Small group activities

Much of what we might accomplish at Fefor will be best done in small groups. The three broad distinctions made below are not meant to be hard and fast, but are intended to help to achieve concrete results. In all cases, leaders are named (if leaders have been specified inappropriately, please let AnnCopestake know as soon as possible). Other people who may wish to volunteer to lead an activity are asked to add themselves and to email AnnCopestake as soon as possible.

Working groups

The aim of a working group is to get something working! Working groups are intended for topics that involve a small group that needs to sort out something specific/technical. For instance: there’s some tool that the leader developed, the participants have an active interest in and have used at a novice level, but they want it to get it to work on a new grammar. Group leaders will sort out the topics and group composition before Fefor (as far as possible). Scheduling is done by the group on an ad-hoc basis. Leaders are asked to add a page to the wiki for their groups. Groups will report back to the plenary session.

  • LexDB: BenWaldron (objective to get more grammars using the LexDB)
  • web server: StephanOepen (suggested by FrancisBond: objective is putting other grammars online)
  • deep/shallow integration via S(M)AF: BenWaldron and MontserratMarimon and ??
  • harmonization of grammars: DanFlickinger
  • exploring a common descriptive classification of linguistic phenomena: DanFlickinger
  • LKB/PET compatibility issues: shared configuration, reducing and documenting the globals: NTNU, FrancisBond (follow-up from Jerez)

Tours of resources

Short descriptions of particular resources for small groups. Possibly including:

  • DanFlickinger: Semantic test suite (for people who haven’t seen it, in advance of discussion in FeforRmrs)
  • AnnCopestake: Algebra checking tool (for people who haven’t seen it, preferably in advance of discussion of algebra in FeforRmrs)
  • DanFlickinger: LUI (alternative user interface for LKB)
  • DanFlickinger: Generation - trigger rules, debugging techniques, batch testing
  • FrancisBond: Treebanking with Redwoods
  • BenWaldron: Preprocessor usage (now supported in both LKB and PET)

Also, if time permits, tours could be given of the resources listed above under working groups or installation parties, for people who just want a introduction.

Installation parties

Leaders have expertise in some resource. The objective is to get the particular resource running on participants’ computers AND to further document the instructions on the Wiki on an ongoing basis. That is, if the participants feel they needed extra instructions for the installation, they write detailed notes on the Wiki. We would like later installers to try installation from the Wiki instructions alone while still at Fefor so that if things go wrong they can get help easily and then refine the wiki instructions. This is intended for situations less complex than those to be addressed by working groups: the leaders should believe they can get the software working relatively straightforwardly.

Leaders are asked to circulate info about hardware/software requirements in advance (this may just take the form of an appropriate link below). Participants may wish to sign up with leaders in advance of Fefor.

Last update: 2011-10-09 by anonymous [edit]