The Lanfrica Data Unconference | Building Our Economic Futures in the Digital Age

​Motivation

​In today’s digital world, indigenous and minority languages are at risk of fading away, often overshadowed by dominant languages in technology and communication. At the heart of this challenge lies a crucial question: who builds the technologies that will shape the future of our languages? Too often, decisions about language technologies are made without the input of the very people who speak, study, and live through these languages. 

​At Lanfrica, we believe that everyone, from language experts to language users, has the innate ability to be a “builder”. You don’t have to be a computer scientist or a software engineer to influence the technology that affects your language. Our first goal is to empower language users—students, teachers, elders, storytellers, researchers, and community members—to discover their role in shaping our language technologies. We want to ignite the “builder” within each individual.

​What to expect in the event

​How can we be more than consumers of language technology? How can we shape the technologies that affect our languages? What is “data business” and how can we create economic opportunities through our language skills and data? All this and more will be explored in this unconference on October 29th, where language users become builders and decision-makers in the future of their languages. An unconference is an informal conference meant to spark conversations, and share ideas about this topic, and tackle real-world challenges. 

​Whether you're a linguist, a student, passionate language advocate, technologist, or from any other field, this is your chance to shape the digital future of your language.