wiksign, a collaborativ french sign language dictionnary

[Mark A. Mandel]

Stuart Thiessen <thiessenstuart at aol.com> wrote:

#But for the purposes of a database, how difficult is it really to  
#include notations in a database using several of the major notation  
#systems (SignWriting, HamNoSys, Stokoe, etc.)? Those who utilize the  
#notations in their research can have that opportunity without  
#necessarily requiring anyone to embrace any particular notation system  
#at this time. I'm sure there is a wonderful research opportunity for  
#those who are interested in computers and database storage of sign  
#language data to work with the advocates of various notation systems  
#to come up with a "plug-in" that can make it easy for data to be  
#entered in a given notation system and append it easily to a web-base  
#database and display it upon request. That shouldn't be too hard. Even  
#XML could be a way to store the relevant notation data. It adds a  
#little more work to the database, but I think it is worth the effort  
#and allows various perspectives of the sign.

Having spoken in favor of notations, I feel compelled by conscience to speak up 
on the work they would take. It may not be *difficult* to include notations, but 
*somebody* has to transcribe each sign into each system used. Somebody has to 
add the code to the database and maintain it. Each such "somebody" has to either 
be paid for the work or be doing it as a project, e.g. for their studies. If the 
latter, somebody else will have to maintain it after the student is gone from 
the project; and somebody has to keep an eye on the student's work as they do it 
to make sure it will be maintainable after they leave.
 
-- Mark A. Mandel
   Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania
 
_______________________________________________
SLLING-L mailing list
SLLING-L at majordomo.valenciacc.edu
http://majordomo.valenciacc.edu/mailman/listinfo/slling-l