A Language Technology Roadmap for Canada

1
A Language Technology Roadmap for Canada

• Dr. Fred Popowich

2
What is a Technology Roadmap?

• A technology roadmap is a convenient metaphor for
  a rational forecasting and planning process which
  aims to
• identify future needs within a particular
  technical domain
• identify both existing capabilities and those
  which will be required to meet the needs of (i),
  taking into account dependencies between items
• propose actions which will permit the needs of
  (i) to be met.

3
A Graphical Representation

• A chart with layers for market, product and
  technology information.

Market
Product / Service
Technology
Time ?
Adapted from http//www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/ctm/trm/

4
History

• The Canadian Language Technology Roadmap process
  began in mid 2003.
• The work over the past years has been undertaken
  by four subcommittees, each tasked with
  addressing a particular subsector of the language
  technology domain, and each represented on a
  top-level coordinating committee.
• The subcommittees were in the areas of content
  management, language training, speech, and
  translation.
• We have now assembled information relating to all
  three of the goals mentioned earlier.
• The work has been supported through Industry
  Canada, AILIA and the LTRC.

5
What is now available

• Final TRM Report, containing
• Executive Summary
• Introduction and Background
• Technical Needs and Capabilities
• Technology Development Strategy
• Identification of convergent recommendations
• Identification of technologies for multiple
  markets
• Metrics for Evaluation and Prioritization
• Conclusions
• Bibliography and References

6
More than a Technology Roadmap

• A roadmap for the industry
• Key roles to be played by
• AILIA
• Government
• Language Technology Research Centre
• NRC

7
The Language Industry in Canada

• The Three Ts

Translation
Training
Technology
8
The Language Industry in Canada

• The Three Ts

Translation
Training
Content Management Speech Technology Translation
Technology Training Technology
9
The Roadmap for Canada

• Huge translation and language training markets.
• Strong technology base.
• How do we fill the ovals? bridge the gap?
• Whats the time period?

Market
Translation
Training
Product / Service
Technology
Technology
10
The Roadmap for Canada

• Distinguish between Language Tools and Technology
  Resources
• Our products are tools, applications or
  solutions.

Market
Translation
Language Training
Language Solution
Product / Service
Language Application
Language Tool
Technology
Language Resource
11
The Roadmap for Canada

• Translation and Training Market Solutions
• Consortia for high-profile international
  Showcase projects making use of Canadian
  language technology.
• Incorporation of multiple Canadian
  Commercial-Of-The-Shelf products
• Development of Resources and Tools
• Useful for a wide range of applications.
• Used to improve existing products and services.
• Criteria for evaluating project proposals

12
Recommendations

• These are the action items agreed to by the
  technology roadmap management committee .

13
1. Creation of language technology website as
part of a portal

• Produce an integrated report containing the
  information from the entire TRM process.
• Create a clearing house for research ideas and
  resources
• Provide a language technology resource and tools
  inventory and distribution mechanism.
• Consider open source and not just proprietary
  resources.
• Provide a list of technology developers,
  providers, and research coming from universities,
  and centres.
• Include capabilities for companies/organizations
  to enter their own information.
• Inventory the existing standards/norms, their
  maturity and how they might be applied to an SME,
  including the following
• Resources, interoperability, international
  standards, semantic web (ontologies),
  infrastructure
• Supply data from surveys.
• Monitor relevant data.

Responsibility of AILIA, LTRC, and Industry
Canada
14
2. Approach Precarn, NSERC, IC, NRC IRAP, VCs
(such as the BDC fund) and strategic investors to
fund research, development and projects.

• Responsibility of AILIA, in conjunction with its
  partners.

15
3. Bring together all stakeholders to work on
language technology projects.

• Stakeholders include industry, research centres,
  universities, clients
• Support collaborative pre-competitive projects
  between companies
• Assist in Development of Proposals
• Bring in consultants, stakeholders initiate
  meetings
• Possible big projects spanning multiple
  technology areas
• Support a strategic Canadian project crossing
  multiple subsectors (GALE) as a big goal
• Canadian Parliamentary Material project
• Support collaborative projects with NRC resulting
  in IP agreements that are appropriate for
  commercial exploitation
• Hold an annual technology workshop and
  competition, and/or language technology fair.
• Introduce weekly seminars (lunch and learn).

Responsibility of AILIA, LTRC, NRC, and
Industry Canada
16
4. Provide funding to support companies and
organizations to attend annual competitions

• Responsibility of Industry Canada.

17
5. The Canadian Language Industry Association
should interact with sister organizations abroad.

• Responsibility of AILIA.

18
A Dynamic Roadmap Action Items

• The work is not yet done.
• A roadmap must be a dynamic structure.
• We need your participation in the ongoing
  process!
• We need to build consortia
• Industry, clients, research institutes,
• We need to act on these recommendations, and on
  the information contain in the final TRM report
• AILIA, Industry Canada, LTRC, NRC,
• So what are our initial goals for resources,
  tools/technologies, applications and solutions?

19
Key Projects Identification

• Canadian counterpart to US project on Global
  Autonomous Language Exploitation
• 5 year timeframe
• Cross-lingual voice-driven help desk (with
  interactive voice response)
• 5 year timeframe
• Other projects involving the spectrum of
  stakeholders are being considered by the LTRC

20
Applications

• Language learning application software on mobile
  devices.
• Content Management applications in Support of Key
  Projects previously identified.

21
Tools/Technologies

• Web-based translation and terminology
  technologies.
• Speech-to-text Technologies.

22
Resources

• A full multi-lingual WordNet (3 year timeframe)
• Dictionaries, lexicons and other language
  resources exist in all major languages.
• However, some critical tools do not exist in all
  languages and when they exist, theyre not
  necessarily easy to access, often because of
  their prohibitive price.
• Good leverage of existing Canadian Resources
• An EU project, Eurowordnet, was underway between
  1996 and 1999. The resources produced during the
  project do not seem to equal those created for
  the English WordNet in quantity and quality. They
  are not freely accessible either.

23
Next Steps

• Critique and validate the roadmap.
• If the recommended technology alternatives are
  developed, will the targets be met?
• Are the technology alternatives reasonable?
• Were any important technologies missed?
• Is the roadmap clear and understandable?
• Are the recommendations feasible?
• Can the recommended actions be completed in the
  required time frames?
• Develop an implementation plan.

24
Please give us your feedback

• Fred Popowich
• fred_at_popowich.net
• AILIA
• info_at_ailia.ca
• LTRC
• daniel.vincent_at_ltrc.ca