Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
In the past two months I've been involved in group work at university. At first, we had to simply organize a group of five people (of which, ultimately, only three did any work). We managed this quite easily with a single shared Dropbox folder, and (for group writeups) a Google Doc file (shared with the “anyone with the link can edit” setting). However, as the project progressed we had to work first with a single other group, and then 5 other groups. Meaning at the end of the project, we were trying to manage 30 different people (and a smattering of operating systems, and people of varying degrees of technical proficiency). Generally, for any kind of group work where multiple people might edit the same file (likelihood of this increases as more people join the project) you should use Git. However, this can quickly become complex, and requires a certain level of technical proficiency to avoid unnecessary management by the repository owner. As such, I thought for this month's article I'd cover a few ideas I've had for managing data between groups. At the end of the article, I also run through a few useful tips I've stumbled upon for learning/practicing Japanese.
Lors des deux derniers mois, j'ai participé dans un travail de groupe à l'université. Au début, nous avons dû tout simplement organiser un groupe de cinq personnes (dont, en fin de compte, seulement trois ont bossé). Nous avons réussi à le faire assez facilement avec un seul dossier partagé Dropbox, et (pour les articles de groupe) un fichier Google Doc (partagé selon la règle « n'importe qui ayant le lien peut éditer » ). Cependant, alors que le projet avançait, nous avons dû travailler d'abord avec un seul autre groupe, puis 5 autres groupes. Ce qui signifie qu'à la fin du projet, nous essayions de gérer 30 personnes différentes (et une poignée de systèmes d'exploitation, et les gens de différents degrés de compétence technique). En règle générale, pour tout type de travaux de groupe où plusieurs personnes peuvent modifier le même fichier (la probabilité de ceci augmente avec le nombre de gens se joignant au projet), vous devriez utiliser Git. Mais, cela peut rapidement devenir complexe et nécessite un certain niveau de compétence technique pour éviter de la gestion inutile par le propriétaire du référentiel. En tant que tel, je pensais que pour l'article de ce mois, je parcourrais quelques idées que j'ai eu pour la gestion des données entre les groupes. À la fin de l'article, j'ai également décrit quelques conseils utiles sur lesquels j'ai butté lors de l'apprentissage/la pratique du japonais.
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The “Cloud” This includes anything like Dropbox, Ubuntu One, Google Drive, etc. This is by far the easiest method, and works like a charm for groups of 2 to 10 people, in my experience. Once you're past that upper limit, or you need to allow anyone to access the shared files, it's no longer a viable option. The reason for this is simple – it's designed to be user-friendly, and forgoes some of the more advanced management features (robust version control, merging options, public access with merge-back capabilities, and so on). For anyone concerned about security, it's possible to create a Truecrypt volume and store it in the cloud (in Dropbox at least, I haven't tested this with any of the others). Offering the passcode for the volume to the other group members should be done in person or via phone for maximum security.
Revision Control This is by far the most versatile system I've used to date. You can use something like Github to create and manage your repository, and it is publicly available for forking (creating a copy of it) for other people to work on. Once the changes have been made, they will be merged back “upstream” after which the repository owner will need to go through the commits/merges and accept them into the final version. Each merge is saved as a version, allowing you to easily move back to an older revision if necessary. I used this to great success last year when I wrote a LaTeX-based script for a mathematics lecture at university, allowing anyone in the class to make changes or corrections to the files. By the end of the semester our script was often more thorough than that of the professor himself. Security-wise I'd list this as one of the “best” options, simply due to the fact that any change has to be approved by someone who's in charge. It's also possible to create a custom server on a personal network for use with svn or git, for completely in-house solutions.
Single File Group Work By this I'm referring to collaboration on a single file, which needs to be (or simply will be) edited by multiple people at once in real-time. For this, I've not found anything that does it as easily as Google Docs. If, however, anyone is against Google for such things and has access to a server, you could create an implementation of Apache Wave or Walkaround, which are based off of Google Wave. They should offer a similar real-time collaboration option, but with a more limited range of document formats.
Security is on-par with Dropbox, in my opinion. This is especially true if you require every collaborator to have an account, as opposed to the “anyone with the link can edit” option I mentioned above. If anyone has used a program or system that they think deserves to be mentioned, please let me know via email (address is below), and I'll be sure to mention it at the beginning of my next article. Please mention anything like cost, availability, etc.
Language-learning Programs For anyone who owns an android phone/tablet, I highly recommend Human Japanese, which has been one of the best explained introductions to Japanese I've read. It doesn't, however, use any Kanji, relying instead on Hiragana/Katakana. The benefit of this is that you can build up vocabulary faster (since you don't need to tell Kanji apart or learn them), and also that, if you're aiming for a solely verbal communication level, you don't learn anything unnecessary. It also offers great tips for tourists when visiting Japan. At the time of writing, it's available in the Google Play store for 6,99€. Also worth mentioning is that there is a Mac OS X version of the same application available in the App Store, for anyone who owns a Mac. Also, the iOS App Store offers Human Japanese, albeit for 7,99€.
Flashcard programs of any sort are extremely useful for remembering vocabulary. I can't name any specific programs, since I haven't used any recently. Trivialibre might also be a valid option for doing this (introduced in Command & Conquer from Full Circle Magazine Issue #58). Book-wise, I've read and used Japanese in Mangaland 1 & 2 (and the corresponding workbooks) by Marc Bernabe. The books are well-written, and the illustrations help underscore the main points of every chapter. The illustrations also help your ability to read hand-written (or at least, the style of writing used in manga) Japanese, which may be useful in the future. The workbooks, as well, help drill the vocabulary and grammar into your head. The stories used in the books are also well-drawn and written, for anyone who is interested in that sort of stuff.
Listening to as much Japanese as possible helps to improve your own pronunciation. This can be either music, audiobooks, or television shows. If you decide on the television/movie route, definitely watch it with subtitles, as you can also start linking meanings to phrases. Finding Japanese books you find interesting (manga, Shogi books, novels, etc.) will also help you improve, once you're capable of reading basic sentences. If the book truly interests you, it will help balance out the tediousness of having to read while having a dictionary close at hand. Also, for dictionaries I highly recommend electronic versions (gwaei, for example). The reason for this is simple – they offer stroke-based input/searches, meaning you don't need to be able to recognize the Kanji, or even read it, if you can figure out the stroke order. Paper dictionaries tend to require both these things.
Last, but not least, regardless of what language you're learning, it's a wasted effort unless you use it! To this end, I present to you Lang-8: http://lang-8.com/. This is a website where each user gets a journal, in which they can write entries, in both the language you're learning and your intended meaning in your native tongue. The journal is then corrected by other users. Each correction is split by sentence, and can be commented on by the person correcting it. This means that you'll be getting the opinion of a native speaker on how to speak his or her language in the most natural way. This is a wonderful option for anyone who doesn't have friends who speak the language they're learning, don't want to bother their friends with constant questions, or who don't have the option to go to that country and “jump into the deep end”, as it were. As always, I hope you found this article helpful. I do realize that the two topics I covered in the article are not at all connected. However, this means that there should be something in here for everyone. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, feel free to email me at lswest34@gmail.com. If you do email me, please put FCM or C&C in the subject line, to make certain I don't overlook it.