In my previous post I hinted on the improvements made to Taggloo in the latest significant release. Key amongst these is the ability for users to contribute their own content to the dictionaries. One of the beauties of Manx in particular is the fascinating vocabulary, even different pronunciations and words used in communities within such a small island. By adding content and improving existing content, we can help create a living, social dictionary.

Adding content to the Taggloo dictionaries is easy. Perform your search and at the bottom of every screen is a link to “Improve this entry”.

If you’re not already logged in, you’ll be asked to log in. Remember, you don’t need to create an account. You can just use your Facebook login.

The opportunities of improving an entry are significant, as shown in the screenshot. Clicking on the tile will allow you to add improved content.

You can add a definition, a plural, pronunciation, a sound clip of the word being pronounced, a translation to another language, a phrase, mutation or a web site with relevant information. Have a look at how you could improve the dictionary:

• Add a definition: What does the word mean? This is useful for when you would like to describe the meaning of a word instead of relying on synonyms.
• Add a plural: Plurals in Manx aren’t as straight forward as in English, so you can add how the plural form is used.
• Add a pronunciation: Using phonetic syllables or the phonemic alphabet, define specifically how a word is pronounced.
• Add a sound clip: Dictionaries are great for finding formal definitions of how words are pronounced, but there’s no better way than hearing someone say it. Add a sound clip to show how the word sounds “for real”.
• Add a translation: Add a translation or synonym for the word in another of the supported languages.
• Add a phrase: “Use it in a sentence”! A great way to understand what relationship the word has with other words in a sentence or when you could use a word.
• Add a mutation: Languages sometimes mutate words for reasons of ease of speech or more technical reasons such as the context the word is used in. These rules aren’t always clear, so add a mutation to help other users.
• Share a web site: Another opportunity to help other users understand how the word is used for real. An example of a good web site example would be if the word is featured heavily in an article, for example.

You can also add a new word that’s not already in the dictionary. If no matches are returned, you’ll have an option to add the word:

Over time the dictionaries will become fortified with rich content, submitted by real users of the language. Have a look at the screenshot below for the result of searching for “thie“:

Hopefully you’ve seen Taggloo by now and read about how it was inspired. Taggloo was always intended to bridge the gap between translating words and the use of those words in the community. The last major feature launch was the aggregation of community content where minority languages such as Manx were used in social media. This allows a user to identify other interested people that they can connect with and for these real-life uses of language to be included in translations. It’s a neat idea and one that is starting to bear fruit now the code has been active for around 9 months.

The next step was to extend the idea of community with user-generated content and authority. The Taggloo dictionary contains tens of thousands of phrases and translations, but they were fairly static. The inclusion of community content in social media extended the richness of the dictionary, but without the structure of a dictionary.

With the latest update, users can contribute their own words and add a wide variety of improvements to existing words. For example, you can add a phrase, sound file, web site or definition. Taggloo also supports the concept of mutations and plurals to further extend the richness of the dictionary. Learners and experts alike are encouraged to add common phrases, their own translations, perhaps modern concepts such as internet terminology or idioms to help extend the richness of the dictionary.

But how do you know how reliable dictionary data is, if anyone can submit their own content? Content is submitted by users with a seeded vote of zero (0). Then, as other users use it, they can “vote up” the item, increasing the item’s score. Search results are sorted on this score, so the authoritative submissions are always presented first. Conversely, if a translation or resource isn’t appropriate, then it may be “voted down”.

To add to the “social” dimension of Taggloo, the site now supports Facebook authentication. You don’t need to create a new username/password if you don’t want to (though you can if you wish or are not a Facebook user), instead, just log in with your Facebook username and password. The site will never know your password, so that’s one less thing to worry about!

If you haven’t yet come across them, check out the Facebook page or Twitter stream at @TagglooIM where you can be introduced to new phrases and keep in touch with Taggloo developments.

This last update was a big one and I hope to introduce the features in detail in the coming weeks in future blog posts. Why wait till then? Have a play …

Between work, TT and various obligations I’ve finally managed to finish what is the majority of the second key phase of Taggloo.im: social content.

Language is nothing if not used in a social context, and using Manx online is no different. I’m a big fan of Social Media and particularly how it can be used to promote the visibility (if not learning/teaching) of our island’s language and heritage. Modern technology is already leveraged very well by teachers and learners of Manx using mediums such as Twitter, You Tube, blogs and Facebook.

It was always my intention to bring together what is currently a disparate and siloed set of high quality language content and aggregate it for presentation and showcasing it, alongside other, similar content. In the spirit of open-data, why not take the content, re-form it and publish it side-by-side?

Currently, Taggloo is pulling in content from:

• Twitter (based on a set of rules which should hopefully provide fairly relevant Manx content)
• You Tube (specifically the Gaelg You Tube channel)

Try it out: http://taggloo.im/Community

Hopefully by integrating this live Manx content, it will encourage users not only to develop their understanding of the language by accessing previously unseen channels, but also to participate in the discussion using Twitter.

Maybe in the future I’ll also add a Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr feed, or just more content from You Tube or more blogs. If you’d like to see a particular set of data included, make sure you suggest it on our UserVoice site. The site is able to gather and parse a wide variety of data-formats, which will increase as more content feeds are discovered.

Remember, if you’re using Twitter to write in Manx, add the #Gaelg hash-tag!

It seems that my Taggloo (http://taggloo.im) experiment has been sufficiently successful to warrant some determined effort on producing a site that I would be happy to launch and have people use. After collecting some ideas from some Manx speakers and adding few of my own ideas, I’ve developed the site and am happy to publish the site for wider use. I’ve even had some positive feedback for my very limited design skills!

Taggloo, as the site says, is a means of bringing learners and seasoned speakers of niche languages together to help keep the language living. Taggloo is Manx Gaelic for “speech” and as such is designed to be an informal aid to existing resources that may be available, rather than a definitive or technical language resource. Currently, the site only has Manx Gaelic, but it is designed from the outset to support other languages.

My aim for the site is for to create a Social Dictionary. This will be achieved by aggregating electronically published content such as Tweets, blog posts or You Tube videos and by encouraging users to get involved by submitting their own interpretations and uses of words, or their own words. I’ve been learning Manx Gaelic long enough to understand that spellings, pronunciation and meanings of words can vary between dictionaries, contexts and even regions of this small island. So called “dead languages” are often still living, evolving and growing through use in the community and this includes the internet community.

Ultimately, I want to answer a key problem I had in trying to access useful Manx content in an electronic format, by opening the dictionaries and enabling opportunities for users to leverage this data. Users can access this data either by using the web-site or, using the comprehensive API, via mobile phone “apps” or even applets embedded in other web sites.

The site currently performs basic translations, though this will be extended over the coming weeks as I find time to introduce my intended improvements. Here’s what is on my roadmap so far:

• Community content aggregated from Twitter, blogs and You Tube.
• Language use “in the wild” drawn from such community content added to translation results to show context within sentences and discussions.
• Uploadable media items, including a subset of Manx Gaelic vocabulary to prime the collection of user-submitted media.
• Submission of words missing from the dictionary by expert speakers and learners alike and rating of community submitted content.
• Submission of comments regarding people’s individual understanding of word meanings and uses, providing a very personal interpretation on language use.

How can you contribute?

The site is intended to be open from the outset and this includes accepting users’ comments and suggestions on how to improve the site. I’ve set up a UserVoice forum to collect users’ impressions. Maybe you have new languages in mind, or have a killer-feature in mind. Or, perhaps there is a bug on the site that needs to be fixed!

Any and all feedback is welcome, and you can submit your suggestions and queries at http://taggloo.uservoice.com.

Taggloo, my experiment with Manx translations is proving to be surprisingly popular. Even at this very early stage, a select few people are using it regularly and are providing me with excellent feedback.

I thought I’d just have a quick look at the analytics I’m collecting on the usage of the site (not personally identifiable) this morning. Bearing in mind that this site is an experiment, I was surprised by the results. I was further pleased by the correlation of translations with work we’re doing in class.

At the time of writing, in the first month of use the site has had over 1,200 queries, which will be sourced from both the web-site and clients using the API, such as the Windows Phone 7 application.

The most popular word is the English “because” . This is particularly interesting as it is exactly what we’re learning in class at the moment. This word has a complex structure in its Manx form, with one translation being “er yn oyr”. Literally, “on the reason”.

The second most popular query is for the Manx “poyll faarkee”, which is “swimming pool” in English. Some queries are clearly unexplainable!

By far, the most popular platform for conducting queries is the Apple iPhone web browser, with over 450 individual requests. This is probably due to most of the users who I’ve asked to try out the service having Apple devices and maybe will serve to encourage some kind soul to volunteer to write an iPhone client.

The Windows Phone 7 application accounts for over 150 requests, not bad for the 13 downloads this application has obtained so far. Due to the current lowly position of Windows Phone 7 in the smartphone space and the very niche community of Manx speakers who may be involved with this experiment, I’m obviously not expecting this download figure to be high!

This weekend was spent working on an improved index and rebuilding the current word lists to match it. This will serve faster and more accurate lookups and paves the way for further additions to the served content in the future. Having had such surprisingly good feedback, I just wish I had the time to get stuck into the other ideas I have. It’s all very exciting, I’m working towards a social, living dictionary. Who needs Google Translate?