lab 1 - cs.odu.edu · web viewthe community itself will decide what words are added through a...

Running head: Lab 1 – ELDERS Product Description1

Lab 1 – ELDERS Product Description

Team Purple

Tatiana Livingston

CS411W

Professor Janet Brunelle

April 17, 2013

Version: 3

Table of Content

Lab 1 – ELDERS Product Description2

s

1 Introduction.......................................................................................................................................3

2 ELDERS PRODUCT DESCRIPTION..........................................................................................5

2.1 Key Product Features and Capabilities...................................................................................5

2.2 Major Components (Hardware/Software)..............................................................................6

3 IDENTIFICATION OF CASE STUDY........................................................................................8

4 PRODUCT PROTOTYPE DESCRIPTION..................................................................................9

4.1 Prototype Features and Capabilities......................................................................................10

4.2 Prototype Architecture (Hardware/Software).....................................................................12

A. Glossary...........................................................................................................................................15

B. Bibliography....................................................................................................................................16

List of Figures

Figure 1 – Major Functional Component Diagram.........................................................................6

Figure 2 – Prototype Major Functional Component Diagram.......................................................13


List of Tables

Table 1 – Side-By-Side Comparison Of The Final Product And The Prototype..........................11


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


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.

(This space intentionally left blank.)


2 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.


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.


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.



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.



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.



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:

DictionariesStore and view the words in the Historic Dictionary and

the New DictionaryImplemented

Alphabet View the written alphabetNot Implemented: There is no current

Nottoway Alphabet; once created it will be easily implemented

Audio

PronunciationHear the words pronounced Partially Implemented: Will allow

admins to add audio pronunciations

Language

Lessons

Lessons to teach the language Not Implemented

Word

Proposal

System to suggest new words Implemented

Word

Voting

Certain users can vote for proposed words, words with enough votes automatically

get added to the New Dictionary

Implemented


Access

Control

User login system with different access levels Implemented

NotificationsSystem 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

Mobile

View

Able to view the website from mobile devices Implemented

Mobile

Application

Separate mobile application Not Implemented

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.


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.



Figure 2 – Prototype Major Functional Component Diagram



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.



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


B. Bibliography

Lewis, J. D. (2007). Carolana Explorers – Edward Bland. Carolana. Retrieved on November 13, 2012, from http://www.carolana.com/Carolina/Explorers/edwardbland.htmlNottoway 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

http://www.nottowayindians.org/