[Wikipedia-l] picture themes

Sun Jan 23 16:38:30 UTC 2005

When I'm looking for a translation or explanation of a terms such as
"Sub-Lieutenant" (a military rank), "jackdaw" (a bird) or "zucchini"  
(a vegetable), it makes a lot of sense to see them in contrast to what
they are not, for example a list of other military degrees, or a group
of similar but different birds or vegetables.  But I think Wikipedia
today is too much focused on describing each item on its own, and not
enough on connecting or contrasting concepts to each other.

The current (English Wikipedia) article on [[zucchini]], even though
it has fine pictures, doesn't really help me to tell it apart from a
cucumber or an eggplant.  The "higher level" article [[vegetable]]
doesn't group vegetables into those of similar kinds.  There is such a
grouping in [[list of vegetables]], though, where the group is named
[[squash (fruit)]].  There is actually a link from [[zucchini]] to
[[squash (fruit)]], but that link is hidden in the middle of the text
and doesn't stand out as the next-higher-level concept.  If I didn't
already know what a zucchini is, I might get quite confused.

This is not a critique of these particular articles or even of the
English Wikipedia.  The same pattern appears everywhere, more or less.

The article [[jackdaw]] doesn't immediately help me to tell this bird
apart from other black species of the genus Corvus, such as rooks or
ravens.  The article [[Crow (animal)]] lists these other species, and
each of them has descriptions and photos (which is excellent, of
course), but I don't get the overview picture that most modern printed
encyclopedias would give me.

Note that the German, Netherlands, and Polish jackdaw articles have
other photos of the same bird.  This must be one of the most commonly
seen birds of these countries, and apparently everybody already had a
picture of them laying around.  All are fine photos, but all are
pictures of this species alone.  The Japanese picture actually has a
jackdaw and another bird, the very different looking European magpie
(of the same family corvidae, but of the genus pica, not corvus). The
picture doesn't help me tell the jackdaw from other black crows.

[[Sub-Lieutenant]] (the Canadian rank) redirects to the article
[[Lieutenant]] and [[Sub Lieutenant]] (the British rank) redirects to
the article [[Lieutenant, junior grade]], which both contain the
explanation in the text. The fact box at the bottom of these articles
and the page [[comparative military ranks]] actually provide the
context that I'm looking for, but they don't describe which extra
authorities the next higher rank has. How does a Sub-Lieutenant earn
his promotion and what does that give him or her?  An army corporal is
not an officer rank, not expected to become promoted, but exactly what
is expected from a Sub-Lieutenant? What does it mean if a character in
a novel was "an old Sub-Lieutenant"?  Should the reader expect that he
would normally have been promoted before the age of 27 and does the
fact, that he did not, provide a clue about something? Terms such as
sub-lieutentant should be described in contrast to other ranks, or
else we will understand very little.

Again, this is not a criticism of these particular articles. I know
nothing about the navy, and I'm learning tons already.  I know where
Wikipedia was three years ago, and I'm impressed every day.  But there
is still more work we can do.  Now to one particular solution.

One idea applied within the "LEXIN" project (dictionaries for
immigrants) of the immigration authorities of Sweden, Norway, and some
other small countries is a common set of picture themes to which words
are connected.  A good online example (in English) is found at
http://decentius.hit.uib.no/lexin.html?ui-lang=eng&dict=eng

If you look at "5. groceries and purchasing", you will find groups of
groceries, vegetables being one of them, where a zucchini is painted
next to an eggplant and a cucumber.  You can click either in the
picture or in the dictionary to your left (if the Javascript works for
you).  Theme 26 is birds and the jackdaw is near the center of that
picture theme.  Then go to Kurdish (kurmanji) and learn that "26.
birds" is "26. balinde" and jackdaw is "qira zeytûnê, qira helezî".  
Of course, the purpose here is for Kurdish immigrants to learn
Norwegian, but you get the idea.  That is why only typical Swedish and
Norwegian birds are depicted in the first place (there are no balded
eagles or ostriches around here).

I don't know if or where such picture themes could be a good idea for
Wikipedia or Wiktionary, but the example is there for anybody to get
inspiration from.  You don't have to be a painter, of course.  You
could just take a photo of a zucchini, a cucumber, and an eggplant in
a way that shows the difference between them.  Perhaps the entire
vegetable desk of some grocery store?  And once the picture is there
in Wikimedia Commons, it can be reused for any language, just like the
LEXIN pictures are.  Has this been tried in any Wikimedia project?
Should we make a list of which picture themes we need?

At first, it might seem that picture themes would be of little use in
explaining the concept of sub-lieutenant, except perhaps for the
insignia.  But imagine a picture of a battle ship having a
organization chart next to it populated with small figures, showing
one admiral (?) at the top, and in the 4th row showing twelve
sub-lieutenants each managing their own division of sailors.  I have
no idea of the actual numbers, but I think the concept could be a lift
to Wikipedia.  We'll need a hundred people that can draw really good
and who are willing to put their artwork under a free license. And if
they aren't experts on navy ranks themselves, they'll need to be able
to read instructions for what to draw, or interview experts by chat.

The LEXIN dictionary project is described at
http://decentius.hit.uib.no/lexin.html?ui-lang=eng

-- 
  Lars Aronsson (lars at aronsson.se)
  Aronsson Datateknik - http://aronsson.se