The process of documenting and describing the world's languages is undergoing
radical transformation with the rapid uptake of new digital technologies for
capture, storage, annotation and dissemination. However, uncritical adoption of
new tools and technologies is leading to resources that are difficult to reuse
and which are less portable than the conventional printed resources they
replace. We begin by reviewing current uses of software tools and digital
technologies for language documentation and description. This sheds light on
how digital language documentation and description are created and managed,
leading to an analysis of seven portability problems under the following
headings: content, format, discovery, access, citation, preservation and
rights. After characterizing each problem we provide a series of value
statements, and this provides the framework for a broad range of best practice
recommendations.Comment: 8 page