Virtual Technologies in the Management and Popularisation Of the Cultural Heritage of Cameroon.

The paper deals with the possible use of virtual information technologies in bringing to life the vast resources of Cameroon’s cultural heritage to the national and international research and educational communities. On the side lines the paper touches issues related to electronic and computer technologies; electronic museums, the correlation of culture and education with the Internet and CD-ROM technologies. Cultural heritage represents one of Cameroon’s central assets and is key to the development of the country. Systematic access to this heritage requires its being available in digital form. However, digitising culture is not just about shifting knowledge from books to computer screens. It is changing the amount of information that can be consulted and the way to access and present knowledge. Such a shift will ultimately bring about changes in the way people think and act in the Cameroonian society. This is why a study of the cultural dimension of knowledge is more important for the country now than never. Presently, every institution is making an effort to come out from technopeasantry and access to the digital information superhighway if there has to be any hope of creating a technoliterate global village that has all the information possible at its fingertips.

Cameroon is unarguably culturally and historically very rich. Her socio-cultural matrix is marked by an extraordinarily rich cultural and ecological diversity (tropical rainforests, savannah, grassfields, coastal regions, semi arid steppes and arid regions). The population (today about 14.5 million people) is divided into more than 100 ethnic groups based essentially on a linguistic classification. This "Babel of tongues", as referred to by linguists, is well known for its wide linguistic diversity, which also reflects its ethnic and cultural diversity. There are 236 language-units that are completely non-inter comprehensible. About 100 of these languages are viable in their standard form, i.e., as daily vectors of written communication. The peoples have over the years produced magnificent civilisations with striking material and, above all, non-material productions. A substantial part of the cultural heritage of the people is non-material, in the form of literature and folk traditions. The cultures are well known for their myths, epic songs, poetry, traditional crafts and much more. With increasing literacy, the oral tradition, which for years helped to present material and non-material elements of African history and culture, is fast disappearing. The African peoples are so prone to change that in the next generation, little of the cultural past will survive. The African academician, Ali Mazrui asserts that "Many Africans even today seem to be undergoing faster cultural change in a single generation than the Jews underwent in the first one thousand years of dispersal." The significance of culture is not always commensurate with the place it is given in society. Only a pinch of the national budget is usually allocated to it. Fortunately, it cannot be destroyed as rapidly as the economy. Neglect, lack of public awareness, lack of a sound inventory, collecting, exhibition, interpretation and restoration policy, lack of an adequate legal framework for the effective safeguarding of this heritage perhaps constitute the most important evidences of the mismanagement of the cultural heritage of Cameroon. The non-material cultural heritage is today, highest hit by the general cultural disintegration as more and more foreign values are assimilated by the people (the mass cultural surrogates / globalisation). Logically, the traditional values need to be preserved, researched and transmitted. Unfortunately, the patrimony is poorly managed making it impossible for the public at large to benefit from the instructive opportunities to be derived from the country's cultural heritage. However, despite the lamentable state of things and the bleak prospects, action is possible which can exert a positive influence on the development of events.

One of the defining features of contemporary life, and increasingly of the future, is the accelerated pace of change. The world never stands still. Considering the domination of the information component in the development of modern society, it is clear that the management and propagation of the cultural heritage should rely primarily on the use of the latest information technologies. Traditionally, technology has been defined as the application of science to the improvement of human conditions. Modern information technologies offer many possibilities at a little cost for gathering, processing, storing and distribution of cultural information. It is possible to present the cultural heritage, after its cybernation, in a way the artefacts are interpreted through a variety of media including sound, video, flat-panel display PCs with touch-screen interactivity and virtually on the two most recognised distribution technologies, CD-ROM and the World Wide Web.

Cultural heritage is immovable in space but in a sense, can be moved online on the World Wide Web. The Internet is a phenomenon symbolising a new epoch in human history as it enters the third millennium. The World Wide Web of the Internet occupies a special place among these technologies as it provides immediate access to the vast bank of information resources. This new information space is practically unlimited for the presentation of any kind and volume of information - modem multimedia (textual, photographic, video, audio and other graphics). This information space is absolutely free, knows no geographical boundaries. Monopoly on the circulation and distribution of information is absent by default. It is best at creating a community – the ultimate goal of any web site. The potential audience in this new information community now numbers over 150 million cybernauts and the number is snowballing. The Internet technology is the simplest and fastest means of providing cultural information to a large circle of users. These will ease the accessibility to cultural information by the public within and out of the country. Being global, the Internet allows museums to expand their audiences far beyond their physical catchment areas. The case of the Louvre is worth mentioning here. More than 5 million visitors a year discover the wonders on display at the Louvre in Paris. More than 1 million visitors a month now view the museum’s treasures on its World Wide Web site. Online museums benefit from a world public to which they can also advertise and practice electronic commerce such as virtual galleries and on-line sell of tickets. The Internet provides the best means of getting in touch with potential museum sponsors. Museums and other custodians of information are traditionally information providers, drawing on, and interpreting their collections to their visitors (information gatherers). Previously these gatherers have had to physically visit the information providers. However, with the advent of the Internet, it is increasingly possible for the providers to reach out to the gatherers wherever they may be located. Museums and other custodians of information nowadays are expected to provide 24-hour-a-day access to cultural information. The development of a web site is more than a collection of texts and graphic files made available to the public on a computer connected to the Internet. It may be the first and sometimes the only contact a visitor has with the museum and can bring its collections, exhibits and programs to the global audience. The advent of interactive digital technologies has provided cultural heritage organisations with an opportunity to present their cultural resources in new and increasingly innovative ways. An Internet virtual museum should be complementary to, not in competition to, actual visits. The universal experience shows that the more people visit a museum on the Internet, the more people will visit it in real life. The WWW gives not only museums but the country's other cultural institutions a unique opportunity to display their content and programs to a global audience. Here therefore is an opportunity for Cameroonian cultural institutions.

It is possible to create a real virtual museum with no corresponding actual or real-world museum associated with it. Examples worth mentioning are the Lin Hsin Hsin Art Museum and the MUVA, the Virtual Museum of Arts El Pais. A virtual museum can be a good alternative for the National Museum of Cameroon, which for close to a decade since its creation, still exist only on paper. The virtual museum extends the physical museum both by allowing remote world-wide access to exhibits and catalogues and by building special displays which have no physical existence. In real life, a museum is shaped around a building design concept with a defined exterior and adjustable interior spaces containing a permanent collection of curated exhibitions. For the resource scarce artist of Cameroon, it would be beyond a dream to construct a building to house and display art works solely devoted to a single artist; however, with the advent of the WWW, it is possible to build a virtual museum to fill this gap. Not only can exhibits on display be made available to a wider audience, but also material, which is in store, can be shown. This means that objects which are, for instance, too fragile for permanent exhibition (and Cameroon has many!) can be photographed and displayed. The material collected for a temporal exhibition can also be recorded, allowing people to see the exhibition long after the material has been dispersed back to its original owners.

The new computer-based information technologies are a major factor, which determine the quality of education in modern society making PCs an inevitable part of education’s future. Information technology is that set of computer and telecommunication technologies that makes possible computation, communication and the storage and retrieval of information of all kinds. The information technologies can be actively used in educational processes, scientific research and the satisfaction of all participants in the educational process. The information technologies and institutions that revolutionised scholarly communication made information more accessible, durable and portable. The advent of digital information technology and management continues the revolution, suggesting a vision, still somewhat incoherent, of new ways of finding, understanding, storing, and communication information and should increase both the capabilities and the productivity of researchers and virtual museum visitors. Among these new technologies are simulations of natural (or hypothesised phenomena), new methods of presenting observational and computational results as visual images and graphic displays, and the use of knowledge-based systems as “intelligent assistants” in managing and interpreting data, and even more flexible and intuitive ways for people to interact with, and control information. Decades ago, W.C Trow in his book, Teacher and Technology: New Designs for Learning, wrote that “The search for new learning resources proceeds with increased vigor and speed. The success of improving production in business, industry, agriculture and medicine through the application of technology, stirs the hopes of teachers, school administrators, [guardians of cultural heritage], and citizens generally that similar improvements can take place in teaching and learning” (Trow, 1963, iii). Because PCs are infinitely patient, they make excellent tutors and because they are interactive, a virtual museum visitor can get more individual attention. New information technologies offer new learning opportunities, and to quote Trow again, “Technology is not the sole solution to the challenge confronting education… but without it, no other solution will be entirely successful” (pp. 25-26).

One technology that is catching everyone’s attention lately is virtual reality. Think of it as the fusion between flesh-and-blood reality and cyberspace reality. This brings the virtual museum visitor to a world where clear and vivid photo-realism that involves almost all his senses. Virtual Reality is a powerful shaper of society's attitudes. Well-conceived and well-directed programming and presentation of the cultural heritage on VR may create tastes that persist for a long time as a pattern of social behaviour. The efficiency of learning through visual perception is universally known. Virtual exhibition play a major role in Tele-education especially when set within homogeneous 3 Dimensional Virtual Reality scenery. Only Virtual Reality has property for the harmoniously combining the areas of education and entertainment (edutainment). The virtual museum as a place of education would be both interesting and useful to students, researchers, virtual visitors and other cybernauts.

In the domain of conservation, there are many tasks that can be resolved only by means of an electronic production. One such task is the virtual conservation of relic (monument etc.) and works of art on a Server and on CD-ROM. These conveniently store the necessary amount of historical and supplementary information concerning a monument or piece of art - measurements, video, sound, photographic files, etc., fixing the actual state of the object, reconstructing its lost details; 2Dimensional and 3Dimensional animation models. All this offers the possibility to preserve in the most complete and adequate way not only its external view, but also its architecture, the peculiarities of its decorative elements and other aspects of its existence. One CD-ROM platter can hold the entire Encyclopedia Britannica including photographs and other graphics. It would require much effort and money, to produce a video or a book than to unite all this on the platter of just a single CD-ROM. The only way to preserve the image of a cultural monument for future generations is to fix it on some material. Such material as a CD-ROM is optimal when dealing with immobile spatial objects. Its performance can be broken down in these words: so much (Cameroon's rich diverse cultures) can be stored on so little (the CD-ROM's platter) to last for so long a time. Besides the effective combining of photo, video, sound, texts, etc., the CD-ROM technology allows provides interactivity. Electronic storage ad retrieval of information holds enormous advantages: information can be stored economically, found quickly without going to another location and can be moved easily.

It is a moral duty by academics to record and document (on paper, tape, film, slides, video, CD-ROMs, etc.) what still remains of the country's cultural heritage, and what is being produced, so as to preserve as much as possible some values for posterity's sake. The country's museums and other cultural institutions are not to remain warehouses of antiquities, depositories where things are indiscriminately amassed to collect dust, stains and cobwebs; dismal, secluded and lifeless places, strangely reminiscent of a sanatorium or a graveyard. They should become living places (virtually or in real life) where people can combine learning and leisure (edutainment) even more than in the theatre or cinema (because of their interactivity). Through museums and the other cultural institutions, the Cameroonian people should be able to return to the sources of their values, not to encapsulate themselves in them, but rather to carry out a critical inventory for the elimination of foreign, aberrant and alienating elements introduced by colonialism while retaining the elements of abiding value. Thereafter, adjusting these values to our times and enriching them with all the attainments of the scientific, technological and social revolutions; and finally applying them to the contemporary and the universal. As an acknowledged educational establishment by virtue of its great demonstrative power in illustrating educational programs and a centre of research and the popularisation of the principles evolved by research institutions, museums, be them real life or virtual, are no luxury to satisfy some techno-art aficionados. They must be able to make people aware of the fact that the foundations of the future lie in the past, and so they have to turn, from time to time, to their traditions and reshape their society anew, and create a modern society that incorporates the best of its own culture.

Sooner or later, all information, in its different forms and media, will go digital. This is what is meant by the term digital convergence. One may wonder whether the Cameroonian society as a whole and the artistic community in particular can afford the use of this new information technology in the present grievous financial situation. But whatever the difficulties, Cameroon cannot afford to ignore the on going information revolution which is sweeping the whole world and is a powerful factor which can expedite the entire process of the country's emergence, including culture and the arts. As long as the country’s socio-economic situation of the country doesn’t provide and promote the preservation, presentation and, especially, the increase of the historical and cultural values, they should be given considerable attention with the new information technologies. Their comprehensive and authentic presentation can do a lot of good both to Cameroon and the world community as it will facilitate not only mutual understanding between nations but also cardinal changes inside the country.

New information technologies offer new opportunities, although the pervasive use of computers in cultural education and research will not smoothly come about without financial, technological problems and psychological barriers to the information superhighway – technophobia. The present situation of the Cameroonian National Museum in particular and the provincial museums in general and other cultural institutions is unenviable and a big disgrace for the prestige of Cameroon, a country generally and patriotically referred to by nationals and foreigners as “Africa in miniature“. Culture-tourism will actually finally see the light when the country’s cultural heritage becomes virtualised. The consequent result being that more and more people will get to knowing what the country has got to offer culturally. Tourism is now, beyond any doubt the world’s largest industry accounting for more than 6% of the world’s gross national product ($3.2 trillion in 1993). Cameroon’s rich cultural heritage should be able to benefit from this industry. It is hoped that a detailed study of the application of information technologies in the management and propagation of the country's cultural heritage will be a great push forward to the cultural industry. It will also be a push to the still-to-be-opened National Museum in the premises of the former Presidential Palace in Yaounde, the country’s provincial museums and cultural institutions. The resultant contribution is the socio-cultural and economic development of the country. One has to bear in mind that museum visiting is not a traditional Cameroonian practice. For this reason everything has to be done attract people to visiting these institutions, to make the museum more appealing. The new information technologies are good at doing just that. People like it when something that belongs to them goes international, goes online. Only thereafter do they take that something of theirs seriously. The information technologies do provide a good opportunity for the country's cultural institutions.

REFERENCES

• Alicia Haber, MUVA: a virtual museum in Uruguay.
• Information Technology and the Conduct of research, The user’s view, National academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1989.
• James Devine and Ray Welland, Cultural computing: exploiting interactive digital media.
• James Eisele, Mary Ellin, Educational technology, Garland Publishing, INC, 1990
• Jim Angus, Building a web site.
• Jonathan Bowen, The virtual museum.
• Lin Hsin Hsin, Pioneering a digital media art museum on the web.

George A. Tambu, postgraduate student of Moscow State University of Culture and Arts, Russia.