Opening of the First International Workshop on Natural Language Processing: Using Universal Networking Language (UNL)
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Alexandria—
The First International Workshop on Natural Language Processing: Using Universal Networking Language (UNL), organized by the BA and the United Nations, was opened on Saturday, 5 May 2007.
At the outset of the opening ceremony, Dr. Ismail Serageldin, Director of the Library of Alexandria, welcomed all the participants and praised the support of Alexandria University to the BA in this ambitious project. Dr. Ashraf Farag, spoke on behalf of Dr. Hassan Nadir, President of Alexandria University, and expressed his admiration of the project, launched by the UN, to create a universal language linking all peoples of the world, without infringing on the cultural identity of each country, to face the dominance of one language over the internet.
He added that the universal language is an artificial language for computers that attempts to replicate the functions of natural language in human communication.
Mr. Tarcisio Della Senta, President and CEO, Universal Networking Digital Language Foundation, Switzerland, started his talk by praising the work of the University of Alexandria, and the BA in this project. He also much-admired Dr. Serageldin's endeavors, which gave real impetus to the project. Mr. Della Senta called for generally promoting the use of computers. He added that computers help in promoting communication between nations, and removing barriers caused by different languages. The differences that arise between people are usually due to failure in accessing information in languages other than our native language. Computers should be our friends, should know our language, and that is the purpose of the UNL.
Dr. Abdel Aziz Abid, Senior Program Specialist, Information Society Division, UNESCO, gave a PowerPoint presentation of the latest projects undertaken by the UNESCO. He stated that information technology plays a crucial role in the world, and serves as a communication medium creating a special world via the internet. He said that the UNL fights the trend of a language dominating over thousands of languages, and added that according to latest statistics there are only 12 languages used in the internet out of 6 thousands languages in the world.
Dr. Kotchetkov, spoke on behalf of Mustafa El-Tayeb, Director, Division for Science Policy and Sustainable Development Natural Sciences Sector, UNESCO, and Darwish Al-Gobaisi, Editor-in-Chief, Encyclopedia of Life-Support Systems (EOLSS), UNESCO. He said that the project achieved unprecedented results, and that this database reflects the joint international endeavors under the auspices of the UNESCO. He added that the Encyclopedia is not a dictionary, as people might think, it contains articles and essays by international experts, which can be thought of as a collection of encyclopedias.
On the Encyclopedia, Dr. Kotchetkov explained that more than 7026 experts participated in the project, of which 1292 are Americans and Russians, and 17 are Egyptians. The encyclopedia is an attempt to gather all the knowledge of the world and not only of developed countries. He announced that free access to the encyclopedia's website will be given to universities, institutions, and libraries, including the BA.
Concluding the opening ceremony, Dr. Seragedin gave an address on the history of the UNL program, stating that in 2003 a group of experts met to promote and develop this program, and that now and after a thousand days, they meet again to discuss what has been achieved. He added that the dream of an accurate translation resulting from automated translation programs is about to be realized, the dream is worth our endeavors. He said that many cultures and languages are now in conflict, and our dream is to create a language serving as a tool promoting dialogue among civilizations.
Dr. Seragedlin said that languages become enriched when integrated with another, and that today we celebrate our achievements and present the obstacles and problems that faced the project, so that we can overcome them. On the obstacles facing the project, Dr. Serageldin said that ambiguity is one of the main barriers, language is a means of communication, but sometimes it can be ambiguous and complicated. Spoken language gives multiple meanings for the same word, and some languages use sarcasm, which might change the meaning, and that is why an accurate translation of the meaning is required, which is one of the main barriers facing automated translation.
Dr. Serageldin said that computers can provide a solution through language analysis, on the level of sentences and texts, and that new techniques are required to eliminate linguistic ambiguity.
He added that the Library is proud to have a copy of the internet archive, which is a new pattern of digital libraries. The Ancient Library stored the world's history in papyri scrolls, the new Library will save the digital memory of the world through the internet archive.
It is worth mentioning that the workshop comes under the theme “Breaking Down Language Barriers”. The goal of this workshop is to provide a forum for linguists and IT professionals to exchange comprehensive views on the recent development and progress in natural language processing technology. It creates an appropriate environment for all UNL language centers world wide to exchange ideas, experiences, and in depth knowledge about the Universal Networking Language program and to discuss obstacles faced during the development phases.