Joint UNESCO and ITU
Global Symposium on Promoting the Multilingual Internet
A DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE
ENABLING MULTILINGUAL
INTERNET
Prof. Tarcisio G. Della Senta
UNDL Foundation
President
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006
TOPICS
o 1.
1 Purpose: moving from principles to action
o 2.
2 Enabling Multilingual Internet
o 3
3. Building a Multilingual Digital Infrastructure
o 4
4. Towards Multilingualism on the Internet
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006
2
PURPOSE ?
•REVISTING THE CONCEPT OF
MULTILINGUISM IN CYBER SPACE
•MOVING FROM LOFTY PRINCIPLES
FULL MULTILIGUALISM
•MAKING INTERNET TRULY AND
FULLY MULTILINGUAL
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006
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Revisiting Multilinguism
PROCLAIMED PRINCIPLES
•UN Universal Declaration of Human rights
•UN Millennium Declaration
•Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity
•Geneva Declaration of Principles
•Tunis Agenda for the Information Society
•Charte Afraicaine des Droits de l’Home et des Peuples
•Declaration Universelle des Droits de l’Home en Islam
•Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the
Diversity of Cultural Expressions
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006
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PRINCIPLES & RIGHTS
Proclaimed principles substantiate Rights to
linguistic resources and to the means for
o PROCESSING AND ACCESSING
o CREATING AND PRODUCING
o EXPLORING AND USING
o SHARING AND SELLING
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006
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PROCLAIMED PRINCIPLES
Point towards
•UNIVERSALITY
•EQUITY
•DIVERSITY
and apply to
•Languages
•Cultures
•Knowledge
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006
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Enabling Multilingual Internet
o CURRENT CONCERNS ARE MOSTLY MONOLINGUAL
•
•
•
•
•
•
DOMAIN NAMES
E-MAIL ADDRESSES
KEY-WORDS LOOK UP
LOCAL CONTENT
ENCODING SCRIPTS
ETC.
o IT IS A FIRST AND A NECESSARY STEP TOWARDS
MULTILINGUAL INTERNET
o HOWEVER, UNIVERSALITY, EQUITY AND DIVERSITY CALL FOR
A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF MULTILINGUISM
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006
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Defining Multilinguism on the
Internet
o WE UNDERSTAND MULTILINGUISM IN CYBER
SPACE AS AN ENVIRONMENT WHERE EVERY
ONE CAN COMMUNICATE AND EXCHANGE
INFORMATION WITH OTHERS IN HER/HIS
MOTHER LANGUAGE
o WE BELIEVE THAT ICT PROVIDE US WITH THE
MEANS TO THIS END
o AND ICT ENABLE US TO BUILD A MULTILINGUAL
DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006
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Building Multilingual Digital
Infrastructure
o WE ARE BUILDING A “LANGUAGE FOR
COMPUTERS” WITH THE POWER OF
ENABLING PEOPLE TO UNDERSTAND AND
COMMUNICATE WITH OTHERS IN THEIR OWN
LANGUAGES
o A UNIVERSAL DIGITAL LANGUAGE WITH ALL
LEXICAL, SYNTAX AND SEMANTIC FEATURES
OF NATURAL LANGUAGES
o REPRODUCING THE DIVERSITY OF HUMAN
LANGUAGES
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006
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BUILDING A MULTILINGUAL DIGITAL
INFRASTRCUTURE
Annotatio
n Editor
Natural
Language
Texts
Annotated
Natural
Language
Texts
UNL
Verifier
UNL
Document
EnConverter
CoGrammatical Word
occurrence
Rules
Dictionary
Dictionary
Natural
Language
Texts
Universal
Parser
UNL
KB
UW
Dictionary
UW
Gate
DeConverter
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006
Web Server
HTML+XML
UNL
Document
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BUILDING A MULTILINGUAL DIGITAL
INFRASTRCUTURE
Original
Text
EnConverter
DIGITAL
VERSION
Versions
in Versions
Natural
in
Natural
Languages
Versions
Languages
in Natural
Versions
Languages
in
Natural
Languages
Web Server
HTML+XML
DeConverter
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006
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THE UNL ON TE INTERNET
Chinese
English
Arabic
Hindi
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006
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BUILDING LIBRARY INFORMATION
INFRASTRUCTURE
Language Server
UNL <- >Chinese
UNL LANGUAGE SERVER
Enconverter Í= Î Deconverter
(EnCO)
(EnCO)
EnCO
Language Server
UNL document
UNL Editor
UNL <-> Arabic
UNL Viewer
NET
UNL Proxy
Language Server
UNL <EnCO
>Japanese
2
1
USER
DeCO
DeCO
Language Server
UNL <-> Spanish
3
Language Server
UNL <-> Hindi
Language Server
EnCO
DeCO
UNL <- > English
EnCO
DeCO
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006
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USING A MULTILINGUAL KNOWLEDGE
INFRASTRCUTURE
EOLSS
English
Version
EnConvert
EOLSS UNL
VERSION
Web Server
HTML+XML
Translate
EOLSS
In Natural
Languages
Search
Navigate
DeConvert
Explore
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006
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BUIULDING KOWLEDGE DIVERSITY
INFRASTRCUTURE
English
Russian
Spanish
Chinese
UNL
PLAZA
French
Japanese
Etc...
Arabic
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006
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Towards Multilingualism on the Internet
Ann
otati
on
Edit
or
Natural
Language
Texts
Annotated
Natural
Language
Texts
Univ
ersal
Pars
er
UNL
Document
EnConv
erter
Language
En
De
Server
C
C
UNL <O
O
>Chinese
UNL LANGUAGE
SERVER
Enconverter Í= Î
Deconverter
(EnCO)
(EnCO)
UNL
document
UNL
Editor
UNL
Viewer
UNL
Verif
ier
Language Server
UNL <-> Arabic
NET
UNL
Proxy
Language Server
UNL <-> Spanish
1
CoGrammatical
Word
UNL UW Web Server
occurrence
Rules
Dictionary
KBDictionary
HTML+XML
Dictionary
2
Natural
Language
Texts
3
DeConv
erter
U
W
Ga
te
2
USER
3
1
Language
Server
UNL
Document
Language
Server
UNL <>Japanese
En
De
C
C
O
O
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006
Language
Server
UNL <- >
English
En
De
C
C
O
O
UNL <->
Hindi
En
De
C
C
O
O
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THE PROGRAMME AHEAD
1. INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT
ENVIRONEMNT
2. WORLDWIDE DEVELOPMENT
NETWORK
3. CONVERGENCE OF MEDIA AND
CONTENT
4. TARGETED APPLICATIONS
5. MOTIVATE STAKEHOLDERS
6. INVOLVE ALL PEOPLES
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006
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APLATFORM FOR LINGUIST
UNIVERSALITY, DIVERSITY AND EQUITY
www.undl.org
Geneva, 9-11 May 2006
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