The Global WordNet Association (GWA) builds on the results of Princeton WordNet, and EuroWordNet.
GWA organized 8 international conferences: the First Global Wordnet Conference (India, 2002), the Second Global Wordnet Conference (Czech Republic, 2004), the Third Global Wordnet Conference (Korea, 2006), the Fourth Global Wordnet Conference (Hungary, 2008), the Fifth Global Wordnet Conference (India, 2010), the 6th Global WordNet Conference (Matsue, Japan, 2012), the 7th Global WordNet Conference (Tartu, Estland, 2014) and the 8th Global WordNet Conference (Romania, 2016).
Since the start of GWA, wordnets were developed for all European languages, many Asian languages, African languages and even dialects (Welsh) and dead languages (Latin). All wordnets (almost 100) are linked to the inter-lingual-index through the same model.The Global WordNet Association has stimulated the development of wordnets all over the globe, which are all inter-connected though the same database. In addition to supporting and advising many wordnet projects, Vossen has also activily been involved in projects developing wordnets, such as BalkaNet and the development of the Arabic wordnet “(Constructing Arabic Wordnet (AWN) in Parallel with an Ontology” (sponsored by the American government and headed by Princeton University), for which he was responsible for the European part of the project.
In February 2006, the idea of the Global Wordnet Grid was launched at the 3rd GWC in Jeju, Korea: the building of a complete free worldwide wordnet grid. This grid will be built around a shared set of concepts, such as the Common Base Concepts used in many wordnet projects. These concepts will be expressed in terms of Wordnet synsets and ontology concepts. People from all language communities are invited to upload synsets from their language to the Grid. Gradually, the Grid will then be represented by all languages. The Grid will be available to everybody and will be distributed completely free.