A virtual web environment for researchers on Brazilian indigenous cultural heritage, Indians and general public

The current state of preservation of the Brazilian indigenous cultural heritage is far from ideal. The cultural and historical collections are scattered across the country and in a bad conservation state. The number of museums in Brazil is not enough to give the indigenous culture all the due importance it should have, and the few existing museums fail to attract people for many reasons. Consequently, the realization of proper research in this area is seriously compromised. On the other hand, the presence of people and organizations in the Internet is rapidly growing, specially through the so called Web 2.0 tools, like wikis and social networks. This work proposes the construction of a indigenous cultural heritage data sharing platform, in which both researchers, Indians and the general public could exchange knowledge and experiences. Cultural heritage data will be exposed in a social network and linked by ontologies.