How do I download corpora from the web-based distribution system?
For many years, the LDC has provided electronic delivery of relatively small corpora (typically, data sets that could be compressed down to 40 megabytes or less) via an FTP mechanism; in recent years, very small corpora (less than 4 MB) have been E-mailed to recipients as MIME attachments. Although FTP/E-mail delivery worked most of the time for most people, we know there have been numerous problems, affecting both new and experienced users (file-not-found on the ftp server, e-mail account overwhelmed by too much data, security measures at the user’s site that blocked ftp access and/ or email attachments, and so on). To put an end to these problems, and provide more effective access to these corpora, we have switched to a new web-based distribution method, using the LDC’s intranet. The LDC Intranet provides login access to a variety of LDC resources. Anyone can establish a “guest” login account free of charge, and the number of resources available to guest accounts will be increasing.
