This post is a open draft! It might be updated at any time… But was last updated on at .
In this reviewRegardless of the views expressed here in this review, it should be stated that I have high hopes for Webonary’s future. Some of the people working on Webonary are my colleagues so I attempt hedge my review with the understanding that this is not the final state of Webonary. I am excited that easy to use technology, like WordPress is being used, and that minority language groups around the world have the opportunity to use free software like webonary. I will be looking at the WordPress plugin, Webonary and several associated issues. Continue reading →
I was looking at the wikipedia article for Language Documentation. The only reference cited was a thesis by Debbie Chang. I happen to know Debbie. So I thought I would take a look at her thesis and see what she said. So I clicked the link and was delivered to a 404 error page on GIAL’s website. GIAL had recently renovated their website. I was able to locate thesis and fix the URL on wikipedia by digging through the GIAL website. The new URL is: http://www.gial.edu/images/theses/Chang_Debbie-thesis.pdf
But then I looked at the URL and asked: Why are PDFS in the images folder? What is the long term infrastructure for this school? It seems that when PDFs (thesis) are put into the images folder rather than into a digital repository that something is not quite right with the longterm planning for the school. Ironically, this is not too far from the main thrust of Debbie’s thesis.
It would seem that the long term solution for this kind of problem would be for a small school like GAIL to A. have its library develop an infrastructure for permanently housing these kinds of materials. Or B. contract with another organization or archive which could take care of these sorts of issues for them, provide handles or stable URLs, and then for GIAL to link to the permanent location of these items from GIAL’s website. It is interesting to note that on the same campus as GIAL is SIL International’s Language and Culture Archive, yet GIAL has not taken advantage of this opportunity.
Umm frankly, I am not sure anything out there right now is going to work to bring OAI-PMH services to WordPressConsider these three resources for more info on OAI:
. If it does then is it going to be able to use WordPress to advertise things or is it going to use WordPress to aggregate things? if the former then nothing out there ever let the admin user choose which fields were matched to which attributes, dynamically. But if it is also the former then why would anyone actually want this functionality? What is the Use Case? If one is using WordPress as a bibliography reference system like some libraries do, then this makes a lot of sense. However, there is another use case I would like to present. That is, the website which is about several or a single language. There are potentially two ways to conceptualize this:
unAPI Server for WordPress. [2] Mike Giarlo. 19 May 2006. unAPI Server for WordPress. Technosophia. http://lackoftalent.org/michael/blog/unapi-wordpress-plug-in/ [Accessed: 5 March 2012]
WordPress, now with added unAPI![3] Peter Binkley. 18 February 2006. WordPress, now with added unAPI!. http://www.wallandbinkley.com/quaedam/2006/02_18_wordpress-now-with-added-unapi.html [Accessed: 5 March 2012]
I think there is a second question here too: why does one need OAI-PMH for wordpress… is it as a provider or as a consumer? If one needs a PHP app for OAI-PMH maybe they can use: https://github.com/caseyamcl/phpoaipmh
Peter Binkley. 9 December 2005. COinS-PMH (unAPI) WordPress Plugin. http://www.wallandbinkley.com/quaedam/2005/12_09_coins-pmh-unapi-wordpress-plugin.html [Accessed: 5 March 2012]
Mike Giarlo. 19 May 2006. unAPI Server for WordPress. Technosophia. http://lackoftalent.org/michael/blog/unapi-wordpress-plug-in/ [Accessed: 5 March 2012]
Peter Binkley. 18 February 2006. WordPress, now with added unAPI!. http://www.wallandbinkley.com/quaedam/2006/02_18_wordpress-now-with-added-unapi.html [Accessed: 5 March 2012]
In recent time there has been a lively discussion over several issues in the translation of the Bible between various denominational and church leaders and those conducting the translation. I am not aware of all the issues, nor all the details. However, my financial supporters and friends are very interested in this discussion. Many of them are coming to the conversation late in the discussion. They do not always start to observe the discussion from the beginning of the discussion. They usually get introduced in the middle, and they do not know enough of the context of the discussion to make heads or tails of the discussion.
The Bystanders
In the end I lose credibility with my supporters if they are confused and their confusion goes unaddressed. So, I have a vested interest in explaining this conversation to my supporters and friends.Here is an example from 15 February 2012 (14:21CST) of the question I have had and the type of response I have given:
Hugh, I recognize you are not a spokesperson for Wycliffe but there is a lot of “buzz” right now of WBT ad SIL creating Bible versions that are less offensive to Muslims by taking out references to Jesus being the Son of God and to God as the Father. Do you know of this and what is your understanding of it?
My Reply:
Yes. I know a little bit about it. The issue has been brewing for the last 6-7 months. But I don’t know very much about the issue because I do not deal with that part of the world. I do work in External Communications. So my boss works with the people who are crafting the responses. There are several issues going on at the same time.
Wycliffe as a corporation, and as a partner of the evangelical church has not been proactive in communicating the challenges in translation to the churches.
The church has had an attitude of “support and forget”: until someone gets offended and then doesn’t know all the facts and comes at the issue with a particular theological (denominational) view.
To complicate the matter. SIL has been dragged into this media firestorm but has traditionally been silent on translation around the world and left that discussion to Wycliffe. But now SIL has had to respond. So this is new and virgin territory. SIL has said more on Bible translation in the last 6 months than it has in the last 15 years.
Neither Wycliffe nor SIL has taken the lead on explaining to onlookers to the discussion, what the whole discussion on a time line looks like or what the facts are. There are two sides in this discussion and both NGOs would do well to present the objections and the replies in a manner where onlookers could get all the facts. I do not even have a good grasp on this. But there is a lot of fear on the part of the NGOs that if they do this that they will reveal too much, because this is not an area of the world that either company publicizes that it works in. I think there are only like 9 translations in question. The only thing I have read about the issue was here: http://www.wycliffe.net/stories/tabid/67/Default.aspx?id=2408
My question has been if you use the analogy that Jesus is socially the “son” of God, rather than being sired through sexual intercourse with (the virgin) Mary, then how is the zygote formed? I have always believed in a virgin birth (No intercourse), but I also believe that the sperm must have been from God and the egg from Mary.
At any rate the controversy has pitted the churches against the Mission and churches are pulling their support for missionaries.
However, I need to do it understanding the issues they can see and read about. I am not a spokesman for any company. But, as this discussion has turned into a media war, it has increasingly become hard to tell what WycliffeUSA has or has not said when. Content at the same URL can change through time. WycliffeUSA, Wycliffe Global Alliance and SIL International do not use two things consistently in their communications strategy which would make communications clearer to viewers. (Examples in footnotes
WycliffeUSA
WycliffeUSA Page without a date published on it.
SIL International
SIL Uses month and year but no specific day.
Translations with the same dates but posted later.
Wycliffe Global Alliance
Wycliffe Global Alliance has no date posted, date.
Wycliffe Global Alliance has a date someone else posted on an item which is republished with permission.
Wycliffe Canada does have a date something was published!
Wycliffe Canada has the date something was published.
). These two issues are:
Post Dates
and
Update Notices with Dates/time stamps.
It is common practice when issuing a statement online to provide a date on which the content was posted. It is also common practice to show when content has been updated or altered and to tell what has been altered, often it is in response to something left in a comment (in the blogging and columnist worlds).
(I do not necessarily espouse the views of the following post but I use them to present visually what is socially a common practice.)
An article on Ron Paul. [1]Michael Conrad. 23 December 2011. Against Ron Paul (Obligatory Ron Paul post – Updated). Progressive Blue. http://www.progressiveblue.com/diary/6291/against-ron-paul-obligatory-ron-paul-post … Continue reading
Ron Paul article update example
An Article on the iPad2[2]Matt Peckham. 29 December 2011. Rumor: Two New iPads in January, iPad 2 Price Drop Expected [Updated]. Time: Techland. … Continue reading
Techland article update example
An article about one of Google’s services[3]Amit Singhal. 3 November 2011. Giving you fresher, more recent search results. Google Official Blog. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/giving-you-fresher-more-recent-search.html [Accessed: 5 … Continue reading
Google Blog post update example
It has been claimed that WycliffeUSA has altered their FAQ[4]Hussein Wario. 25. February 2012 10:22 AM ET. After 7 Weeks of Denial, Wycliffe now Admits it was involved in producing Bengali Bibles. … Continue reading in a manner which would lead current viewers to think this is always been the way the data has been presented, and therefore always the way the story has been told. If there has been some change then this change should be clearly expressed. (And there are functional, well designed, and tactful ways to express this change without spending lots of page space or focus to the reader in the process of doing so.) However, it is this lack of date giving which makes a time oriented anthology of communication so valuable.
[Update: 5 March 2012: As the following image shows, it would appear that Wycliffe does have an update notice for each item on their FAQ sheet, but it still remains unclear what the content was updated from, or alternatively if the FAQ element was added at this later date as the FAQ page itself has no date published.]
Jeremy Weber. 22 June 2012. Stop Supporting Wycliffe’s Current Bible Translations For Muslims, PCA Advises Churches. on ChristianityToday.com [Link]
Assembly Approves Report Condemning Muslim Bible Translations
21 June 2012
Travis Hutchinson. 21 June 2012. Assembly Approves Report Condemning Muslim Bible Translations. [Link]
Day 3 of the General Assembly of the PCA
21 June 2012
John Wesley White. 21 June 2012. Day 3 of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America. [Link]. A play by play report of the day including on the ad interim study committee on the Insider Movement.
Report to the PCA 40th General Assembly
14 May 2012
General Assembly of the PCA. 14 May 2012. A Call to Faithful witness. Part I. Like Father Like Son: Divine familial language in Bible Translation. [PDF]
Chairman of WEA Panel announced
09 May 2012
WEA Announces Dr. Robert E. Cooley as Chairman of Wycliffe and SIL Review Panel [Link]
Video by OneBook
03 May 2012
Hart Wiens of the Canadian Bible Society and Wayne Johnson of OneBook work through the issues of key terms, particularly God and Allah. [Video on YouTube]
Bible Translator Criticized Over Word Substitution
26 April 2012
Tom Breen. 26 April 2012. Bible Translator Criticized Over Word Substitution. Associated Press and others via syndication. [Link to NPR]
Is the Scandal for Muslims the How or the Who?
23 April 2012
Rev. Fred Farrokh. 2012. Is the Scandal for Muslims the How or the Who?. St Francis Magazine. Vol. 8:2, pp. 213-224. (April 2012). [PDF]
Daily American
14 April 2012
Discusses Jack Van Impe (JVI) Ministries handling of the Son of God discussion. [Link]
Authored by Judi Mickey, Sumerset.
Christianity Today India
02 April 2012
runs an article discussing the WEA panel to review the translation practices of Wycliffe Bible Translators.
Dibin Samuel. 2 April 2012. WEA panel to review Wycliffe Bible translation. Christianity Today India. [Link]
Don't Tamper!
02 April 2012
A news article in the Evangelical Times by Richard Buggs addresses the Son of God Issue. [Link]
World Evangelical Alliance
27 March 2012
WEA to Form Independent Review Panel on Wycliffe and SIL Bible Translation. [Link] In the light of certain controversies about Bible translation, the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA), as a respected and trusted global evangelical association, has been asked to form a panel to independently review Wycliffe and SIL International’s translation of “God the Father” and the “Son of God.”
Warthogs at Wycliffe
21 March 2012
Russ Hersman, Senior Vice President at Wycliffe talks to his alma mater, Multnomah University, about some of the controversy Wycliffe has been involved with.
Press Release applauding SIL International’s Hold decision and saying that Wycilffe and SIL have agreed to submit to a review of these specific Bible translation practices.
WycliffeUSA publishes FAQs
15 February 2012
According to Scott Seaton WycliffeUSA Publishes its FAQs on February 15th. [Link to Scott’s claim]
Rob Willmann posts and it seems like every Pastor with a blog has something to say [Link]
Wycliffe, SIL and the 340-Million Problem
10 February 2012
Hussein Wario publishes saying
Wycliffe USA Senior Vice President Russ Hersman admitted to the World Magazine last October there were about 30 to 40 translations that “”employ some alternate renderings” for the divine familial terms.
and
Wycliffe and SIL need to marshal and use their resources wisely. Wycliffe USA claims on its website, “Today about 340 million people do not have any Scripture in their language. Wycliffe’s vision is to see the Bible accessible to all people in the language they understand best.” This statement reveals two problems about the present crisis. First, modern translations of the Bible are already available in both Turkish and Arabic. Why are Wycliffe and SIL even bothering with these languages? Second, Wycliffe and SIL translations contain so many mistranslations about divine filial terms that the indigenous church in Turkey doesn’t want them. The same is true for Arab Christians. Why are these organizations wasting their resources on them and now defending them? Have they lost sight of their 340-million problem?
Campaigns of misinformation can be damaging if left unchallenged, so SIL encourages readers to take time to investigate the erroneous information that has been written elsewhere.
WND Betrayed Bible Translators
03 February 2012
A letter to the editors at World Net Daily. Replying that they do not present the issue with balance. [Link]
Wycliffe Defends Changing Titles for God
02 February 2012
Michael Carl of World Net Daily Published a piece on Wycliffe.
Claiming “Critics say substituting ‘Father,’ ‘Son’ references appeases Muslims”
Michael Carl. 02 February 2012. Wycliffe Defends Changing Titles for God. World Net Daily. [Link]
Wycliffe, SIL & Frontiers Controversy In the Media
01 February 2012
Biblical Missiology Publishes a related materials page [Link] Which it updates but interestingly none of Wycliffe’s or SIL’s Responses are presented in the list of resources as of 10 March 2012.
Hussein Wario is Grieved
01 February 2012
Publishes: Wycliffe/SIL’s Gamble with Integrity Grieves Me he complains about web pages and statements changing, and While it is likely, he doesn’t prove it with screen shots. And he is challenged on several points by commenters.
Is it true that SIL supports removing “Son of God” and “God the Father” in Scripture translations?No.More….
Joshua Lingel calls for defunding of translation projects
30 January 2012
World Net Daily, prints a quote from Lingel saying:
According to reports, of the roughly 200 translation projects Wycliffe/SIL linguists have undertaken in Muslim contexts, about 30 or 40 remove the terms father and son with reference to God and Jesus.
Lingel’s response is quite direct, “These projects need to be defunded.”
World Net Daily. 30 January 2012. NEW BIBLE YANKS ‘FATHER,’ JESUS AS ‘SON OF GOD’. [Link]
New Bible Versions Remove
30 January 2012
‘FATHER’ and ‘SON OF GOD’ Because it offends Muslims.
Congressman Tod Tancredo reposts an Essay [Link] first published on Atlas Shrugged [Link] by Pamela Geller the day before. This work criticizes christians as being hypocritical for “changing the scriptures”.
‘Father’ and ‘Son’ Ousted from the Trinity in New Bible Translations
27 January 2012
Hussein Wario Publishes on Yahoo! News (which gets some really insightful comments from some more informed people then he.) and also 2 days later on his blog.
Petition reaches 100 signatures
05 January 2012
Lost In Translation: Keep “Father” & “Son” in the Bible on change.org reaches 100 signatures.
The Terms of Translation A New Look at Translating Familial Biblical Terms
03 January 2012
Rick Brown, Leith Gray, and Andrea Gray publish The Terms of Translation A New Look at Translating Familial Biblical Terms in International Journal of Frontier Missiology. Dated fall 2011 but it is not type set till 3 January 2012. (I am not sure when the exact release data is.) [Link to published PDF version] [Link to whole Journal]
David Irvine Claims that SIL is favorable to the insider movement.
13 December 2011
Upon my retirement we joined Wycliffe USA and spent a year and a half training and preparing to go to West Asia to run an SIL NGO. We learned that SIL Eurasia had adopted the Insider Movement and resulting Muslim Idiom Translation style for the region and resigned 3 weeks prior to our departure. We are now with Horizons International.
Publishes Towards a Faithful Witness A Response To Wycliffe/SIL’s Considering Overture 9 By Scott Seaton [Link]
Mission Frontiers posts about Familial Terms
20 October 2011
Translating Familial Biblical Terms: An Overview of the Issue is posted on Mission Frontiers website. [PDF] RICK BROWN, ANDREA GRAY AND LEITH GRAY. 2012. TRANSLATING FAMILIAL BIBLICAL TERMS: AN OVERVIEW OF THE ISSUE. Mission Frontiers. January-February issue. pages 26-30.
Wycliffe Bible Translators agrees to new standards in debate over contextualizing Scripture for Muslim settings by Emily Belz [Link]
Matthew Carlton Publishes
14 August 2011
Jesus, the Son of God: Biblical Meaning, Muslim Understanding, and Implications for translation and Bible Literacy
Matthew Carlton. 2011. Jesus, the Son of God: Biblical Meaning, Muslim Understanding, and Implications for translation and Bible Literacy.St Francis Magazine Vol 7:3. 1-30. [Link]
(Note: Some have suggested that this publication was released on August 1st, prior to the Istanbul conference, but the metadata in the PDF suggests that this version of the PDF was created on the 12th and modified on 14th of August.)
SIL International Statement for Best Practices for Bible Translation of Devine Familial terms
01 August 2011
Some sort of draft of SIL’s statement is made. Steve Taylor will later publish this on World Reformed Fellowship. [PDF]
Istanbul Summit
01 August 2011
World Magizine reports later that:
In the basement of a hotel in Istanbul, 30 people from around the world met in August to talk about how to translate the phrase “Son of God” and “God the Father” in Muslim contexts.
(I do not know the exact date of the Istanbul Summit. It is marked here as 1 August 2011.)
An Historic Consultation on Contextualizing the Gospel to Muslims
04 July 2011
Warren Larson. 4 July 2011. An Historic Consultation on Contextualizing the Gospel to Muslims. Blog entry: [Link]
Missions, agencies and churches wrestle with controversial Muslim friendly translations of the Bible and fallout from ‘insider movement’ tactics By Emily Belz [Link]
Overture 9 Starts (PCA)
31 March 2011
Potomac Presbyter Authors Overture 9 “A Call To Faithful Witness” [PDF]
Critique of the Christianity Today’s article entitled: ‘The Son and the Crescent’
09 March 2011
Jay Smith Critiques the article in Christianity today on the website Biblical Missiology.
Christianity Today publishes the article: The Son and the Crescent Bible translations that avoid the phrase “Son of God” are bearing dramatic fruit among Muslims. But that translation has some missionaries and scholars dismayed. Hussein Wario is the first commenter.
Subbing "The Son of God": A Response to Christianity Today (Part 1)
04 February 2011
Brian Branam responds to Christianity Today.
Brian Branam. 4 February 2011. Subbing “The Son of God”: A Response to Christianity Today (Part 1). [Link]
Article in by David Abernathy in St Francis Magazine 6:2 (April 2010). Pages 327-394. [PDF]
David Abernathy Publishes
25 January 2010
Translating “Son of God” in Missionary Bible Translation: A Critique of “Muslim-Idiom Bible Translations: Claims and Facts” , By Rick Brown, John Penny, and Leith Gray from 2009.
This is published in St Francis Magazine 6:1 (February 2010) Pages 176-203. [PDF]
Rick Brown, John Penny, and Leith Gray Publish Muslim-Idiom Bible Translations: Claims and Facts in St Francis Magazine 5:6 (December 2009) pages 87-105 [PDF]
Moving on from the C1-C6 Spectrum
23 July 2009
Asking some deep questions about how Christians think about evangelism to Muslims including Bible Translation.
Roger L. Dixon. 2009. Moving on from the C1-C6 Spectrum. St Francis Magazine 5:4 (August 2009) pp. 3-19 [PDF]
Rick Brown Publishes Who is Allah? in International Journal of Frontier Missions 23:2 Summer 2006. pages 79-82 [PDF]
SIL International Publishes Exegetical summary of Romans
03 June 2006
David Abernathy is listed as the author. An exegetical summary of Romans 1-8. Exegetical Summary Series. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. 599 pages [Link] This book is released as a second edition in 2008 [Link].
Rick Brown. 2001. What Must One Believe about Jesus for Salvation?. International Journal of Frontier Missions, Vol. 17:4, Winter. [Link to PDF Pre-Print]
The “Son of God” Understanding the Messianic Titles of Jesus
26 October 2001
Rick Brown. 2000. The “Son of God” Understanding the Messianic Titles of Jesus. International Journal of Frontier Missions, Vol. 17:1 Spring. [Link to Pre-Print PDF]
But Metadata in the Accessed PDF says that the PDF currently available was not created until 26th October 2001.
Rick Brown becomes Associate Area Director of SIL-Eurasia
01 January 2001
According to Rick Brown’s CV on sil.org, he starts serving as the Associate Area Director of SIL-Eurasia some time during 2001. (marked on this time line as 1 January but the date is not explicitly declared.)
The “Son of God”: Understanding the Messianic Titles of Jesus
11 April 2000
Rick brown. 2000. The “Son of God”: Understanding the Messianic Titles of Jesus. The International Journal of Frontier Missions. Vol. 17:1, January–March 2000. pp 41-52 [PDF]
The Trinity had been recognized at the Council of Nicea, but debate about exactly what it meant continued. A rival to the more common belief that Jesus Christ had two natures was monophysitism (“one nature”), the doctrine that Christ had only one nature. Apollinarism and Eutychianism were two forms of monophysitism. Apollinaris’ rejection of Christ having a human mind was considered an over-reaction to Arianism and its teaching that Christ was not divine. [From Wikipedia]
Acacius of Caesarea declared that the Son was like the Father “according to the scriptures,” as in the majority decision at Ariminum and close to the minority at Seleucia. Basil of Ancyra, Eustathius of Sebaste, and their party declared that the Son was of similar substance to the Father, as in the majority decision at Seleucia. [From Wikipedia]
The Council declared that the Father and the Son are of the same substance and are co-eternal, basing the declaration in the claim that this was a formulation of traditional Christian belief handed down from the Apostles. Under Constantine’s influence, this belief was expressed by the bishops in what would be known thereafter as the Nicene Creed. (From Wikipedia Article on the First Council of Nicaea)
If you know of another Publicly available and verifiable resources, event or discussion with a date relevant to the Son of God discussion leave a note in the comments and I will consider adding it to the time line. After I add it to the time line I will delete the comment. The timeline created is This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Another timeline format is also in the works and is appearing here.
If you do not want your comment shared under this license then please do not submit it. – Comments may be edited before appearing.
Michael Conrad. 23 December 2011. Against Ron Paul (Obligatory Ron Paul post – Updated). Progressive Blue. http://www.progressiveblue.com/diary/6291/against-ron-paul-obligatory-ron-paul-post [Accessed: 5 March 2012]
Matt Peckham. 29 December 2011. Rumor: Two New iPads in January, iPad 2 Price Drop Expected [Updated]. Time: Techland. http://techland.time.com/2011/12/29/rumor-two-new-ipads-in-january-ipad-2-price-drop-expected/ [Accessed: 5 March 2012]
Amit Singhal. 3 November 2011. Giving you fresher, more recent search results. Google Official Blog. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/giving-you-fresher-more-recent-search.html [Accessed: 5 March 2012]
Hussein Wario. 25. February 2012 10:22 AM ET. After 7 Weeks of Denial, Wycliffe now Admits it was involved in producing Bengali Bibles. http://blogs.christianpost.com/cracks-in-the-crescent/2012/02/after-7-weeks-of-denial-wycliffe-now-admits-it-was-involved-in-producing-bengali-bibles-25/ [Accessed: 5 March 2012]
The Ethnologue [1] M. Paul Lewis. (ed.), 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16th Edn. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. as an academic book, is somewhat of a straw man in linguistics. Many people who write grants for language documentation projects (generally on under described or endangered languages) will cite the Ethnologue and some other resources or lack of resources [2] Steven A. Marlett. 2011. Documenting the Me’phaa genus. DEH-NEH fellowship proposal. http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/pdf/DEL_NEH_Marlett.pdf. [PDF] [DEL Awards] [Accessed: 15 February 2011] [3] Sadaf Munshi. 2011. Archive of Annotated Burushaski Texts. NSF grant proposal. http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/pdf/DEL_NSF_Munshi.pdf. [PDF] [DEL Awards] [Accessed: 15 February 2011] [4]Monica A. Macaulay. 2011. Potawatomi Documentation, Lexical Database, and Dictionary. NEH grant proposal. http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/pdf/DEL_NEH_Macaulay.pdf. [PDF] [DEL Awards] [Accessed: … Continue reading . These efforts seeking funding are usually an effort to get more language data. The rationale for this is two fold:
Because so little is known that we do not know if the Ethnologue is correct.
Because there is a conflict between other published sources and the Ethnologue [5]Roger Blench. n.d. Introduction to the Temein languages http://www.rogerblench.info/Language/Nilo-Saharan/Eastern%20Sudanic/Temein%20cluster/Blench%20Temein%20language%20NM%20proceedings.pdf [PDF] … Continue reading .
Steven A. Marlett. 2011. Documenting the Me’phaa genus. DEH-NEH fellowship proposal. http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/pdf/DEL_NEH_Marlett.pdf. [PDF] [DEL Awards] [Accessed: 15 February 2011]
Roger Blench. n.d. Introduction to the Temein languages http://www.rogerblench.info/Language/Nilo-Saharan/Eastern%20Sudanic/Temein%20cluster/Blench%20Temein%20language%20NM%20proceedings.pdf [PDF] [Accessed: 15 February 2011]
Over the last several months I have been looking for and comparing digitization services for audio, film, and for images (slides and more). I have been doing this as part of the ongoing work at the Language and Culture Archive to preserve the linguistic and cultural heritage of the people groups SIL International has encountered and served. I have not come to any hard and fast conclusions on “what is the best service provider”. This is partially because we are still looking at various out sourcing options and looking at multiple mediums is time consuming. Then there is also the issue of looking for archival standards and the creation of corporate policy for the digitization of these materials. I am presenting several names here as the results of several searches for digitization services providers.
Another option the Archive has been looking at is to determine if the the quantity of the work is cost prohibitive to have professional done. Meaning that, we would be better served by buying the equipment and doing the work in house. So in the process I have also been looking at people’s experience with various kinds of equipment and technology used in scanning.
I have been reading a lot of user stories like Dave Dyer’s reflection on Slide Transfer and MacIntouch Reader Reports from 26 April 2006 on Slide Digitization.
For a couple of months I have been looking into options for presenting academics' CVs on the web in semantic xHtml. Of the options out there hResume rises to the surface. There are several reasons for this:
Popularity of hResume in presenting CV's and Resumes.
Microformats are about the interoperability of data through semantic markup - Academics generally want people to cite them, and resume publishers usually hope to have resume users and readers.
Semantic markup of content allows for the semantic styling of content.
The largest challenge in implementing academic CVs in hResueme versus business resumes in hResume format is citations from publications and presentations along with that is the semantic markup of citations with standards like COinS (though COinS might not be true Semantic Markup). However, there are other challenges too. For instance how to categorize the sections of a CV. I work mostly with linguists and with the CV sections that linguists use. Therefore, I may be missing some crucial section of a CV as used by another academic discipline.CVs like resumes are unique to each individual so these categories are an abstraction and not all sections will be in every CV. These abstractions are included the following chart along with a mapping of how these sections are (in my opinion) best expressed in the hResume microformat. hResume builds on other microformats, like hCalendar and hCard. So I have also mapped the elements of an hResume back to the building block microformat (per this list on microformat's website). These dependency formats are also presented. In the last column I have presented some remarks specific to that section.
Sections of a Linguist's CV
Sections in hResume
inclusion in hResume
Building block
Microformat status
Outstanding issue or question
Contact info
Contact info
Obligatory
must use hCard; should use <address> + hCard
hCard is a Recommendation
how does the adr and the geo relate to the contact info or hCard?
Personal Info
Not designated
What would fit into this section which would not fit into the Contact info section? (married status) But that might be able to be expressed through XFN, unless the spouse is unnamed.
One or more hcalendar events with the class name 'education', with an embedded hCard indicating the name of school, address of school etc.
hCalendar is a Recommendation
Education Abroad (Could be considered a sub-category of "Education")
Education
One or more hcalendar events with the class name 'education', with an embedded hCard indicating the name of school, address of school etc.
hCalendar is a Recommendation
Research interests
Not designated.
One could argue that this might be related to "skills", or marked with the rel-tag format.
Positions Held
Experience
Optional
One or more hcalendar events with the class name 'experience', with an embedded hCard indicating the job title, name of company, address of company etc.
hCalendar and hCard
The [hResume] draft should describe a way to handle a series of assignments at various employers within the context of one job working for a contracting, consulting, or temporary firm/agency. per mfreeman (2009)
Field Work
Experience
Optional
One or more hcalendar events with the class name 'experience', with an embedded hCard indicating the job title, name of company, address of company etc.
hCalendar and hCard, (my recommendation is to also consider using hGeo)
Field Work often has a Geo-Location and a language involved so I am not sure if it shouldn't also be marked up with hGeo and some rel-tag to the language.
Embedding hCard for job title leads to ambiguities. per TobyInk (2010)
Awards & Honors
Not Designated
Support for Awards and for Service sections are not currently implemented. per jeffmcneill (2007)
Grants Received
Not Designated
This might be considered simular to Awards and Honors. But in most CVs I have seen it is given its own section level.
Publications
publications
Optional
A lot of work has gone into description or a hCite type of format. But nothing has evolved yet. To this end I have resolved myself to using CoinS. Although the official recomendation is to use the <cite> tag.
Peer Reviewed
publications
Optional
Articles (PR)
publications
Optional
Chapters (PR)
publications
Optional
Books (PR)
publications
Optional
Monographs (PR)
publications
Optional
Edited Volumes (PR)
publications
Optional
Not Peer Reviewed
publications
Optional
Articles (NPR)
publications
Optional
Chapters (NPR)
publications
Optional
Books (NPR)
publications
Optional
Papers (NPR)
publications
Optional
Presentations
Not Designated
Generally these are cited like a publication but put in their own section.
Invited Talks
Not Designated
Generally these are cited like a publication but put in their own section.
Dissertations and Thesis supervised.
Not designated (but possibly like publications)
Generally these should be treated like publications.
Professional Associations
Affiliations
Optional
The class name affiliation along with an hcard of the organization.
I am not clear on how XFN can be used in this context. But it seems that this is the sort of thing that XFN was created for. There is also still the same objection as mentioned by TobyInk (2010) because there is no way to tell who the primary hCard on the page referes to.
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Last year I wrote about Selected Works™ & BePress because I was looking at how SIL International might best display the professional abilities of their personnel. This means putting their CV’s and past project activity in an accessible portfolio. I have also been looking at apps like Bibapp, which pulls info from DSpace. Since sil.org is looking at Drupal as a CMS I recently ran across Open Scholar, with an example by harvard.
Because I have been on the team doing the SIL.org redesign, I have been looking at the Open Source landscape looking at what is available to connect Drupal with DSpace data stores. We are planning on making DSpace the back-end repository, with another CMS running the presentation and interactive layers. I found a module which parses DSpace's XML feeds in development. However, this is not the only thing that I am looking at. I am also looking at how we might deploy Omeka. Presenting the entire contents of a Digital Language and Culture Archive, and citations for their physical contents is no small task. In addition to past content there is also future content. That is to say archiving is also not devoid of publishing - so there is also the PKP project [sic redundant]. (SIL also currently has a publishing house, whose content need CSV or version control and editorial workflows, which interact with archiving and presentation functions.)
Omeaka
Wally Grotophorst has a really good reflection on Omeaka and DSpace, I am not sure that it is current but it does present the problem space quite well. [1]Wally Grotophorst. 4 March 2008. DSpace And Omeka. iNODE: The weblog of Digital Programs and Systems at George Mason University Libraries. http://timesync.gmu.edu/wordpress/?p=485 . [Accessed: 26 … Continue reading Tom Scheinfeldt at Omeka also has a nice write up on why Omeka exists, titled "Omeka and It's peers". It is really important to understand Omeka's place in the eco system of content delivery to content consumers by qualified site administrators. [2] Tom Scheinfeldt. 21 September 2010. Omeka and It's peers. http://omeka.org/blog/2010/09/21/omeka-and-peers/ [Accessed: 26 November 2011] [Link] [Also Posted on Tom's Blog]
@Mire talks about What DSpace could learn from Omeka. [3] @Mire. 20 May 2010. What DSpace could learn from Omeka. http://www.facebook.com/notes/mire/what-dspace-could-learn-from-omeka/393758568767 . [Accessed: 26 November 2011] [Link]
Dspace Mailing list discussion discussing some DSpace technologies for mixing with OAI-ORE and Fedora, Omeka, and Drupal.
Wally Grotophorst. 4 March 2008. DSpace And Omeka. iNODE: The weblog of Digital Programs and Systems at George Mason University Libraries. http://timesync.gmu.edu/wordpress/?p=485 . [Accessed: 26 November 2011] [Link]
Tom Scheinfeldt. 21 September 2010. Omeka and It's peers. http://omeka.org/blog/2010/09/21/omeka-and-peers/ [Accessed: 26 November 2011] [Link] [Also Posted on Tom's Blog]
@Mire. 20 May 2010. What DSpace could learn from Omeka. http://www.facebook.com/notes/mire/what-dspace-could-learn-from-omeka/393758568767 . [Accessed: 26 November 2011] [Link]
Over the past several months I have been wrestling with academic expression on the web. I have been trying to think through what it should look like. What do I want my footprint to be? How do I want to participate in the discussions I am involved in? Part of the struggle has been with content distribution v.s. content publishing. In using the web as a content distribution platform the web technology question looks more like "how are we going to arrange these PDFs". Where as the web publishing question looks more like blog posts published directly to web browser oriented venues. Academic writing has traditionally been the written discussion between professionals in various pursuits of life. But as the web has shaped how we communicate academia must (and is) consider how it is going to participate in the discussion. If social media and its various forms are where the discussion is happening then how is academia going to stay relevant or connected? This is most relevant in the area of citations and links. These questions are not just relevant for the individual but are also relevant to academic institutions like, SIL International, Linguistic Society of America, Academy of the Sciences, etc.
Should be considering is that in a world where academic writing is reduced, where is their place. The LSA has a journal, Language, which I enjoy reading. But are they the center of academic thought that they once were? is their presentation of knowledge really the medium of use today?
While I agree that the web is radically changing the way information is decimated. I doubt that the structure of argumentation will change. We may have to find new ways of expressing the points of the argument but an argument will still have points. So, till our professors stop making us write papers, and allow us to tweet our contradictions, and assertions of scientific fact.... How to build an argument and how to write a paper are still important.
I have come across some interesting resources. One of them reminded me of something taught in my undergraduate degree. My philosophy professor made us learn an outline for paper writing which has proven most helpful.
Here is the original outline
1:Issue:What is integration
2. Position: for integration
+3. Argument 1: social pluses -4. Objection 1 social negatives +5. Reply 1: with out the negatives of life are we really preparing students for life
-15. Objection to the position: Separation -16. Argument for the objection to the position: separation is necessary for lower salaries on school budgets +17. Objection to the objection to the position: -18. Reply to the Argument for the objection to the position: Even with a higher budgets on salaries lowering the student to teacher ratio and paying more would help all student overall.
This argument still needed to demonstrate the dichotomy of a paragraph.
Introduction :: why should the reader read this? - the grab. Definition :: What are you talking about? Relationship to higher-level thought :: how does this relate to what the reader knows? Conclusion :: what does your claim imply? Transition :: What question does this lead us to ask?In this outline he showed that one needs a
Proposition
Some supporting elements
Some supporting elements
Some supporting elements
Then to strengthen the argument a counter proposition is needed.
One could choose to be very crafty and make the counter argument a counter to one of the supporting elements of the original proposition. But regardless of the quality of the counter proposition, it still needs several supporting elements.
Element supporting counter position
Element supporting counter position
Element supporting counter position
Then the author needs some discourse to deconstruct the counter supporting elements and explain why they are not valid contradictions supporting the counter position. During this discourse the opposing opinion is clearly presented. Eventually, this discourse will then refute the counter proposition. At which time a second counter proposition is needed.
Second counter proposition
Element supporting counter position
Element supporting counter position
Element supporting counter position
More discourse.... and the process repeats itself until a point is proven or considered well laid out.
The importance of the point in explaining the opposing side better than the opposing side can, was recently brought back into focus as I read a post by Nagesh Belludi [1]Nagesh Belludi. 12 December 2008. [Effective Arguments] Explain Your Opponent’s Perspective. [Accessed: 11 November 2011] … Continue reading . Recently I have also encountered several works of interest regarding academic discourse. The following presentation from Beyond the PDF [2]Anita de Waard, Paul Thompson, Maria Liakata, Raheel Nawaz and Sophia Ananiadou. Comparing scientific discourse annotation schemes for enhanced knowledge extraction. Paper presented at the Beyond the … Continue reading Has a really good break down in the first 10 minutes of the presentation on the discourse structure of an academic paper.
From time to time, I read an academic paper, or journal article which really shines. It is engaging, it tells a compelling story, presents new insights and knowledge, and it brings me to a new conclusion or awareness of my surroundings.
I recently had the pleasure of reading a paper by Alexandre François, on some phonology aspects of a language he was doing research in. [3] Alexandre François. 2010. Phonotactics and the prestopped velar lateral of Hiw: resolving the ambiguity of a complex segment. Phonology Vol. 27 (3):393-434. DOI:10.1017/S0952675710000205 [Link] He did a marvelous job at presenting an issue, the evidence to be considered, and then also the propositions and the objections. He brought the reader with him as he explained the issues. The level of background knowledge needed was minimized, yet this work was not focused on presenting just the background issues and story. It is a recommended read if you are interested in phonology sorts of things, but also if you are interested in looking at the presentation of argumentation.
Anita de Waard, Paul Thompson, Maria Liakata, Raheel Nawaz and Sophia Ananiadou. Comparing scientific discourse annotation schemes for enhanced knowledge extraction. Paper presented at the Beyond the PDF Workshop: January 19-21, 2011 University of California San Diego. [Accessed 8 November 2011] https://sites.google.com/site/beyondthepdf/workshop-papers/comparing-scientific-discourse-annotation [Abstract] [YouTube Video]
Alexandre François. 2010. Phonotactics and the prestopped velar lateral of Hiw: resolving the ambiguity of a complex segment. Phonology Vol. 27 (3):393-434. DOI:10.1017/S0952675710000205 [Link]
