METANET4U WORKSHOP
Title: Digital Survival of Maltese: building a roadmap
Date: Saturday 24th November 2012
Location: University of Malta, Valletta Campus
A recent series of White Papers published by META-NET investigating the state of language technology for thirty European languages reached the conclusion that Maltese was amongst the lowest-ranked. This conclusion surprised those who know that there are in fact several projects and initiatives under way which are attempting to address this deficit. These include (i) the development and recent release of a text-to-speech synthesiser for Maltese by a local company, (ii) an initiative in collaboration with a local publisher to produce a large-scale electronic dictionary, (iii) projects at University for the creation of text and speech resources some with EU funding, (iv) new undergraduate and postgraduate courses in language technology at the University of Malta, (v) the creation of a Malta Centre as a joint project between the University of Malta and the University of Bremen.
The problem is that although something is being done, progress is slow, because the efforts are for the most part fragmentary, unsustained and uncoordinated. A newspaper article written in response to the White Paper conclusions suggested that one way forward is to consolidate existing efforts and bring them together as far as possible, so as to build on the foundations that are already in place.
The main aim of this meeting is therefore to formulate a roadmap for the digital future of Maltese that defines a set of strategic goals in three different areas impacted by language technology. (i) Education and Research (ii) National Language Policy and (iii) Language-Related Industries
Programme
08:00 Registration, breakfast
09.00 Introduction: Mr. Michael Rosner, Local Coordinator, METANET4U Language White Papers, META-NET and CLARIN
09.15 Keynote. Prof. Dr. Erhard Hinrichs, University of Tübingen
10.00 Opening session (plenary)
10.40 Coffee break
11.00 Moderated discussions (groups)
11.40 Reports and discussion (plenary)
12.30 Conclusion and wrap-up
The moderated discussion room allocations:
Group 1 Education and Research - Auditorium
Group 2 National Language Policy - Meeting room 1, top floor
Group 3 Language Related-Industry - Meeting room 2, top floor
Title: Digital Survival of Maltese: building a roadmap
Date: Saturday 24th November 2012
Location: University of Malta, Valletta Campus
A recent series of White Papers published by META-NET investigating the state of language technology for thirty European languages reached the conclusion that Maltese was amongst the lowest-ranked. This conclusion surprised those who know that there are in fact several projects and initiatives under way which are attempting to address this deficit. These include (i) the development and recent release of a text-to-speech synthesiser for Maltese by a local company, (ii) an initiative in collaboration with a local publisher to produce a large-scale electronic dictionary, (iii) projects at University for the creation of text and speech resources some with EU funding, (iv) new undergraduate and postgraduate courses in language technology at the University of Malta, (v) the creation of a Malta Centre as a joint project between the University of Malta and the University of Bremen.
The problem is that although something is being done, progress is slow, because the efforts are for the most part fragmentary, unsustained and uncoordinated. A newspaper article written in response to the White Paper conclusions suggested that one way forward is to consolidate existing efforts and bring them together as far as possible, so as to build on the foundations that are already in place.
The main aim of this meeting is therefore to formulate a roadmap for the digital future of Maltese that defines a set of strategic goals in three different areas impacted by language technology. (i) Education and Research (ii) National Language Policy and (iii) Language-Related Industries
Programme
08:00 Registration, breakfast
09.00 Introduction: Mr. Michael Rosner, Local Coordinator, METANET4U Language White Papers, META-NET and CLARIN
09.15 Keynote. Prof. Dr. Erhard Hinrichs, University of Tübingen
10.00 Opening session (plenary)
10.40 Coffee break
11.00 Moderated discussions (groups)
11.40 Reports and discussion (plenary)
12.30 Conclusion and wrap-up
The moderated discussion room allocations:
Group 1 Education and Research - Auditorium
Group 2 National Language Policy - Meeting room 1, top floor
Group 3 Language Related-Industry - Meeting room 2, top floor
Photos form the workshop
