The Global WordNet Association – founded in 2000 by Vossen & Fellbaum – is a free, public and non-commercial organization that provides a platform for discussing, sharing and connecting wordnets for all languages in the world. The aims of the association are:

1. To establish distribution facilities for the dissemination of the Association and Association publications and information materials:
   • To promote cooperation and information exchange among related professional and technical societies that build or use wordnets.
   • To provide information on wordnets to the general public.
2. To promote the standardization of the specification of wordnets for all languages in the world, including:
   • the standardization of the Inter-Lingual-Index for inter-linking the wordnets of different languages, as a universal index of meaning
   • the development of a common representation for wordnet data
3. To promote the development of sense-tagged corpora in all the linked languages.
4. To promote sharing and transferring of data, software and specifications across wordnet builders for different languages
5. To promote the development of guidelines and methodologies for building wordnets in new languages
6. To promote the development of explicit criteria and definitions for verifying the relations in any language
7. To promote the development of consistency checking, comparison and evaluation modules
8. To promote research into the psychological adequacy of models of the mental lexicon

The Global WordNet Association (GWA) builds on the results of Princeton WordNet, and EuroWordNet.

GWA organized 8 international conferences: the First Global Wordnet Conference (India, 2002), the Second Global Wordnet Conference (Czech Republic, 2004), the Third Global Wordnet Conference (Korea, 2006), the Fourth Global Wordnet Conference (Hungary, 2008), the Fifth Global Wordnet Conference (India, 2010), the 6th Global WordNet Conference (Matsue, Japan, 2012), the 7th Global WordNet Conference (Tartu, Estland, 2014) and the 8th Global WordNet Conference (Romania, 2016).

Since the start of GWA, wordnets were developed for all European languages, many Asian languages, African languages and even dialects (Welsh) and dead languages (Latin). All wordnets (almost 100) are linked to the inter-lingual-index through the same model.The Global WordNet Association has stimulated the development of wordnets all over the globe, which are all inter-connected though the same database. In addition to supporting and advising many wordnet projects, Vossen has also activily been involved in projects developing wordnets, such as BalkaNet and the development of the Arabic wordnet “(Constructing Arabic Wordnet (AWN) in Parallel with an Ontology” (sponsored by the American government and headed by Princeton University), for which he was responsible for the European part of the project.

In February 2006, the idea of the Global Wordnet Grid was launched at the 3rd GWC in Jeju, Korea: the building of a complete free worldwide wordnet grid. This grid will be built around a shared set of concepts, such as the Common Base Concepts used in many wordnet projects. These concepts will be expressed in terms of Wordnet synsets and ontology concepts. People from all language communities are invited to upload synsets from their language to the Grid. Gradually, the Grid will then be represented by all languages. The Grid will be available to everybody and will be distributed completely free.

Dutch Terminology Service Centre (Steunpunt Nederlandstalige Terminologie)

The Dutch Language Union (DLU), a Dutch-Flemish governmental organisation for the interests of the Dutch language, actively supports the field of Dutch terminology. There is a need for this support. People involved in practical terminology work are often unaware of the existence of theories and tools, let alone they know how to make the best use of them. Furthermore, terminological theories and tools are very often much too complicated and time-consuming to be of any practical use. In terminology there is a gap between theory and practice and this problem is not only present in the Netherlands and Flanders but also in other parts of Europe and even beyond. Following the examples of other TSCs in Europe, the DLU founded the Dutch Terminology Service Centre three years ago. The aim of the Dutch TSC is to inform and provide support to end-users of Dutch terminology.

The Dutch TSC functions as a non-commercial information centre for all aspects of terminology and serves the entire Dutch-speaking community. We give advice on terminological research to anyone who is involved in terminology-related work (companies, organizations, translators, terminologists, teachers, scientists etc). On behalf of the DLU, the Dutch TSC maintains the website NedTerm (www.nedterm.org). NedTerm provides information on terminology activities and also includes a bibliography of terminological works, an overview of terminology training courses in the Netherlands and in Flanders, and information on standardisation issues. We are particularly keen on providing practical information on and links to on-line resources (terminological databases, information platforms) as well as promoting various language tools (especially open source) which can be used for terminology work.

Besides updating the website NedTerm, the Dutch TSC organizes terminology trainings and workshops for translators as well as master classes for scientists and language experts on different subjects related to terminological research. Apart from organizing in-depth study days, we are also offering practical solutions to our targeted group. An example is the development of web courses for terminology management. The courses ad hoc terminology and systematic terminology management both aimed at translators, translation agencies, terminologists, language professionals and master students can be found on our website.

The Centre for Digital Humanities is a collaboration between the University of Amsterdam, the VU University Amsterdam and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, joining forces with the Netherlands eScience Center as well.

  Flyer Digital Humanities

Parties involved in the Centre for Digital Humanities Amsterdam are represented by:

Rens Bod (UvA)
Marijn Koolen (UvA)
Maarten de Rijke (UvA)

Lora Aroyo (VU)
Inger Leemans (VU)
Piek Vossen (VU)

Theo Mulder (KNAW)
Demetrius Waarsenburg (KNAW)

Fernie Maas acts as a contact person.