Digital Scholar is in the midst of a five year partnership with Mukurtu CMS, a grassroots project, managed by the Center for Digital Scholarship and Curation at Washington State University, aiming to empower communities to manage, share, narrate, and exchange their digital heritage in culturally relevant and ethically-minded ways. Through this partnership, Digital Scholar is providing business support for Mukurtu Hosting.
As an essential content management system for Indigenous communities to share their digital cultural heritage, Mukurtu shares Digital Scholar's commitment to creating and sustaining open source software that enables communities to control their own cultural heritage resources. Through Mukurtu Hosting, the team offers shared hosting and dedicated support for interested members of their user community. The revenue generated by the services can help to underwrite the long term sustainability of the software.
“Mukurtu represents a model of what ethical, community-centered technology can look like—grounded in relationships, responsive to cultural protocols, and designed to support long-term stewardship rather than short-term access,” said Alex Merrill, Associate Dean for Technology and Operations at Washington State University Libraries and Co-Director of the Center for Digital Scholarship and Curation. “Through this partnership, we’re helping ensure that those values are supported by durable, scalable infrastructure and administrative processes.”
The collaboration makes Digital Scholar's 15+ years of business operations experience available to the Mukurtu team. In addition to consulting, Digital Scholar facilitates server procurement, contract negotiation and ratification, and offers a full compliment of financial services including invoicing and reporting. As a result, the Mukurtu team can focus on responding to the needs of the clients who engage their services. "I am so pleased that we can share our business systems and help to facilitate Mukurtu's efforts to increase their fiscal independence," said Sharon M. Leon, Digital Scholar's co-Chief Executive Officer. "The software is an essential tool by which Indigenous communities can steward their digital cultural heritage in ways that align with their community protocols and traditions."