Hi Graham,
Warned? about what? If the Wordnet list is Opensource then what is the
issue?
I understood you want to start from _scratch_. Wordnet was sponsored by
a 20-million USD grant, and done by a team of really qualified
linguists. And it is one of the biggest achievements in computer
linguistics as such. So you know that trying to beat that requires a lot
of resources, and IT resources are really not so important.
If you want to extend Wordnet, then it's another story. Of course, it's
easier to do so.
I'd recommend searching for local English Wordnets (or similar
linguistic projects), maybe there are Australian versions.
I've already done that, those that I've seen are small operations run by a
single enthusiast on a small backroom server that has a single point of
failure.
The server is a minor issue. The major issue is how to start a team -
single enthusiasts could never achieve that with no remuneration.
Trying to
build a new thesaurus from scratch is simply futile.
It's a good thing Mr Roget didn't think that.
But it's not 19th century anymore. Roget's thesaurus is really worse
than Wordnet in linguistic terms. And in linguistics, you try to
bootstrap and reuse the data.
If therefore Openthesaurus is a bad option, the assumption I take from what
you are saying is; setting up a local Wordnet is the best alternative.
It is not a bad option. I'm using OpenThesaurus myself. But if you want
to reuse Wordnet, you need to convert it into OpenThesaurus, and this is
a non-trivial task.
You cannot setup a local Wordnet without any software as Wordnet is only
a file. You need an editing environment. You can use some other software
(there are many software packages for professional linguists - used for
building national wordnets - but they could be far too complicated for
an average user).
What is the step from Wordnet Database to installed Thesaurus in OOo?
Conversion of the database. Take a look at scripts at Daniel Naber's site.
But note that this conversion does not allow any direct edition Wordnet
nor edition of OOo thesaurus.
Where can I find someone who can exchange emails with my clients people to get
them under way
No idea. First you have to find someone who has some natural language
processing background, and is able to make mapping between Wordnet's
relations to MySQL database in OpenThesaurus, and make a decision
whether some of the relations are to be discarded or ported into
OpenThesaurus software. I wouldn't start a project without finding the
person who is able to do that - these processes are non-trivial.
I would recommend you to contact linguistics (NLP) departments at
Australian universities. This is a task that make a good postgraduate work.
Regards,
Marcin
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