friendly reminders

[Pankaj Jaiswal]

Hi Richard,

I agree with you and hopefully POc will gain some useful hints from your 
IRIS experience. Bringing translations in our structure can be an 
objective for the future project. Infact inclusion of languages other 
than English was one such comment we received from the reviewers. Our 
suggestion was,  we certainly plan to incorporate non-English terms into 
the core ontology whenever it is necessary to express a botanical 
concept that has no English equivalent.  For example, the German term 
vorlauferspitze (the tip of a monocot leaf, obvious in early 
development, and hypothesized to be homologous to a dicot leaf blade) 
indeed has no counterpart in English, but is the term used in English 
botanical literature. (provided by Co-PIs, Toby Kellogg and Peter Stevens)

On the other hand building a comprehensive plant ontology in multiple 
languages simultaneously would expand the project considerably, and 
would present multiple practical difficulties with updates.  Changing a 
term in the English version of the ontology would require coordinated 
changes in the French and German versions as well.  We think that it is 
a better use of our time to do the best job we can in English and then 
have the ontology translated into a series of synonyms in other 
languages.  This would be best to do towards the end of the project, 
when the ontology has stabilized and could be accomplished either by 
seeking volunteers from the community, or by seeking supplementary 
funding for the task

Cheers
Pankaj


Bruskiewich, Richard (IRRI) wrote:
> Hi Pankaj,
> 
> I missed a chance to meet with an Agrovoc principal while in Rome in
> February. Not sure how that initiative is going.
> 
> I guess my main point was to build some flexibility into our
> representations, to ensure linguistic universality. Like you say, many folks
> might help out with the actual translation, and yes... Keeping things
> synchronized is a problem.
> 
> For our part here, we'll probably embed some flexibility in our management
> of ontology in Generation CP systems (at least, in our ICIS implementation
> thereof), to partly meet the challenge, then get our NARES to work on
> translations.
> 
> Cheers
> Richard
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Pankaj Jaiswal [mailto:pj37 at cornell.edu] 
> Sent: Thursday, April 29, 2004 10:14 PM
> To: po-dev at plantontology.org
> Cc: po-dev at plantontology.org; Michael Ashburner; Hintum, Theo van
> Subject: RE: friendly reminders
> 
> Hi Richard,
> 
> There is an international effort going on with the help from FAO, AGVOC and
> UMLS if I am not wrong, on doing the translations as well as integrating the
> various vocabularies. These are called agricultural ontologies.
> http://www.fao.org/agrovoc/
> 
> A couple of years ago I met the project coordinator from FAO and he was very
> much interested in the PO and GO work. He even offerred that if we can
> provide the ontologies in some exchangeable format like OWL/RDF formats, it
> will help them in integrating our ontologies in their database. Not to
> mention an added advantage is getting the translations in
> 5-6 major languages other than English. The only problem Michael cited was
> on synchronizing translations with the GO & PO releases.
> 
> If this works out then I think we don't have to worry about semantics of
> doing translations on our own. This will be an excellent example of working
> with a major international organization. Since it is FAO, I am pretty sure
> CGIAR will be more than willing to chip in with their help in coordinating
> the exchange.
> 
> 
> Pankaj
> 
> 
> Bruskiewich, Richard (IRRI) said:
> 
>>One of Pankaj's points raises a issue here: translation of the POC/GO 
>>into international languages...
>>
>>In principle, I don't see why we shouldn't be considering 
>>"internationalization" of the POC (and GO) to accommodate ESL 
>>researchers in other countries. I'm already considering such 
>>generality in designing our next generation International Crop 
>>Information System, that is, trying to split off the term "string" (in 
>>unicode, of course) from the concept (indexed by accession identifier) 
>>and the term definition (which could also be internationalized).
>>
>>I think that the CGIAR plant crop centers (and the ICIS project, and 
>>the Generation CP) can probably help out in this regard given our 
>>broad multi-national constituency, and extensive network of ESL 
>>national research partners. If we collectively design the schemata to 
>>accommodate such flexibility, then perhaps national partners from 
>>major non-English speaking research constituencies will offer to do 
>>the translation into their own languages(?). Big task, I know, but 
>>doable...
>>
>>BTW, though English is one of the world's most widely spoken 
>>languages, I wouldn't automatically assume that American English is 
>>the dominant form...
>>Considering the size of some major ESL countries in the British 
>>Empire, like India ;-)))
>>
>>Richard
>>
>>
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Pankaj Jaiswal [mailto:pj37 at cornell.edu]
>>Sent: Thursday, April 29, 2004 8:56 AM
>>To: POC-dev
>>Subject: friendly reminders
>>
>>Here are a few friendly reminders.
>>
>>-please do not use characters like ! # $ in the definitions.
>>-The main term should always have an American english spelling if 
>>required.
>>-the synonyms can have British spellings.
>>-Same goes with definitions. Try using the American English spellings.
>>-do not use short forms of words like "str." for "structure" in the 
>>definition. Always use full form.
>>-Always prefix /suffix the desired term mane if its a combination of 
>>noun and an adjective. e.g. "indehiscent fruits". Having only 
>>"indehiscent" as term name is insufficient.
>>
>>There are some more things, which I will post later on. I did some of 
>>the changes but asombody has to go through them again.
>>
>>Cheers
>>
>>Pankaj
>>
>>************************
>>Pankaj Jaiswal, PhD
>>G15-Bradfiled Hall
>>Dept. of Plant Breeding
>>Cornell University
>>Ithaca, NY-14853, USA
>>
>>Tel: +1-607-255-3103
>>      +1-607-255-4109
>>Fax: +1-607-255-6683
>>http://www.gramene.org
>>************************
>>
>>
> 
> 
> 
> --
> Pankaj Jaiswal
> Gramene Database
> www.gramene.org
> 

-- 
************************
Pankaj Jaiswal, PhD
G15-Bradfiled Hall
Dept. of Plant Breeding
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY-14853, USA

Tel: +1-607-255-3103
      +1-607-255-4109
Fax: +1-607-255-6683
http://www.gramene.org
************************