Plan of Action

• Obtain and assemble samples of the various materials not already available, electronic or otherwise, and prioritize them for digitization and conversion to hypertext markup language format (html).

• Obtain permissions to copy them and place them on the site.

• Material in roman form must be scanned in, digitized, and converted to html. (Schiffman materials are already mostly in WNTamil format, or in LaTeX with WNTamil; others will require other kinds of conversion devices.)

• Start digitizing the tapes and/or any other audio-lingual or video material.

• Convert text and images to html format.

• Write converters for those already in electronic form so that different materials can be read by those who have their own systems.
  • In some cases, input raw data (such as the kind of texts Cutler and Schiffman have in xerox form);
  • Prepare glossaries for the texts;
  • Format the above in hypertext, with glossed items anchored to the glossaries;

  • Revise other existing materials (e.g. Schiffman 1971 materials) so glossaries are usable electronically. (It might be most sensible to pool glossaries to avoid the multiplication of different glossaries; these could be updated constantly as newer materials are added to the inventory, producing a constantly-renewed master glossary. Users will need to learn a standard input format for requesting glosses.

  • Vocabulary and cultural notes will be hotkeyed (i.e. anchored) so that students only need to click on the item and information will be supplied (grammatical notes, meaning, synonyms, whatever).

  • Add other images to texts where appropriate. For example, in the story Yuka Sandi `Ages Meet' the first scene involves a long walk by an elderly woman from the bus stop in Cuddalore to her son's home; a map of this route could be provided, which would add authenticity, and would be a resource for some learning about geography of urban places.

• Publicize the availability of the site via existing newsgroups. Potential users will be found not only at Consortium sites and other US universities, but in Britain, Germany, France, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland, and eventually in India.