Lexicons, glossaries, dictionaries, terminologies here – taxonomies, classifications, nomenclatures, thesauri, ontologies, encyclopedias and wikis there - All those resources capture either language or knowledge to a varying degree. Now, Multilingual Knowledge Systems (MKS) capture both: language and knowledge. Where is the value in such a fusion of these – historically – rather separated worlds? What pain points are resolved, what gains are in reach? We will answer these questions from two points of view: 1) How do data maintainers – linguists, terminologists respectively subject matter experts and ontologists – benefit from a holistic language-knowledge inventory? 2) What is the tangible business value of an MKS? Which actual applications use an MKS? Where do users in an organisation become more efficient and effective by using MKS-enabled applications? We illustrate through several examples how representing knowledge multilingually drives global revenues and how it facilitates cross-border operations

1. @wetzelmichael
@coreonapp
Michael Wetzel, Coreon GmbH
10 July 2015, MLKRep Workshop Vienna
Driving Global Revenue through
Multilingual Knowledge Systems (MKS)

2. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
Agenda
What is an MKS?
Three Business
Cases
Challenges and
Outlook

3. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
LISE Project Research from 2011-2012:
Resources Increase, Quality Decreases
3
Oh, our classification had been built in English,
- no, I don‘t know whether there is one in
French
Searching on our intranet is a pain – I‘ve just
researched for documents containing LCD screen –
nothing found! ... Should have known that they are
all tagged with monitor.
„Manual revision of the keyword
lists are not possible any more“
(AUP, AT)
Duplicates, inconsistencies, gaps and
content coverage problems after
merging two resources (Imaging
company, UK)
„Difficulty to ensure
consistency, in terms of
quality, coverage,
completeness“ (EU
Representative)

4. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
Divide et Impera!
4
Today:
Unstructured
haystack of
concepts
Better:
Ordered scheme, a
taxonomy
Introduce control
Turn information
into knowledge

5. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
Taxonomy, thesaurus, ontology tools:
Good, but not for language needs
5
Though, very helpful
• Classifications,
nomenclatures
• Tagging in CMS
• Semantic Search
• Standards: SKOS, OWL
• Conferences: semantics,
KMWorld, SemTechBiz,
Wissensmanagementtage
Not for Language
• For trained experts only (!)
• Lexically organised
• Weak in managing
synonyms
• Weak in multilingualism
• Not for describing
terminology data

6. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
Termbases, Glossaries
• Control language
• Focus on translation
• Lack knowledge modelling
• Only searching, no exploring
Taxonomies, Thesauri
• For knowledge structuring
• Lack multilingualism
• Lack language control
Before MKS: Two Parallel Approaches to
Inventorise and Leverage Knowledge
6
Huge, unaddressed potential for cross-lingual
data analysis, enterprise search, e-discovery and
to facilitate interoperability
would boost with data
would add structure
… …
mirror base Spiegelfuß
wing mirror Außenspiegel
… …
mirror
wing
mirror
left wing
mirror
…

7. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
Unify through a Multidimensional
Repository for Knowledge and Language
7
08
45
76
35
17
1: Taxonomy: 
output
devices
visual
output
devices
screen
audio
output
devices
head-
phones

8. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
Unify through a Multidimensional
Repository for Knowledge and Language
8
3: Multilingualism: 
Synonymy
• screen • monitor
• écran
• Bildschirm• Monitor • Display
08
45
76
rejected
accepted
35
17
2: Synonymy: 1: Taxonomy:  4: Control: 9

9. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
Unify through a Multidimensional
Repository for Knowledge and Language
9
Synonymy
• screen • monitor
• écran
• Bildschirm• Monitor • Display
• visual output device
• Optisches Ausgabegerät
08
45
76
rejected
accepted
35
17
3: Multilingualism: 2: Synonymy: 1: Taxonomy:  5: Meaning: ~4: Control: 9

10. One System, One View, All Languages:
Concepts, Relations, Terms
10
Immediate broader /
narrower neighborhood
Concept meta
data
Terms and
synonyms
Extensive term
descriptors
Location in map
Alphabetic,
multilingual list

11. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
Agenda
What is an MKS?
• Fusion of terminology with taxonomy /
thesaurus models
• Captures language and knowledge
Three Business Cases
Challenges and Outlook

12. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
The Business Case for:
Terminology and Data Maintainers
What is an MKS?
• Fusion of terminology with taxonomy /
thesaurus models
• Captures language and knowledge
Three Business Cases
Challenges and Outlook
Avoid a loss of
your investment -
apply systematic
terminology work

13. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
Dangers when Ad-hoc Collecting Terms
13
Do you feel incomfortable by adding and
adding new data without a pause?
Where are the doublettes?
Did we translate some records twice?
Can we unify two larger terminology
resources?
Visualise and make above
navigatable.
Avoid noise and redundancies.
Achieve clarity and consistency.

14. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
(Re-)Gain Control through Structure
... ...
… …
… …
… …
... ...
Yesterday:
List of terms
Goal:
Visualised Multilingual Concept Map
Schule school
Oberschule secondary school
Realschule intermediate school
Gymnasium grammar school
Grundschule elementary school
Schule
school
Oberschule
secondary
school
Gymnasium
grammar
school
Realschule
intermediate
school
Grundschule
elementary
school

15. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
One Example: Quality through
Consistency across Records
15
 Lexical approach:
Inconsistencies hidden
 Concept map:
Inconsistencies transparent

16. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael 16
Benefits: Large Terminology Collections under
Control, thus Valuable
Trust
Protect
Invest-
ment
Quality
Control
Efficiency
Systematic
Approach

17. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
The Business Case for:
Cross-border Interoperability
What is an MKS?
• Fusion of terminology with taxonomy /
thesaurus models
• Captures language and knowledge
Three Business Cases
Challenges and Outlook
Harmonizing
Organisations
and their Systems

18. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
Semantic Interoperability
 “We are connecting systems”
 Vocabularies only for meta
data?
 This is rather syntactic
interoperability

19. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael 19
Problem: Cross-Border Interoperability
 Not a translation but a semantic
problem:
 Is Austria‘s Matura the same as
Germany‘s Abitur? And its
synonyms?
 What if a qualification like
Realschulabschluß doesn’t exist in
other countries?
 „Agree on that we disagree“

20. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
Creating a Unified Resource
– across Languages
20
UK SE DE
Multiple terminologies
are merged into a
unified resource.
Linguistic similarity search:
maps units that share
the same meaning.

21. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
Concept Mapping Example:
Trademark Classifications
Remote controls for diapositive projectors
Remote controls for projectors
Controls for projectors
Remote controls for slide projectors
Uses advanced linguistic search activating strict
metadata rules to assure meaning matching.

22. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
A Little Protocol: Processing such Large
Language Resources
Start
• 110,000 English terms
• Other languages ranging from 8,000 to 60,000 terms
Clean
• Reduced English to 93,000 terms
Language
coverage
• 93,000 terms in all EU languages too expensive without automation
• Therefore: Mining data for translations
• DB grew from 400,000 to 2.1m terms
Conceptual
clustering
• Non essential entries removed – DB shrunk to 1.5m terms
• Semi-automatic creation of 50,000 meaning clusters
Taxonomy
• Built for the top layers and concepts linked

23. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
Benefits: Cross-border Interoperability in
Trademark Registrations
23
• Seamless and
borderless intellectual
property registration,
opposition, and legal
processing, in all bodies
of the EU and the
member states
Organizational
Benefits
• My trademark, as it is
described in my native
language, can be
applied for globally
without changes and is
subject to the same
legislation all over the
EU
Commercial
Benefits

24. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
The Business Case for:
Digital Single Market
What is an MKS?
• Fusion of terminology with taxonomy /
thesaurus models
• Captures language and knowledge
Three Business Cases
Challenges and Outlook
Cross-lingual
semantic search
is a pre-requisite
for the European
DSM

25. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
The Vision of a Digital Single Market
“Consumers need to be able
to buy the best products
at the best prices,
wherever they are in Europe.”
Vice-President Ansip, Dec 2014
Accelerating growth through a connected Europe:
Speech at GSMA Mobile 360 conference in Brussels
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-14-2420_en.htm
25

26. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
…and the Reality
http://europa.eu/rapid/attachment/IP-15-
4653/en/Digital_Single_Market_Factsheet_20150325.pdf
26

27. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
Broken already by a Simple Search
<search string>
“Rasenmäher”
27

28. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
Language Independent Semantic Search:
Start in any Language
28
Start in any
language
Heisswasserkocher
bouilloires
hervidores

29. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
Language Independent Semantic Search:
Decompose the Query String
29
Morphological
analysis
Heiss|wasser|kocher
bouilloire|s
hervidor|es

30. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
Language Independent Semantic Search:
Iterate via “Normal Language” Synonyms
30
Morphological
analysis
Expand paradigm
through standard
synonyms
heiss
heiß
Wasser
H20
Boiler
Kocher
Erhitzer
bouilloire
hervidor

31. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
Language Independent Semantic Search:
Now Locate a Concept in the MKS
31
Morphological
analysis
Expand paradigm through
standard synonyms
Locate
concept
in MKS
heiss
heiß
Wasser
H20
Boiler
Kocher
Erhitzer
bouilloire
hervidor
Heißwasserkocher
bouilloire
hervidor

32. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
Language Independent Semantic Search:
Realize your Domain Specific Synonyms
32
Morphological
analysis
Expand paradigm through
standard synonyms
Locate concept
in MKS
Realize
weighted
domain
synonyms
Heißweisserkocher
HWK
bouilloire
théière
hervidor
Synonyms are
weighted, i.e. carry
attributes to help
disambiguating and
improve ranking

33. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
Language Independent Semantic Search:
Consider Related Concepts
33
Morphological
analysis
Expand paradigm through
standard synonyms
Locate concept
in MKS
Realize weighted
domain synonyms
Semantic
expansion
through
concept map
Samowar
“Caykolik Samowar”

34. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
Language Independent Semantic Search:
Now Match the Item in your Warehouse DB
34
Caykolik
Samowar
Successful
identification of item
in target database
Caykolik 1,5 l Samowar

35. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
Language Independent Semantic Search - Summary
From Heisswasserkocher to Caykolik 1,5l Samowar
35
Start in any
language
Heisswasserkocher
bouilloires
hervidores
Morphological
analysis
Expand paradigm through
standard synonyms
Locate concept
in MKS
Realize weighted
domain synonyms
Semantic expansion
through concept map
Caykolik 1,5 l Samowar
Successful
identification of item
in target database

36. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
MKS – Indispensable for Processing
Multilingual Data
Insights & Sense & Sentiment
Language Detection
NLP/Tokenization
ML
TextAnalytics
Search
MT
Provenance
Multilingual
Knowledge
System

37. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael 37
Benefits: Enable the Digital Single Market
 Find items
 with any word
 in any spelling
 in any language
 Find even related relevant items
through concept map
(“Did you mean …?”)
 Have more first-time purchasers
 Increase international business
 Increase e-sales
 Happy audience

38. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
Agenda
What is an MKS?
• Fusion of terminology with taxonomy
• Captures language and knowledge
Three Business Cases
• Systematic terminology
• Cross-border Interoperability
• Enable European Digital Single Market
Challenges and Outlook

39. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael 39
Mountains still to Climb
 MKS is not yet an established
software category
 Often embedded in “larger”
solutions
 Need to raise awareness of the
problem
 How to measure and monetize
the problem?
 Overlapping standards: OWL –
SKOS – TBX – LEMON …

40. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
Enterprise
Search
Social Media
Analysis
Document
Classification
Inter-
operability
Staff Training
Globalisation
Multilingual Knowledge System Plays
Key Role in many Business Processes

41. 10-07-2015 Driving Global Revenue through Multilingual Knowledge Systems @wetzelmichael
A fusion of terminology with taxonomy / thesaurus,
to capture language with knowledge in a holistic way
Drives global revenue by improving both top lines
and bottom lines
Huge potential in various business processes,
industries and segments
41
Three Statements to Remember

42. Michael Wetzel
m michael@coreon.com
s mlwetzel
t @wetzelmichael
l Berlin-Mitte
Thank You
42