The great majority of languages in the world do not have a traditional writing system or an established way of representing representing the language in a written form. There is a growing need to create writing systems for these languages. Linguists must have a way of recording and distributing language data in writing. In addition, local communities have recently started to show strong interest in developing of their own writing system in order to both preserve their cultural heritage and to maintain their cultural identity.

 However, it is not a simple matter to establish a writing system in these cases. There is a variety of linguistic and socio-cultural problems to overcome in developing a writing system for a previously unwritten language. Although some of these problems may be peculiar to a given language or community, a number of these issues also cut across different languages and communities. These general issues can be addressed more efficiently by sharing information and strategies about how to tackle the problems.

 With this in mind, this project aims to establish an online knowledge-base of considerations, techniques and strategies to deal with the difficulties associated with the creation of orthographies and writing conventions.