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Understanding Communities and Cultural Protocols

What are communities?

Communities are groups of people contributing to a Mukurtu site and represent the source of the content on a site.

They can be large or small, and reflect real life groups such as tribal nations, repositories, families, classes, governing bodies, professional organizations, etc. They can also be further divided into sub-communities.

A Mukurtu site can have as many communities as needed, and users can be members of multiple communities. Each site will define its own communities. A site may have one community or hundreds, and there is no limit to how many users can be added to a community or how many communities a user can join.

How are communities managed?

Communities are managed by community managers. The community manager can add and remove members and create new protocols. For more information on user roles, see User Roles.

Community Types

On any given site, there may be different types of communities. The community types taxonomy allows users to define the different types of communities that contribute to a site. Some examples include:

  • libraries and museums
  • families
  • tribes, etc.

What are cultural protocols?

Cultural protocols provide users appropriate access to content and are intended to reflect real life values surrounding access to cultural material. They are listed under the community to which they belong and can only be viewed by protocol members.

All content must belong to at least one cultural protocol so that users know where a piece of content came from and who has access. In Mukurtu 4, this includes media. Users will be prompted to assign a protocol to each media asset at the time of upload.

Cultural protocols are flexible and user defined. Some common examples include seasonal, gender-based, and sacred/ceremonial protocols. You can also use protocols administratively. Review protocols, for example, can limit access to cultural material while a committee reviews uploaded items before sharing them with wider audiences.

While cultural protocols can serve many purposes, functionally they are all the same. It is therefore recommended that protocol names include the parent community and describe appropriate access. Some generic examples include:

  • Library and Archive Public Access
  • Culture Committee Under Review
  • Archive Department Private
  • Tribal Office Employees Only

How are cultural protocols managed?

Each cultural protocol belongs to a community. Some cultural protocols may have multiple parent communities. Each cultural protocol is managed by its protocol stewards.

Cultural Protocol Types

There are two types of cultural protocols: open and strict, and they are determined in the Cultural Protocol Types setting of a cultural protocol.

  • Open: Items under open protocols are accessible to all visitors, including those without user accounts.

  • Strict: Items under strict protocols will only be visible to logged in protocol members. The protocol page will not be visible to the public.

One caveat to this rule is the use of multiple protocols: if two or more protocols are assigned to a piece of content, users may have to be members of all assigned protocols to access the content. This setting is specified individually for each piece of content. To learn more about managing content with multiple protocols, see Understanding Sharing Settings.

Protocol User Roles

Protocols allow for members to take an active role in managing the content within a protocol:

  • Protocol members can view content but cannot add or edit.
  • Protocol affiliates can view content but cannot add or edit. This is a community partner designation.
  • Contributors can create, edit and delete their own digital heritage items, person records and media assets.
  • Curators can create, edit and delete their own collections and upload media assets.
  • Community record stewards can add, edit and delete their own community records.
  • Language contributors can add, edit and delete their own dictionary words and word lists.
  • Language stewards can add, edit and delete ALL dictonary words and word lists and add media assets.
  • Protocol stewards manage protocol membership, can add edit and delete all content and media assets, manages the look and feel of the protocol and Local Contexts labels and notices.

To read more about user roles and responsibilities, visit User Roles

For instructions on how to set up a community and initial protocol, see Create a community and initial cultural protocol.

For instructions on adding a protocol to an existing community, see Create a cultural protocol.