Language Technology News for 2011

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EC Vice President Neelie Kroes addresses gender deficit in ICT
2011/03/07

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/11/151&(...)
European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes is marking the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day with a speech in Budapest, warning that the ICT sector must find a new gender balance if it wants to avoid underperformance in coming years. The Commission estimates the European ICT sector will face a shortfall of 700,000 skilled workers by 2015, partly explained by a lack of women engineering and computing graduates. "We need to tackle the problem early and from many angles," Kroes said while noting the Commission's Code of Practice for Women in ICT now has 60 signatories, and that leading companies such as IBM and Intel are taking "steps in the right direction." "Companies and governments need to do more than run networks and camps - the effort must range from better child care to a better balance of subjects in the school system."

TDA opens free “Corpora-for-MT” service to the public
2011/03/07

http://www.ukprwire.com/Detailed/Business/TDA_opens_free_Corpora-for-M(...)
The TAUS Data Association (TDA), a non-profit web-based platform for sharing language data, has made translation memory (TM) upload and download open for public users. Anyone in the world can download TMs at no cost as long as they also upload TMs. The TDA repository already contains 3.4 billion words in 320 language pairs of human-quality translations. This new free public service will drive the adoption and improvement of machine translation (MT) technology.

Research and Markets announced WinterGreen Research Inc.'s report: "Language Translation Market Shares, Strategies, and Forecasts, Worldwide, 2011 to 2017"
2011/03/04

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110304005305/en/Research-Marke(...)
Research and Markets has announced the addition of WinterGreen Research, Inc.'s new report "Language Translation Market Shares, Strategies, and Forecasts, Worldwide, 2011 to 2017" to their offering. This 2011 study has 784 pages, 256 tables and figures. Hybrid machine translation is evolving more sophisticated software that actually works well enough to be useful, The hybrid systems provide dramatic improvement, creating the ability to use machine translation in a wide variety of situations. Hybrid machine translation combines the features of statistical and rules based approaches. Human language technology solution combines the strengths of rule-based and statistical systems.

Med School to use Jeopardy’s Watson for symptom tracking
2011/03/03

http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2011/03/03/med-school-use-jeopardy-s-(...)
Watson, the Jeopardy-winning computer system, was named for IBM founder Thomas Watson, not for Sherlock Holmes’ famed right-hand man. Yet Dr. Watson might be proud of his 21st-century namesake, as researchers at Columbia University Medical Center are working to adapt his technology into a tool to assist physicians and diagnose patients. The researchers are working with IBM to create a virtual assistant that could help doctors to diagnose and potentially treat patients, which medical students and residents at CUMC will begin testing in as little as three to six months. [...] Chase even hopes the Watson technology will be able to extract useful data about side effects from the vast world of patient-submitted information on blogs and discussion boards.“A physician does not have the capacity to crunch all that data,” he said.

CSOFT's headquarters expand to Beijing's Central Business District
2011/03/03

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110303006239/en/CSOFT’s-Headqu(...)
CSOFT International Ltd., a leading provider of multilingual localization, testing, and software development services for the global market, announced today the expansion of its World Headquarters to the heart of Beijing’s Central Business District (CBD). Beijing’s CBD is home to many multinational businesses in China, including over 100 companies on the Fortune 500 list: companies like Cisco, General Motors, Samsung, and Shell — among others — all chose this strategic location to promote international business from China’s growing capital. The move to the CBD’s World Financial Centre, with its cutting-edge network infrastructure and facilities, testifies to the company’s commitment to driving technological innovation in the localization and language services industry.

How cloud computing can boost Europe's competitiveness
2011/03/02

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/11/128&fo(...)
European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes visited the CeBIT2011 information technology (IT) exhibition in Hannover, Germany, where the main theme was cloud computing. A major potential advantage of cloud computing for companies and public administrations is that they no longer need to install and maintain software and computing equipment of their own, nor manage data storage facilities in-house. Instead, they can enjoy remote access, through networks such as the internet, to state-of-the-art software and data storage systems offered by specialist outside suppliers and so take advantage of much more affordable and efficient IT systems.

thebigword goes open-source as LISA shuts down
2011/03/02

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110302005795/en/thebigword-Ope(...)
The global language services company, thebigword, has announced it will open-source part of its language technology software in order to support industry standards. The move by thebigword, the world’s sixth largest independently owned translation and interpreting company, follows news that LISA, the Localization Industry Standards Association, has shut down. Without LISA’s role in standardizing the translation industry, there is concern that there will be no consistent way of measuring word counts in a document – a vital tool in calculating both pricing and the time required for accurate translation. “The news about LISA is a loss for the industry,” said thebigword’s Chief Commercial Officer, Josh Gould. “thebigword has undertaken to continue LISA’s work in developing standards for the languages services sector that will truly support its customers.”

Bing shopping now understands queries for prices in natural language
2011/03/01

http://www.bing.com/community/site_blogs/b/search/archive/2011/03/01/b(...)
Sometimes shopping can be overwhelming. With so many choices, at so many different price points, you continually have to refine your search to find something within your budget. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just type what you’re thinking into the search box? Say, “Air Jordans under $100” or "Hudson jeans under $200" and let Bing do the work. With improvements to natural language search arriving in Bing, now you can.

LISA shuts down operations
2011/02/28

http://www.commonsenseadvisory.com/Default.aspx?Contenttype=ArticleDet(...)
The Language Industry Standards Association (LISA), the language industry’s oldest association, announced today that it was shutting down operations effective 28 February 2011 in order to limit further financial commitments. Nonetheless, the Standards Summit scheduled for Boston commenced as scheduled. Director Michael Anobile notified LISA members in an e-mail earlier today.

Online University launches Bachelor's Degree in Linguistics
2011/02/28

http://www.usnewsuniversitydirectory.com/articles/online-university-la(...)
Linguistic anthropologists investigate the history of and changes to language over time in various cultures, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Overall employment of these professionals is expected to increase by 22% through 2018. Schools such as Ashford University are launching online degrees in this field. According to a press release, the college recently announced that it will offer an online bachelor's in applied linguistics.

yochina: Novel China Travel App Supports Intercultural Understanding
2011/02/27

http://www.yocoy.com/yocoy/en/yochina_press.php
Traveling to China would be so much more enjoyable if we could understand the Chinese people, signs, customs and culture. The stay abroad would also be more secure and more effective. A new iPhone program was released today on the Apple App Store that bridges the gap of understanding. The product is called yochina where "yo" simply means "travel". yochina combines phrasebook, travel guide, culture guide and dictionary in a single product. The software does not need an internet connection so it can be used everywhere without paying the exorbitant roaming costs. yochina has recently been awarded the Apps4Berlin prize. Get in touch with a demo: http://vimeo.com/16537026

Xerox opens virtual research lab to public
2011/02/27

http://www.techworld.com.au/article/377893/xerox_opens_virtual_researc(...)
Xerox has launched a website allowing customers to test drive its technology research projects, including PDF converters and an Arabic language analyzer. Open Xerox, allows participants to use some cutting-edge technology while providing feedback to Xerox, said Victor Ciriza, lab manager at the Xerox Research Centre Europe. Users will be able to incorporate many of the technologies in their own websites, with Xerox providing output through HTML or open APIs (application programming interfaces), he said. The new website will allow Xerox to have new products that are "robust and well tested," Ciriza said. With the crowd-sourcing site, Xerox is hoping for immediate feedback on the projects so that the company can improve the research, he said.

Altitude Software, Loquendo and SpeechVillage form strategic partnership
2011/02/25

http://callcenterinfo.tmcnet.com/contact-centre/articles/148577-altitu(...)
Altitude Software, a leading independent global contact center solutions vendor, has recently announced that the company has formed a strategic partnership with Loquendo and SpeechVillage to offer advanced natural language experience to their customers. Loquendo is a global speech technology provider, and SpeechVillage is a recognized leader in graphical tools for speech applications.

Cisco to sign €500K deal with DERI to create the social tools for tomorrow's workplace
2011/02/22

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/item/20531-cisco-invests-500(...)
Cisco has signed a deal worth an estimated €500,000 with Irish university NUI Galway’s Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) to create the next wave of enterprise social networking tools for the workplace of tomorrow. Cisco said this morning that it is investing nearly €400,000 with the Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) in NUI Galway, to further develop its enterprise social networking and collaboration platform Cisco Quad. An additional €100,000 will be invested in a strategic research agreement between Cisco and DERI for a project titled 'Advances in Real-Time Date Integration, Recommendations and Social Network Analysis for the Social Semantic Enterprise' (ADVANSSE).

The Semantic Web gets down to business
2011/02/22

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9209118/The_semantic_Web_gets_d(...)
It's still early going, but e-commerce and other sites are finding the investment well worth their time, money and effort. Despite the recession, luggage retailer Ebags.com enjoyed phenomenal 2010 holiday sales -- some 33% higher than the previous year. Cobb credits much of these gains to his company's deployment of Endeca Technologies Inc.'s online retail platform, which uses semantic technology to analyze shoppers' keyword choices and clicks, and then winnows down results from categories to subcategories and microcategories. The end result? "Guiding the shopper to the perfect bag very quickly," Cobb says.