Publications

2023

2020

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2011

2010

2009

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2007

2006

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2000

1999

1996

1992

1989

1986

Conference presentations, workshops, lectures etc

2019

2018

2017

2016

2014

2013

2012

2011

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2009

2008

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2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

1999

 

Websites

Note: not all of these sites are still in existence or in the form in which I established or was involved with them

Unpublished papers

 

 

Selected projects

Here (presented in alphabetical order) are some notes about selected projects in which I have played a significant role. They range from large and complex facilities such as the Endangered Languages Archive, to smaller but highly used web resources such as the Kamilaroi Web Dictionary and the Turkish Suffix Dictionary. Each project has involved different configurations of team partners, strategies, technologies, audiences, stakeholders and types of content and dissemination.

Ajamurnda

A project based at the Groote Eylandt Language Centre. The project is building a digital collection and catalogue of language and cultural materials based around three pillars:

  • a collection of language, cultural and historical materials related to the Indigenous communities of the Groote archipelago, spanning nearly 100 years - manuscripts, photos, videos and images, many of which are being digitised - containing stories, dictionary and linguistic descriptions, and ethnographic and environmental knowledge
  • Ajamurnda, an innovative digital catalogue to support access to the legacy and newly created materials, especially for Anindilyakwa community members
  • an ongoing participatory framework, based around respect for authentic access protocols and encouraging and enabling community members to enrich the collection by adding information in their own terms
My roles: project and media management, technical development, research and consultation
URL: https://www.anindilyakwa.org.au/collection/ajamurnda/

Aboriginal Languages of Australia (WWW Virtual Library)

I initiated and have maintained for 20 years the web portal for Aboriginal languages, which is part of the official W3C Virtual Library. This website provides guidance to quality resources on Aboriginal languages, especially those produced from and by community members. The site is listed in most of the major libraries and similar institutions as a key site for Australian languages, and attracts about 700,000 hits a year. I continue to run this site via personal resources.

My roles: creator, editor, maintainer
URL: http://www.dnathan.com/VL

Dieri Dictionary Data

I am engaged as a part time consultant by the Dieri Aboriginal Corporation to convert and re-work dictionary data originating from the colonial missionary Rev Reuther. The data consists of over 1000 pages of valuable language and cultural information. I am restructuring and marking it up (in XML) so that it can serve a variety of purposes as language learning materials (learner dictionaries, apps etc.), archival data, and language documentation.

My roles: computational data management and lexicographer, app developer.

Endangered Languages Archive, SOAS University of London

The largest international digital archive for documentation of endangered languages. I was the founding Archivist and Director. At the outset, there were a small number of endangered languages archives but few of similar scope and ambition, leaving a large space for innovation. The team I assembled (also in co-operation with several international archives and IT departments) researched and built an innovative archive system, conceptualised and developed around usability and protocol for negotiated access to audio, video and text documentation (endangered languages often involve factors of privacy or other factor requiring negotiated access). ELAR was the first such archive to use Web 2.0/social networking principles and mechanisms. ELAR staff also created and delivered training events on data management, documentation, and archiving.

My roles: Director; organisational champion to host institution; leadership in values, direction, research, implementation and dissemination; implementation and training
URL: http://www.elar-archive.org and http://elar.soas.ac.uk

Ethno-ornithological World Archive, Edward Grey Institute, Oxford University

A new, innovative project to crowdsource and share cultural knowledge about birds. The project is under development, and due for public launch soon.

My roles: Principal Investigator, archiving advisor, and project mentor
URL: not yet available

Gayarragi, Winangali

Rich interactive multimedia language teaching and learning resource built around a full lexicon of two NSW languages. The lexicon is fully and flexibly searchable and search results are ranked. It also has 1000 sentences, 44 stories and songs (all of which are fully interlinearly analysed and linked to the lexicon), and interactive games.

My roles: co-author, co-ordinator, multimedia producer
URL: http://www.dnathan.com/projects/gw

Gupapuyngu

This is a language teaching, learning and assessment resource, produced in collaboration with linguists and language speakers at Charles Darwin University. The app is part of a language teaching resource that was the first distance learning package for an Aboriginal language and won the Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian University Teachers of the year in 2005. It is aimed at international tertiary students. This app has recently been extensively revised and updated after 14 years of use and also for use in Japan by making the source language able to be toggled between English and Japanese; the new system can be generalised to any additional language.

My roles: co-author, co-ordinator, multimedia producer
URL: available as open access freeware from Charles Darwin University http://learnline.cdu.edu.au/yolngustudies/gupaappdownload.html

Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay Dictionary

With extensive consultation and collaboration with the Kamilaroi communities of northern NSW, and together with linguist Peter Austin, we developed and published this first-ever web dictionary (of any language) in late 1995. It has become well-known across the community, a resource used for language revival, and has inspired many other web dictionaries and digital language materials.

My roles: web developer, community consultation
URL: http://www.dnathan.com/language/gamilaraay/dictionary

The Notebooks of William Dawes on the Aboriginal Language of Sydney

A major project involving the Endangered Languages Archive, SOAS Library Special Collections, the NSW Department of Aboriginal Affairs, and the Darug Tribal Aboriginal Council. This involved archive-quality re-scanning of the Dawes notebooks - the first significant documentation of any Australian language (1791), a new transcription, extensive markup using XML/Topic Maps (similar in some ways to semantic web), research, intensive government and community consultation. The project had a very significant impact as a number of books, films and documentaries “discovered” the work of William Dawes around the same time and made reference to or drew directly on this project’s resources.

My roles: initiate and co-ordinate project, technical oversight and content, research and consultation, champion and liaison, co-author
URL: http://www.williamdawes.org

Paakantyi

An interactive multimedia language teaching/learning resource for school teaching programmes based around a dictionary that existed but was thoroughly supplemented and revised as a result of the project’s fieldwork to elicit additional words and usage examples. Involved intense collaboration between the linguist, graphic designer, Aboriginal community members, and the multimedia producer.

My roles: co-author, co-researcher, multimedia producer
URL: available through request to AIATSIS (http://www.aistsis.gov.au);  negotiations currently under way about publishing online

Turkish Suffix Dictionary

In partnership with linguist and Turcologist, Éva Á. Csató Johanson, who initiated the project and supplied the data, I designed and implemented the interactive Turkish Suffix Dictionary. It is amongst the highest Google-ranking sites for Turkish language learning.

My roles: co-creator, designer, programmer
URL: http://www.dnathan.com/language/turkish/tsd

WANALA

As the Co-ordinator of the Centre for Australian Languages and Linguistics at Batchelor Institute, one of my roles was to support development, professionalisation, networking, training and advocacy for Aboriginal Language Centres in northern and western Australia.

My roles: project officer, web developer, trainer
URL: http://wanala.org



Japanese information (1998)  
 
Last updated: 19th January 2020
URL: http://www.dnathan.com/djn/webcv.htm