We believe in the power of language to change lives through our programs
Language Digitization Initiative
Strategic Plan
The Language Digitization Initiative was formed as a global program within Translation Commons to enable all languages to have equal digital capability. It is an ambitious project, built to serve any language community, no matter its size, location or social standing, with resources to achieve its desired level of digitization.
No one is more qualified to undertake this mega-project than our community of language professionals and technology experts.
Translation Commons is creating a reliable and scalable methodology of digitally rendering a language. We seek to solve the problem that under-represented languages have in participating in a global communications network. The resources can easily be utilized by non-technical users to meet the particular needs of their language.
Language Technology for Indigenous Communities
Each language in the world has a different digital footprint. Even some of the top 20 languages are not fully represented in the entire Language Technology Workflow shown below. It is a complex and multi-stakeholder journey for any language to be fully developed digitally. Without font designs and input methods, thousands of endangered languages cannot even start the journey. Without educational material, there will be limited content and without datasets, most languages will not have fully functional automation support in applications. Without properly trained linguists, knowledge will not be shared and cultural treasures will be lost.
The goal of the Language Digitization Initiative is to bring together professionals, researchers, and language communities to support the digitization of endangered, indigenous, and minority languages, and to build capacity and professional networks to help all languages have equal opportunities and digital footprint online.
It will take a global and multidisciplinary effort to bring all the languages online. But we have the solutions!
Learn more about our plan to enable all languages to be supported by digital systems.
