The SALT Cymru Report
The SALT Cymru project has now been completed. The complete report may be downloaded from the following link:
Sub-documents, part of the complete report, are also available separately.
The report's Executive Summary is reproduced below.
SALT Cymru Executive Summary
This document describes the activity undertaken by the SALT Cymru
(Speech and Language Technologies Wales) project and the key
recommendations on the establishment of a SALT Specialist Interest
Group in Wales. SALT Cymru has been funded by the KEF Knowledge
Exchange Programme, reference HE 06 KEP 1002.
Definition of SALT
For the purposes of the project, SALT (speech and language technology)
is defined as the inclusion of human language in software for
processing text, speech and knowledge. It includes, but is not limited
to the following fields: speech technology; written language input;
language analysis, understanding and translation; automatic document
processing; machine translation; multimodality; electronic language
resources and SALT evaluation.
Economic Importance of SALT sector worldwide
The project establishes that SALT deployments are increasing scales of
services, reducing costs and adding to the number of SALT-supported
languages. SALT is a significant economic sector: the worldwide market
in speech technology deployments alone is estimated to be worth $3.2
billion by 2010. In 2005 the translation market, particularly in
multilingual websites and software localization, generated $8.8 billion
in worldwide revenues. 4 of the top 20 international companies site
their HQs in London, the North of England and Ireland employing over
2300 people.
Potential for development of SALT sector in Wales
The project has discovered a significant appetite for speech and
language technologies (SALT) within Wales, both by end users and
amongst SMEs that are currently developing them or which have an
interest in doing so in future. It concludes that investment, a
building up of the knowledge base, and an increase in awareness
activities are all required in order that this sector of the economy
may capitalize on Wales's privileged position as a bilingual nation and
grow to fulfil its full potential in exploiting worldwide markets. It
outlines the framework of a specialist interest group to nurture such
growth.
The SALT knowledge base in Wales
In terms of SALT development in Wales, the knowledge base is at present
relatively small. In Welsh HEIs, it is estimated that the equivalent of
fewer than ten full-time academics work directly on SALT. Of these,
only about half are permanently contracted to do so. However, there is
also a significant amount of SALT associated development work within
Welsh academia and industry, where a number of associated SALT
developers and companies exploit SALT development together with other
technologies. Key developmental points include the growth of
multilingualism and multimodality in more complex systems as new ways
of interacting with computers.
The SALT Cymru online survey
To investigate which areas of SALT would be of greatest interest to
SMEs were they to be developed further, an online survey was set up,
suitable for users, developers and potential developers. 48
participants took part in the survey, a higher than anticipated result.
Of these 44 stated that they wished to be contacted regarding setting
up a specialist interest group in SALT in Wales. The survey
results provided a valuable insight into the SALT developed in Wales,
with most types of SALT being represented, and no specific SALT type
dominating research. Accessibility issues and the linguistic needs of a
bilingual country were highlighted, as were the improvement of
interfaces between users and objects or information, and of the
identification of what constitutes relevant information to the user,
and the meaningful categorization of information.
Further interviews and investigations
Interviews were carried out with individuals in internationally
regarded laboratories researching the state of the art in the
discipline. These interviews reflect the wide-ranging nature of SALT.
Key findings included the importance of multimodality to future
developments, and the need to nurture a knowledge base from the
earliest opportunity, i.e. in schools in addition to universities. To
further investigate the state of the art, the annual LangTech
international conference was attended, which provided a broad overview
of a wide range of SALT technologies in research and commercial
contexts. A focus group with professional translators provided further
opportunities to examine the needs of an important group of SALT users
and their specific needs and priorities.
Key SALT components
Taking the results of the survey, five key components of SALT were
examined. In developing these SALT components, a model is proposed at
encouraging development in a non-state aid environment. This involves
the use of liberal free software licenses, under which all of the five
open software frameworks are currently licensed. The nature of liberal
free software licenses means that the then commercially valuable source
code need not be released for any end products.
Report recommendations and terms of reference
This report recommends that:
1. A SALT Cymru specialist interest group (SIG) be established.
This will coordinate and inform the development of the sector in Wales
and liaise between academia and industry, and between developers and
users of the technology.
2. The SIG shall have an international watching brief for SALT.
This will bring international best practice to Wales and to promote Welsh interests globally.
3. The SIG shall work to strengthen the research base in Wales.
It will enable and coordinate funding applications, improve networking
and work towards creating a centre of excellence in SALT in Wales.
4. The SIG shall draw up a prioritized programme to develop a toolkit of basic language resources.
These utilities will be made publicly available for download by software developers in Wales.
5. The SIG shall maintain and further develop the SALT Cymru website to include a resource portal.
It will include provisions for virtual meetings, an on-line newsletter, and details of events of interest to its members.
6. The SIG shall guide a Welsh SALT education and training programme.
This
will provide a clear path from school through HEIs into industry. Use
of existing resources will be maximized, with due regard to existing
programmes such as KTP partnerships.
7. The SIG shall address the training and communication needs of its own members.
It will therefore plan a programme of regular seminars and an annual
international conference, and use existing events and channels to
promote its activities.
8. The SIG shall address evaluation and quality control issues for SALT developers.
It
will draw up recommendations for accreditation procedures and the
application of industry standards to the industry in Wales.
9. The SIG shall seek adequate funding to enable it to fulfil its terms of reference.
It will approach the Welsh Assembly Government to place the SALT SIG on a secure footing and operate efficiently.
The complete report may be downloaded from the following link:
