#Co-Founder of yourDictionary.com, a major language portal
*Interview of September 1, 1998
= How did using the Internet change your professional life?
As a language teacher, the Web represents a plethora of new resources produced
by the target culture, new tools for delivering lessons (interactive Java and
Shockwave exercises) and testing, which are available to students any time they
have the time or interest - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is also an almost
limitless publication outlet for my colleagues and I, not to mention my
institution.
= How do you see the growth of a multilingual Web?
There was an initial fear that the Web posed a threat to multilingualism on the
Web, since HTML and other programming languages are based on English and since
there are simply more websites in English than any other language. However, my
websites indicate that multilingualism is very much alive and the Web may, in
fact, serve as a vehicle for preserving many endangered languages. I now have
links to dictionaries in 150 languages and grammars of 65 languages. Moreover,
the new attention paid by browser developers to the different languages of the
world will encourage even more websites in different languages.
= How do you see the future?
Ultimately all course materials, including lecture notes, exercises, moot and
credit testing, grading, and interactive exercises far more effective in
conveying concepts that we have not even dreamed of yet. The Web will be an
encyclopedia of the world by the world for the world. There will be no
information or knowledge that anyone needs that will not be available. The major
hindrance to international and interpersonal understanding, personal and
institutional enhancement, will be removed. It would take a wilder imagination
than mine to predict the effect of this development on the nature of humankind.
*Interview of January 17, 2000
= Can you tell us about yourDictionary.com?
A Web of Online Dictionaries (WOD) is now a part of yourDictionary.com (as of
February 15, 2000). The new website is an index of 1200+ dictionaries in more
than 200 languages. Besides the WOD, the new website includes a
word-of-the-day-feature, word games, a language chat room, the old Web of
On-line Grammars (now expanded to include additional language resources), the
Web of Linguistic Fun, multilingual dictionaries; specialized English
dictionaries; thesauri and other vocabulary aids; language identifiers and
guessers, and other features; dictionary indices. YourDictionary.com will
hopefully be the premiere language portal and the largest language resource site
on the Web. It is now actively acquiring dictionaries and grammars of all
languages with a particular focus on endangered languages. It is overseen by a
blue ribbon panel of linguistic experts from all over the world.
= What exactly is your activity?
I am now a founder, officer and member of the board of yourDictionary.com, Inc.
and will be retiring from Bucknell this spring at which time I must remove my
sites from Bucknell's servers. I think the company will generate resources to
allow my work to continue and expand.
= Has yourDictionary.com new projects and new ideas?
Indeed, yourDictionary.com has lots of new ideas. We plan to work with the
Endangered Language Fund in the US and Britain to raise money for the
Foundation's work and publish the results on our site. We will have language
chatrooms and bulletin boards. There will be language games designed to
entertain and teach fundamentals of linguistics. The Linguistic Fun page will
become an on-line journal for short, interesting, yes, even entertaining, pieces
on language that are based on sound linguistics by experts from all over the
world.
= What do you think of the debate about copyright on the Web?
Open access is never free; someone pays the salaries of those who develop open
access, public domain applications. My website has been free and free of
commercial activities so long as Bucknell has provided me with a salary and free
ISP services. Now that I am retiring and must remove my sites from Bucknell
servers, my choices are to take the sites down, sell them, or generate revenue
streams that will support the site. I have chosen the latter course. The
resources will remain free of charge, only because we will be offering other
services for fee. These services will be based on copyrighted properties to
guarantee that the funds generated go to the source that generates them.
As for the debate (and court actions) over deep linking and the like, I think
this carries copyright too far. Linking should be the decision of the website
that carries the hyperlink. Websites are fair game for linking since they are on
a public network. If they don't want to be on a public network, let them create
a private one. This leads to the conclusion that porn sites may link to
family-oriented sites, a conclusion that no doubt worries some. So long as the
link does not go in the other direction, however, I see no immediate problem
with this.
= How do you see the growth of a multilingual Web?
While English still dominates the Web, the growth of monolingual non-English
websites is gaining strength with the various solutions to the font problems.
Languages that are endangered are primarily languages without writing systems at
all (only 1/3 of the world's 6,000+ languages have writing systems). I still do
not see the Web contributing to the loss of language identity and still suspect
it may, in the long run, contribute to strengthening it. More and more Native
Americans, for example, are contacting linguists, asking them to write grammars
of their language and help them put up dictionaries. For these people, the Web
is an affordable boon for cultural expression.
= What is your best experience with the Internet?
My own website, whose popularity continues to astound me. I receive a dozen or
so letters from visitors each day, at least half of which compliment my work. It
is difficult to maintain the size of my ego but the flattery is very good for
the soul. I am astounded that only 6 years away from the inception of the Web, I
can find over 1200 creditable on-line dictionaries in more than 200 different
languages.
= And your worst experience?
The worst experience is finding my website copied with my name removed from it.
I have always been able to resolve the problem, however. My experience with the
Internet has been very positive and if yourDictionary.com succeeds, it will be
even more positive.