THE past articles, printed in this corner, explained how the project the “Memory of the Arab World” started and how the first meeting of me steering committee place, which ended up bringing into being the Shariqa Declaration in Egypt and form¬ing different ad-hoc committees.
It was decided that the second steering committee meeting would take place in Damascus, which happened in May 2008 upon an invitation from the “Tarim Centre for Architecture and Heritage” and the “Syrian Computer Society”. The meeting coincided with the declaration of Damascus as the Arab Capital of Culture in the year 2008. Also on that occasion, a regional conference was held at the same time titled “Electronic Documentation of Arab Heritage’.
The steering committee pronounced recommendations that could be summarized in the importance of, first; building networks between both the governmental and the non-governmental organisations in the field of heritage; second, disseminating information about the subject through publications; participation in similar events and building the project website, third, collecting the content for different chosen aspects of heritage. ‘
It was also decided that the first phase, the work would be limited and focused on only four aspects of the cultural heritage, the manuscripts, the architectural heritage, the oral heritage (especially the proverbs) and finally the timeline of the different Arab countries. It was also decided that in each of the four fields, there will be partic¬ipation from limited Arab countries that already have ready content in that field.
• Taking advantage of’ the pioneering experience of the Egyptian Centre for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage in the field of electronic documentation of heritage.
• Calling both the governmental and the national organisations in the Arab world to participate in the “Memory of the Arab
World” project.
• Calling the governmental and the non¬governmental organisations, concerned with the preservation of heritage in the Arab countries, to offer financial and tech¬nical support needed for the success of the “Memory of the Arab World” project.
• The acknowledgment of the efforts done by the Islamic Educational. Scientific and Cultural Organisation (ISESCO) in the field of preservation of threatened heritage and encouraging it to continue these efforts especially in the field of electronic docu¬mentation to support the “Memory of the
Arab World” project.
• The acknowledgement of the efforts done by the Arab Cities Organisation, the Arab League Educational Cultural and Scientific Organisation (ALECSO) and all likewise organisations. and calling them. to support the “Memory of the Arab World” project.
In addition to the steering committee meeting, the “Electronic Documentation of Arab Heritage” Conference adopted sup¬porting resolutions to the project such as
