EUROMAP - The Language of Tomorrow’s Information
by Cinzia Giachetti
EUROMAP is a European Com-mission-supported project dedicated
to promoting greater awareness of language technology in the emerging
Information and Communication Society. From the summer of 1998
to the spring of 1999, the EUROMAP network will be carrying out
a comprehensive information campaign in Europe. The goal is to
help researchers, developers, suppliers and users of language
technology to prepare for the forthcoming European Commission’s
new Framework Programme for Research and Development.
This wide-ranging research and technology development agenda will
provide significant funding opportunities for innovative new projects
in language technology over the next four years. EUROMAP’s task
is to ensure that the right technology partners come together
to propose the most innovative and effective projects.
Language Technology: New Market Opportunities
Language technology opens a new chapter in the history of our
Information Society. It can enrich our digital environment with
many of the natural expressive functions of human language, that
have so far been lacking in human-machine interaction. By combining
computing power with the depth and flexibility of human language
processing, language technology applications and services can
radically improve the efficiency and user-friendliness of our
information and communication tasks, covering business and leisure
activities, government and education, services and life at home.
Here are some typical applications of language technology today:
- automatic translation services that can be called up from a web
site
- dictation systems that automatically transcribe lawyers’ spoken
notes
- search engines with language intelligence to filter right first
time information from multilingual document bases
- speaking screens that allow visually-impaired users to work at
standard knowledge tasks
- multilingual electronic dictionaries to help readers working a
second-language.
As language technology integrates into the computing and telecommunications
fabric, it is creating a market for specialised products and services.
One of EUROMAP’s key tasks is to monitor this new potential and
help language technology researchers, suppliers and users make
the most of the opportunities it offers.
Leveraging EUROMAP’s Research Findings
During 1996 to 1997, EUROMAP made a thorough survey of the active
players in European language technology, collecting details on
the policy-makers, research and development laboratories, product
and service suppliers and, to a certain extent, users. The research
covered 17 countries, from Iceland to Greece and Ireland to Austria.
Today, EUROMAP is using this in-depth knowledge of the language
technology terrain by ensuring that each national community concerned
with the research, development and production of language technology
is fully aware of the issues, the potential, and above all the
upcoming support for language technology within European development.
EUROMAP’s Awareness Actions
The EUROMAP network will carry out a broad range of awareness
actions designed to inform interested parties about the progress
and potential of language technology in their country and across
the Union.
Over the next year, these actions will gradually focus on the
specific requirements that language technology researchers, developers
and suppliers will need to meet to benefit from funding made available
under the EC Fifth Framework Programme.
In each country, the local EUROMAP office will:
- offer a unique language technology helpdesk providing full information
on the active local language technology community - R&D, suppliers,
policy makers, and in some cases users
- publish information about language technology projects supported
by the European Commission, including findings and their implications
- organise workshops and seminars devoted to the potential for language
technology across the digital economy, in telebusiness, online
publishing, business processes, learning environments, human-machine
interaction and the networked information society as a whole
- provide EC Framework Programme information and tutorials to potential
partners in language technology projects organised within this
new European R&D effort
- provide a partner-search facility to help researchers, developers,
suppliers and/or users who wish to participate in cross-border
projects in Europe.
The EUROMAP Network
EUROMAP is a network with 17 local nodes - known as National Focal
Points (NFPs) - one in each of the national language communities
within the European Union, and including Iceland and Norway. Each
NFP is experienced in technology transfer support, and is responsible
for carrying out the communication actions for promoting language
technology awareness in its country. More information is available
on the EUROMAP website at http://www.cpr.it/euromap
Please contact:
Cinzia Giachetti - Italian National Focal Point, Consorzio Pisa
Ricerche
Tel: +39 050 972365
E-mail: euromap@cpr.it
