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aboutWugbot.html
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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang=en>
<head>
<meta charset=utf-8>
<title>About Wugbot</title>
<meta name=author content='The Wugbot Team'>
<meta name=description content='The about of Wugbot - an organization dedicated to making digital linguistics accessible to everyone'>
<meta name=keywords content='Wugbot, digital linguistics, DLX, linguistics, computational linguistics, language revitalization'>
<link rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' href='css/style.css'>
</head>
<style>
body{
margin: 2%;
margin-right: 25%; }
ul {
list-style-type: square;
padding-left: 50px;
padding-right: 75px; }
ul li {
padding: 4px 0px;}
</style>
<body>
<h2>Mission Statement</h2>
<p>We aim to build tools, documentation, and example applications to help the field of linguistics reap more benefits from digitization. In other words, we plan to write programs, and to teach other linguists how to write programs, so they can take advantage of technology when doing linguistic research. We have chosen the web platform as a suitable platform for this work.</p>
<h2>Frequently Asked Questions</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="#why-web">Why is the web a suitable platform for Wugbot?</a></li>
<li><a href="#short-term">What are Wugbot's short term goals?</a></li>
<li><a href="#long-term">What are Wugbot's long term goals?</a></li>
<li><a href="#open-source">What is "open source"? Why is it important for Wugbot?</a></li>
<li><a href="#open-source-policy">Does open source mean I have to share my data?</a></li>
<li><a href="/aboutDLX.html">What is "Digital Linguistics"? How does Wugbot contribute to linguistic theory?</a></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="why-web">Why the web?</h2>
<p>We have chosen the web platform for a variety of reasons:
</p>
<ul>
<li>No one needs to <strong>install</strong> or <strong>download</strong> anything! Most computers, laptops, tablets, and smartphones come with internet browsers and text editors already installed.</li>
<li>The web platform comes with a markup language for <strong>organizing data</strong> (HTML), an independent markup language for adding <strong>styles like colors and fonts</strong> (CSS), and a scripting language for <strong>manipulating data</strong> (JavaScript). </li>
<li>HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are relatively <strong>easy to learn</strong> and work together sestronglessly <strong>across platforms</strong>. This means you can make it on Windows, Mac, or Linux and it will work on Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, or any other browser.</li>
<li>This means you have <strong>one standard interface across all devices</strong> instead of having to install (and learn!) ELAN, FLEx, LexiquePro, Praat, and half a dozen other programs.
<li>HTML, CSS, and JavaScript have become industry standards. Unlike other technologies, like floppy disks and cassette tapes, these have stood the test of time. They ain't going anywhere any time soon!</li>
<li>Data can be stored and manipulated locally (off the internet) or publically (on the internet), depending on the needs of your project.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="short-term">Wugbot's Short-Term Goals</h2>
<p> Wugbot has several on-going projects as proof-of-concept test cases for our platform. The aggregate examples will be combined in a way that demonstrates the utility of Wugbot’s efforts for typological linguistic comparison.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>HTML/CSS:</strong> A proposal for a standardized method for marking up linguistic data in HTML and a complementary CSS stylesheets which render the above markup in standard linguistic notation. In other words, a standard for formatting interlinear glosses using HTML and CSS, including example texts.</li>
<li><strong>JavaScript:</strong> A series of small, interoperable web-based interfaces aimed at solving very specific documentary problems. In other words, several web applications which can do simple tasks like tag parts-of-speech or measure vowel formats.
<li><strong>Language Documenation:</strong>Multiple-document digitization projects on Hiligaynon (an Austronesian language of the Philippines) and Chitimacha (a langauge isolate spoken in Louisiana).</li>
<li><strong>Linguistic Typology:</strong>A small-scale multi-language comparative typology project, consisting of a comparison of a single grammatical feature across a broad array of languages.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="long-term">Wugbot's Long-Term Goals</h2>
<p>At a later date we may...</p>
<ul>
<li>submit our proposals to suitable standards organizations such as <a href="http://www.w3.org/">W3C.org</a> or other similar web standards organizations.)</li>
<li>set up interactive tutorials, webinars, or host workshops to teach linguists how to use HTML, CSS, JavaScript and other technologies.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="open-source">What is open source?</h2>
<p>Our work will be released under open source licenses. What this means is that anyone can use or edit the code Wugbot writes. You can download and use our programs for free, and you are free to make changes or add improvements as you see fit. We encourage derivative works based on the standards, including potentially commercial applications. </p>
<p>We also prioritize the human-legibility of the documentary formats we develop. We try to write transparent code, so that linguists can use our work as a model when learning to program themselves. For example, we try to avoid unnecessary or obtuse abbreviations in the code. While the markup of a detailed HTML file may not be truly “readable,” the rendered version will be, and we insist on maintaining clarity of mapping between markup and rendered content. Many existing software formats (ELAN’s EAF format, Flex’s @@@, etc.) place no such priority on the design of their formats. Thus these formats are confined to being legible only to technical experts and not the majority of linguists. It is our goal to increase the general amount of technical empowerment among working linguists and speech communities. Data formats should become more transparent and more accessible by everyone.</p>
<p>It is for these reasons of accessibility and in the spirit of facilitating technical literacy among linguists and language community members that we have chosen to be part of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source">Open Source initiative</a>.
<h2 id="open-source-policy">Policy on Openness of Tools, Not Content</h2>
<p>Wugbot is open source. Your data is still your data, even if you use our tools. You are not obligated to use our tools while connected to the internet, and there is no need to share your data.</p>
<p>The licensing status of the <strong>formats and processes</strong> defined by Wugbot are completely distinct from the licensing of the <strong>content</strong> produced by linguists and speakers. In other words, while you are free to use the programs, you are not free to use data created by our programs. For example, if Wugbot's programs are used to document and archive an endangered language, the content of that language still belongs to the researchers and communities working on it. Only linguists, speakers, and speech communities are capable of determining appropriate ethical constraints on archival material.</p>
<p>Our goal is to enable linguists to collaborate more effectively, while remaining independent of commitment to any particular server infrastructure or curatorial regime. We provide tools to do linguistic analysis and archive languages. However, we <strong>do not</strong> intend recommend or even discuss the ethical status of any documentary output. Those decisions are properly addressed by linguists and the communities they work with, not by a team such as ours, which is focused on technical solutions to documentary problems.</p>
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