Since their first meeting in Cartagena, Colombia in 2002, the Ministers of Culture and Highest Appropriate Authorities of the Americas, have stressed the importance of strategies to build capacity in cultural information systems (CIS) through knowledge-sharing activities among the countries of the hemisphere. Within this frame of reference, the Inter-American Committee on Culture (CIC) approved, as part of its Work Plan, three subregional workshops (Caribbean, Central and South America) to share the experiences of Canada , Chile and Mexico in developing and maintaining their cultural information systems.

Although each of the Workshops addresses the special needs and concerns of a particular subregion, they also maintain coherence and complement each other. To coordinate the contents of the three events, the OAS Technical Secretariat organized a Planning Meeting and several conference calls with delegates from the three host countries and the Convenio Andres Bello. During these planning encounters it was agreed that the Workshops should, among other things, (i) be technical in nature and, if possible, also include policy participants and representatives from non-governmental organization working on CIS; (ii) present the approaches used by other countries and organizations in the development of their cultural information systems; (iii) respond to the needs of each of the subregions identified through a Survey administered ahead of time.

You are invited to visit the Web page of each of the Workshops, read their final reports and survey results, and see the presentations made by the participants.