The document outlines the objectives and initiatives of META-NET, a network focused on supporting language technology for a multilingual Europe. It highlights the challenges of preserving linguistic diversity in the digital age, the open resource-sharing platform called META-SHARE, and the importance of collaboration among stakeholders. Additionally, it discusses various projects, campaigns, and the strategic research agenda aimed at enhancing language technology across Europe.

1. Language Technology for
Multilingual Europe
Georg Rehm
Network Manager META-NET
German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Germany
georg.rehm@dfki.de
EFNIL 10th Annual Conference – Budapest, Hungary
October 25, 2012
Co-funded by the 7th Framework Programme and the ICT Policy Support Programme of the European Commission through
the contracts T4ME, CESAR, METANET4U, META-NORD (grant agreements no. 249119, 271022, 270893, 270899).

2. Multilingual Europe
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Challenge: to provide each language community with the most
advanced technologies for communication and information so that
maintaining their mother tongue does not turn into a disadvantage.
All stakeholders – researchers, LT user and provider industries,
language communities, funding programmes, policy makers –
should team up for a major dedicated push.
META-NET is a network of excellence dedicated to
fostering the technological foundations of the European
multilingual information society.
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META-NET in October 2012: 60 members in 34 countries.
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Supported through a total of four EU-funded projects.
http://www.meta-net.eu
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3. META-SHARE
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Open exchange infrastructure for language resources and tools.
Language resources and tools are documented, uploaded, stored in
repositories, catalogued, can be downloaded, shared, discussed.
Improve their visibility,
documentation, availability,
preservation, interoperability.
Goal: boost research,
technology and innovation
through pooling, openness
and sharing of resources.
1.300+ LRs available in
13 repositories.
http://www.meta-share.eu
http://www.meta-net.eu
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4. Language White Papers
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Reports on the state of our languages in
the digital age and the level of support
through language technology.
Series covers 30 languages.
Communication instruments to address
decision makers and journalists.
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>2 years in the making.
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>200 national experts as contributors.
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>8.000 copies printed and distributed
to politicians and journalists.
http://www.meta-net.eu
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5. Text Analysis
MT
excellent
good
English
excellent
fragmentary
weak or no support
French, Spanish
Catalan, Dutch,
German, Hungarian,
Italian, Polish,
Romanian
Basque, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Estonian,
Finnish, Galician, Greek, Icelandic, Irish, Latvian,
Lithuanian, Maltese, Norwegian, Portuguese, Serbian,
Slovak, Slovene, Swedish
good
moderate
fragmentary
weak or no support
English
Dutch, French,
German, Italian,
Spanish
Basque, Bulgarian, Catalan, Czech,
Danish, Finnish, Galician, Greek,
Hungarian, Norwegian, Polish,
Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene,
Swedish
Croatian, Estonian,
Icelandic, Irish, Latvian,
Lithuanian, Maltese,
Serbian
good
excellent
moderate
fragmentary
weak or no support
English
Speech
excellent
Resources
moderate
Czech, Dutch, Finnish,
French, German, Italian,
Portuguese, Spanish
Basque, Bulgarian, Catalan,
Danish, Estonian, Galician,
Greek, Hungarian, Irish,
Norwegian, Polish, Serbian,
Slovak, Slovene, Swedish
Croatian, Icelandic,
Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese,
Romanian
good
moderate
fragmentary
weak/no support
English
Czech, Dutch, French,
German, Hungarian, Italian,
Polish, Spanish, Swedish
Basque, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian,
Danish, Estonian, Finnish, Galician,
Greek, Norwegian, Portuguese,
Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene
Icelandic, Irish,
Latvian, Lithuanian,
Maltese
http://www.meta-net.eu
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6. White Paper Press Campaign
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Headline of press release:
At Least 21 European Languages in Danger of Digital Extinction.
Good News and Bad News on the European Day of Languages.
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Sent out to journalists, politicians and other stakeholder groups
before the European Day of Languages (September 26).
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Overwhelmed by the huge interest in the topic and our key findings!
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470+ mentions in the online and traditional press.
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40+ interviews with META-NET representatives (television, radio).
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News came in from 41 countries in 35 different languages.
http://www.meta-net.eu
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7. Response: Examples
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Austria:
Denmark:
Finland:
Germany:
Greece:
Iceland:
Italy:
Norway:
Slovenia:
Spain:
UK:
USA:
http://www.meta-net.eu
Der Standard.
Politiken, Berlingske Tidende.
Tiede.
Heise Newsticker, Süddeutsche Zeitung.
in.gr, Πρώτο Θέµα, Prosilipsis.
Fréttablaðið, Morgunblaðið.
Wired.
Computerworld.
Delo, Dnevnik, Demokracija.
El Mundo.
Huffington Post.
Mashable, NBC News, Reddit.
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8. Website: Visitors Overview
began sending European Day
out press release of Languages
unusually
high traffic
http://www.meta-net.eu
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9. Website: Visitors’ Cities
City with the most
visits: Brussels!
http://www.meta-net.eu
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10. Strategic Research Agenda
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META-NET Strategic Research Agenda
for Multilingual Europe 2020.
Three priority research themes and
application/innovation scenarios.
Can put Europe ahead of its competitors
in this technology area.
Addresses the problems we found when
preparing the white papers.
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180+ contributors (research, industry).
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Final version to be ready in Nov. 2012.
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SRA will be presented to the EC and
national bodies.
http://www.meta-net.eu
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11. Strategic Research Agenda
http://www.meta-net.eu
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12. Recent News – Next Steps
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META-SHARE Version 3.0 released in September 2012.
Incoming resources from many EU-funded projects (40+ CAs).
Launch event in January 2013.
META-TRUST AISBL is an international non-profit organisation,
founded on September 12, 2012: http://www.meta-trust.eu.
Legal person of META-NET.
Strategic Research Agenda press campaign, focus on social media
(videos, infographics etc.).
Meet with national research planners, funders, policy makers and
inform them about the Strategic Research Agenda.
Data Liberation campaign.
http://www.meta-net.eu
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13. Data Liberation Campaign
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Many valuable resources, among others, at the National Institutions
for Language, are not available for research.
We know that you’d like to free up the data sets that you’ve worked
on so hard and to make them available for research purposes.
Many reasons:
§ Situation in Europe is bad (White Paper Series; press campaign impact).
§ Google, Facebook and others are overtaking us left, right and centre.
§ Two options: either declare defeat or do something about it.
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We want to help you liberate your data sets.
Next week you’ll receive a letter from us with further information.
http://www.meta-net.eu
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14. Thank you very much!
office@meta-net.eu
http://www.meta-net.eu
http://www.facebook.com/META.Alliance
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