Thanks for the detailed reply, Mia..<br>I goofed by not explaining that this was not fully set up (which is why you couldn't find a number of things) -- and sound can be attached..and more. But, clearly, I will consider your comments -- and I have been considering a Wiki too..
<br>Best,<br>Susan<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 2/26/06, <b class="gmail_sendername">Mia Kalish</b> <<a href="mailto:MiaKalish@learningforpeople.us">MiaKalish@learningforpeople.us</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">Hi, Sue, </span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> </span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">I checked the page out that you gave me. .
. . </span></font><font color="navy" face="Wingdings" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Wingdings; color: navy;">J</span></font><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">
</span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> </span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">Yesterday, we had a discussion about
creating materials for Communities to use . . . and, I'm not sure this is
it, at least, not as a final output. I think that if it has an export function,
that it could be really useful for the middle-level data collection that would
then be used to create the Community materials. </span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> </span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">My first observation of the site was that
it looked very much like the search and retrieval system our library uses here
at NMSU. These systems are an outgrowth of the Retrieve/Browse paradigm of
early computer systems when there really was a space/functionality constraint.
(My first invoice/cash application had 32K of computer memory. That's
1/100<sup>th</sup> of what I have today on this laptop; which I don't have
to share). </span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> </span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">First, I searched for one of my favorite
polysemic words, "object", and didn't find anything.</span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> </span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">Then, I read that the words were about the
Southwest, so I searched for "cactus". "Cactus" showed
up at the top of the retrieved list which then went on to show such things as
California Redwoods. Every once in a very great while I find this kind of option
useful, but usually only to confirm the bad news, that what I was looking for
isn't there. I thought perhaps the alphabetic listing might be useful for
helping people correct spelling errors, so I went back and looked for "cactus".
I didn't find anything, which surprised me. This means that the
application is using a database that supports browse after keyed access. IBM's
DB2 used to have that facility. . . . Most non-commercial applications aren't
coded this way; this kind of functionality is useful when you have multiple items
coded under an identifying key, as for example Customer #/Invoice 1, Customer #/Invoice
2, and so on. It might also be useful for Cactus:Cholla, Cactus:Sequaro,
Cactus:Rainbow. But it doesn't appear to be working that way . . . . back
soon . . . I put in "cactus" again and selected the "Each
term followed by its relationships" radio button. Again, I got the
StartKey:Browse List configuration. </span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> </span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">Interestingly enough, you can input "c"
and get a list of items beginning with that letter. You can input "ce"
and get the list commencing with "ce". . . but if you input "cectus",
you get item not found. . . . I wondered if the function was perhaps dependent
on input string length. I input "cec" and again got a Not Found. </span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> </span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> </span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> </span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">I have some issues with the list of
metadata types. These are all highly abstracted, culturally embedded terms. I'll
bet there is only one entry for "preferred term". . . Having spent
several to many years in an institution that is famous for its critical
pedagogy, I have to has, Preferred By WHOM? It also is limited in that to make
the categories work for different disciplines, you have to identify each one of
them as a language. Lastly, I tracked through these categories long enough to
realize that the relationships form a Network. Both the search keys and the outputs
are all terms. I did find a place where there was a description. I found it
kind of frustrating because I felt like I was "always on the road"
never "at the Inn". In other
words, I was always searching, always searching, and because the responses were
so broad, and crossed so many categories, I never felt like I was done. </span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"> PT – Preferred Term<br>
SY – Synonym<br>
BT – Broader Term<br>
NT – Narrower Term<br>
FR – Functionally Related<br>
CR – Conceptually Related<br>
TR – Temporally Related<br>
PS – Physically/Spatially Related<font color="navy"><span style="color: navy;"></span></font></span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> </span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">You mentioned that this was pretty easy to
use. . . there is a kind of Rule of Interaction in Computer Science that says
that the easier something is to assemble on the front end, the less sophisticated
the functionality will be on the back end. I was a bit worried that there
was a Search Everywhere option, that allowed you to go to Google. IMHO, this is
an hypertext application without the graphics and sophisticated search engine
tools. It probably doesn't even allow you to embed special fonts for languages
that require characters other than those supported even by Unicode. (like
Athapascan languages). Given the sophistication of today's technologies, I
don't think users will want this for anything more than the mid-level
interface tool . . . </span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> </span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">A final, final note: This is very Modern
(one view, one meaning) as opposed to PostModern (many voices) and
PostStructuralist (lots of pieces, diachronic component). </span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> </span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">It seems you might like a Wiki better. . .
it gives you places for people to participate. The people I have worked with
always seem to think there is only one word for something in their language,
and one way to say that word. The battles that ensue around this idea tend to
halt revitalization rather than facilitate it. . . Oh: SWT doesn't seem
to have a place for sound. . . . no pictures? All Text? </span></font></p>
<div>
<div style="text-align: center;" align="center"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
<hr align="center" size="2" width="100%">
</span></font></div>
<p><b><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma; font-weight: bold;">From:</span></font></b><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;"> Indigenous Languages and Technology
[mailto:<a href="mailto:ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU</a>] <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">On Behalf
Of </span></b>Susan Penfield<br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Sunday, February 26, 2006
8:29 AM<br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> <a href="mailto:ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU</a><br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> [ILAT] Software</span></font></p>
</div><div><span class="e" id="q_109a740cfe2960de_1">
<p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Hi,<br>
Yesterday I mentioned that I have been looking at a new software which might be
usable <br>
for creating thematic dictionaries (a very user-friendly option) . I would like
some others to take a look<br>
to see what they think of it . Check out <a href="http://www.swt.arizona.edu" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">www.swt.arizona.edu</a>.
<br>
Best,<br>
Susan<br clear="all">
<br>
-- <br>
Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D.<br>
<br>
Department of English<br>
Affiliate faculty: Department of Linguistics <br>
and the Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Program <br>
American Indian Language Development Institute<br>
Phone for messages: (520) 621-1836 </span></font></p>
</span></div></div>
</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D.<br><br>Department of English<br>Affiliate faculty: Department of Linguistics <br>and the Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Program<br>American Indian Language Development Institute
<br>Phone for messages: (520) 621-1836