[Lexicog] collaborative dictionary editing

[David Snopek]

There is wiki-like collaborative dictionary editing software.  For
example, I maintain some Open Source modules to the Drupal CMS that
implement this:

http://drupal.org/project/lingwo

However, the requirement was that the database must remain in Toolbox
format.  Even with an import/export process, you're bound to lose some
data in the conversion, because the data model in different software
packages is likely different.

Regards,
David.

2011/8/10 <amsler at cs.utexas.edu>
>
> Doesn't this sound a bit like what a 'wiki' itself does. I.e., a
> database in which revision control is implemented such that users can
> all make edits and the system permits emails to users when changes to
> their entries have been made and allows finding and comparing versions
> of entries and reverting entries to earlier versions.
>
> Quoting Bill Poser <billposer2 at gmail.com>:
>
> > There is software available that automates a process similar to what Susan
> > describes. It is called "revision control software" and is used primarily by
> > computer programs. A good place to start is this Wikipedia article:
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revision_control There are a number of free
> > systems as well as some proprietary ones.
> >
> > I use revision control not only for software but for writing. If, for
> > example, I am going to make major changes and might screw something up, I
> > check in the current version, then check out a copy to work on. If I screw
> > things up, I can just throw away what I've done and check out the previous
> > version. These systems also keep track of changes, so if you discover a
> > problem down the road, you can obtain a history of what you've done and
> > reconstruct previous versions. (These systems typically keep either the
> > first version or the current version plus a list of the editing commands
> > that need to be executed to construct the other versions.) Some systems
> > allow only one user to check out a file at once. Such a file is said to be
> > locked, and no one else can touch it until the person who has it out has
> > checked it back in and released the lock. There are also systems that will
> > allow multiple users to check out the same file and merge multiple changed
> > versions (and detect incompatible changes).
> >
> > Another possibility is to use a specialized editor that does not make any
> > changes but merely adds "comment" fields containing information about
> > proposed changes. On this model, people would add their proposed changes and
> > send them to a coordinator who would go through them and make the actual
> > changes in a master copy of the database. This is probably not an efficient
> > approach to adding records, but could be a reasonable approach to correcting
> > and amplifying existing entries.
> >
> > I mention this with some trepidation because I have a still somewhat drafty
> > program that does this. I wrote it for a different purpose, namely allowing
> > non-linguists to propose corrections without letting them actually change
> > the database. In addition to maintaining the integrity of the database, this
> > allows a linguist or other knowledgeable editor to consider suggested
> > changes and decide what to do about them. "corrections" may reflect
> > disagreements among speakers, which need to be looked into, speakers who
> > don't know the writing system used and therefore interpret correct entries
> > as mis-spelled or erroneous, speakers who don't understand the English (or
> > other language) used, and speakers who don't understand the way in which
> > information is presented in the dictionary.
> >
> > Bill
> >
> >
>
> 


--
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