MULTILINGUALWEB

Standards and best practices for the Multilingual Web

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World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche   European Commission

W3C Workshop, Call for Participation:
Content on the Multilingual Web
4 - 5 April 2011, Pisa, Italy

Important dates

12 Jan Call for Participation issued
1 Mar Deadline for speaker proposals
11 Mar Acceptance notification sent
14 Mar Program released
4-5 Apr Workshop

Workshop sponsors

IIT logo

W3C Italy logo

Become a sponsor.

Endorsed by

IIT logo

Project funding

The MultilingualWeb project is funded by the European Commission through the ICT PSP Grant Agreement No. 250500, and as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme.

Today, the World Wide Web is fundamental to communication in all walks of life. As the share of English web pages decreases and that of other languages increases, it is vitally important to ensure the multilingual success of the World Wide Web.

The MultilingualWeb project is looking at best practices and standards related to all aspects of creating, localizing and deploying the Web multilingually. The project aims to raise the visibility of existing best practices and standards and identify gaps. The core vehicle for this is a series of four events which are planned for the coming two years. Following the highly successful first event in Madrid, this second workshop will be held in Pisa, Italy, and hosted jointly by the Istituto di Informatica e Telematica and Istituto di Linguistica Computazionale, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche.

On this page: Goals, scope, audience • How to participate • Venue, hotels, etc.

Related links: Registration • Program • About W3C

Goals, Scope and Audience

Building on the success of the previous event, this workshop will use a similar format to once again bring together speakers and participants with an interest in best practices and standards aimed at helping content creators, localizers, tools developers, and others meet the challenges of the multilingual Web. It provides further opportunities for networking across communities that span the various aspects involved.

While the themes for this workshop remain broad, we are particularly interested in topics that address standards and best practices aimed at development of Content for the Web. This includes creation of content ranging from personal authoring for blogs and social networking sites to development of large corporate or organizational enterprises.

We are particularly interested in speakers who can identify gaps in current standards and best practices related to the mutilingual Web, and propose opportunities for addressing those. The European Commission is interested in these workshops as a means to identify directions for future project work related to the multilingual Web, and as a vehicle for increasing contact and cross-fertilization between experts in this area.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

Developers. Browser support; Web addresses (IRIs and IDNs); Web protocols (HTTP(s), IRC, REST, etc); Content formats (HTML, CSS, SVG, etc); Scripting languages (JavaScript etc); Unicode; Local data formats (CLDR,etc); Language & locale tags; Data feeds ...

Creators. Content management and authoring tools; Browser support; Mobile Web; Voice on the Web; Language selection & navigation; Multilingual web sites; Usability & design for i18n ...

Localizers. Localization standards & tools; TM and terminology databases; Machine translation; Crowd-sourcing; Cloud based issues; Process enablers ...

Users. Social Web (blogs, social media, etc.); Cultural topics; Minority languages; Accessibility; ...

Machines. Semantic web; Multilingual web services; Language resources; Text mining; Language technologies; Search engine optimization; Web architecture and processes ...

Policy makers. Why the multilingual web matters; Trends; Standards organization players; Political enforcements ...

The workshop is expected to attract a broad set of stakeholders, including managers and practitioners working in the areas of content development, design, localization, and production management; developers of tools such as translation tools, content management systems, editors, etc; researchers and developers working with language technology and resources; browser implementors; standards and industry body representatives; and many more. The interchange of information and perspectives from this diverse group is expected to provide a more thorough picture of the existing landscape for multilingualism on the Web, and was one of the successes of the first workshop.

How to participate

Participation is free. We welcome participation from both speakers and non-speaking attendees.

If you are interested in attending, please register as soon as possible.

The total number of participants will be limited, and registrations will be dealt with on a first come, first served basis. Registration may close early if the event is full. W3C membership is not required to participate in this workshop.

If you wish to speak at the workshop, please fill in the registration form as soon as possible and provide a brief outline for your proposed talk at the appropriate place in that form. Based on a review of all submitted position papers, the Program Committee will select the most relevant and invite the submitters of those papers to speak at the event.

Presentations will typically last 15-20 minutes, however we are also planning to have some longer talks during the workshop. Talks should ideally describe all of the following with relation to your topic:

  1. existing best practices and/or standards that are relevant
  2. new standards and best practices that are currently in development
  3. gaps that are not covered by best practices and/or standards

Speakers are asked to focus on describing practical ways in which the topic of their talk enables people to meet the challenges of the multilingual Web, rather than to focus on technical details. Given the diversity of topics at the workshop, speakers should also pitch their talk at a level that will be understood by attendees who are unfamiliar with the topic area.

We are particularly interested in talks that propose new standards or best practices that need to be addressed.

If you have any questions, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Become a sponsor

W3C proposes a dedicated sponsorship program for these workshops to enable organizations to showcase their business and underscore their commitment to the shared goals of the W3C. The sponsorship benefits allow workshop sponsors to reach out to all stakeholders and decision makers worldwide and to be associated with breakthrough innovations that are paving the future of the Web.

Get more information about becoming a workshop sponsor. The deadline for sponsorship submissions is currently 11 March.

Workshop logistics

Important dates

See the top of this page.

Workshop Venue

The workshop will be hosted jointly by the Istituto di Linguistica Computazionale (ILC) and the Istituto di Informatica e Telematica (IIT), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), which is located in "Area della Ricerca di Pisa", a research campus in Pisa. See map 1.

The workshop will be held at the Auditorium of the CNR Research Area. See map 2.

The address of CNR Research Area is:

Area della Ricerca del CNR
Via Giuseppe Moruzzi n. 1
Pisa
56124 Pisa
Italy

Evening reception

To further promote networking among attendees, there will be a reception at 8pm on Monday 4th April in the Capitolium Hall of the Chiostro di S. Francesco, a wonderful ancient cloister, next to the church of St. Francesco. Entry is free to workshop participants. See a map showing the route from the workshop location to the church. The Capitolium Hall has frescoes by Niccolò di Pietro Gerini with Histories of the life of Christ (1392). The rectangular cloister is from the 14th century.

Getting there

How to reach Pisa

By plane

  • "Galileo Galilei" Intermational Airport

By train

  • Trenitalia

By car

  • "A12 Genova-Livorno" Motorway: "Pisa Centro" Way Out
  • "SGC Firenze-Pisa-Livorno" Highway: "Pisa Nord-Est" Way Out

How to reach the Pisa Research Area

By bus

The research Area is served by the Line High Mobility, LAM

  • From "Galileo Galilei" International Airport to "Pisa Centrale" Railway Station: Red LAM (Direction 1)
  • From "Pisa Centrale" Railway Station to "Pratale" Terminus: Green LAM (Direction 1)

By taxi

  • Radio Taxi +39 050 541600

Hotels

Here some suggested hotels. CNR has negotiated rates with these hotels as shown below. To obtain these rates, you should quote MULTILINGUALWEB-CNR.

Maps

Pisa Map, Pisa LAM Map

Contact

For assistance with logistics or technical issues, you can write to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . For questions about the program or the workshops in general, contact Richard Ishida This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Deliverables

Workshop sessions and documents will be in English. After the event presentations, minutes and the workshop report will be made available to the public, linked from the project site.

Chair

  • Richard Ishida, W3C

Local Organizing Committee

  • Nicoletta Calzolari Zamorani, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy
  • Monica Monachini, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy
  • Andrea Marchetti, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy
  • Adriana Lazzaroni, IIT Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy
  • Raffaella Casarosa, IIT Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy
  • Patrizia Andronico, IIT Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy

Program Committee

  • Luis Bellido, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain
  • Eric Blassin, Lionbridge Belgium
  • Nicoletta Calzolari Zamorani, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy
  • Manuel Tomás Carrasco Benitez, European Commission, Directorate-General for Translation, Luxembourg
  • Claudio Chiavetta, Lionbridge Belgium
  • David Clarke, Transware Ltd (WeLocalize), Ireland
  • Rahzeb Choudhury, TAUS, Netherlands
  • Marko Grobelnik, Institut Jozef Stefan, Slovenia
  • Ghassan Haddad, Facebook, USA
  • Timo Honkela, Aalto-Korkeakoulusaatio, Finland
  • Richard Ishida, W3C, UK
  • Pål Eivind Jacobsen Nes, Opera Software, Norway
  • Jiří Kosek, University of Economics, Prague, Czech Republic
  • Christian Lieske, SAP AG, Germany
  • Arle Lommel, LISA, Switzerland
  • Andrea Marchetti, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy
  • Charles McCathieNevile, Opera Software, Norway
  • Monica Monachini, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy
  • Jan Nelson, Microsoft Corporation, USA
  • Chiara Pacella, Facebook Ireland
  • Encarna Pastor, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain
  • Spiridon Pilos, European Commission, Directorate-General for Translation, Luxembourg
  • Adriane Rinsche, Language Technology Centre Ltd, UK
  • Felix Sasaki, DFKI / University of appl. Sciences Potsdam, Germany
  • Reinhard Schäler, The University of Limerick, Language Resource Centre, Ireland
  • Dag Schmidtke, Microsoft Ireland
  • Jörg Schütz, Bioloom Group, Germany
  • Tadej Štajner, Institut Jozef Stefan, Slovenia
  • Dan Tufis, Institutul de Cercetari Pentru Inteligenti Artificiala, Romania
  • Cristina Valdés Rodríguez, University of Oviedo (ILTO), Spain
  • Jaap van der Meer, TAUS, Netherlands
  • Andrzej Zydroń, XML-INTL, UK

For more information, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .