National digital heritage is our collective memory, now living in electronic form. The Fund could become the very repository that saves it from disappearing over the coming decades, El.kz reports.
It covers a wide range of materials, from ancient manuscripts to modern memes. Archives of letters, photographs, and film chronicles have already been digitized, but they are scattered across different institutions. The Fund could bring them together and systematize so that nothing is lost.
Digitization vs. time
The simplest and most important task is large-scale, centralized digitization. The Fund could organize professional high-resolution scanning of these materials, giving them a second life.
Special attention will be paid to the heritage of great figures. Creating complete digital collections of classical authors is already being named a priority. Imagine a single archive containing Abai’s manuscripts or audio recordings of Zhambyl’s performances, accessible from anywhere in the world.
Technology in the service of history
Digitization is only half the job. Digital formats become obsolete every 10–15 years, and files may become unreadable. The Fund could create a dedicated long-term storage system with regular data migration to new media, in line with international standards.
This is where artificial intelligence can help. It can be used to restore damaged photographs or clean up old audio recordings. AI is also capable of analyzing vast volumes of texts, identifying non-obvious connections, and even assisting with translations from Old Kazakh.
Preserving digital everyday life
The Fund is intended to preserve not only ancient artifacts. Social media accounts, blogs, and digital projects by contemporary artists and musicians are already part of our culture. Such data dependent on the policies of foreign platforms. A national fund would become a sovereign repository for this content.
This will require new legal and technical mechanisms, such as the concept of a “digital will.” A person could voluntarily transfer their personal digital archive - correspondence, photos, videos - to permanent state storage, so that the memory of them does not vanish along with an account password.
Investment in future
The project is important not only for the past, but also for the future. Developing artificial intelligence requires large volumes of high-quality data for training. Creating the Fund would provide a powerful base of Kazakh-language texts, audio, and video, becoming a catalyst for the development of local IT technologies.
Thus, the Fund is an instrument of cultural sovereignty in the digital age. In 10–15 years, it could turn Kazakhstan into the owner of one of the most comprehensive digital collections in the Turkic world. This collection would form the foundation for education, science, and new forms of creativity.