Expressions of Intent for IPY 2007-2008 Activities

Expression of Interest Details

PROPOSAL INFORMATION

LICHEN: The Linguistic and Cultural Heritage Electronic Network  (LICHEN)

Outline
This proposal outlines the LICHEN research project, which focuses on the languages and cultures of the northern circumpolar region. Faced with minority languages, governments have pursued policies of assimilation. This has applied to indigenous languages in Canada, to Gaelic and Scots in Scotland, and to Finnic minority languages in the Circumpolar region. The consequence of such policies has been the creation of ambivalent or negative feelings towards the mother tongue already in childhood, leading to low self-esteem, educational underachievement, unemployment and economic deprivation, and a variety of social and health problems. It is thus clear that language and culture are as important to the survival and well-being of populations as more obvious ecological and social issues. The aim of the project is twofold: firstly, to create an electronic framework for the collection, management, online display, and exploitation of existing corpora of the languages of the circumpolar regions, which is also applicable to other corpora that represent regional, social and other varieties of languages. To achieve this we rely on close collaboration between several well-established corpus projects to discuss common goals, needs and problems and to identify best practices. Secondly, the project aims to collect, preserve and disseminate information about the languages spoken in the region, thus also enabling research on them. This will also help promote the linguistic confidence and self-image of the speakers of these languages, strengthening their cultural awareness and facilitating cross-cultural communication between these peoples in an age of rapid global change. Thus, the project will benefit not only the academic community, but also the speakers of the languages concerned, and indeed other communities around the world battling with the same kinds of issues. The electronic framework is being developed at the University of Oulu, Finland, as a joint venture between the Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Humanities and in collaboration with other project members and international experts. Within IPY 2007-2008 both an intranet and an internet version of the framework will be developed. In addition to this the project members will participate in the collection of data and dissemination of information. Each member has a unique goal within the project: some already have data, which may need digitization or formatting to be usable within the framework; others are looking to collect data. All members share a need for common practices and common tools to make the most use out of the data available.

What significant advance(s) in relation to the IPY themes and targets can be anticipated from this project?
The project aims to develop and implement the necessary infrastructure for the long-term management and use of linguistic data for varied regional and international research. The effort relies on a multidisciplinary, international partner network setting up a legacy of infrastructure enabling other researchers to expand previous data or add new data following the provided guidelines for best practices. The infrastructure will also enable the development of new analysis mechanisms arising from regional or international research topics. Easy web access will also be provided for use by schools and the public to access information on their cultural heritage.

What international collaboration is involved in this project?
The project builds on longstanding collaboration between scholars from different countries. The aim is to use the collective expertise of scholars working on various languages in the circumpolar region to enable the development of a common framework for the collection, management and use of data on those languages.

FIELD ACTIVITY DETAILS

Geographical location(s) for the proposed field activities:
Not applicable.

Approximate timeframe(s) for proposed field activities:
Arctic: n/a
Antarctic: n/a

Significant facilities will be required for this project:

Will the project leave a legacy of infrastructure?
The framework will be applicable to a multitude of data and research topics. Thus, along with the guidelines for best practices for the collection and management of linguistic data, it forms a legacy of infrastructure intended to expand and evolve to accommodate new types of data and topics of research.

How is it envisaged that the required logistic support will be secured?

Has the project been "endorsed" at a national or international level?
Not yet; contact is being made.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND STRUCTURE

Is the project a short-term expansion (over the IPY 2007-2008 timeframe) of an existing plan, programme or initiative or is it a new autonomous proposal?
No
The LICHEN project has started in 2005 by gathering a network of collaborators and planning the activities. A basic laboratory prototype of the proposed framework will be completed by 2007. This will then be developed into both an intranet and an internet version over the IPY timeframe.

How will the project be organised and managed?
The project will be coordinated by Dr Opas-Hänninen, University of Oulu. A project Steering Committee will be set up and will include the coordinator and project members 1-4 (as detailed in 4.2). The Committee will meet on a regular basis. In addition, an intranet environment for discussion and the dissemination of information will be set up in order to involve all project members.

What are the initial plans of the project for addressing the education, outreach and communication issues outlined in the Framework document?
The project will provide easy web access to the data, enabling its use in, for example, classrooms for teaching the languages and the cultures of the region. A website will be created to provide information and act as point of contact between the project and interested parties.

What are the initial plans of the project to address data management issues (as outlined in the Framework document)?
The project intends to use recognised standards for the management and presentation of data (e.g. XML, XHTML, TEI and Dublin Core). An aim of the project is to provide easy web access to the data (see above).

How is it proposed to fund the project?
It is expected that each member of the project will apply for national funding for their contributions to the project; some members have already done so.

Is there additional information you wish to provide?
None

PROPOSER DETAILS

Dr Lisa Lena Opas-Hänninen
Department of English, University of Oulu
PO Box 1000
University of Oulu
90014
Finland

Tel: +358-8-5533278
Mobile: +358-50-5322524
Fax: +358-8-5533275
Email:

Other project members and their affiliation

Other Information