Toward a truly multilingual global wordnet grid

In this paper, we describe a new and improved GlobalWordnet Grid that takes advantage of the Collaborative InterLingual Index (CILI). Currently, the Open Multilingal Wordnet has made many wordnets accessible as a single linked wordnet, but as it used the Princeton Wordnet of English (PWN) as a pivot, it loses concepts that are not part of PWN. The technical solution to this, a central registry of concepts, as proposed in the EuroWordnet project through the InterLingual Index, has been known for many years. However, the practical issues of how to host this index and who decides what goes in remained unsolved. Inspired by current practice in the Semantic Web and the Linked Open Data community, we propose a way to solve this issue. In this paper we define the principles and protocols for contributing to the Grid. We tested them on two use cases, adding version 3.1 of the Princeton WordNet to a CILI based on 3.0 and adding the Open Dutch Wordnet, to validate the current set up. This paper aims to be a call for action that we hope will be further discussed and ultimately taken up by the whole wordnet community.