Running head: Lab 1 – ELDERS Product Description
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Lab 1 – ELDERS Product Description
Team Purple
Tatiana Livingston
CS411W
Professor Janet Brunelle
April 17, 2013
Version: 3
Lab 1 – ELDERS Product Description
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Table of Contents
1
Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 4
2
ELDERS PRODUCT DESCRIPTION ........................................................................................... 6
2.1
Key Product Features and Capabilities.................................................................................... 6
2.2
Major Components (Hardware/Software) ............................................................................... 7
3
IDENTIFICATION OF CASE STUDY ......................................................................................... 9
4
PRODUCT PROTOTYPE DESCRIPTION ................................................................................. 10
4.1
Prototype Features and Capabilities....................................................................................... 11
4.2
Prototype Architecture (Hardware/Software) ...................................................................... 13
A. Glossary ............................................................................................................................................. 16
B. Bibliography...................................................................................................................................... 17
List of Figures
Figure 1 – Major Functional Component Diagram......................................................................... 7
Figure 2 – Prototype Major Functional Component Diagram ...................................................... 14
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List of Tables
Table 1 – Side-By-Side Comparison Of The Final Product And The Prototype.......................... 12
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1 Introduction
There are approximately seven thousand languages worldwide, half of which are expected to
die within the next century ("Endangered Languages"). Losing a language results in the loss a
large part of a community’s cultural heritage. Language is what ties a community together.
Documents, stories, and songs may all be lost when the language is lost. Many communities will
benefit immensely from regaining their dead language. It is also imperative to protect the
languages in danger of dying out.
There are some languages, both endangered and extinct, that have been successfully
revitalized (e.g. the endangered Navajo language and the extinct Hebrew language). However,
the process used to revitalize such languages required resources and conditions not available to
all languages suffering a similar fate. It currently consists of a devoted linguist going through
countless obscure documents to recreate the closest approximation to the dead language. This is
clearly impossible for languages with minimal documentation and with no access to a
professional linguist.
ELDERS, Endangered Languages Documentation Extension and Revival System, is a
product being designed with the goal of allowing communities to revive their language without
the help of a devoted linguist and no matter the state of the language. ELDERS will be a free
website that provides easy access to the language as it is currently. It will also allow a
community itself to rebuild the language. This encourages communal involvement and the final
language will be a product of the community (rather than something handed to them from a
linguist). It will also provide the grammar of the language, the history of the community, and
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educational games in order to encourage the learning of the language. ELDERS will ultimately
give communities the ability to bring their people together and rebuild their language.
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ELDERS PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
ELDERS is a product that gives communities the ability to revitalize endangered and
extinct languages. It focuses mainly on documenting the existing language, expanding it, and
then teaching it. The original language will be documented in an online database. It will then be
made accessible by providing a website interface. The community itself will decide what words
are added through a word suggestion and approval process, and thus they will be the ones who
create the new language. ELDERS will also provide access to the history of the community and
various language teaching tools.
2.1
Key Product Features and Capabilities
A community will be able to store what remains of their language in ELDERS. This will
create a record of the original language in a dictionary format to preserve the language for future
generations of linguists to study. After storing the original language in the Historic Dictionary, a
separate dictionary will be made. This New Dictionary will contain all of the words added to the
language through the word suggestion and approval process. The new words are suggested and
voted on by members of the community, making it directly responsible for the growth of the
language.
ELDERS will also attempt to provide learning tools and encourage community
participation. It will include language lessons, educational games, and a section containing the
community’s history. To encourage community participation, ELDERS will provide a forum to
allow users to communicate with each other and will notify users when changes are made to the
New Dictionary.
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2.2
Major Components (Hardware/Software)
ELDERS will be comprised of multiple open source software components: Linux,
Apache, MySQL, and PHP. These components are collectively referred to as a LAMP stack. The
Linux operating system, Ubuntu, will be used to access the ELDERS server. Apache will be used
as the web server, MySQL will be the database management system, and PHP will be the
scripting language used to develop the ELDERS website.
Figure 1 – Major Functional Component Diagram
As illustrated in Figure 1, the prototype will consist of two major functional hardware
components: a client and a server. The client will be accessible by any device with a web
browser, including mobile devices. The server will be hosted by a third party. The server’s
minimal recommended specifications are four gigabytes of RAM and at least 20 gigabytes of
hard drive space.
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Access control is a key part of ELDERS. It is vital to protect the original language and to
make sure only the community is making additions to the language. There will be a tiered
account system that limits the access of different users depending on which rank they are.
Besides the website administrators (who will have full back-end access), the access levels, in
order from least amount of access to highest amount of access, are: Registered Users,
Community Members, and Language Committee Members.
There will be a database containing separate tables for the alphabet: the Historic and the
New Dictionary. The website will allow users to view the information stored in each of these
tables. It will also allow members of the Language Committee to add to the New Dictionary
through the word proposal and voting processes. There will be educational aspects of the
website which will consist of a section for language lessons, educational games, and the
community’s history. Depending on the community’s wishes, access to the Dictionaries,
Alphabet, and educational aspects may be given to all Registered Users or may be limited to
users with at least a Community Member access level. Users with the appropriate access level
will be notified of any changes made to the New Dictionary.
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3
IDENTIFICATION OF CASE STUDY
The final ELDERS product will ideally be capable of supporting multiple languages.
First, it is important to prove that it functions with a single language. Thus, ELDERS is currently
being developed to assist in restoring the language of our case study, the Nottoway Indian Tribe
of Virginia. They are located in Surry County and there are approximately 200 members in the
tribe (Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia, 2011). For many years, they had to keep their culture a
secret to avoid persecution, and have had to fight for recognition. No one has spoken their
language in hundreds of years, and it currently consists of 250 words recorded in a single
document. The ELDERS group learned about their situation through Professor Morris. He has
managed to gain their trust after years of interaction, and they are all very excited about the
possibility of hearing their language spoken again.
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4
PRODUCT PROTOTYPE DESCRIPTION
The prototype will be tailored to the Nottoway language and community while still being
general enough to allow for other communities to easily adapt it for their language. It will
attempt to provide the most functionality in the time allotted and given the current limitations of
the Nottoway language. The prototype will focus on documenting and archiving the language as
it currently exists and on the features necessary to enable language expansion. It will also
provide cultural information and features to encourage and facilitate communal participation.
The prototype will be built with user access and restrictions in place so as to allow the
community to protect their privacy and ensure that only permitted members have the ability to
make changes and decisions about the Nottoway language. The dictionary feature will have the
basic functionalities required for recording and displaying the Nottoway language, as well as
minimal implementation of the language’s grammar and idiomatic phrases.
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4.1
Prototype Features and Capabilities
Due to the needs and limitations of the Nottoway language, some final product features
are not included in the prototype. Other features are not implemented due to the large amount of
time needed to implement them. The differences between the final product and the prototype are
shown in Table 1 below.
Functionality:
Final Product:
Prototype:
Dictionaries
Store and view the words in
the Historic Dictionary and
the New Dictionary
Implemented
Alphabet
View the written alphabet
Not Implemented: There is no current
Nottoway Alphabet; once created it will
be easily implemented
Hear the words pronounced
Partially Implemented: Will allow
admins to add audio pronunciations
Lessons to teach the
language
Not Implemented
System to suggest new
words
Implemented
Certain users can vote for
proposed words, words with
enough votes automatically
get added to the New
Dictionary
Implemented
Audio
Pronunciation
Language
Lessons
Word
Proposal
Word
Voting
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Access
User login system with
different access levels
Implemented
System to notify users when
changes are made to the
New Dictionary
Implemented
Games
Section containing
educational games
Not Implemented: Future groups will
design them, the prototype will make it
easy to implement the games when they
do
History
Section for the
community’s history
Implemented
Able to view the website
from mobile devices
Implemented
Separate mobile
application
Not Implemented
Control
Notifications
Mobile
View
Mobile
Application
Table 1 – Side-By-Side Comparison Of The Final Product And The Prototype
Because of the lack of a written Nottoway Alphabet, there will only be a syllabary chart
of the Nottoway language. Once the language is created, it will be easy to add images of each
letter to the syllabary chart. In the interest of time, there will be the ability to add audio
pronunciations of each word, but the audio files will not be included in the prototype. Designing
language lessons and educational games are outside the scope of the prototype and will be left to
future groups to create.
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4.2
Prototype Architecture (Hardware/Software)
The components of the prototype and the final product share many similarities but there
are a few differences. The server will be hosted on a virtual machine, thus making the required
hardware specifications more adjustable. The server will use the LAMP stack the same way the
final product will. The prototype will also implement a searching algorithm to find specific
words in the dictionary and a voting algorithm that makes sure suggested words do not already
exist in either dictionary and automatically adds suggested words when they meet the required
number of votes. Figure 2 further illustrates the components that will be used in the prototype.
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Figure 2 – Prototype Major Functional Component Diagram
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4.3 Prototype Development Challenges
There are a few expected challenged that the group will have to overcome: customer
satisfaction, administration concerns, proper grammar, and offline accessibility. The most
important challenge is making sure that the prototype does everything the Nottoway want and
has the proper look and feel. This will be overcome by keeping frequent contact with the
Nottoway throughout the development of the product. The next biggest challenge is making sure
the database is properly maintained and that website is properly updated as new content and
features are made available. This problem will be mitigated by giving administration duties to
someone who is familiar with the system or, if there is not anyone with the necessary experience,
training someone. It is also necessary to make sure that all of the words are properly conjugated;
however, Professor Morris has a conjugation program that automatically creates all the possible
conjugations of a root word. Lastly, the need for offline accessibility will be mitigated by
providing exportable content.
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A.
Glossary
ELDERS: Endangered Languages Documentation Extension and Revival System
Historical Dictionary: Only contains the original Nottoway words
New Dictionary: Contains all of the new words approved by the Nottoway
LAMP: Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP
Registered User: Lowest access level; a user with this access level is either not a member of the
community or a user whose Community Member status has not yet been approved.
Community Member: Second lowest access level; a user with this access level is a member of
the community that the language belongs to.
Language Committee Member: Second highest access level; a user with this access level has
been selected by the community to be responsible for voting and suggesting new words.
Graphical User Interface (GUI): How the end user will interact with the application
Linux: A free, widely-available open-source operating system
MySQL: the world’s most used RDBMS
Structured Query Language (SQL): Used to make queries to a database server
Tables: Logical collections of data stored on a database server
RDBMS: Relational Database Management System
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B.
Bibliography
Lewis, J. D. (2007). Carolana Explorers – Edward Bland. Carolana. Retrieved on November
13, 2012, from http://www.carolana.com/Carolina/Explorers/edwardbland.html
Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia (2011). History. Nottoway Indians. Retrieved
October 8, 2012, from www.nottowayindians.org.
Parramore, T.C. (1978). In Southampton County, Virginia (pp. 1-5). Charlottesville, VA: UP of
Virginia.
Peterson, M.D. (1986). In Thomas Jefferson: A Reference Biography (pp. 69, 168). United
States: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
The Week Staff (2012, June 22). Google’s next mission: Save dying languages – The Week.
The Week Magazine: Political News and Cartoons, Current Events and Entertainment
Online. Retrieved October 8, 2012, from
http://theweek.com/article/index/229695/googles-next-mission-save-dying-languages