What other options might you pursue?

What other options, besides learning to design your own databases, might you want to pursue?

There are lots of options out there, here are just a few. We talk about why you might want to learn to design your own database here, but if you decide not to do that, you might...

Select a database-backed product

We mentioned products like SIL's FieldWorks Language Explorer, also known as 'Flex'; the Max Planck Institute's Elan; the Indigenous Languages Digital Archive, or 'ILDA'; and the Mirama software suite, as just a few examples. These are great, and if they work for you, you should use them!

Hire a developer or vendor, or ask a scholar (linguist, computer scientist, etc) or scholarly team to build your database for you

You may be able to find an individual or group who would like to work with you to build your technology infrastructure, either in exchange for money (i.e. you hire a freelancer or pay a vendor to build you something - you are their customer), or for experience or some notion of shared goals (i.e. you work with an outside linguist or other academic scholar whose research interests align with yours - you are their co-investigator or their boss or their customer, depending on the specifics). These arrangements can work well or poorly depending on the particulars, but there's no reason not to consider them as an alternative to doing the work yourself.

Wait, and do other kinds of information storage and retrieval for now

You might find that the complexity of designing and using a database is just too much for you, at least at the moment. Instead you can use good old fashioned manual information storage and retrieval strategies (which can range from libraries and archives all the way to index cards and shoeboxes). These actually have some benefits over computer databases, and there's no reason you should feel that you must go to databases if what you have elsewise suits your needs!

How'd we do?

Do you feel like you have a good idea of some alternatives to designing your own database? If so, great! If not, you can contact John, Gus, or Amy and we'll do the best we can to help (see the 'friends' section above)!

At this point, you might go back to the index 🚀 or head over to the CoLang Workshop First Steps 🚀