[Wikipedia-l] picture themes

Sun Jan 23 17:05:03 UTC 2005

I'm not sure if this is correct, but I believe "wordnet" does
something like taht for English.

Mark

On Sun, 23 Jan 2005 17:38:30 +0100 (CET), Lars Aronsson
<lars at aronsson.se> wrote:
> 
> 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
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