Indonesian Heritage Inventory: Open source initiative for endangered heritage monitoring

Abstract

Data of cultural heritage in Indonesia is managed by different levels of bureaucracy. The world and national heritage levels are managed by central government agencies; directly responsible to the Ministry of Education and Culture. The agencies of cultural sector in the province and district/city manage the cultural heritage data in the area of province and district/city. The government is still looking for a model of data management for heritage. Format and management of data between agencies are not same. They have responsibility to manage it, but they have not been able to make it as public information. In the other hand, the rapid grow of development require referral data about regulations related to heritage preservation. Regulation of heritage buildings or zones are the most important, to make sure that the development do not violate the conservation. Since the government does not provide online information, it is not easy for public to access the data about heritage, even in their own surrounding. Furthermore, the process of data updating in government level is always very slow, moreover in endangered situation. Need long time to wait for a good data management from the government. In 2012, Indonesian Heritage Inventory/IHI (http://heritageinventory.web.id) builds by public initiative. Using online platform, IHI can be updated whenever, wherever, by public with various types of media. This system is able to inform the current situation of the heritages that have been listed by government and those which have not been registered. IHI enable to reports and maps the current situation of every single threat happens to heritage sites. This report can be used to support the decision-making. This kind of initiative is expected to increase public participation in heritage conservation.