This was the situation of the Maasai community of Laikipia, Kenya, when they first requested assistance from WIPO in 2006. As a result of an exploratory visit to the community, WIPO will launch in September a pilot training program designed to assist indigenous communities to document their own cultural traditions, archive this heritage for future generations and manage their IP interests when doing so. New digital technologies offer a practical means to document, record and digitize expressions of traditional cultures. Such means respond to the strong desire in indigenous communities to preserve, revitalize and promote their cultural heritage, and to pass it on to succeeding generations. However, the documentation and digitization of living traditions, which embody both communal creativity and individual artistic expression, is highly complex. Further, without careful IP management, digitized intangible cultural heritage is vulnerable to unwanted exploitation.
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