How we're building a language archive using open source and open licensing

Open source drives the internet and most things digital. But how can it be used for documenting, preserving and promoting human languages?

Half of the world's languages, including 200 from India, are at risk. Their speaker are about to lose an important identity tied to their political and economic autonomy. Often, communities need resources, including technical tools and training, to document their own language.

This talk will help navigate an unusual space where open source, open licenses and open standards are vital—language documentation.

For nearly 10 years, we've documented over 25 languages, mostly from South Asia, in collaboration with the community. But beneath this work lies a foundation of openness. We will share more about how open source tools, openly-licensed tech, and educational resources are and can be used to document languages. The talk will demonstrate the impact of these within communities and outside of the communities.

We also plan to share how you can contribute as open source developers and advocates. Maybe it's a language you speak or know a friend who speaks!

• How open source software, open licenses and open standards are helping preserve low-resourced languages

• Persisting barriers to language documentation where the open source community can intervene

• Practical ways to collaborate for building an open tech infrastructure and stack to support language documentation