CLLRD Workshop

Notwithstanding advances in data collection and processing, language related research, education and technology development continue to suffer from inadequate supply of Language Resources. To supplement traditional LR development, which typically relies upon top down support from some government or private foundation, Citizen Linguistics (the Citizen Science of Language) changes the incentive model to attract a new workforce which in turn requires a different kind of workflow. Incentives to Citizen Linguists may include the opportunities to learn and develop new skills; to socialize, compete and earn status or recognition; to document their language and promote their culture and, most importantly, to contribute directly to research and indirectly to a greater cause or social good. By offering human contributors sustained access to appropriate opportunities, activities, and incentives, we can enhance LR development well beyond what traditional direct funding alone can produce. However, along with these new incentives and workflows come new challenges whose solutions are relevant even to expert (paid) annotation. 

The goal of this hybrid workshop/tutorial is two-fold. First is to provide a forum for researchers and practitioners to explore and discuss the issues, advantages and challenges of using Citizen Linguistics as a method for the creation of language resources. Second is to introduce LanguageARC, a new Citizen Linguistics web portal for collecting language data and judgements. 

LanguageARC: Developing Language Resources Through Citizen Linguistics
James Fiumara, Christopher Cieri, Jonathan Wright and Mark Liberman 
Paper in PDF