WordNet.Net is the product of three important projects.  The first is WordNet, the second is Malcolm Crowe's initial port of WordNet to the .Net Framework, and the third is my updates to Malcolm's library to complete the word relations searches, update it to the latest WordNet release, and fix bugs.

WordNet.Net is released under the LGPL license, meaning that the source may be used for any purpose without charge or further negotiation whilst complying with the LGPL.  In summary that requires that the source code for the open source component must be distributed with any resulting application (as well as all modifications and derived code from it), whilst a closed source portion of the application can remain while it does not contain any LGPL'd code.  Please visit http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/lesser.html for a full overview of the license if you have any doubts.  Effectively, you maintain the library as open source whilst you can close any application built around it.

What is WordNet, What is it Good For?

WordNet is a lexicon - a database of over a hundred thousand words with meanings and a complex architecture of word links.  We see WordNet in applications in the form of thesauruses, dictionaries, puzzle solvers, and probably most importantly to the WordNet developers - artificial intelligence applications.  I won't pretend to fully understand the entire WordNet architecture, I have made modifications to the library purely based on the WordNet C code in conjunction with Malcolm's port.

The idea of this project is not necessarily for me to lead any exact direction of the library, but to open it up to the ideas of those who can add to and improve the library as a whole so that it becomes a powerful basis for projects by researchers, software developers and tinkerers alike.  Anyone is free to suggest what they would like to be in the library, and it will be up to the community as to what gets developed and what stays on the backburner.  As such, anyone is also free to contribute code to help build the library into something more substantial.  In the meantime the library is 100% usable, offering 100% of the search capabilities of the original WordNet library.

Why Open Source?

Malcolm's source code from his port was open from the start, however he ceased development after getting the code to work.  I wanted to make projects for other platforms based on WordNet, and because the .Net language was my main interest at the time I persisted in updating Malcolm's code and subsequently closed the code on my own updates.  The main reason for this is that it took me a while to figure out the workings and the reason for some elusive bugs.  My variation of Malcolm's code was of no use to anybody whilst the bugs and the limitations remained - therefore, everyone who was interested in WordNet .Net development had the same access to Malcolm's code as I did, so there was no advantage in me releasing the library.

Over a good period of time I have tried and tested my fixes on the library and now I am finally satisfied that it is 100% functional.  I could be wrong however, there could be some minute functionality missing, and that is part of the reason for going open source.  The other reason is that I would like to draw knowledge from the community to make the library even better.  There is an opportunity to add extensions, optimise the code, and to hopefully draw from the experience of those who really know the WordNet database well.

Enjoy :).