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From: ram@lynx.Berkeley.EDU (m.v.s. ramanath)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Public Domain Dictionary
Message-ID: <1991May29.235751.1362@imagen.com>
Date: 29 May 91 23:57:51 GMT
Sender: news@imagen.com
Reply-To: ram@lynx.Berkeley.EDU (m.v.s. ramanath)
Organization: QMS/Imagen
Lines: 39

There seems to be a serious need for a public domain dictionary.

Since dictionary publishers are unlikely to make their materials
available for free, I propose that we net folks create our own.

I assume that since English words and their meanings are not
copyrightable (though the specific wording of a meaning as published
in an extant dictionary may be). So as long as we come up with our own
definitions and don't lift stuff verbatim from published dictionaries
we should be ok. This won't of course be a scholarly and definitive
effort but should be useful in an everyday context.

Here is the proposed plan of action:

I estimate that a dictionary needs to have about 180,000 words to be
reasonably useful. That means that if we get about 500 (actually 494)
definitions typed in per day, we'll be done in a less than a year.

That means we need about 100 volunteers who each undertake to come up with
the definitions (in their own unique words) of 5 words per day. Or
50 who can do 10 per day.

So how about it folks ? Volunteers ?

If there is enough interest in this idea (either from potential users
of the dictionary or from potential volunteers) I'll flesh out the idea
some more. If there is a fatal flaw in the idea, I'd like to hear
about it.

Ram

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Disclaimer: I speak for myself only and not for my employer
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M.V.S. Ramanath                       |ram@imagen.com             or
QMS/Imagen                            |imagen!ram@sun.com         or
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