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at measuring the linguistic diversity in the Internet are being undermined by
the almost infinite size of the web as well as by the evolution of search engines.
Accordingly, no reliable indicators have been produced since 2007, when the
Language Observatory Project (LOP) 6 and Funredes/ Union Latina, the two
most visible actors in producing indicators, published their most recent results.
In this context, and starting from the fact that it is hardly possible to formulate
policies in any field without a clear vision of the situation, only obtained from
reliable and frequently produced indicators, it is urgent to mobilize existing
actors and to encourage new ones to engage in an ambitious, serious and
collective research effort of building indicators for linguistic diversity in
the Digital World. This effort should both build on existing approaches and
explore new methods rather than those involving a static vision of supplied
linguistic resources, thus also informing on the demand side (user behavior).
DILINET will also introduce the first attempt to measure automatically
content characteristics while recognizing languages and use conceptual maps
and visual analytics to extract meaning to statistical data on languages in the
digital world.
Project Description
In response to this context, the DILINET project aims to develop a set of
methods for producing indicators of linguistic diversity on the Internet which
will therefore support informed public policies in all fields related to the
Information Society, at national and global level.
DILINET will adopt an exploratory research approach, taking into account
existing measuring methods and adding innovative approaches, including
users-based measuring systems. To overcome the limitations created by the size
of the Web, the project will develop crawling optimization methods based on
non sequential mathematical or statistical approaches and use both distributed
and super computing resources while opening new avenues such as recognition
techniques for voice or automatic content characterization.
Given the transversal relevance of the theme, the project will devote effort
in engaging all the relevant stakeholders from the policy field (at regional,
national, European and international level) and from the research field (both
with public and private background). Specific attention will be paid to raising
awareness and disseminating project results among users’ communities and
organizations working in the sphere of linguistic technologies.
6
Language Observatory Project — http://www.language-observatory.org/. See reference [4].
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