Linguru and the Linguru Browser were motivated by and crafted according to the founders' values and principles. Their philosophy is the source of their deep commitment to Linguru, and also informs how the users of the dictionaries could and should interact. In this section, we discuss Linguru's philosophy.
For a description of the raw mechanics of the Linguru Browser, see the pages on our products.
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The green words are links to the glossary.
Why should we at Linguru work to create something which we then give away to others? For one thing, it is a challenge. It is fun. Of course, this is also our job: we envision someday being paid. But pay alone would not justify the years of effort and risk we have undertaken to create Linguru. The profit we have already reaped from Linguru is the pleasure of having created something worthwhile and of benefit to many people. Everyone who contributes information to Linguru's dictionaries can share in this pleasure.
It is also important to us that we help preserve linguistic diversity. Most language-learning software benefits only those languages whose speaker base is expanding -- usually at the expense of other languages. This is among the reasons that we have begun with Welsh, a language whose survival into the twenty-second century is likely, but not guaranteed. With our revenue model and open content, there is no reason why we cannot eventually provide a dictionary for any language which has learners interested in sharing their knowledge.
Finally, Linguru is a company that does well by doing good. The Linguru charter of incorporation pledges that we will distribute a portion of net profits to charitable, non-profit organizations. We promise to do everything possible to ensure that you also feel good about working with us to provide better, more open access to high-quality language information.
At least two philosophical issues concern users of the Linguru dictionaries. First, what rights does the general public have to the dictionaries? Second, why should anyone contribute to them? The answers to these two questions, in brief, are that the contents of the dictionaries are effectively public goods under the care of Linguru, and one should contribute to them, if not for the fun and education of it, because to do so increases this public good. Below we will consider each issue in turn.
The Linguru License, which governs the use of the Linguru Browser and the information you receive using it, is a traditional software license. As expected in such a license, you do not have the right to redistribute our software or the associated language database which that software uses. However, Linguru will make available a copy of this database with an "open" license which you may use and redistribute without paying any royalties to Linguru. This Linguru Open License (LOL) is still under development.
The main restriction of the Linguru Open License is that, unless modifications are solely for personal use, users of the Linguru Open Dictionary database must re-publish their changes and additions under the LOL. Users must of course also acknowledge that it is Linguru's dictionary they are re-publishing. This effectively means that Linguru does assert exclusive distribution rights to the information in our dictionaries. However, users with specialized needs or who are unhappy with our stewardship of the dictionaries may take a copy of the dictionary published under the LOL and show us how to do a better job. The LOL thus assures users that they are indeed contributing to an enduring public good and that their contributions to multilingual education will continue to be available to the public for years to come.
Because of this open environment, contributors to the dictionaries do not "own" their contributions1. So why should anyone contribute? Because in doing so, the contributor helps improve a public good, something shared by many and exclusively controlled by none. If many people do this and do this well, the public good will be just that -- good. Contribution is also a great way to meet others and learn while discussing language. Most people like to see their thoughts published2, and if you are a language professional, the contacts and reputation you make by working in the freely available Linguru dictionary may also open other opportunities for you.
1 Who has authority over an entry in a Linguru dictionary is slightly more complicated than it is presented as being in this paragraph, and it is due to become more complicated still. Currently, anyone can add or edit an entry but only the moderator of the dictionary can delete an entry. When we have implemented certain changes in the software, every entry will have an arbiter who can edit any field, anyone will be able to add comments to the comment field, and anyone will be able to edit or delete their own comments. We will of course explain this model more fully when we have implemented support for arbitration in the browser.