# random thoughts on "use cases" for tatoeba.org #

I'm thinking about various combinations of:

* What is tatoeba.org?
* Who might be interested in it?
* How would they use it?

(The "when" and "where" aren't so important, and the "why" is usually inscrutable)

"What is it?" is easy enough on a crude level: it's a set of parallel translations of short natural language sentences/passages.

The "who" is harder to answer. Some ideas include:

* linguists and language researchers
* fans/evangelists of a particular language
* language learners
* developers (programmers) with an interest in language
* language teachers
* Integrators (who see it as part of a bigger picture)
* investors/philanthropists (who see it as a means to an end)
* people just wanting to interact with some sort of community, make friends, etc.
* hobbyists/wild-cards
* etc.

What each of these wants from the site is going to be different from person to person. Whatever their goals, they'll have different ways of using it. Or at least they'll look to see what's possible and how they can make it happen. If they can't make it happen, they'll go elsewhere.

To turn all this into a set of use cases needs to take account of who the users are, what they're trying to achieve (and whether it's a good fit for whatever tatoeba.org actually is, as opposed to what they think/hope it is) and how their needs/goals can be achieved.

We kind of know what the site is, but we seem to be missing is some sort of profile of 'who' uses the site and 'how' they use it as a tool to progress their own aims. In other words, what are the actual "use cases" for the site? Any suggestions?