Introduction to Database Design Workshop, developed as part of the Advancing Indigenous Language Technologies project.

Welcome!

Participants in our 'Introduction to Database Design' workshop at CoLang 2024 are invited to begin here.

Before you commit to participating in our workshop

You might want to consider the following questions:

1. what is a database?
2. why make your own database?
3. what basic skills and resources do you need to design and make a database of your own?
4. what other options might you consider?

Resource Requirements

To participate in this workshop you or your group will need to have access to at least the following resources:

• a computer (PC, Mac or Linux) on which you can download and install software. We recommend:

  • Windows 10, or
  • Mac OS 13 or better, or
  • a current version of any Linux OS.

• a wifi connection.

Tip

Wifi connectivity information for our room is available in your registration materials.

• a collection of language resources, stored in a spreadsheet (a google sheet or excel file or similar) that might be intended to use as a dictionary, lexicon, phrasebook or word list; and that you have permission to share with our workshop participants and your instructors.

Note

It is critically important that we treat language materials with care and respect. Just because you have access to language materials does not mean that it is appropriate for you to create and share those materials without clear and freely established permission from the language community to which they belong.

• at least one group member who identifies as a nerd and who will be willing to get into the code! 🤓

Your Facilitators

This workshop is facilitated by:

John Ivens. John is a retired software engineer who has built database applications for educational administration and also for (we're not kidding) NASA space missions including the hugely successful Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and its moons. John is also the technical lead for the Coeur d'Alene Online Language Resource Center.

Gus Hahn-Powell. Gus is a computational linguist at the University of Arizona where he has built a variety of language-related technologies, and is the director of the online MS in Human Language Technology.

Amy Fountain. Amy is a linguist at the University of Arizona and a hobbyist web developer who also contributes to the Coeur d'Alene Online Language Resource Center.

We are all founding members of the Advancing Indigenous Language Technologies project.

Next Steps

Get ready to begin by completing these first steps. 🚀