Dictionary Editor User manual

Table of Contents

Introduction

This document describes the Dictionary Editor software tool and how to produce dictionaries.

Introduction

DictionaryEditor is an easy-to-use local desktop editor to create ArchEthno dictionaries used to describe any type of data.

The application has been developed by Artenum on its own fund and corrective maintenance has been founded by Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS).

The ArchEthno method

The ArchEthno method has been conceived by a multidisciplinary team made of contemporary social anthropology searcher and documentary photographers. It us an original try to help make the scientific process explicit by cutting it into several steps. It enables the researcher to drop off research material (that can be of various types depending on the field of research) as soon as they are collected or produced, respecting the various ownership rights. The researcher can sort them by defining its own sorting categories and give structure its material into data (sufficiently contextualised and defined information to enable the discussion within and outside a research field). This data answer to a scientfic question that can evolve during the research. Finally, the software tools are provinding the means to handle the necessity to secure the privacy of the data while enabling the transparency of the research.

The software toolas are based on the SKOS system. It is made of three different software: Dictionary Editor, ArchEditor and ArchWeb. Dictionary Editor enables the searcher to compose the hierarchy of concepts associated to its scientific question into a dictionary. Using this dictionary, ArchEditor enables the searcher to input or import its material in a structured manner.

At the end of the process, the contexualised and described material has become a data constructed by a scientific question. This work leads to a set of data stored and associated to DOI where each element is given a privacy level that can be associated to a view authorisation. ArchWeb enables then to publish online exclusively the authorised data.

See the dedicated glossary for more information on the terms used in this document.

Main functionalities

The application enables the user to display, edit and save ArchEthno dictionary files (the *.adc files).

Caution and limit of warranties

The present document is intended to be a simple User Manual (UM) to help the user to use the Dictionary Editor. This document does not attempt to provide to the user the whole expertise and knowledge needed to create a correct organisation of data.

FOR THIS REASON, THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING, THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.