Fw: [LING-ETHNOG] FW: Digital race to save languages

[Julia Sallabank]

I thought you might be interested in this - from the BAAL Linguistic
Ethnography group

Julia

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tusting, Karin" <k.tusting at LANCASTER.AC.UK>
To: <LING-ETHNOG at JISCMAIL.AC.UK>
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2004 9:17 AM
Subject: [LING-ETHNOG] FW: Digital race to save languages


Happy New Year everyone!

This came round on the linganth list last night and I thought it might be of
interest to UKLEF given our discussions last year about digital recording
technology.

Best wishes,

Karin

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-linganth at ats.rochester.edu
> [mailto:owner-linganth at ats.rochester.edu]On Behalf Of Harold F.
> Schiffman
> Sent: 06 January 2004 19:52
> To: linganth at cc.rochester.edu
> Subject: Digital race to save languages
>
>
> Story from BBC NEWS:
>
>       Digital race to save languages
>
>       By Andy Webster in Melbourne
>
>       Researchers are fighting against time to save decades
> of data on the
> world's endangered languages from ending on the digital scrap heap.
> Computer scientist and linguist Professor Steven Bird of Melbourne
> University says most computer files, documents and original digital
> recordings created more than 10 years ago are now virtually
> irretrievable.
>
>       Linguists are worried because they have been
> enthusiastic digital
> pioneers.  Attracted by ever smaller, lighter equipment and vastly
> improved storage capacity, field researchers have graduated from
> handwritten notes and wire recordings to laptops, mini-discs,
> DAT tape and
> MP3.  "We are sitting between the onset of the digital era
> and the mass
> extinction of the world's languages," said Prof Bird.
>
>       "The window of opportunity is small and shutting fast."
>
>       Languages disappearing
>
>       "The problem is we are unable to ensure the digital
> storage lasts for
> more than five to 10 years because of problems with new media
> formats, new
> binary data formats used by software applications and the
> possibility that
> magnetic storage just simply degrades over time," said Professor Bird.
> When you record material in MP3 format now, what will happen in five
> years' time when a new format comes along?  Prof Peter
> Austin, University
> of London
>
>
>       There are a number of initiatives across the world to
> ensure that
> endangered languages are saved for future generations.  "Linguists
> estimate that if we don't do anything, half of the world's
> languages will
> disappear in the next 100 years," said Professor Peter Austin of the
> School of Oriental and Africa Studies at the University of London.
> "There are currently about 6,500 languages in the world, so
> that's 3,000
> languages completely going, lost forever," he told the BBC
> programme Go
> Digital.
>
>       Professor Bird is involved in the Open Language Archive
> Community
> (OLAC), an attempt to create a international network of internet-based
> digital archives, using tailor-made software designed to be
> future-proof.
> "We're devising ways of storing linguistic information using XML or
> Extensible Markup Language, which is basically a language for
> representing
> data on the web," said Prof Bird.  "XML is an open format
> that we can be
> sure will be accessible indefinitely into the future."
>
>       Cultural sensitivities
>
>       Researchers across the world see the potential of XML,
> but are aware
> of the burden this places on them.  "When you record material in MP3
> format now, what will happen in five years' time when a new
> format comes
> along?" asked Prof Austin.  "The real challenge for us as
> archivists is to
> constantly upgrade the video, audio and image files that we
> have so that
> they can be integrated with these new XML documents," he said.
>
>       There are problems, however, with using the internet as
> a storage
> medium.  Many indigenous communities fear it could lead to
> unrestricted
> access to culturally sensitive material, such as sacred stories, which
> could be abused or exploited, perhaps for commercial gain.
> Professor Bird
> says linguists recognise it is not a good idea to put
> sensitive material
> onto the internet without any safeguards.
>
>       "We are [looking at] the technologies used in internet
> banking for
> secure transfer and control - right at the point this
> material is first
> captured."  In theory, a field researcher would enter
> information about
> future restrictions as the material is recorded or written
> down and those
> safeguards would accompany the recording right through the data chain.
>
>       Story from BBC NEWS:
>       http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/2857041.stm
>
>       Published: 2003/03/20 09:02:40 GMT
>
>        BBC MMIV
>
>