26.1384, Support: The LINGUIST List Operation

[The LINGUIST List via LINGUIST]

LINGUIST List: Vol-26-1384. Thu Mar 12 2015. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 26.1384, Support: The LINGUIST List Operation

Moderators: linguist at linguistlist.org (Damir Cavar, Malgorzata E. Cavar)
Reviews: reviews at linguistlist.org (Anthony Aristar, Helen Aristar-Dry, Sara Couture)
Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

*************    LINGUIST List 2015 Fund Drive    *************
Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:

              http://funddrive.linguistlist.org/

Editor for this issue: Ashley Parker <ashley at linguistlist.org>
================================================================


Date: Thu, 12 Mar 2015 10:04:43
From: LINGUIST List [linguist at linguistlist.org]
Subject: Support: The LINGUIST List Operation

 
Dear LINGUIST List Supporters,

Many of you have heard that the LINGUIST List relocated from Eastern Michigan
University in Ypsilanti to Indiana University in Bloomington in 2014. Please
allow us to summarize what this relocation involved.

In spring 2014 we started cleaning out the former space of LINGUIST List and
the Institute for Language Information and Technology (ILIT) at EMU and
planning the relocation to Indiana University. Some team members decided to
join us in the relocation and continue their work and lives at the new
location. Unfortunately, not everybody could join us. Our editors Uliana and
Danuta continue to support LINGUIST List remotely, but decided to stay in
Michigan.

As you can imagine, the LINGUIST List operation involves a significant amount
of technology and equipment. The servers that the LINGUIST List was using in
Michigan supported among others the following systems:

- The web server for various web pages and sites (based on numerous instances
of the Apache web/httpd server)
- A LISTSERV list server using the commercial software system sold by L-Soft
serving not only LINGUIST and LINGLITE, but also numerous other linguistic
mailing lists
- An Oracle database server that contained all the website information and
project data, from the LINGUIST List issues and postings, to dictionaries and
linguistic maps and polygons for the GIS system
- An Adobe ColdFusion web application server for the main website and some
project pages
- Apache Tomcat servers for Java-applications
- A GIS server using the GeoServer system to serve the unique collection of
historic linguistic maps, the LL-Map project
- Various Ruby on Rails and PHP applications using MySQL, like: ODIN, LEGO,
GOLD, MultiTree
- An email server
- A file server for large file collections, project data, internal documents,
collaborative project material
- Etc.

It was clear that it would not be possible to relocate the hardware (7 servers
of varying age and capacity) and the other equipment. One of the problems we
were facing was that policies and restrictions at our new hosting institution
would not allow us to operate the respective servers there. It also quickly
became clear that the LINGUIST List would not have the funds to pay the
expensive licenses for commercial software, e.g. LISTSERV, Adobe ColdFusion,
or Oracle database server at the new location.

Many of our online linguistic tools (e.g. LEGO, GOLD, etc.) were developed
long ago, with funds from research grants, using now outdated software, with
systems running untouched for years on outdated infrastructure, written in
programming languages that have been overhauled ever since and so on. As in
any research environment with IT-systems and software, as soon as the software
is ready and installed, the environment, programming language, and systems are
outdated and need updates. For many systems, we were facing the situation that
they could not be updated at all anymore, since they relied on components that
were removed from modern Linux distributions years ago, because the
programming languages and libraries they used were not even available anymore
(in the required version).

All these issues together posed a serious problem. Please visit our blog to
learn more about our relocation, our current status in Indiana, and how you
can help: http://blog.linguistlist.org/

As always, we are grateful for all of your support!

Your LINGUIST List Team 






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