Intangible Cultural Heritage in Fiji - video clip featured at the WSA 2007 award winners ceremony

The World Summit Award (WSA) Awarding Ceremony has been the highlight of the entire WSA process 2005-2007 and a unique ceremony to honour excellence in multimedia and e-Content creation. Up to 40 winning Teams from all over the world were present at the event and were handed out the awards by highest level international dignities.

Locating Participatory 3D Models on Earth

I have created an interactive world map working both on Google Maps and Google Earth displayng georeferenced P3DM exercises. You can now use P3DM Where? to locate Participatory 3D Models worldwide.



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The World Summit Award has announced the Winners of 2007

The World Summit Award Grand Jury 2007 met on the island of Brijuni from 1-7 September 2007 bringing together eminent multimedia and e-Content experts from 32 countries. The Jury evaluated 650 entries which were nominated from 160 countries to the Global World Summit Award (WSA). The Jury selected the five most outstanding products in each of the eight WSA Categories as Winners.

Participatory 3D Modelling (P3DM) for Resource Use, Development Planning and Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage in Fiji has been proclaimed as one of the five the winner for the e-culture category.

Preserving and presenting tangible and intangible cultural heritage in line with the challenges of the future; demonstrating valuable cultural assets clearly and informatively using state-of-the-art technology.

Participatory 3D Modelling (P3DM) integrates people’s knowledge and spatial information (contour lines) to produce stand-alone scale relief models that have proved to be user-friendly and relatively accurate data storage and analysis devices and at the same time excellent communication media.

P3DM works best when used jointly with Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in a Participatory GIS (PGIS) context.

PGIS is the result of a spontaneous merger of Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) methods with Geographic Information Technologies and Systems (GIT&S) to compose peoples’ spatial knowledge in the forms of virtual or physical, 2 or 3 dimensional maps used as interactive vehicles for discussion, information exchange, analysis and as support in advocacy, decision making and action taking. PGIS practice is usually geared towards community empowerment through measured, demand-driven, user-friendly and integrated applications of GIT&S, where maps become a major conduit in the process.

The project objective was to support community based biodiversity conservation for ensuring food security and sustainable livelihoods.

Whilst PGIS started in the late 1980s it has become much refined and more accessible due to the decrease in cost of soft and hardware. The deployment of this product and its adaptation to the Fijian context has been strongly appreciated by the local communities and other stakeholders involved in the process, which resulted in the development and adoption of community-based natural and cultural resources management plans.

The exercise has been made possible by the coordinated effort of the following organisations: WWF South Pacific Programme (WWF-SPP), Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), Native Lands Trust Board (NLTB), Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), National Trust of Fiji, and the Lomaiviti Provincial Council of the Ministry of Fijian Affairs and Provincial Development.

Recommended readings:

• Process documentation
• Resource Use, Development Planning, and Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage in Fiji