EAGLES methodology

<BODY LANG="EN" bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> <P> <H1><A NAME="SECTION00080000000000000000">EAGLES methodology</A></H1> <P> Work in the field of standardisation for language engineering is in some respects different from normal project work and parallel to it in others. The LRE EAGLES project developed a general working methodology for the preparation of precompetitive proposals for standards and guidelines which is applied in a flexible way according to the needs of specific topics, and which is based on the following steps: <P> <OL> <LI> Synopsis of best practice in research and development. <LI> Preparation of an inventory of agreed descriptive devices for linguistic description (a well-defined vocabulary), through a consensus-building process (which may involve several iterations). <LI> Formalisation of the proposal, leading to the definition of a formal specification (its syntax and semantics, e.g. rules which define how to use the formal vocabulary to produce well-formed descriptions of linguistic objects). <LI> Definition of operational guidelines, to be used as support for practical work, including practical algorithms e.g. for lexical classification and annotation. <LI> Validation actions for testing the practical applicability of the proposals in a (small) real life situation and for comparing and possibly combining the proposals with established resources. As an (optional) additional validation action: preparation of small test resources, manually or semi-automatically, to test the output of steps 3 (in both cases, manual and automated acquisition) and/or 4 (manual acquisition only). <LI> Ongoing maintenance and (information) dissemination work to ensure and extend the consensus-based nature of step 2. <P> </OL> <P> The different steps apply in a similar way to all project work packages intended to develop standards and guidelines for language resources (however with variations depending on the exact nature of the work). They can be clustered into phases ordered in time. <P> The phases are the following: <P> <OL> <LI> State-of-the-Art Investigation: identify relevant technical, scientific and engineering background, problems and existing solutions, products, best practice. <LI> Elaboration of proposals for standards: this is an iterative process which in many cases goes beyond the lifetime of a normal project; it typically involves an increasingly broad public of specialists and professional users in the field. <LI> Validation of proposals: this is partly a user-driven, partly a developer-driven action aiming at improving proposals by applying them under controlled conditions in a real life situation; the results have an impact on the development of the proposals, on their dissemination and on practical applications; ideally, a small resource, a prototype tool, a parameterisation of an existing tool or another practically usable by-product is generated by the validation. <LI> Maintenance: the standardisation process is a cyclic process of stepwise refinement involving interaction between a core group of proposers and an increasingly broader group of discussion partners, users and developers of products; a proposal for a de facto standard is likely not to be finished, but at least consolidated after a certain period of discussion; subsequently, applications to languages other than those initially considered may be added, and practical experience may lead to further additions and modifications. It may be a long time before full standardisation is achieved, if at all (obsolete technology may cause a standards case to vanish). Even after full standardisation, regular maintenance is required to prevent obsolescence. <P> </OL> <P> The different steps typically demand different kinds of organisational set-ups and involve different actors; these are summarised in table <A HREF="node10.html#ent1" target="_top">1</A>. <P> <CENTER> <P><A NAME="320"> </A> <P> <TABLE COLS=3> <COL ALIGN=LEFT><COL ALIGN=CENTER><COL ALIGN=LEFT> <TR><TD VALIGN=BASELINE ALIGN=LEFT NOWRAP> Phase</TD><TD VALIGN=BASELINE ALIGN=CENTER NOWRAP> Organisation</TD><TD VALIGN=BASELINE ALIGN=LEFT NOWRAP> Involvement</TD></TR> <TR><TD VALIGN=BASELINE ALIGN=LEFT NOWRAP>  </TD><TD VALIGN=BASELINE ALIGN=CENTER NOWRAP> </TD><TD VALIGN=BASELINE ALIGN=LEFT NOWRAP> </TD></TR> <TR><TD VALIGN=BASELINE ALIGN=LEFT NOWRAP> State-of-the Art Investigation</TD><TD VALIGN=BASELINE ALIGN=CENTER NOWRAP> Study</TD><TD VALIGN=BASELINE ALIGN=LEFT NOWRAP> Core Group + Experts</TD></TR> <TR><TD VALIGN=BASELINE ALIGN=LEFT NOWRAP> Guideline Proposals (Step 2)</TD><TD VALIGN=BASELINE ALIGN=CENTER NOWRAP> Study</TD><TD VALIGN=BASELINE ALIGN=LEFT NOWRAP> Core Group + Experts</TD></TR> <TR><TD VALIGN=BASELINE ALIGN=LEFT NOWRAP> Guideline Proposals (Steps 3, 4)</TD><TD VALIGN=BASELINE ALIGN=CENTER NOWRAP> Project</TD><TD VALIGN=BASELINE ALIGN=LEFT NOWRAP> Core Group</TD></TR> <TR><TD VALIGN=BASELINE ALIGN=LEFT NOWRAP> Validation</TD><TD VALIGN=BASELINE ALIGN=CENTER NOWRAP> Project</TD><TD VALIGN=BASELINE ALIGN=LEFT NOWRAP> Core Group + selected users</TD></TR> <TR><TD VALIGN=BASELINE ALIGN=LEFT NOWRAP> Maintenance</TD><TD VALIGN=BASELINE ALIGN=CENTER NOWRAP> Broad action</TD><TD VALIGN=BASELINE ALIGN=LEFT NOWRAP> Clearing house + large public </TD></TR> <CAPTION ALIGN=BOTTOM><STRONG>Table 1:</STRONG> Summary of EAGLES methodological organisation<A NAME="ent1"> </A></CAPTION></TABLE> <P> <P> </CENTER> <P> <HR> <P><ADDRESS> </ADDRESS> </BODY>