclipse 2006” One of the finest collections of classical art in the Mediterranean is housed in Tripoli’s Jamahiriya Museum (Phone: 3330292; Martyrs Sq; adult/child 3/1LD, camera/video 5/10LD; h9am-1pm Tue-Sun). Built in consultation with Unesco, it’s extremely well designed and provides a comprehensive overview of all periods of Libyan history. If time is limited, you may want to restrict yourself to those galleries that provide context to the places you’re most likely to visit. Most of the galleries are located on the ground floor, which covers, among other subjects: Saharan rock art (Gallery 4); the Garamantian empire of Wadi al-Hayat (Gallery 5); artefacts from Inclusiva-net · “No List Available” · www.medialab-prado.es ·
  14. 14. Cyrene and Greek Libya (Galleries 7 and 8); and the exceptional displays covering Roman Leptis Magna and Sabratha (Gallery 9). On the 2nd floor, the sections on Islamic architecture (Galleries 15 to 19) and the Libyan ethnographic exhibits (Gallery 20), with some fine sections on Ghadames, are also excellent. The museum once formed part of the 13,000-sq-metre Al-Saraya al-Hamra (Tripoli Castle or Red Castle; Phone: 3330292; Martyrs Sq; adult/child 3/1LD, camera/video 5/10LD; h. 9am-1pm Tue-Sun), which represented the seat of power in Tripolitania from the 7th until the 20th centuries. Tripoli Castle has a separate entrance. 18 Our conclusion is that if tour guides can provide information on this museum, there is no logical explanation why there is no information on this museum on the Internet portals specifically dedicated to such dissemination. To palliate this deficiency, we complied all meaningful information on the museum in the form of a website that imitates the typical structure of the contents of a museum website. With this document, which is available on the “Projects” page of http://lamusediffuse.com, we attempt to demonstrate not only that information does exist on the Internet about this museum but also that in some cases, like this one, the initiatives of everyday people and the importance of their contributions on the social web are more practical and worthwhile than those of some of the organisations presumably in charge of Libyan museums. This document also attempts to effectively identify the Jamahiriya Museum in Tripoli, since one of the aspects we noted in our specific research of this museum was the variety of names used to identify it. By way of example, below are some of names most frequently used: - Al-Saray Al-Hambra - Al-Saray Museum - Assaray Elhamra Museum - Jamahiriya Museum - Museum of Tripoli - National Museum of Tripoli - Red Castle - Tarabulus Museum Inclusiva-net · “No List Available” · www.medialab-prado.es ·
  15. 15. The lack of a consensus on the name of this museum is due not only to the multilingual landscape of the city but also to the specific history of the building in relation to its different uses and applications over time. As if that were not enough, Web 2.0 tools usually offer a diverse approach to the topics due to the variety of the cultural and linguistic backgrounds of the different users. Our document attempts to agglutinate the different names, opting for the one used by Kamal Shtewi, the person responsible for the Jamahiriya Museum in Tripoli.19 . CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS The main conclusion we have reached following our investigation is that it is possible to create an Internet reference for the academic world and the general public interested in Libyan museums thanks to the contributions of the social web. Some of our other conclusions and recommendations are listed below: - The reality of museums in Africa in general and in Libya in particular is rich, diverse and multilingual and is directly affected by the need for a better technological infrastructure. - There are a number of important museums in Libya which are internationally competitive in terms of their collections. - The shortage of accessible information on the Internet is not directly related to the size or quality of the collections in Libyan museums. - Libyan museums need to project a professional group image. The creation of a map which agglutinates, identifies and locates them is a useful step in the right direction. - The Jamahiriya Museum deserves a higher position in the international museum panorama. A first step to achieve this must be the creation of its own website. - Web 2.0 tools are a proven way of obtaining and offering information on the Internet when the access to and distribution of information from official sources is blocked for some reason. - Web 2.0 tools can make a significant contribution to improving museum content distribution. Small museums and/or those with small budgets can overcome the limitations on access to costly technologies if they approach their presence on the Internet using Web 2.0 tools. Furthermore, the use of these technologies will surely project a much more attractive image to their audiences by making them feel that the museums are concerned with including them and interested in their participation, viewpoints and reactions. - Web 2.0 can be a useful source of academic information. In fact, we can now Inclusiva-net · “No List Available” · www.medialab-prado.es ·
  16. 16. safely say that we have transformed all of the individual initiatives existing on the Internet on Libyan museums, converting them into what we hope will be an academic reference document. . DISTRIBUTION: DISTRIBUTION OF OUR RESEARCH ON THE INTERNET With the aim of disseminating the contents of our research and contributing to its objectives, we have published the map, the information on Libyan museums and the web page for the Jamahiriya Museum of Tripoli in different areas of the social web. One of those places is the wiki space created specifically for this research called “Museums in Libya” which is available on the Internet at: http://www.seedwiki.com/ wiki/museums_in_libya We have also issued calls for help and distributed the contents of this project to different e-artcasting resources: Sociable Technologies in Art Museums, a non-profit project managed by lamusediffuse for sharing experiences, exchanging information and developing resources on social technologies in art museums all over the world. We have also included information on our blog (http://e-artcasting.blogspot.com); images on Flickr, in both the lamusadiffuse account (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ lamusediffuse) and that of our group e-artcasting: Sociable Technologies in Art Museums (http://www.flickr.com/groups/e-artcasting); and we have called upon different groups related to this topic to ask their users to share their photos and information on Libyan museums with use. We have also posted information on the Museums in Libya project on other blogs: - lamusediffuse. “Map of Museums in Libya.” Ly-Hub. December 10, 2006. (http://libyans.blogspot.com/2006/12/map-of-museums-in-libya.html) - lamusediffuse. “Museums in Libya: Call for Help.” Ly-Hub. May 13, 2007. (http://libyans.blogspot.com/2007/05/museums-in-libya.html) - lamusediffuse. “Map of Museums in Libya Thanks to Web2.0 Tools.” Museums and the Web (http://conference.archimuse.com/blog/lamusediffuse/map_of_museums_ in_libya_thanks_to_web2_0_) - lamusediffuse. “Museums in Libya.” December 8, 2006. KhadijaTeri (http://khadijateri.blogspot.com/2006/12/libyan-museums.html) - lamusediffuse. “Map of Museums in Libya.” e-artcasting: Sociable Technologies in Art Museums. December 6, 2006. (http://e-artcasting.blogspot.com/2006/12/map-of-museums-in-libya_05.html) Inclusiva-net · “No List Available” · www.medialab-prado.es ·
  17. 17. All of these calls for help have been distributed to numerous specialised lists, including Yasmin, AFRICOM or Museum-L and in private emails to archaeologists, museum professionals, researchers, members of heritage defence organisations, journalists and government representatives. Finally, we have included all of the documentation generated in our account with del. icio.us (http://del.icio.us/e_artcasting) under the tags “Libia” and “Libya” REFERENCES CITED WEBSITES, BLOGS AND PORTALS Africalia http://www.africalia.be del.icio.us http://del.icio.us/ e-artcasting: Sociable Technologies in Art Museums Blog. http://e-artcasting.blogspot.com Flickr Group. http://www.flickr.com/groups/e-artcasting del.icio.us. http://del.icio.us/e_artcasting ICOM Museum Directories. List http://icom.museum/museum_directories.html ICOM National Committees. http://icom.museum/nationals.html International Council of African Museums (AFRICOM) http://www.africom.museum International Council of Museums (ICOM) http://icom.museum KhadijaTeri http://khadijateri.blogspot.com Ly-Hub http://Libians.blogspot.com Museums on the Web http://conference.archimuse.com/blog/lamusediffuse Observatory of Cultural Policies in Africa http://ocpa.irmo.hr/index-en.htm Technorati http://www.technorati.com United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) http://www.unesco.org Wikipedia http://www.wikipedia.org INTERNET REFERENCES “Etiqueta.” Wikipedia, Español. (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_%28xml%29) “Folkcsonomía.” Wikipedia, Español. (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folcsonom%C3%ADa) “Libya.” Wikipedia. English. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libia#_note-56) “Libyan Eclipse 2006.” Tripoli and the Northwest. Lonely Planet. (http://www.lonelyplanet.com/journeys/feature/pdf/Libyan_eclipse.pdf) Bouchenaki, Mounir. “The Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Museum: a first in the Arab world”, UNESCO, Museum Architecture: beyond the temple and ... beyond Museum, #143, vol. XXXVI, nº 3, 1984. UNESCO. (http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0008/000857/085703eo.pdf#85688) Gonzalo, Pilar. “Museums in Libya”. Mayo de 2007. AFRICOM Listserv. (http://list.africom.museum/pipermail/africom-l/2007-May/000600.html) Jawad, Rana. “Libia teme por su patrimonio robado.” BBC Tripoli Mundo, Cultura.“ (http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/misc/newsid_4957000/4957662.stm) Jelinek, Jan. “Agricultural Galleries Planned for the Libian National Museum: an interview with Dr. Jan Jelinek.” Museum, #143, vol. XXXVI, nº 3, 1984. UNESCO. Inclusiva-net · “No List Available” · www.medialab-prado.es ·
  18. 18. (http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001273/127342eo.pdf#60790) Jelinek, Jan; Ruller Ivan and Peter Sewell. “National Republic Museum of Libia.” UNESCO, 1977. (http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0002/000248/024894eb.pdf) lamusediffuse. “Map of Museums in Libya Thanks to Web2.0 Tools.” Museums and the Web, en http://conference.archimuse.com/blog/lamusediffuse/map_of_museums_in_libya_thanks_to_web2_0_ lamusediffuse. “Map of Museums in Libya.” e-artcasting: Sociable Technologies in Art Museums. December 6, 2006. (http://e-artcasting.blogspot.com/2006/12/map-of-museums-in-libya_05.html) lamusediffuse. “Map of Museums in Libya.” Ly-Hub. December 10, 2006. (http://libyans.blogspot.com/2006/12/map-of-museums-in-libya.html) lamusediffuse. “Museums in Libya.” December 8, 2006. KhadijaTeri (http://khadijateri.blogspot.com/2006/12/libyan-museums.html) lamusediffuse. “Museums in Libya: Call for Help.” Ly-Hub. May 13, 2007. (http://libyans.blogspot.com/2007/05/museums-in-libya.html) Mayor Zaragoza, Federico. “Inauguration of the National Museum of the Libian Arab Jamahiriya Keynote Address.” UNESCO. Tripoli, 10 September, 1988. (http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0008/000805/080502eo.pdf) Reporters sans Frontiers: “List of the 13 Internet enemies in 2006”. 7 de noviembre de 2006, en (http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=19603) The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information. “Libia, The Internet in a Conflict Zone.” The Internet in the Arab World. A New Space of Repression? (http://www.hrinfo.net/en/reports/net2004/libya.shtml) UNESCO. “UNESCO and Libya agree to cooperate in ICT for capacity building project”. 12 de Diciembre, 2005, en (http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=20789URL_DO=DO_TOPICURL_SECTION=201.html) World Wide Web Consortium. “Semantic Web.” (http://www.w3.org/2001/sw) PRINTED REFERENCES Feingold, Ken. “Error 404: File not found,” Leonardo Special Issue. Fifth Annual New York Digital Salon 1997. Vol 30, nº 5, 1997. pp. 449-450. NOTES 1 Feingold, Ken. “ERROR 404: File not Found.” Leonardo Special Issue. Fifth Annual New York Digital Salon 1997, School of Visual Arts, New York. Vol 30, nº 5, 1997. pp. 449-490. 2 The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information “Libya, the Internet in a Conflict Zone.” The Internet in the Arab World. A New Space of Repression? (http://www.hrinfo.net/en/reports/net2004/libya.shtml) 3 The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information. Íbid. “It is difficult for the Libyan government to roll back the privileges it granted its information society and to do what other Arab governments have done: grant a single company a monopoly over Internet service provision so as to limit the availability of oppositional websites and their impact on Libyan citizens” 4 Reporters sans Frontiers: “List of the 13 Internet enemies in 2006”. 7 de noviembre de 2006, en (http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=19603) 5 UNESCO. “UNESCO and Libya agree to cooperate in ICT for capacity building project”. !2 de diciembre de 2005, en (http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=20789URL_DO=DO_TOPICURL_SECTION=201.html) 6 ICOM National Committees: http://icom.museum/nationals.html 7 Gonzalo, Pilar. ¨Museums in Libya”. Mayo de 2007. AFRICOM Listserv. (http://list.africom.museum/pipermail/africom-l/2007-May/000600.html) 8 “Libya, the Internet in a Conflict Zone.” Íbid. Inclusiva-net · “No List Available” · www.medialab-prado.es ·
  19. 19. 9 Jawad, Rana. “Libia teme por su patrimonio robado.” BBC Tripoli Mundo, Cultura.“ (http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/misc/newsid_4957000/4957662.stm) 10 “Etiqueta.” Wikipedia, Español. (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_%28xml%29) 11 “Folkcsonomía.” Wikipedia, Español. (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folcsonom%C3%ADa) 12 World Wide Web Consortium. “Semantic Web.” (http://www.w3.org/2001/sw) “The Semantic Web is about two things. It is about common formats for interchange of data, where on the original Web we only had interchange of documents. Also it is about language for recording how the data relates to real world objects. That allows a person, or a machine, to start off in one database, and then move through an unending set of databases which are connected not by wires but by being about the same thing” 13 Jelinek, Jan; Ruller Ivan and Peter Sewell. “National Republic Museum of Libya.” UNESCO, 1977. (http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0002/000248/024894eb.pdf) 14 Jelinek, Jan. “Agricultural Galleries Planned for the Libyan National Museum: an interview with Dr. Jan Jelinek.” Museum, #143, vol. XXXVI, nº 3, 1984. UNESCO. (http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001273/127342eo.pdf#60790) 15 Mayor Zaragoza, Federico. “Inauguration of the National Museum of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Keynote Address.” UNESCO. Tripoli, 10 September, 1988. (http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0008/000805/080502eo.pdf) 16 Bouchenaki, Mounir. “The Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Museum: A first in the Arab World.” Museum, #143, vol. XXXVI, nº 3, 1984. UNESCO. (http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0008/000857/085703eo.pdf#85688) 17 “Libya.” Wikipedia. English. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libya#_note-56) “The Jamahiriya Museum, built in consultation with UNESCO, may be the country’s most famous museum. It houses one of the finest collections of classical art in the Mediterranean” 18 “Libyan Eclipse 2006.” Tripoli and the Northwest. Lonely Planet. (http://www.lonelyplanet.com/journeys/feature/pdf/Libyan_eclipse.pdf) “One of the finest collections of classical art in the Mediterranean is housed in Tripoli’s Jamahiriya Museum (Phone: 3330292; Martyrs Sq; adult/child 3/1LD, camera/video 5/10LD; h9am-1pm Tue-Sun). Built in consultation with Unesco, it’s extremely well designed and provides a comprehensive overview of all periods of Libyan history. If time is limited, you may want to restrict yourself to those galleries that provide context to the places you’re most likely to visit. Most of the galleries are located on the ground floor, which covers, among other subjects: Saharan rock art (Gallery 4); the Garamantian empire of Wadi al- Hayat (Gallery 5); artefacts from Cyrene and Greek Libya (Galleries 7 and 8); and the exceptional displays covering Roman Leptis Magna and Sabratha (Gallery 9). On the 2nd floor, the sections on Islamic architecture (Galleries 15 to 19) and the Libyan ethnographic exhibits (Gallery 20), with some fine sections on Ghadames, are also excellent. The museum once formed part of the 13,000-sq-metre Al-Saraya al-Hamra (Tripoli Castle or Red Castle; Phone: 3330292; Martyrs Sq; adult/child 3/1LD, camera/video 5/10LD; h. 9am-1pm Tue-Sun), which represented the seat of power in Tripolitania from the 7th until the 20th centuries. Tripoli Castle has a separate entrance.” 19 Jawad, Rana. Íbid. Inclusiva-net · “No List Available” · www.medialab-prado.es ·

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