Language communities engaged in archives-based language revitalization. Our preference is to favor community organizations and efforts supported by federally recognized tribes to ensure sustainability. We try to remain flexible in order to meet the various needs that exist within Indian Country. If you are interested in having an ILDA site for your language, please contact us at nationalbol@miamioh.edu.
The Miami Tribe of Oklahoma built the original platform in response to their own needs for revitalization and, therefore, owns the copyright to the ILDA software suite and all associated apps.
Yes, the long-term sustainability and maintenance of the ILDA suite is directly tied to the investment the Miami Tribe has made towards its own language revitalization efforts. This tribally directed effort is embedded within a 50-year relationship the Miami tribe has with Miami University, and growing technology needs are maintained by the Myaamia Center on behalf of the Miami Tribe.
No! Each user community is entirely responsible for managing their ILDA site and has sole ownership of any data that they upload. The Miami Tribe owns the basket (the software itself), and you, the user, own everything you put in it. For more information, visit our User Agreement page.
Miami University securely stores University data, including data uploaded to ILDA, on Amazon Web Services (AWS) servers through an enterprise agreement. AWS has no legal rights to ILDA, its users, or their data and does not collect user data except that which is needed for ILDA's functionality. AWS will not disclose any ILDA content or user data to any third party unless legally required to do so. AWS is secured according to industry standards, and the Myaamia Center develops ILDA to operate within these standards.
At this time we do not recommend self-hosting ILDA as it is constantly being developed and is maintained by our software team. This doesn't mean it’s impossible for you to host your own instance. If you would like to discuss further, please email us at nationalbol@miamioh.edu.
Our Archives Development Trainer is available, free of charge, to help new user communities get up and running using ILDA and provides ongoing support to our users.
Yes. Data in the archive side of ILDA is stored as Comma-Separated Values (.csv) files and can be downloaded at any time by authorized users. Other data, including the ILDA Dictionary, Stems list, and Morphemes, are stored as JSON files and can also be downloaded at any time by authorized users.
Possibly. Some users have been able to upload existing archival data and dictionaries into ILDA, but it largely depends on the format and software used, as well as your team's knowledge and expertise in computer processes. Generally, existing databases that are in spreadsheet formats are fairly straightforward to edit into ILDA’s format and upload. We have had some success uploading XML export files from other database software, although knowledge of script writing is necessary. If you would like to explore the possibility of uploading your existing database to ILDA, please email us at nationalbol@miamioh.edu.
The public availability of each individual ILDA site is determined by the user community. Users can choose in their site’s admin settings to either put their site behind password protection for authorized users only or leave it open to the public. ILDA also offers a sensitive data setting to restrict access to information to a subset of user accounts as defined by the site administrators.
The ILDA Dictionary is designed as a learner resource and shares data with the ILDA archive. The dictionary is both a website and a mobile app for iOS and Android. All ILDA dictionaries are hosted through the same app (search ‘ILDA Dictionary” in your app store to find it), and users are asked to select which one when they first open the app. As with the ILDA archives, ILDA Dictionaries can also be put behind password protection.
At this time, ILDA is free for all our user communities. It is possible that our user base and costs may grow based on increased demands. At that time, we may need to ask our users to contribute as they are able. Before implementing any fees, we will consult with our users to ensure any costs will not be prohibitive to any communities currently using ILDA.
