Exploring Cultural Ownership Through Linked Open Data

Students positioned as an Imaginary Non-Profit seeks $50,000 for an IMLS Rapid Prototyping Grant that will support the improvement of the British Museum’s existing provenance linked data for its collection of 100,000+ Egyptian-made cultural artifacts. As cultural tensions surrounding these artifacts have risen over time, we [the Imaginary Non-Profit] hope that by providing easily researchable records of provenance we will be able to not only resolve questions of ownership, but also call on other organizations to act on our example and similarly provide linked and open records that both trace and tactfully call into question their colonial roots.