A Great App for Digital Dictionary Publication (once you get it installed and working)
In the Finongan language program in which my wife and I work, we published a trial print dictionary. The people loved it. All copies quickly sold out and the people wanted more printed. The issues with printing more:
- the dictionary is still growing and a reprint/revision would be different than the printed one and would quickly be out of date
- lack of subsidy funding would mean the people would pay even more per copy which could impact the number actually sold
The solution: distribute the dictionary in digital form. We had already put the dictionary on Webonary, but the people are remote and few have access to the Internet.
The better solution: create an app. To this end, the dictionary app builder worked well. As more people get smartphones, more people can have their own dictionary for free. Distribution is almost completely free as the app can be shared via Bluetooth from one person to the next.
The app builder produces a great product.
The biggest issue is getting it to work initially. In my experience, about 25-33% of users encounter "jar" related issues when installing and trying to run the program. This can be tricky to get straightened out. But once it is running and the dictionary is configured properly, a product is quickly produced that increases language pride and is a boost to language development.