The task of the Expert Advisory Group on Language Engineering Standards (EAGLES) is to propose guidelines for both contents and form of certain tasks and resources in the field of Language Engineering. This implies taking stock of the current practice, finding out about best practice and thereafter proposing what seems to be the most advanced and generally acceptable and applicable way of carrying out the tasks in question, or the most useful yet generic way of organising and populating linguistic resources.
Standards may come about in different ways: de facto standards are
often due to market forces (although the de facto standard product
may or may not be optimal for the majority of tasks envisaged); formal,
official Standards carry the stamp of a national or international
standards body, such as ISO, for example; both cannot be expected to
naturally arise in a very new field of research and development, as is
Language Engineering. Paradoxically, it is however in just such a new
field that the need for guidelines and for a clear statement of
minimal common ground is felt most urgently. This is why EAGLES in
general and with it the CLWG felt that there
is a need for early standardisation -- not imposed, but coming about
through a consensus of the relevant actors in the field
.
Standardisation by consensus is typically a medium to long term process characterised by a number of properties: