LTI

The Institute for Applied Linguistics has a variety of technological needs, ranging from office applications to productivity tools, from domain-specific applications to research development tools and applications. While our IT supports and maintains general tools (e.g. office applications, CMS, databases, etc.), the Institute needs additional strategies, policies and documentation for the language-related technology it uses and develops in order to address specific research needs. For example, software development crucially needs to systematically take into account methods to establish the requirements of the intended (linguistic-oriented) users, to make these needs shape the design of the software, make the software available (via licensing) to users and developers and inform the targeted community via well-established channels.

The LTI project continuously provides strategies, policies, documentation and technical support for the Institute while developing and disseminating computational linguistic applications with a special focus on the users' needs. It also serves as an incubator for projects aiming at major computational linguistic or infrastructure developments.

For the strategies, the LTI project evaluates or helps evaluating existing technologies in terms of their potential cost, advantages, disadvantages, and applicability to the Institute’s needs (or prospective needs when preparing project proposals). One particular type of strategic guidance consists in recommendations for new research possibilities based on the availability of relevant tools, and, where possible, the development of computational linguistic applications that implement research outcomes with respect to specific requirements of users.

The policies concern primarily software development (e.g. best practices, copyright, licenses, usability, etc.) and the choice of tools, formats and standards. The LTI project also leads the effort of documenting the existing software, as well as software under development.

Finally, in cooperation with our IT, this project provides expert support for the installation and setup of tools and technical workflows as well as the development of custom solutions.