New mailing list to discuss junction of NLP and Software Engineering

Dr. René Witte has just created a new mailing list (SENLP) to discuss applying NLP techniques to Software Engineering and also to discuss general Software Engineering issues in developing NLP systems.

I am interested in both topics. I did 3 years as senior technical support at BEA and could see how applying NLP techniques on written notes in support cases could have improved quality of technical support. I did not get to do any of that, but some interest remains.

The second topic is even more interesting and important to me. It can build on current discussions currently held on blogs (see ‘The USES Issue’ at Niels Ott’s blog) and in journals (see: ‘Empiricism Is Not a Matter of Faith’ by Ted Pedersen). While some of the issues are discussed on mailing lists for individual pieces of software, a place to discuss cross-cutting concerns is very welcome.

I have joined the list and hope to see at least some of my readers there as well.