Kamusi Project facing funding issues

[Martin Benjamin]

Thanks Don, for the write-up on your blog, and for posting to ILAT.

I've just posted a video that explains a bit about the unique data model 
that underlies Kamusi. It took hours and hours of work to make, so I 
hope everyone watches and enjoys! Here it is on YouTube: 
http://youtu.be/XJLaqwZkBK0

For this list, I'm less interested in seeking funding than in seeking 
partners to help us spend what we get. We are soon to upgrade our code 
so that we can, in principle, start taking in data from all 7000 
languages in Ethnologue. However, this presents two big questions: 
configuration and validation.

For configuration, it would be extremely helpful if knowledgeable people 
could help us set up the proper fields for their languages of expertise. 
For example, how many plural forms does a noun have, or what class 
categories? The more we know about the structure of a language, the 
better we can tailor the interface to your specific needs. Just email me 
if you can help us configure a particular language - it isn't difficult 
work.

For validation, we will be taking in data from "the crowd", but the data 
will remain in quarantine until it passes review. There are two ways to 
pass. First, if we get the same result from a threshold number of 
contributors - but that requires a critical mass of participants for a 
language. Second, if an authority in the language confirms the 
contribution - but that requires the involvement of someone with the 
right expertise. We are working on ways to build crowd interest, 
including games and interactive mobile apps, that we'll announce in the 
months to come. But we also hope to work with scholars and language 
communities. So, if you are interested in participating at the expert 
level, please email me and we can talk about your needs for getting 
involved.

Any other questions, please post to the list if they are of general 
interest to others, or write me directly if they are specific to your 
language/ work situation.

Best,
Martin



On 9/9/14, 10:49 PM, dzo at bisharat.net wrote:
> Many of you may be familiar with the Kamusi Project - the online 
> living Swahili dictionary that began at Yale and later transitioned to 
> an NGO that has developed and tested a model for online dictionaries 
> in multiple languages (Global Online Living Dictionary - "GOLD") with 
> means to look up definitions across languages.
>
> It's currently facing a budgeting crisis and seeking ways fund 
> implementation of its model. I just did a short write-up on the Beyond 
> Niamey blog:
> "Kamusi at 20: Keeping the vision alive and working"
> http://niamey.blogspot.com/2014/09/kamusi-at-20-keeping-vision-alive-and.html 
>
>
> In principle, the GOLD model stands to benefit non-dominant languages 
> (even though it includes all languages) by first of all providing a 
> platform in which words and definitions in any language can be 
> entered. Secondly it facilitates dictionary look-ups across uncommon 
> language pairings (Navaho-Swahili?), with appropriate annotations 
> where those occur through one or more other languages.
>
> I believe Martin Benjamin, the Kamusi Project director, is subscribed 
> to ILAT, so hopefully he can respond to any questions about this 
> effort and its current situation.
>
> Don
>
> Don Osborn, PhD
> (Kamusi board member)
>
>
>
>

-- 

_______________________________________________
Dr. Martin Benjamin
Senior Scientist, EPFL and
Executive Director, Kamusi Project International
http://kamusi.org

Full contact information, social networks, blog and photos:
http://about.me/martin.benjamin