geographic interfaces to OLAC data

[Terry Langendoen]

Hi, this relates only indirectly to the question Baden raised, 
and to the follow-up discussion from Jeff, Anthony and Helen, but 
should be of interest to this group (and definitely will be to 
certain members -- read on).

Last week, Joan Maling (NSF Linguistics Program Officer), Anna 
Kerttula (NSF Office of Polar Programs Social Sciences PO) and I 
met with Chris Rainier and other National Geographic Society 
staff, and representatives from Conservation International to 
find out about and to discuss NGS's plans to construct a 
web-based interactive global map of biological and linguistic 
diversity. NGS and CI have framed their planning so far in terms 
of "hot spots" (areas of great biodiversity which are at greatest 
risk of massive extinctions), but Anna, Joan and I pointed out 
that this is not quite the right model for presenting data about 
languages and their endangerment (it leaves out the Arctic, for 
example) -- which everyone acknowledged. CI is providing data 
about biological diversity and threatened extinction. For 
languages, they have looked at Ethnologue and the UNESCO Red 
Book.

We gave the NGS folks information about the LL-MAP project and 
told them to be in touch with Helen and Anthony; and with Gary 
Simons about Ethnologue. I had intended to alert Helen, Anthony 
and Gary right away that they might be contacted by NGS, but in 
the press of getting ready to leave for Tucson (where I am now, 
basking in the 110 F = 43 C heat) and E. Lansing, forgot to do 
so, for which I apologize.

Terry


On Wed, 14 Jun 2006, Anthony Aristar wrote:

> Just to add a bit of information here:  we (i.e. LINGUIST List) were funded 
> this year to build a GIS system for language data, in a project called 
> LL-MAP.  The system we're building, though it could certainly use Google 
> Earth if it wanted to, will not depend on it, since it will be a full 
> implementation of ArcIMS.  We've been negotiating with GMI, the people who 
> did the polygons for Ethnologue, and they have tentatively agreed to let us 
> serve their data as part of our maps.  And the database design is just about 
> done.
>
> Our language system already incorporates language subgrouping (that is, each 
> language "knows" where it belongs in a subgroup).  These subgroupings are now 
> being updated and expanded in another funded project called Multitree. So, 
> since we run an OLAC harvester, we will be able to run the kind of queries 
> that have been talked about on either the DELAMAN or the OLAC-IMPLEMENTERS 
> list.  And in theory all OLAC data which has geographical information should 
> be incorporable into the system.
>
> Anthony
>
> Quoting Baden Hughes <badenh at cs.mu.oz.au>:
>
>> Hi OLAC-Implementers
>> 
>> Supposing :-) we had centroid point data for each language listed in
>> the Ethnologue, and were going to build some geography-oriented
>> services for OLAC. What sorts of things would people be interested in
>> seeing ? Some ideas:
>> 
>> - geographic coverage map per archive and for all archives, with "dots
>> on maps" representing languages which have resources listed in OLAC
>> 
>> - geographic coverage map per archive and for all archives, with "dots
>> on maps" representing resource types (eg dictionaries) listed in OLAC
>> 
>> - search by country, based on a graphical map selector interface
>> (click a country, see all resources for that country)
>> 
>> - search for related resources by geographic proximity
>> 
>> NB we are not allowed to distribute the data, but there is no reason
>> why we can't build a service or two with an API to allow others to use
>> it in conjunction with an OLAC-centric service.
>> 
>> Regards
>> 
>> Baden
>> 
>
>
>
>
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>               **************************************
> Anthony Aristar                   Professor
> Moderator, LINGUIST               Principal Investigator, EMELD Project
> Linguistics Program
> Dept. of English                  aristar at linguistlist.org
> Wayne State University            aristar at wayne.edu
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