18.928, Going: the Extra Mile

Wed Mar 28 01:54:15 UTC 2007

LINGUIST List: Vol-18-928. Tue Mar 27 2007. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 18.928, Going: the Extra Mile

Moderators: Anthony Aristar, Eastern Michigan U <aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Aristar-Dry, Eastern Michigan U <hdry at linguistlist.org>

Reviews: Laura Welcher, Rosetta Project  
       <reviews at linguistlist.org> 

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Editor for this issue: Kevin Burrows <kevin at linguistlist.org>
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1)
Date: 27-Mar-2007
From:  linguist < linguist at linguistlist.org >
Subject: Project Manager Gayathri Sriram on 6.5 Years at LINGUIST 

2)
Date: 27-Mar-2007
From:  linguist < linguist at linguistlist.org >
Subject: OLAC & Metadata

*******************************************************************************
          Fund Drive FLASH: We still need $40,685 to end Fund Drive.
   If you have not donated, please visit http://linguistlist.org/donate.html
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-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2007 21:44:20
From:  linguist < linguist at linguistlist.org >
Subject: Project Manager Gayathri Sriram on 6.5 Years at LINGUIST 

Dear Subscribers,

I have been with LINGUIST for the last six and a half years, during this time I 
have worked on many projects as a programmer/tester/team leader/manager and I still 
cannot get enough of the challenges that seem to be thrown at me on a daily basis. 
All LINGUIST crew members like me face these daily challenges because LINGUIST 
has always been involved in developing ground-breaking work for the field of 
linguistics. Our web infrastructure allows linguists (students, professors, 
researchers) to familiarize themselves in handling language resources in a digital 
format. Best of all, the resources and services we provide have always been free 
of cost to subscribers, something that is unique to the field of linguistics.

My background is in Information Systems, so most of my work involves database 
design and user-interface design for various LINGUIST projects. I also  manage 
different teams that implement and test these projects before we make it available 
to you. Did you know that our web pages are tested on 18 different browser/OS 
configurations? Yes, this is a time consuming process, but we go the extra mile 
to ensure an optimal browsing experience for all users. We have 26 outstanding 
crew members (not including our visionary leaders who practically live in the LL 
office!) working on nearly 30 concurrent teams to ensure that our subscribers 
have access to the latest information, in an open/digital form, at no cost!

Over the last few days, you have heard from all of us about our role in LINGUIST's 
special world. Hopefully this should help give you a picture of the ins and outs 
of our day-to-day life. LINGUIST not only provides free services to users, but 
also helps deserving students achieve their goal by funding them. Your donation 
is what enables LINGUIST to continue working on its mission. Please contribute 
to keep LINGUIST alive and well!

Thank you,
Gayathri Sriram
Project Director, 
The LINGUIST List

-------------------------Message 2 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2007 21:44:23
From:  linguist < linguist at linguistlist.org >
Subject: OLAC & Metadata 

Dear Subscribers,

How many hours do you spend looking for information about a language that you
are interested in? Granted, with the advent of powerful Internet search engines
it may be a tad easier to find language documentation, but you still have to
spend time skimming each resource or archive individually! Do you ever wish for
a single place where you could find all the resources with a single search? Look
no further, because LINGUIST and OLAC have made this possible for you. Please
read on to see what we have in store.

What is OLAC? 
The Open Language Archives Community, or OLAC, is an international partnership
of institutions and individuals dedicated to collecting information about
language resources?similar to a large library catalog?and making it accessible
with a single search. The information is stored as metadata in XML format so
that it is easily understood by the OLAC search engine. OLAC is also involved in
developing standards on best practice for the digital archiving of language
resources, see: 
http://linguistlist.org/olac/index.html
http://www.language-archives.org/

What is metadata? 
Metadata is "data about data" or information about data. Metadata is a set of
structured descriptions that are publicly available to assist in locating
resources. Note that the data itself is not requested, so you still have full
control over who sees it. OLAC uses the OLAC Metadata Set (OLACMS?which is in
XML) for describing language resources. The OLACMS is equally applicable whether
the resources are available online or not. The metadata set consists of all the
elements of the Dublin Core Metadata Set along with a set of refinements and
qualifications that are designed to describe fundamental properties of language
resources, such as subject language, language data type, and software functionality.

How is LINGUIST involved with OLAC?
LINGUIST is hosting the "Union Catalog" of the Open Language Archives Community,
which not only allows linguists to search OLAC through LINGUIST List, but also
to become data providers for the project. Currently, you can search over 30,000
records in 35 linguistics-related archives, such as the Alaska Native Language
Archive, PARADISEC, Ethnologue, and of course LINGUIST List Language archive!
Please see the URL at:
http://linguistlist.org/olac/olac-search-advanced.cfm

Who is already a part of OLAC?
OLAC has 35 participating archives from around the world:
A Digital Archive of Research Papers in Computational Linguistics
Aboriginal Studies Electronic Data Archive (ASEDA)
Academia Sinica Balanced Corpus of Modern Chinese
Academia Sinica Formosan Language Archive
Academia Sinica Tagged Corpus of Early Mandarin Chinese
Alaska Native Language Center Archive
Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America
ATILF Resources
Audio Archive of Linguistic Fieldwork
Boiste
Centre de Ressources pour la Description de l'Oral (CRDO)
CHILDES Data Repository
Comparative Corpus of Spoken Portuguese
Cornell Language Acquisition Laboratory, CLAL
DOBES Catalogue - OLAC 1.0
Ethnologue: Languages of the World
European Language Resources Association?ISO639
ODIN?The Online Database of Interlinear Text
Oxford Text Archive
Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures (PARADISEC)
Perseus Digital Library
Rosetta Project 1000 Language Archive
SIL Language and Culture Archives
Surrey Morphology Group Databases
Survey for California and Other Indian Languages
TalkBank
The LDC Corpus Catalog
The LINGUIST List Language Resources
The Natural Language Software Registry
The Typological Database Project
Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library 
TRACTOR Test Archive
U Bielefeld Language Archive
UQ Flint Archive
Virtual Kayardild Archive

How can you, as a linguist, get involved with OLAC?
OLAC is encouraging linguists everywhere to submit information about what they
have; that is, to become "a data provider'" Even if the resource itself is not
available on the Internet?a collection of cassettes, for example?people will
still be able to find out what resources exist and where to find them.

To ensure that as many people as possible participate, there are three different
ways to become a data provider:

* The OLAC Repository Editor (ORE): If you are an individual with small
projects, this method would be the simplest. ORE is a series of simple online
forms. You can enter your information using these forms; this information is
automatically converted into a format that the OLAC search engine can read. So,
if you want your valuable information to be accessible to the entire linguistics
community, please go to:
http://linguistlist.org/olac/ore/index.html

* Conventional Approach for large archives: If you have a catalog and
programming skills, this is the best method. Here, you implement a software
interface to your database, which creates the XML metadata and sends it to the
OLAC search engine. For more on the Conventional Approach, please visit:
http://www.language-archives.org/docs/implement.html#conventional

* Static Repositories: If you know XML, this is a quicker way of providing data.
If you can create an XML document yourself, and put it on a publicly-accessible
website, and register your file with OLAC, your metadata is harvested and
available to the OLAC search engine. The Static Repositories option is suitable
for larger projects that have no pre-existing catalog database:
http://www.language-archives.org/documents/implement.html#Static

Would you like to join the OLAC community?
To keep abreast of the latest developments within the OLAC community, or to help
with the language resource archiving standardization procedure, you can join the
OLAC-general mailing list at:
http://www.language-archives.org/

We hope you find that the wealth of searchable language archives on our OLAC web
site and elsewhere is useful and valuable. The smooth running of this complex
site is due to the hardworking efforts of our student linguists and programmers.
They get a rather unique education working at LINGUIST, which supports them in
the form scholarships from the proceeds of our annual fund drive. So please show
your appreciation of their efforts by making a donation to The LINGUIST List
during Fund Drive 2007. We really appreciate your support!

Sincerely,
The LINGUIST Crew 

-----------------------------------------------------------

This Year the LINGUIST List hopes to raise $55,000. This money will go to help keep the 
List running by supporting all of our Student Editors for the coming year.

See below for donation instructions, and don't forget to check out our Fund Drive 2007 
LINGUIST List Superhero Adventure for some Fund Drive fun!

http://linguistlist.org/donation/fund-drive2007/ 

There are many ways to donate to LINGUIST!

You can donate right now using our secure credit card form.

Alternatively you can also pledge right now and pay later.

For all information on donating and pledging, including information on how to donate by 
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http://linguistlist.org/donate.html

The LINGUIST List is under the umbrella of Eastern Michigan University and as such can 
receive donations through the EMU Foundation, which is a registered 501(c) Non Profit 
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Many companies also offer a gift matching program, such that they will match any gift 
you make to a non-profit organization. Normally this entails your contacting your human 
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to your employer. This is generally a simple administrative procedure that doubles the 
value of your gift to LINGUIST, without costing you an extra penny. Please take a moment 
to check if your company operates such a program.

Thank you very much for your support of LINGUIST!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We would like to thank all of the publishers and subscribers who
donated prizes for this year's Fund Drive games, puzzles, and 
competitions.

Publisher Prize Donors: 

Cascadilla Press 
Continuum 
Edinburgh University Press
Hodder Arnold
Mouton de Gruyter
Multilingual Matters
Sage Publications

Subscriber Prize Donors:

Rusudan Amirejibi-Mullen
Paola Attolino
Cristiano Chesi
Greville G. Corbett
Rosa J. Garcia B. Cordova
Gang Gu
Suzette Haden Elgin
Lise Menn
Claus Dieter Pusch
Sandra Thompson
Thorsten Trippel
Tom Zurinskas
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Linguistics Program, Northeastern University
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test pledge 
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WIM VANDENBUSSCHE, VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT BRUSSEL 
Wini Davies 

- Plus 17 anonymous donors

******************************************************

MAJOR SUPPORTING PUBLISHERS

Cascadilla Press 
http://www.cascadilla.com/ 
Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd 
http://www.continuumbooks.com 
Edinburgh University Press 
http://www.eup.ed.ac.uk/ 
European Language Resources Association - ELRA 
http://www.elra.info. 
Georgetown University Press 
http://www.press.georgetown.edu 
Hodder Arnold 
http://www.hoddereducation.co.uk 
John Benjamins 
http://www.benjamins.com/ 
http://www.benjamins.nl/ 
Lincom GmbH 
http://www.lincom.eu 
www.lincom.eu 
Mouton de Gruyter 
http://www.mouton-publishers.com 
Multilingual Matters 
http://www.multilingual-matters.com/ 
Oxford University Press 
http://www.oup.com/us 
http://www.oup.co.uk 
Pagijong Press 
http://pjbook.com 
Palgrave Macmillan 
http://www.palgrave.com 
Peter Lang AG 
http://www.peterlang.com 
Rodopi 
http://www.rodopi.nl/ 
http://www.rodopi.nl 
Springer 
http://www.springer.com 

OTHER SUPPORTING PUBLISHERS
CSLI Publications 
http://cslipublications.stanford.edu/ 
International Pragmatics Assoc. 
http://www.ipra.be 
Linguistic Assoc. of Finland 
http://www.ling.helsinki.fi/sky/ 
Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics / Landelijke - LOT 
http://www.lotpublications.nl/ 
SIL International 
http://www.ethnologue.com/bookstore.asp 
St. Jerome Publishing Ltd. 
http://www.stjerome.co.uk

******************************************************

INSTITUTIONS

BAE Systems 
Basis Technology 
Basis Technology Corporation 
BeVocal, Inc 
Boston University 
Bridgewater State College 
Butler Hill Group 
CELI s.r.l. 
City University of Hong Kong 
Comcast 
Concordia University 
Darmstadt University of Technology 
Dongduk Women's University 
English School Sunny Plus 
Grove City College 
Gyeonggi English Village 
Hablamos Juntos - UCSF 
Haskins Laboratories 
Hokkaido University 
Humboldt Universität zu Berlin 
Indiana University 
Indiana University - Bloomington 
Ingenuity Systems 
Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt/Main 
Johns Hopkins University 
Kent State University 
KNOVA Software, Inc. 
La Trobe University 
LearnBalance Group 
Leibniz Universität Hannover 
Lexicon Branding, Inc. 
Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania 
Louisiana State University 
Maher Language Institute (MLI) 
McGill University 
McNeil Technologies, Inc. 
Michigan State University 
Monterey Institute of International Studies 
National Sun Yat-sen University 
National Taiwan Normal University 
Nemours/AI duPont Hospital for Children 
Nordic CoE in Microcomparative Syntax 
Northwestern University 
Nuance Communications, Inc. 
Q-go Netherlands bv 
Radboud University Nijmegen 
RiverGlass, Inc. 
Royal Museum for Central Africa 
RPI 
RWTH Aachen 
San Diego State University 
SDL International 
Seattle Pacific University 
Shenandoah University 
Simon Fraser University 
SOAS, University of London 
Stony Brook University 
Systran 
SYSTRAN S.A. 
SYSTRAN Software, Inc. 
The Australian National University 
The State University of New York at Buffalo 
Tuebingen University 
Tufts University 
UCSC 
University College London 
University of Aberdeen 
University of Alaska Fairbanks 
University of Alberta 
University of Arizona 
University of British Columbia 
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) 
University of California, San Diego 
University of California, Santa Barbara 
University of Chicago 
University of Cologne 
University of Delaware 
University of Edinburgh 
University of Essex 
University of Geneva 
University of Groningen, Faculty of Arts 
University of Hamburg (Germany) 
University of Leeds 
University of Mary Washington 
University of Maryland 
University of Maryland University College 
University of Michigan 
University of Mississippi 
University of Missouri-Rolla 
University of Neuchatel 
University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China 
University Of Oregon 
University of Oxford 
University of Pittsburgh 
University of Potsdam 
University of Texas at San Antonio 
University of Trento (Italy) 
University of Tromsø 
University of Utah 
University of Wales, Bangor 
University of Washington 
University of Wolverhampton 
University of York 
Université Laval 
Voice Signal Technologies, Inc, 
Wake Forest University 
Wayne State University 
Yuan Ze University

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LINGUIST List: Vol-18-928	