learning from dicologos

Dicologos is the dictionary of Logos. It is a great resource and there are many things to learn from it in order to make Ultimate Wiktionary a success. Dicologos has more than 7 million words, there are words in many languages and, the content is growing all the time and its main problem is that it is not well known and that its focus is on translators.

When translators use a dictionary, they typically use it to find confirmation for the translation of a word. All the rest is not really relevant to them. An ordinary user of a dictionary uses it as much as anything to find a definition of a word. As the bulk of the potential public for Dicologos is NOT a translator, the lack of definitions is a big problem when you want to establish public awareness of Dicologos a Free resource. For Logos it is important that Dicologos is seen as an important resource because it demonstrates that Logos contributes to society by providing to the culture of our society.

When you have worked on this resource like I have, you will appreciate that it is much more responsive than the Wiktionary servers but you miss the cooperation, the sense of community. There are no talk pages like in all the Mediawiki Wikis. There are no mailing lists. There is no sense of community.

When Dicologos and the wiktionaries are to work together, a common ground must be found where the content and the communities can find each other. Technically, the content of the Wiktionaries cannot be converted to the Dicologos database because many types of information cannot find a place in the database design of Dicologos. In the same way it is not possible to convert the Dicologos data to the Wiktionaries because you have to do it so many times and, there is so much overlap in the data.

When Logos decides that they are going to work together in a lexicological resource, they will find that in Ultimate Wiktionary they can include all their content. They will have all the community features that are implicitly available in the Mediawiki software. If they want to take the next step, they can work together in a resource that will be hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. The specific needs of Logos can be adressed in what will be the Ultimate Wiktionary. These needs will be addressed in a non-discriminatory way.

Thanks,
GerardM