Hello, I am writing to inform you about an update to the worldwide lexicon project (www.worldwidelexicon.org). The purpose of the WWL project is to create a GNUtella-like network of dictionary and translation services, and to enable client applications (such as IM s/w) to locate and query these resources on the fly. WWL does this by defining a standard CGI interface that can be implemented in a wide range of environments, including lightweight web scripting languages.
Client applications simply query WWL services via a standard URL format (e.g. www.foo.bar/wwltranslate.asp?sl=en&tl=ru&stext=hello), and wait for a loosely formatted XML document or code fragment in response. One of the obvious applications for this system will be to upgrade chat clients so that they can talk to dictionaries and translation servers via this interface. This capability can be implemented in two ways: 1) word/phrase based translation for people with basic knowledge of a foreign language, 2) completely automated machine translation (via services like babelfish). In the first example, a user who has a working knowledge of spanish would use a chat client that queries an english-spanish dictionary as needed to help translate individual words and phrases. This is an example of computer assisted translation, though the machine does not attempt to translate an entire sentence. In the second example, a user who has no knowledge of a foreign language would use a chat client that uses WWL to send complete texts to a machine translation server that replies with translated text. Of course, such a system is more error prone, and can only provide a "gisted" translation, but this is better than nothing. In both cases, the chat client can be rather dumb. It simply queries one or more WWL servers via a standard interface to obtain the information it needs. Thus, the client does not need to know anything about what the WWL server is doing internally. I am interested in recruiting Jabber developers to create IM clients that can utilize WWL dictionary and machine translation resources. If you would like to contribute to this project, visit us online at www.worldwidelexicon.org (the latest version of the client/server spec is posted there), or email me at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Best regards, Brian McConnell, Project Leader Worldwide Lexicon Initiative _______________________________________________ jdev mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman.jabber.org/listinfo/jdev
