HLT in the Baltics, 10 years after 1994

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HLT in the Baltics, 10 years after 1994

• Steven Krauwer
• ELSNET / Utrecht University (NL)
• http//www.elsnet.org

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Overview

• About ELSNET
• Back to 1994
• The 2004 picture
• Where to go from here
• Fragmentation
• Your language(s)
• Europe
• Human and language resources
• Concluding remarks

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What is ELSNET

• European Network in Human Language Technologies
  (ca 145 academic and industrial member
  organisations)
• Funded by the European Commission
• Created in 1991
• Objectives
• bringing together the language and speech
  communities
• bringing together academia and andustry
• facilitating RD in language and speech
  technology
• Participation is free (conditions on website)
• Info elsnet_at_elsnet.org http//www.elsnet.org

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My picture from 1994

• A rich variety of activities
• Very few interconnections, much fragmentation
• Poor computing and communication facilities
• Poor access to publications
• Clear willingness to collaborate (but few funding
  opportunities)
• Access to some EU support through CEE oriented
  programs

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My picture in 2004

• A rich variety of activities
• Fragmented? See next slide
• Dramatic improvement in computing and
  communication facilities
• Better access to (electronic) publications
• Clear willingness to collaborate, and (in 10 days
  time) full access to all EU programs

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My fragmentation test

• For industry
• count partnerships between HLT RD parties
• For academia
• count co-authorships of papers across
  institutions in the proceedings
• count bibliographical references to others than
  (co-)authors (and their spiritual leaders)
• homework for tonight!

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Where to go from here?

• Defragmentation by enhancing local cohesion
• Watch your language
• Join the European scene
• Take care of your resources

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Defragmentation

• Make collaboration across institutions priority
  on your agenda
• Use joint authorships as a measure
• Analyze your bibliographical references from time
  to time
• Exploit local and international programmes to
  move people around

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Watch your language

• Your language is a precious possession, but if
  you dont take care of it, no one will
• Speaking English may be a rather common thing for
  educated people, but for many people it isnt
  use your technologies to avoid a two class
  society
• You are the best experts in your own language
  exploit this before others do it!

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Join the European scene

• Lots of EU funding opportunities, but
• Language and speech technology as such have
  disappeared from the FP6 research agenda they
  will only be present as embedded technologies in
  other, much broader projects
• the move from spreading excellence (in earlier
  FPs) to boosting excellence (in FP6) has severe
  consequences
• Look at the participation figures in the
  successful projects of the 1st IST Call for
  Proposals for Interface Technologies

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1st IST Call (Interfaces)Participation per
country
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1st IST Call (Interfaces)Top 8 countries
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How to react to this?

• Not recommended
• Accept the defeat of the smaller languages
• Hope that the EU will do something special for
  the smaller languages to compensate
• Recommended
• Make yourselves stronger
• Be patient language and speech technology may
  make a glorious come-back in FP7 if only to
  prevent the EU from collapsing under the language
  problem

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How to make yourselves stronger

• Increase internal cohesion (defragmentation)
• Exploit the fact that you are the top experts in
  your own language
• Exploit the fact that many wheels have already
  been invented (although they may not yet be round
  enough for your own language)
• Be prepared to look across discipline boundaries
• Team up with stronger parties in Europe by
• staff and student exchanges (exploit mobility
  funds)
• making yourselves visible (at conferences and
  events)
• focusing on a niche of expertise

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Take care of your resources

• Human resources
• Develop HLT curricula, preferably on a very
  interdisciplinary basis (e.g Euro-Masters)
• Develop training programmes for professionals
  already working in the field
• Language resources
• Ensure the availability of proper resources for
  your own language, at least for the purpose of
  research, precompetitive development and training
• Join our BLARK action

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The BLARK

• Define the minimal set of language resources that
  is necessary to do any precompetitive RD and
  education at all for a language (the Basic
  Language Resource Kit or BLARK)
• Determine which components are already available
• Make a priority plan to complete the BLARK

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What makes the BLARK special?

• The idea is to make a common generic BLARK
  definition, in principle applicable to all
  languages (i.e. a de facto standard)
• The common definition will be based on the
  experience with different languages, and will
  prevent reinvention of wheels
• The common definition will ensure
  interoperability and interconnectivity
  (especially for multilingual or cross-lingual
  applications)

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Other BLARK benefits

• Experience from other languages will help making
  cost estimations
• Adoption of a BLARK common to all languages may
  help in persuading funders to support the
  creation of the BLARK
• Adoption of a common BLARK may facilitate porting
  between languages

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To conclude

• Further development of Baltic HLT is a necessity
  for your society and an opportunity for your ICT
• Defragmentation of RD efforts is a must
• Strengthen your position in Europe
• Ensure optimal conditions for the development of
  human and language resources for your region

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Thank you!