This document discusses Prompsit, a company that provides machine translation services using the open-source Apertium platform. Prompsit was spun off from the Transducens group at the University of Alicante in Spain. It aims to make multilingualism accessible to all users, budgets, and languages by offering innovative services based on free/open-source software rather than traditional "black-box" products. The document outlines Prompsit's business model and participation in programs like Google Summer of Code to expand the Apertium platform.

1. OSWC 2012 - Granada - Spain 1
Prompsit: free linguistic
technologies for translation
Gema Ramírez Sánchez
Prompsit Language Engineering
Campus UMH. Quorum III building
Avinguda de la Universitat s/n
03202, Elx (Alacant) Spain

2. OSWC 2012 - Granada - Spain 2
Prompsit in brief
 Prompsit: spin-off fromTransducens group (UA)
 Area: machine translation + open source
 Technology: the FOSS Apertium platform
 Business model: innovative services vs. black-
boxed traditional products
 Team: computer + linguists
 Aim: multilingualism = reality within reach for all
users, budgets and languages

3. OSWC 2012 - Granada - Spain 3
Motivation
 Take advantage of the know-how created in the
Transducens group over 6 years
 Commercialise services around the Apertium
open source machine translation platform
 Revolutionise the translation and language
technologies market according to the
collaborative development model powered by
free software

4. OSWC 2012 - Granada - Spain 4
But, is machine translation useful?
 Yes, of course it is
 Although some instruction manuals are not
good examples
 Useful to understand a text
 Useful to obtain a draft useful for publication
(after a compulsory revision)
 There is so much content to be translated and it
could be so efficiently managed with the aid of
technologies!!

5. OSWC 2012 - Granada - Spain 5
The Apertium platform
 Translation engine, tools and data
for language pairs: EVERYTHING
is GPL
 More than 28 language pairs already running
(more on the way!!)
 A world-wide developers community
 Fast, based on standards, modular, 100%
customisable

6. OSWC 2012 - Granada - Spain 6
Apertium@Google Summer of Code
 Three consecutive years participating in
Google Summer of Code programme
 9 participants by year
 Two consecutive years participating in the
Google Code-In programme
 150 tasks by year

7. OSWC 2012 - Granada - Spain 7
Apertium-based Prompsit's services
 Translation servers for corporate environments
 Adaptation to particular domains (Tourism) or
language variants (Portuguese of Brazil)
 New language pairs (Spanish-Slovenian)
 Development of plugins, new modules and
auxiliary tools for Apertium
 Consulting and training in language
technologies and free software

8. OSWC 2012 - Granada - Spain 8
Distinguishing features
 Customisation vs. black boxes
 Trust vs. technological dependency
 Open platform, focus in minority languages
 Generation of opportunities for companies,
individuals and researchers
 “Work as a network” model
 Upgrade maintenance

9. Success case studies
DG-T
European Commission

10. OSWC 2012 - Granada - Spain 10
Prompsit: free linguistic
technologies for translation
Visit us: www.prompsit.com
Write to us: gramirez@prompsit.com
Follow us: http://twitter.com/prompsit