WWW.CULTURESNAPS.KN HAS ARRIVED IN ST. KITTS AND NEVIS

CULTURAL ACTIVITIES, LOCAL CUISINE, ARTS, CRAFTS , HERITAGE, CREATIVE AND CULTURAL INDUSTRY (CCI) SERVICES CAN NOW BE IDENTIFIED ON A MAP OF ST. KITTS AND NEVIS "ON-LINE"

A new tool to help visitors locate hidden treasures of St. Kitts and Nevis, document their experiences, and share it with the world.

(L-R) Habiba, Pierre Bowrin, Traval ,
and Eloise Stancioff @ Dept. of IT St. Kitts

The St. Kitts Department of Culture - Research and Documentation Unit (RDU) and Researchers from NEXUS 1492 have developed a crowd-sourcing website for heritage, arts community and important places in St. Kitts as a creative initiative in the domains of education, tourism and research.  This initiative combines community input, national integration and global visibility.  It gathers crowd sourced data, collected directly from community members,- representing community perceptions of heritage, best parts of particular villages and sites to visit. It reaches a large spectrum of people, providing a broad range of responses on community handicrafts, important areas of interest, historic sites and beautiful vistas.

(L-R) Eloise Stancioff, Habiba, Pierre Bowrin, Traval -
Morris, and Sanco Duncan, @ Dept. of IT St. Kitts

On March 3rd 2014 preliminary discussions began between Marlene Phillips, Research & Documentation Specialist - St. Kitts Department of Culture RDU and Eloise Stancioff PhD Student Nexus 1492 Heritage Management Group about how a Crowd Sourcing Tool could assist with the documentation and preservation of St. Kitts and Nevis Culture and Heritage. As concepts for designing the tool began to take shape Habiba, a Postdoctorial Researcher - Algorithmics Group Department of Computer and Information Sciences at Konstanz University in Germany, Member of the ERC Synergy-Nexus 1492 Project, customized the "Ushahidi Platform" to meet the functionality needs that were requested.  On 

(L-R) Ophelia Blanchard, Eloise Stancioff, Habiba,
and Pierre Bowrin @ Dept. of IT St. Kitts

"The crowd sourcing tool developed for the St. Kitts Department of Culture - Government of Saint Christopher and Nevis is based on the Ushahidi framework [1]. Ushahidi is a non{profit technology company that builds open source platforms to help citizens, journalists, organizations, governments, and others gather, manage, analyze, and visualize crowd sourced data. After rigorous discussions with the Department of Culture officials we concluded that Ushahidi software provided us with a powerful basic framework to build a crowd sourcing tool for St. Kitts and Nevis to chronicle, disseminate, and gather information about the heritage and culture of St. Kitts and Nevis". Ref. Eloise Stancioff, Researcher Leiden University

HOW TO USE IT?

1. Log on to www.culturesnaps.kn
2. Create a Report by Uploading a Photograph of a Local Activity you are seeing, food/drinks that you are enjoying, or a site that you are visiting,  with a brief description or comment.
3. Select the correct Creative or Cultural Sector that defines the activity or site in your report.
4. Save It
5. Periodically the posts will be published on the www.culturesnaps.kn website as a report.

Note: The Information that is provided is not all factual and is shared from public opinion.

The public is being invited to visit  http://www.culturesnaps.kn and report on the following Creative, Cultural, and Heritage Activities that they experience in St. Kitts and Nevis to help make it a vibrant and informative site.

PERFORMING ARTS (Groups/Performances - Music/Dance/Theatre)

VISUAL ARTS (Crafts, Artists Studios - Painters/Photographers/Videographers, Costume Makers)

LITERARY ARTS (Author Studios, Poetry Recitals/Book Launches, Newspaper/Magazine Offices, Libraries, Book Stores)

CULINARY ARTS (National/Local - Food and Drink Stands/Restaurants, Farms)

PROFESSIONAL CREATIVE SERVICES OR INSTITUTIONS (Businesses that provide Support Services to the Creative and Cultural Industry Eg. Stage/Tent Rental, Music Studio, Hair Salons etc....)

HERITAGE SITES(Landmarks, Sites of Heritage buildings/events)

GO FISH!  Playing Cards have been designed by Mereke Van Garderen and Professor Dr. Ulrik Brandes.  These cards will be used by St. Kitts Department of Culture RDU to promote http://www.culturesnaps.kn to young adults and children as a fun way to learn about their St. Kitts and Nevis Heritage.

For More Information Contact St. Kitts Department of Culture - RDU  Emai: stkittsculture@gmail.com