Mukurtu: The "3C's"

There are three structural elements required to create digital heritage items: communities, cultural protocols, and categories. These are unique to each site and you need at least one of each in order to work with any given content. 

Communities identify groups of contributors and users to a site. They make it clear where any contributions (files, media, knowledge, etc.) come from. Communities are a way to provide attribution and can be any grouping such as: a class, a family, a team, a clan, a tribal government department, or an institution. Sites can have as many communities as they need and users can be members of more than one community.

Cultural Protocols are how users access and share content provided by contributors and communities. Cultural Protocols ensure that users have appropriate access to content. These are what allow for the cultural protocols that exist offline to be represented in a digital platform. Cultural Protocols are flexible and specific to each site. They can be used to represent any kind of access and frequently used ones are in relation to gender, are seasonal, or ceremonial. Each community defines their own Cultural Protocols.

Categories are descriptive terms that help users browse and discover content. Categories are also flexible and unique to each site.