SharePoint brought in to rescue Aboriginal language

With some Australian Aboriginal languages facing extinction, the Arwarbukarl Cultural Resource Association (ACRA) has adopted Microsoft SharePoint and Access to help its work to preserve one indigenous dialect. Based on Access, ACRA has created its own program--Miromaa, which means "saved" in Awabakal--to store data and research on the Awabakal language. ACRA also is using SharePoint Server 2007 to share its work with other Aboriginal groups to help the spread and restoration of the language.

According to ACRA, the system can help archive "all evidences of language including, text, audio, images and video" as Word documents and spreadsheets. In the future, ACRA plans to make Miromaa available using a Web-based platform to enable other groups to contribute to its research and enable Aboriginal communities to use ACRA's work in their own language studies.

Jo Best of ZDNet Australia reported from Sydney.