[open-linguistics] Is this group doing anything for Open Data day?

Mon Jan 20 21:14:49 UTC 2014

Hi Christian,

On Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 08:46:00PM +0100, Christian Chiarcos wrote:
> But if you want to push it, your initiative is highly appreciated and
> should be discussed over the list or at the next telco.

Excellent! I'm pleased to hear it - but didn't want to push something
that might not fit. I'm not a linguist by any stretch, but hey. Open
data makes for a motley research community.

> Linked Open Data stuff). But in any case, everyone on the list would
> welcome discussions about the legal situation.
> 
> The type of data you describe would be very similar to datasets from
> typology and language documentation, and a workshop on such kind of
> data could continue, e.g., earlier activities such as the Linked
> Data in Typology track of the ALT conference organized by Sebastian
> Nordhoff this summer. If you want to organize something in this
> direction under the umbrella of the OWLG, we can add this as a topic
> for discussion to the agenda for the next telco, and you may get in
> direct touch with the typology (etc.) folks on the list.

This sounds encouraging. I have some background list archive reading to
do to get up on the context so far, but I think the small
ethnolinguistic data sets I've seen and the language typology /
documentation data sets I just found look identical in terms of their
rights requirements, although I imagine there will be different academic
cultures of access/sharing.

For the ODD all I was hoping to achieve was to find out who is doing
something in this area and what the state of play is with small
linguistic/ethno data sets. So far all I've seen in the various
conferences / departments / workshops I've visited is frustration at the
situation and total lack of awareness of open data initiatives.

> I would personally discourage starting an new OKFN working group as
> long as your area of expertise and your interests overlaps with the
> scope of an existing one -- unless you already have strong community
> ties you can build on. Founding is easy, but not all groups I joined
> are equally active, and those that are seem to live from the energy
> of very few dedicated people, so you would have to prepare for a
> huge investment of time and energy if you want to really keep it
> alive ;)

I hear that loud and clear :) I haven't organised an OKFN working group
since the dark ages (well, 2005) and I'm not in a hurry to shovel time
and energy into new initiatives - especially when existing ones are so
welcoming.  Thanks!

So, I'd be very pleased to participate in the next telco and have this
item on the agenda. 

There's nobody self-identifying as being in London on the wiki page. Any
locals on this list? Or anyone planning to do anything for their local
ODD already?

Cheers,

Saul.

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