Native language goes online (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Keola,

please, feel free to discuss your project with us here on ILAT!  ;-)

phil cash cash
UofA, ILAT

On Apr 4, 2004, at 7:15 PM, Keola Donaghy wrote:

> Aloha. I'm involved in the Ulukau project and on the ILAT list. Feel 
> free
> to contact me off the list for discussion.
>
> We intentionally modelled our efforts after the Maori and chose the 
> same
> software because of the relationship of our languages, and a desire to 
> see
> it spreak to other Polynesian languages. We've been contacted by some
> Native American groups as well who are interested in this model. There 
> is
> definitely the possibility of some alliances and collaborations.
>
> Keola
>
>
>
> =======================================================================
> Keola Donaghy
> Hawaiian Language Curriculum and Technology Coordinator
> Native Hawaiian Serving Institution Program
> University of Hawai'i at Hilo
>
> keola at leoki.uhh.hawaii.edu        http://www.uhh.hawaii.edu/~nhsi
> Kualono                           http://www.olelo.hawaii.edu/
> =======================================================================
>
>
> Indigenous Languages and Technology <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU> writes:
>> Phil, This is very interesting.  As I look at this and some similar
>> developments
>> re e-texts of various sorts in diverse (and less-represented on the 
>> web)
>> languages I think it may be very helpful to have some sort of 
>> "alliance"
>> of
>> e-book/digital library/web-based materials efforts to coordinate,
>> publicize,
>> and advocate.
>>
>> Recently I was contacted by Michael Hart of the Gutenberg Project (
>> http://www.gutenberg.org/ ), and he's interested in e-books in 
>> different
>> languages such as those of Africa for their effort. I'm also in touch
>> with John
>> Hutchison, one of the principals in the African Language Materials
>> Archive (
>> http://www.aiys.org/aodl/public/access/alma_ebooks/index.php ), which 
>> is
>> another effort to get diverse material online.
>>
>> It occurs that each of these efforts properly and functionally has 
>> its own
>> identity, but that each and all might benefit first from being more 
>> aware
>> of
>> what each other is doing, and beyond that from being able to work
>> together to
>> enhance both the general environment for their respective efforts and
>> users'
>> experience with e-materials across diverse languages.
>>
>> One analogy that comes to mind is the "alliances" that various groups 
>> of
>> airlines have set up in recent years. In a more or less similar way,
>> perhaps
>> e-text efforts could connect, coordinate, and colearn while keeping 
>> their
>> own
>> agendae.
>>
>> The first step would be to get projects aware of this perspective and
>> find out
>> what sort of interest there might be.  A coordinating agency to the 
>> extent
>> necessary might logically be the oldest and largest one, Gutenberg. A
>> simple
>> communication mechanism to get it started might be a small e-mail 
>> working
>> group
>> of interested parties.
>>
>> Don
>>
>>
>> Don Osborn, Ph.D.         dzo at bisharat.net
>> *Bisharat! A language, technology & development initiative
>> *Bisharat! Initiative langues - technologie - développement
>> http://www.bisharat.net
>>
>>
>>
>> Quoting phil cash cash <cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU>:
>>
>>> fyi,
>>>
>>> here is the link to Greenstone, a free digital library software, that
>>> was mentioned in the article below.
>>>
>>> http://www.greenstone.org/cgi-bin/library
>>>
>>> phil cash cash
>>> UofA, ILAT
>>>
>>>
>>>> ----- Message from cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU ---------
>>>>     Date: Sun, 4 Apr 2004 10:08:58 -0700
>>>>     From: phil cash cash <cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU>
>>>> Reply-To: Indigenous Languages and Technology
>>> <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
>>>>  Subject: Native language goes online (fwd)
>>>>       To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
>>>>
>>>> Posted on: Sunday, April 4, 2004
>>>> http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Apr/04/ln/ln21a.html
>>>>
>>>> Native language goes online
>>>>
>>>> By Vicki Viotti
>>>> Advertiser Staff Writer
>>>>
>>>> The word is out on Ulukau, an online digital library that's placing
>>>> Hawaiian vocabulary, and some literature, a click away from the
>>>> world.
>>>>
>>>> The Bible, two Hawaiian-English dictionaries, a journal of archival
>>>> Hawaiian texts, a collection of Hawaiian-language newspapers and a
>>>> book
>>>> about Kamehameha are posted at Ulukau: The Hawaiian Electronic
>>>> Library
>>>> (ulukau.olelo.hawaii.edu/english.php). Its developers say there's
>>>> more
>>>> to come.
>>>>
>>>> The dictionaries on the newly launched e-library, which in recent
>>>> weeks
>>>> has been getting well more than 10,000 hits a day, are by far its
>>>> most
>>>> popular element, the creators say. The site is posted in 
>>>> mirror-image
>>>> Hawaiian- and English-language versions: You switch back and forth
>>>> from
>>>> a link at the top of every page.
>>>>
>>>> It's the brainchild of two parents: the Native Hawaiian Library, a
>>>> program of Alu Like Inc.; and the Hale Kuamo'o Center for Hawaiian
>>>> Language at the University of Hawai'i-Hilo.
>>>>
>>>> And, continuing the family metaphor, it's a cousin of a similar 
>>>> Maori
>>>> e-library — appropriate, given that Hawaiian and Maori are 
>>>> linguistic
>>>> kin.
>>>>
>>>> A team at the University of Waikato in New Zealand five years ago
>>>> developed the free digital program Greenstone, the software that
>>>> underlies the university's Maori Language Newspaper Project, as well
>>>> as
>>>> Ulukau.
>>>>
>>>> Stefan Boddie, one of the team members in New Zealand, remains on
>>>> call
>>>> as a consultant for Ulukau. He helps the Hawai'i staffers make their
>>>> own enhancements work with the base program, which Boddie said is
>>>> kept
>>>> very simple so that less-developed nations can use it on the kind of
>>>> computer system they have.
>>>>
>>>> "One of the main goals was that it would be free and easy to run on
>>>> old
>>>> computers," Boddie said in a telephone interview, adding that 
>>>> digital
>>>> libraries can be saved on CDs for use in places where the Internet
>>>> isn't available.
>>>>
>>>> But in Hawai'i, where computers are pretty slick and high-speed Net
>>>> access is popular, Greenstone can be upgraded with bells and 
>>>> whistles
>>>> developed to make Ulukau resonate better with the Hawaiian language.
>>>>
>>>> For example, said Keola Donaghy, technology coordinator at the
>>>> UH-Hilo
>>>> language center, an add-on keypad on the page enables users of the
>>>> online dictionary to tap out Hawaiian diacritical marks — the 
>>>> 'okina
>>>> and the kahako — regardless of their own computer gear.
>>>>
>>>> And, he said, the search mechanism will hunt for words that appear 
>>>> as
>>>> stand-alone entries as well as parts of other words — a boon for
>>>> those
>>>> researching compound Hawaiian personal or place names, he said.
>>>>
>>>> "It does an inclusive search," Donaghy said. "Say you were looking
>>>> for
>>>> the word ali'i. It could give you that and any word that contains 
>>>> the
>>>> word ali'i."
>>>>
>>>> Some files are viewable directly through a Web link; others must be
>>>> downloaded as Adobe Acrobat files that can be opened later. There 
>>>> are
>>>> images stored online as well, so that the visitor can view the
>>>> archival
>>>> (sometimes handwritten) document as well as the searchable text.
>>>>
>>>> Donaghy is one of those leading the Web site's team locally, along
>>>> with
>>>> Robert Stauffer of Alu Like, an organization that provides services
>>>> to
>>>> Native Hawaiians. Stauffer heads Alu Like's Legacy project, 
>>>> producing
>>>> Ka Ho'oilina, a journal of archival texts in Hawaiian that is one of
>>>> the publications posted at the e-library.
>>>>
>>>> Because there are Hawaiian and English versions of all library
>>>> sections,
>>>> they have been able to tell that roughly half the hits have been
>>>> people
>>>> who understand Hawaiian but are doing research or just need a little
>>>> nudge.
>>>>
>>>> "Besides giving you the definition, it gives you the spelling, with
>>>> the
>>>> marks," he said. "They may know the word, but they don't remember
>>>> where
>>>> the kahako is."
>>>>
>>>> Ulukau can be used to produce compact discs of the content, but its
>>>> online edition can be kept up to date, Donaghy said.
>>>>
>>>> "The beauty of doing it online is we can continually add to it and
>>>> not
>>>> have to produce new CDs," he said.
>>>>
>>>> Coming in the next few months is a new section that will house
>>>> academic
>>>> papers written by current scholars and new titles, including the
>>>> Hawaiian-language version of "Kamehameha and his Warrior
>>>> Kekuhaupi'o,"
>>>> already on the site in English.
>>>>
>>>> The hope is that the e-library can house treasures of Hawaiian
>>>> literature and new writings in one place, works that otherwise are
>>>> found in collections scattered throughout the Islands, said Kalena
>>>> Silva, director of the Hawaiian language college at UH-Hilo.
>>>>
>>>> The name of the library, Ulukau, derives from "ulu kau," a term in
>>>> the
>>>> dictionary referring to supernatural interpretive powers that can be
>>>> divinely given to a person. The sharing of knowledge through
>>>> cyberspace
>>>> has the same sort of ethereal sense, Silva said.
>>>>
>>>> "It really is otherworldly," he said.
>>>>
>>>> "It's miraculous, when we think about it. People just wouldn't have
>>>> thought this would have been possible, even 10 years ago."
>>>>
>>>> Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti at honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ----- End message from cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU -----
>>>
>