JISC

Latest News (December 2011): This project has now finished. Some key findings of the project are listed below, as well as an outline of its aims.

Key Findings

• This crowdsourcing project was incredibly useful for allowing the university to further links with schools, and tap into existing general public interest in Scots language
• If you're collecting structured data, you need your own website. But Facebook is also useful for gathering such data; Twitter less so
• The research team learnt few new Scots words; but more on informal place-names
• Crowdsourcing and building a community of interest takes time

Project Outline

The project engages the Scottish public in an exploration of language use in present-day Scotland, and draws on local knowledge to enrich understanding of the uses and meanings of words in Scots. It is a collaboration between the University of Glasgow Enroller Project, the National e-Science Centre, Scottish Language Dictionaries, and the Scottish Place-Name Society.

The aim is to make existing scholarly resources publicly accessible, use social networks to facilitate community collection building and the mutual exchange of information between lexicographers, place-name scholars and the public. It will empower everyone in Scotland to contribute to discussions about the words and place-names they use.

Objectives

The project will engage with the Scottish community by providing an online forum in which members of the public, alongside scholars and lexicographers, can exchange information on Scots words and place-names.

We will work with Scottish schools to build awareness of the use of the Scots language among the younger community by running a competition for stories, songs or essays written in Scots. Voting will be online through a social network platform application. We will obtain new entries and information for the Scottish Language Dictionaries Word Collection.

Anticipated Outputs and Outcomes

Phase 1: Word Collection and Place-Name Glossary databases available online as part of Enroller’s interoperable search system.

Phase 2: Facebook pages; Twitter in regular use; project information and publicity leaflets; stall in University of Glasgow Schools Open Day.

Phase 3: Schools competition; Word Collection and Place-Name Glossary databases updated; articles written.