While We Wait for the
Babel Fish Stephanie Booth

Human? Internet <ul><ul><li>Languages </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>in the
human world </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>on the internet </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Is it a fit? </li></ul></ul>

Multilingual Humans <ul><ul><li>Who is multilingual?
</li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>more multilinguals than monolinguals </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Being human among humans means living in a state of ever incomplete multilingualism. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Mario Wandruszka </li></ul></ul>

What are my languages? <ul><ul><li>know
/ don't know (too binary) </li></ul></ul>Know? Speak? Read? Write? Read a book? A newspaper article? Have a conversation? Write a letter? Write a book? Give a talk?

Internet: Space Cruncher <ul><ul><li>Freedom from
spatial constraints </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>more intercultural contact </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>change of initial obstacle: </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>space language </li></ul></ul>

Linguistic Borders <ul><ul><li>Online, the strongest
borders are linguistic. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Some multilingual people act as bridges. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>How could our tools assist them in their task? </li></ul></ul>

Monolingual Silos <ul><ul><li>But the internet
is multilingual! </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>multilingual community </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li><> </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>multilingual people </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>multiple monolingual spaces </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>mixing languages </li></ul></ul>

L10n advice for Tool Builders
<ul><ul><li>localise early, localise smart </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>plan non-EN from the start (not an afterthought) </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>language != country </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>regional variations (fr-fr, fr-ch, fr-qc...) </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>crowdsource </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>in-house « linguist » </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>smart user language detection </li></ul></ul>

Detecting User Language <ul><ul><li>Specified by:
</li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>profile (tool-side) </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>browser preferences </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>OS/browser language </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>geographical location </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>one language? n languages? </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>priority? </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>how proficient? </li></ul></ul>

Misconceptions <ul><ul><li>But everybody speaks English!
</li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>country = language </li></ul></ul>

Geographical Abuse <ul><ul><li>IP => country
=> language, right? </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Guilty: PayPal, Amazon, eBay, Google </li></ul></ul>country != language bad localisation

Countries can be important <ul><li>for
language: one factor amongst several </li></ul><ul><li>for laws: very important </li></ul><ul><li>taxes & censorship </li></ul><ul><li>Examples: </li></ul><ul><li>- shipping </li></ul><ul><li>- porn </li></ul>

L10n Insufficient <ul><li>Localisation: </li></ul><ul><li>translation of
the interface into another language </li></ul><ul><li>monolingual in various languages </li></ul><ul><li>« Multilingualisation »: (yes, it's ugly) </li></ul><ul><li>mixing languages </li></ul><ul><li>manages code-switching </li></ul><ul><li>different language combinations </li></ul>

Blogging Tools: WordPress <ul><li>well localised
</li></ul><ul><li>language is a blog-level attribute </li></ul><ul><li>assumes you blog in one language </li></ul><ul><li>no in-built strategies for mixing languages </li></ul><ul><li>=> 1 blog per language </li></ul><ul><li>a solution: other-language excerpts </li></ul><ul><li>translation is too hard </li></ul><ul><li>keeps mono&multi audience quite happy </li></ul><ul><li>keeps the bridge-blogger very happy </li></ul>

Presence Tools: Twitter <ul><li>not localised
=> adoption issue </li></ul><ul><li>non-EN communities present </li></ul><ul><li>language filtering? </li></ul><ul><li>language detection? </li></ul>

The Multilingual Challenge <ul><li>Making a
space both: </li></ul><ul><li>multilingual-friendly </li></ul><ul><li>monolingual-friendly </li></ul><ul><li>How do we keep everybody happy? </li></ul><ul><li>different language combinations </li></ul><ul><li>different language skills </li></ul><ul><li>No solution is perfect for everybody. </li></ul>

Going Multilingual a strategic and
technical problem <ul><li>Strategic </li></ul><ul><li>how do we allow languages to mix? </li></ul><ul><li>what do we translate? </li></ul><ul><li>what do we show people? </li></ul><ul><li>how do people define their language skills? </li></ul><ul><li>Technical </li></ul><ul><li>design </li></ul><ul><li>encoding </li></ul><ul><li>lang, hreflang (HTML) </li></ul><ul><li>language detection </li></ul><ul><li>automated translation </li></ul>Remember. Most people are multilingual.

Bonne route ! <ul><li>Flickr Photo
Credits </li></ul><ul><li>romerican </li></ul><ul><li>Paco CT </li></ul><ul><li>Antoon Kuper </li></ul><ul><li>Hobvias Sudoneighm </li></ul><ul><li>Grant MacDonald </li></ul><ul><li>Zoom Zoom </li></ul><ul><li>A JC </li></ul><ul><li>Claude Covo-Farchi </li></ul><ul><li>Stephanie Booth </li></ul><ul><li>Lausanne, Switzerland </li></ul><ul><li>http://climbtothestars.org </li></ul><ul><li>[email_address] </li></ul><ul><li>Skype: steph-booth </li></ul>reboot9, 31.05-01.06.2007 Copenhagen