Save The Heritage

Nature has bestowed cultural heritages on us.

Nature has bestowed cultural heritages on us. In Sri Lanka, we may see a variety of cultures. Sri Lanka has a long Tamil cultural history that is very much diverged from the Tamil culture of Sri Lanka. Every facet of Tamil culture has a distinct worth. Things from the past are really valuable.

As humans, we must protect our cultural heritage.

Vision

Our Vision is to provide a digital platform for archiving cultural information relevant to the Tamil context in Sri Lanka.

Mission

Our mission is to provide a better user experience by exposing this digitalized platform to visitors, volunteers, researchers, and administrators.

End Goal

  • Build a framework using Geographical Information System (GIS) principles to map data points with geographical markers and other relevant metadata.
  • To expose this digitalized platform to visitors, volunteers, researchers, and administrators.
  • To build a location-based information framework to collate cultural data in multiple forms, such as oral history recordings, inscriptions, and creative work.

Introduction

This research (Using GIS for Cultural Data Management: A Spatial Humanities Approach in the Sri Lankan Tamil Context) focuses on cultural data collection, management, and utilization, in the Sri Lankan Tamil context. When considering Tamil culture, there are many observable differences in cultural representations between different geographical regions. In this context, any research into cultural history and Tamil culture must take into account the geographical and temporal context of any such cultural expressions. ... With the development of information and communication technology, there is an opportunity to approach these cultural researches through a digital humanities lens. One such approach is spatial humanities, based on GIS technologies. There is an ability to combine this with other forms of culturally significant data to get a better interpreted and presented representation of knowledge to conduct advanced research.

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Research Overview

A community's cultural legacy is a collection of behaviors, places, artifacts, artistic expressions, and ideals that have been passed down through the generations. Sri Lanka has a long Tamil cultural history that is vastly distinct from the culture of Sri Lankan Tamils. All historical and cultural artifacts are of worldwide significance. Heritage properties are constantly threatened by a variety of natural and man-made factors, many of which are unanticipated. Understandably, there is no digital platform in the Sri Lankan Tamil context for documenting historical data with geographical pointing. As a result, there is a need to create a consolidated archive or a digital platform for the Tamil cultural background through this research. ... Based on an earlier study, it was determined that this was the first outstanding attempt in the Sri Lankan Tamil setting. With the recent development of information and communication technology, we have opened the possibility of approaching these cultural studies from a digital humanities perspective. This web application has been developed to provide a proper solution to the aforementioned issue. To build the research solution, a GeoNode architecture-based solution and an appropriate mapping technique are provided. A GIS platform and a format-agnostic data repository will serve as the foundation for the proposed system. This can be used to tag data items with location identifiers as well as any other relevant metadata like temporal identifiers. This platform is exposed to volunteers, visitors, researchers, and admins. Machine Learning and Deep Learning were utilized to improve the user experience as well as to recommend data and automate data pattern identification.

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Research Product Introduction

Methodology

In this research, A GeoNode architecture-based approach and a suitable mapping technique are proposed to develop the research solution. The proposed framework will be underpinned by a GIS platform and a format-agnostic data repository. This can be used to tag data items with location identifiers and any other relevant metadata such as temporal identifies. The location identifier is a component that can be used to identify the place where the data was collected. It can also be used to identify specific places related to the history of the collected data. The web-based application will provide an easy-to-use interface for non-technical users to effectively search through vast amounts of data by utilizing natural language processing. We will use Machine Learning and Deep Learning to provide a better user experience to users and to check the level of data accuracy and automatic data pattern recognition. We also provide filtration mechanisms in the platform to find the exact data points and capabilities for pointing and drawing features on top of GIS maps for necessary research works.

For product development, we will use the Geo Node architecture. The GeoNode web application is the framework's fundamental component, and it orchestrates client interaction with the system's other components. It's written in Django, a Python web framework, and it uses a relational database, most commonly PostgreSQL or SQLite, but it can use any RDBMS that Django supports. as well as we are going to use third-party ML services for AI applied areas in the product. The below table shows all the details of the technologies which we are going to use in every phase.

Based on our research, there are several stages that we have to complete throughout our project. They are namely data collection, data transformation, model training, and testing, server implementation, and evaluation. Here we are going to train our model using azure machine learning with dummy data of Tamil culture. Then the algorithm will classify whether these cultural data are reliable or not.

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Findings

  • According to this research, it was possible to determine how important it is to preserve cultural heritage through a digital platform.
  • It was effective to close the research gap between these Tamil cultural sites.
  • Possibility of extending this research to other civilizations.
  • As a result, this digital platform caused to boost researcher's confidence.

Further move

We are working on the features, which are very important to commercial launch, we are expecting technical collaboration from volunteer programs and inputs from this domain researchers and experts. As well as we have plans to publish this product code base under an open-source license. So other cultures also can use this product in their cultures.



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The Moment Of Found This Idea

Sri Lanka has a long Tamil cultural history that is very much diverged from the Tamil culture of Sri Lanka. This can be seen in many aspects of the cultural representation of the Sri Lankan Tamil society. From creative art forms to traditional religious practices, there are many observable differences between these groups. In this context, it should be noted that any research into Tamil culture and cultural history has to take into account the geographical context of any such cultural expressions....

The recent advancements in technology, especially in information and communication technology, have created an opportunity to approach these cultural researches through a digital humanities lens. This includes the possibilities of connected datasets and exploring and correlating otherwise disjointed research outcomes. One such application of this approach is termed spatial humanities, where location-based information from a Geographical Information System (GIS) is combined with other forms of culturally significant data to produce a much richer representation of knowledge that can both temporally and geographically better presented and interpreted. There have been several efforts in this respect globally and a few in India, but so far this has not been applied in the context of Sri Lanka, and especially Sri Lankan Tamil culture.

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Why We Attach Our Self With This Research

There is currently no digital platform for documenting cultural heritage sites. As a result, we are unable to properly save them. They are gradually being demolished. This issue must be addressed as soon as feasible. We won't be able to defend them otherwise. As information and communication technology (ICT) advances, have created an opportunity to approach these cultural researches through the prism of digital humanities. ... One such application of this approach is termed spatial humanities, where location-based information from a Geographical Information System (GIS) is combined with other forms of culturally significant data to produce a much richer representation of knowledge that can both temporally and geographically better be presented and interpreted. There have been several efforts in this respect globally and few in India. When we talk about Tamil culture, we can see that there are so many diverse cultural aspects to consider. However, this has yet to be implemented in the context of Sri Lankan culture, particularly in Tamil culture.

The main objectives of this proposed study are to establish the need for a centralized repository for Sri Lankan Tamil cultural research. Exploring the feasibility of building a location-based information framework to collate cultural data in multiple forms, such as oral history recordings, inscriptions, and creativity.

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How You Can Help Us...

This system only allows administrators, volunteers, researchers, and visitors to access the system. A visitor can view the cultural data items associated with various places in various ways. That includes viewing the details of a particular cultural place through items associated with it in the form of an image, audio, video, or document. The second category of users is volunteers. They will have the capability to view and upload the information and details of cultural data items and associate them with geographical places.
... If you have an interest in feeding data to our system, you must be willing to volunteer other vices you can’t. So, in the initial stage, you will enter the system as a volunteer. The procedure of signing up as a volunteer

  1. First, type your email address
  2. After that, enter your name.
  3. The type of your password
  4. Finally, select which user you are. (Select Volunteer; this is the most important step in becoming a volunteer.)

A volunteer, you can enter the system. Then you can search for the place on the map and you can feed the data as well. After that, your sources are verified by the admin, who accepts your source and publishes it.

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Our Research Team

Naresh

Naresh Shanmugaraj

Research Member

I have always been quite passionate about Tech & Digital product building since high school. It was fascinating to write a few programs automating some mundane tasks to save some time & build digital solutions which make people's lives easier. Entering this Research in the direction of Tamil Culture heritage digitization, I believe it has a lot of room for development and an ideal industry to make a career out of. As well as the experience I gained through this research and project helped me to get a better understanding of building commercial products from scratch.

Nafla

Fathima Nafla Siyabdeen

Research Member

I am passionate about software quality engineering. As a software tester, I am involved in visionary actions. Visualize the potential pitfalls of a product or software program. Review quality specifications and technical design documents to provide timely and meaningful feedback on the software product. Always make an effort to ensure a product's quality and whether or not the final consumer is satisfied. Through this research, I was able to ensure the quality of the product and was able to give a better user experience using this product.

Kirishana

Kirishana Kunasegaram

Research Member

I am always curious to learn new skills and be a result-driven person to continue my higher education at university. I am interested in building a software system for solving real-world problems. This is my university's final research project. I hope this research will help me to learn about new technologies and give me more practical knowledge about research-related tools and technologies. This knowledge and experience will definitely help me take the next step in my career.



Research Supervisors

nimalaprakasan

Nimalaprakasan Skandhakumar

Research Supervisor
Department of ICT
Faculty of Technology
University of Sri Jayewardenepura
Colombo, Sri Lanka

vimalathithan

Vimalanathan Vimalathithan

Research Supervisor
Department of Tamil
Faculty of Arts
University of Peradeniya
Sri Lanka

Contact Us

Address

Jaffna,Srilanka

Call Us

077 448 3339

Email Us

Hai@sltamilhist.com

Response Hours

Monday - Sunday
5:00PM - 09:00PM

Frequently Asked Questions

No, researchers or admin do not feed the data into the system. Only volunteers can feed the data.

Yes, you can but before that, you have to register yourself as a volunteer, we will introduce a volunteer register feature soon in the system.

Yeah. We can go with that opportunity as well.

In this system, admins fully check and verify whether the source file is correct or not. After that, they approve the source. Otherwise, they decline the source file, or if they have any doubts, they interact with those who upload the source and make the decision to approve or decline.

This feature is now only introduced to researchers only. We hope in future you also can use this feature. Do you have any registration process to register me as a researcher on this

If you have any doubts, you can interact with the admin through a chat box.

Yes, we have a registration process. Check this link.

To predict the accuracy of data, we use machine learning with an algorithm.

Yes, we welcome you with an open mind. Reach us via the inquiry section. We can discuss your collaboration.

Yes, There is a way to communicate with the administrators of this product to solve any problems that you face while uploading documents, video, audio, or images.