Collaborative Commentary: Opening Up Spoken Language Databases

We define collaborative commentary as the involvement of a research community in the interpretive annotation of electronic records. The goal of this process is the evaluation of competing theoretical claims. The process requires commentators to link their comments and related evidentiary materials to specific segments of either transcripts or electronic media. Here, we examine current work in the construction of technical methods for facilitating collaborative commentary through browser technology. To illustrate the relevance of this approach, we examine seven spoken language database projects that have reached a level of web-based publication that makes them good candidates as targets of collaborative commentary technology. For each database, we show how collaborative commentary can advance the relevant research agendas.