Schedule: Dacco: open source dictionaries
| Speakers | |
|---|---|
|
Carles Pina i Estany |
| Schedule | |
| Day | Saturday |
| Room | Ferrer |
| Start time | 16:00 |
| End time | 16:15 |
| Duration | 00:15 |
| Info | |
| Event type | Lightning-Talk |
| Track | Lightning Talks |
| Language | English |
| Media | |
| Slides (PDF) | |
| Video (Ogg/Theora) | |
This lightning talk will provide a quick overview of a different type of open source project: an English-Catalan Dictionary. We will give a short explanation about how it is being implemented, which methods and tools are used, its history and future direction.
We will also explain what Catalan is, why an open source approach is important and how people can contribute.
We will introduce Dacco's tools and features including qdacco (a GPLv3 desktop application which allows users to query the dictionary and, through integration with Festival, hear how words are pronounced), an HTML search engine, PDF files and an iGoogle gadget.
The main goal of this talk is to introduce people to the concept of Open Source Dictionaries and encourage them to develop their own.
Dacco (Diccionari Anglès-Català de Codi Obert - Open Source English-Catalan Dictionary). The project hosts two dictionaries: an English-Catalan dictionary and a Catalan-English dictionary. The project is trying to fill the gap in the world of dictionaries: there aren't any free (as freedom) Catalan-English dictionaries and there isn't any good Catalan dictionary for English speaking people because of the lack of potential buyers.
The Dacco project is developing a dictionary through regular international contributors who add, change and improve the word descriptions constantly. Nowadays Dacco has aproximately 15000 entries. We also use internet resources like photo links when a description isn't just enough, dictionary is oftenly updated, etc. There are versions for Catalan speakers and for English speakers with different notes and examples.
Dacco base files (XML) have GPL license and we also provide PDF files (under Creative Commons license), Firefox search plugins, qdacco software, HTML standard form search tool, etc.
The Dacco project was formally started on May 2003, though Linda Oxnard (the founder) started working on it on 2001.