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Skyping in Babylon: Worldwide Lexicon Project

Posted by Phil Wolff on September 15, 2007 01:07 AM |

Skype makes me so aware of my minimal foreign language skills. So I'm excited about tools that help me compensate. The first I want to mention is the Worldwide Lexicon Project. Brian McConnell's essay, The End Of The Language Barrier, starts:

The language barrier, as we know it, will be gone by 2010. Computer scientists have been chasing a Holy Grail of machine intelligence for decades, but the breakthrough that will eliminate the language barrier is social, not technical.

Like Wikipedia, the WLP harnesses collective goodwill and self-interest. In this case, the multilingual translate web pages. Because they have the power, they choose what is translation-worthy.

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Comments

Have we not already seen this pattern in the evolution of Skype to support so many languages? From further along in Brian's post:

The language barrier will be broken down in a series of simple steps. The first phase of this transition will be driven by publishers with large or highly motivated audiences. These early adopters will recognize the value of making their content visible in many languages, and their readers will be happy to contribute. Each website will develop its own translation community from its audience.

Posted by: Jim Courtney | September 16, 2007 03:36 AM

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