What is the history of the Kamusi Project?
1993: Project conceived as a way to use collective resources to create new tools for learning Swahili.
1994: First proposal submitted, November. First glossary (3,000 words) begun, December.
1995: Gopher site established, January. Website established, April - first website in the social sciences or humanities at Yale. Wordlists incorporated from many remote contributors. 21,000 entry dictionary posted, September.
1996: Data entry to incorporate Rechenbach's Swahili-English Dictionary .
1997: Data editing.
1998: Programming work begins on Edit Engine. Swahili-Russian dictionary posted.
1999: 56,000 entry dictionary posted, Discussion Forum established, Africa Guide established.
2000: Revised dictionary posted, Edit Engine launched, April.
2001 - 2002: Project has no funding. Development work slows to a crawl, though Edit Engine submissions regularly incorporated into Kamusi lexicon.
2003: Renewed funding begins late July. Development work begins on Learning Guide.
2004: Move to faster, more secure server completed, March. Photo Upload feature introduced, May. Enabled search of plural forms, June. Begin formal collaboration with University of Dar es Salaam Department of Computer Science to establish a mirror server in Tanzania and incorporate computer terminology into the Kamusi lexicon, October. Launch complete site redesign, November. Introduce specialized vocabulary features, November. Continue work on Learning Center .
2005: Introduce the Grouping Tool to arrange dictionary entries. Add new data fields for terminology, dialect, taxonomy, derivation, related words, English definitions, and alternate spellings. Migrate to a more stable and flexible software platform. Improve search and display features. Add user conveniences, including more direct access to the Edit Engine, and the ability to e-mail individual dictionary entries.
2006: Funding runs out in January, project staff furloughed. Work continues with the help of private donations, including a generous grant from the Negaunee Foundation. The Kamusi Parser is introduced that allows users to search and evaluate conjugated Swahili verbs directly within the search engine.
2007: Project is moved from Yale to the World Language Documentation Centre and development work continues with the support of private donations.
2008: Project begins the Code Africa open source programming initiative. PALDO (the Pan African Living Dictionary Online) expected to start in spring with support from IDRC.
 
Questions / Maswali