First International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation

First International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation
Name	First International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation
Date	March 2008
Venue	University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Location	Honolulu, Hawaiʻi
Organizer	University of Hawaiʻi, National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities
Participants	linguists, archivists, technologists, community activists

First International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation The First International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation convened in March 2008 at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, bringing together scholars from across University of Hawaiʻi networks, representatives from National Science Foundation, delegates from National Endowment for the Humanities, and community advocates linked to institutions such as Smithsonian Institution, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, and Australian National University. The conference aimed to set research agendas for language documentation, shape archival standards used by SOAS University of London, University of California, Berkeley, and Yale University, and coordinate funding priorities among bodies like Endangered Languages Documentation Programme and European Research Council.

Background and Goals

The meeting traced precedents to initiatives at Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project, discussions at International Congress of Linguists, and gatherings associated with Linguistic Society of America panels, aligning with standards from Open Language Archives Community and metadata frameworks promoted by Digital Curation Centre. Goals included promoting collaboration among researchers from Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, policymakers from UNESCO, technologists from Microsoft Research, and community leaders from Native Hawaiian organizations to improve practices for endangered language documentation, preservation, and access. Participants discussed integrating methodologies from field linguistics practitioners trained at School of Oriental and African Studies, ethical protocols modeled after guidelines from American Anthropological Association, and funding strategies influenced by National Endowment for the Arts priorities.

Organization and Venue

Hosted by University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa with administrative support from College of Languages, Linguistics and Literature, the conference schedule was coordinated with committees including members from Linguistic Society of America, Association for Computational Linguistics, and International Association for Language Learning Technology. The venue leveraged resources from Hamilton Library and technical partnerships with Hawaiʻi State Archives, Library of Congress, and British Library digital preservation teams. Local arrangements involved collaborations with Office of Hawaiian Affairs and cultural advisers from Kamehameha Schools, ensuring protocols consistent with community stewardship exemplified by Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

Program and Keynote Presentations

The program featured keynote addresses by scholars affiliated with SOAS University of London, University of Chicago, Harvard University, and Stanford University, with talks drawing on projects such as the Endangered Languages Documentation Programme, The Rosetta Project, and archives curated by Smithsonian Institution. Presentations covered techniques from computational projects at Google, corpus-building efforts at Corpus of Contemporary American English, and archival standards referencing Dublin Core implementations endorsed by International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. Keynotes included comparative perspectives referencing work by researchers associated with Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, University of British Columbia, and University of Toronto.

Participants and Attendance

Attendees represented a range of institutions including Australian National University, University of California, Los Angeles, University of Texas at Austin, University of Sydney, National University of Singapore, and community organizations like First Nations councils and Hawaiian Civic Clubs. Funding agency delegates from National Science Foundation, European Research Council, and Australian Research Council attended alongside archivists from The British Library and technologists from Mozilla Foundation. The roster included field linguists trained at University of Oregon, digital curators from Yale University, and educators linked to California State University networks.

Workshops, Panels, and Training Sessions

The conference ran intensive workshops on digital audio techniques drawn from protocols used by British Library Sound Archive, transcription standards used by International Phonetic Association, and metadata practices aligned with Open Archives Initiative. Panels addressed ethical collaboration models referencing frameworks from American Anthropological Association and community consent practices similar to those promoted by National Congress of American Indians. Training sessions included demonstrations of software from Praat developers, corpus tools emerging from Stanford Research Systems, and repository management approaches informed by Open Language Archives Community standards.

Outcomes and Declarations

Outcomes of the meeting included formal recommendations for metadata standards, archiving workflows, and community-engagement principles circulated to organizations such as UNESCO, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Endangered Languages Documentation Programme. Declarations encouraged coordinated grant programs by National Science Foundation and curricular changes at institutions like SOAS University of London and Australian National University, and prompted the establishment of follow-up events involving Linguistic Society of America committees and regional hubs at University of Alaska Fairbanks and University of Auckland.

Impact and Legacy

The conference catalyzed ongoing collaborations among repositories including HathiTrust, Internet Archive, and British Library, influenced policy discussions at UNESCO and funding priorities at National Science Foundation, and shaped training curricula at University of Hawaiʻi and SOAS University of London. It contributed to the proliferation of community-centered documentation projects connected to Kamehameha Schools, First Nations, and indigenous language initiatives worldwide, and informed subsequent conferences and programs hosted by Linguistic Society of America, Endangered Languages Documentation Programme, and Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. Category:Linguistics conferences