[JDEV] Worldwide Lexicon project, updated specs online

[Brian McConnell]

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 brian at mcconnell.net

Best regards,

Brian McConnell, Project Leader
Worldwide Lexicon Initiative