The MultilingualWeb Thematic Network
The MultilingualWeb thematic network project ran from 2010 to 2012. The project was coordinated by W3C/ERCIM. Twenty two partners, representing a wide range of stakeholders, helped to run the project.
At the core of the project were 4 public workshops, held over a two year period, aimed at improving networking between stakeholders, sharing information about existing standards and best practices, and identifying gaps that need to be addressed related to the multilingual Web.
One of the key tenets of the MultilingualWeb project was to bring together people from a diverse range of specialisms who would not normally meet, but who were all important to the development of a truly multilingual Web. This included browser developers, standards makers, content developers, localizers, language technology experts, people working with Data on the Web, users, and policy makers. Bringing together these people to give a more holistic view of the needs of the multilingual Web added significant value by engendering cross-discipline awareness and thereby promoting new synergistic links and networks.
In parallel with, but not funded by, the project, the W3C developed an internationalization checker for HTML, and ported a set of browser tests related to internationalization to the new W3C Test Framework.
Post-project activity
Two more MultilingualWeb workshops were run, in Limerick and Rome, with help from the MultilingualWeb-LT project, and at least one more is planned with the support of the LIDER project. Both of these projects build on the foundations of the original MultilingualWeb network.
The spirit of the MultilingualWeb project continues through use of the logo and branding, as well as the continued use of this website and social media channels for ongoing dissemination of information about projects and information related to the multilingual web.
As a result of the 2012 Luxembourg workshop, two W3C Community Groups were created: Multilingual Web Sites, and Best Practices for Multilingual Linked Open Data (BPMLOD). There may be further community groups or other initiative arising from the workshops in the future.
How to participate
You can follow the work on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn, and there is a public list where you can receive announcements related to the initiative.
Upcoming workshops will be announced via these channels, and will be open for public participation.
Useful links
MultilingualWeb Project reports
D03.2 Practical work items: Report on first implementation of internationalization checker
MultilingualWeb final report (6Mb)
Talks about the project
Overview of the MultilingualWeb project [pptx format], by Christian Lieske
Standards & Best Practices for the World Wide Web at Localization World, Berlin, Germany, June 2010. Presentation by Richard Ishida, W3C.
How to make business worldwide with the multilingual web at Business Information Systems 2010, Berlin, Germany. Keynote speech by Felix Sasaki, University of Applied Sciences Potsdam.
Partners & People
| Organisation | Contacts | Areas of expertise |
Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| ERCIM/W3C (coordinator) | Richard Ishida, Jessica Michel |
WWW Standards | France |
| Aalto-Korkeakoulusaatio | Timo Honkela, Matti Pöllä | Machine translation, Text mining, Machine learning | Finland |
| Bioloom Group | Jörg Schütz | Semantic technologies, Machine learning, Language technology | Germany |
| Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche | Nicoletta Calzolari Zamorani, Monica Monachini, Claudia Soria, Andrea Marchetti |
Language resources and technologies, FlaReNet | Italy |
| European Commission, Directorate-General for Translation | Spiridon Pilos, Manuel Tomás Carrasco Benitez | Institutional translation services | Luxembourg |
| Facebook Ireland | Ghassan Haddad, Chiara Pacella, Zeki Sabah |
Social networking, Localization | Ireland |
| Fachhochschule Potsdam | Felix Sasaki | Information sciences, Digital libraries | Germany |
| Institut Jozef Stefan | Marko Grobelnik, Tadej Štajner |
Machine learning, Data mining | Slovenia |
| Institutul de Cercetari Pentru Inteligenti Artificiala | Dan Tufis, Radu Ion | Computational linguistics, Multilingual web services | Romania |
| Language Technology Centre Ltd. | Adriane Rinsche, Laura Canedo, Kabilan Ganesh | Translation tools, Language services | U.K. |
| Lionbridge Belgium | Claudio Chiavetta, Eric Blassin | Language services, Translation tools | Belgium |
| Microsoft Ireland | Dag Schmidtke, Jan Nelson |
Localization, localization tools, Browser development | Ireland |
| Opera Software | Pål Eivind Jacobsen Nes, Charles McCathieNevile |
Browser development, Localization | Norway |
| SAP AG | Christian Lieske | Translation services, Content engineering | Germany |
| TAUS | Jaap van der Meer, Rahzeb Choudhury |
Translation technologies and services user community | Netherlands |
| University of Oviedo (ILTO) | Cristina Valdés Rodríguez |
Multilingual web technologies , multilingualism, usability, transaltion research | Spain |
| Universidad Politécnica de Madrid | Luis Bellido Triana, Encarna Pastor |
Multilinguism, Accessibility, Usability | Spain |
| The University of Limerick, Localisation Research Centre | Reinhard Schäler | Localization research and education | Ireland |
| University of Economics, Prague | Jiří Kosek | Markup, Electronic publishing Systems | Czech Republic |
| Transware Ltd (WeLocalize) | David Clarke | Language services, Globalization consulting | Ireland |
| XTM International | Andrzej Zydroń, Elliot Nedas, Antony Palmer | Open standards-based translation technology | U.K. |
