Epeus' epigone

Edifying exquisite equine entrapments

Friday, 7 January 2005

Semantics in translation

Finding translations of foreign writing can be tricky.
Tim Oren writes a requirements list:
[...]a small and pragmatic first step towards the inter-language blogosphere I've been writing about recently. Specifically, the idea of an RSS tag or something of the sort that would denote posts saying the same thing in different tongues, and be bait for aggregators and crawlers interested in that information.
This set off my semantic XHTML radar. Surely we can express this with a rel attribute on a link?
A quick rummage finds me existing specification text at w3c:
Alternate
Designates substitute versions for the document in which the link occurs. When used together with the lang attribute, it implies a translated version of the document.

Lets see how this fits in with Tim's list:
Quicky Requirements
  • Need both TRANSLATES and TRANSLATED-BY flavors. Since the former can be spoofed, the latter form embedded in the original doc will have more credibility.
Bidirectional links can affirm an authoritative translation, as in XFN's me attribute. We could perhaps add a original and translation values for rel if we define a new profile.
  • Need Source and Target URLs. Should be able to point at whole docs or tagged spans (posts) within docs. Arbitrary linkage problematic due to limits of good ol' HTML.
The rel does this, with an implicit reference to the document you are reading. If you want subsections a <blockquote cite="..."> could be used.
  • Source and Target languages, in ISO-639.2
The lang does this, in the head of the document you are reading, and as an attribute on the link.
  • Translation type: Manual, Automatic. More flavors?
  • Translation authority: Who or what did it. What existing designators can be coopted?
  • Translation time and date stamp, and perhaps an MD-5 hash of the original. This is a placeholder for the whole versioning can o' worms. If the original is edited or updated, we have a state consistency problem...
These belong as metadata in the translated document, probably as explicit human readable text. The XOXO definition list model might be useful here.
  • Should do something useful in contemporary browsers, shouldn't be relying on having RSS readers/aggregators available in all target languages
Well, exactly. That is the whole point of semantic XHTML. You can deploy all this today. Please do!
Posted by Kevin Marks at 13:12

No comments:

Post a Comment

Newer Post Older Post Home
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

This is my personal blog. Any views you read here are mine, and not my employers'.

Atom Feed

Support the Open Rights Group
My photoKevin Marks Me on Twitter
Me on G+

People's thoughts I read:

Daily

Rosie
San Jose Young People's Theatre
Dave Weinberger
Doc Searls
Gonzo Engaged
AKMA
Cory & friends
Denise Howell
Charles Wiltgen
Shelley Powers
James Lileks
Suw Charman
Halley Suitt

Weekly

Andrew Marks
Blogsisters
Arts & Letters Daily
Bricklin, Frankston & Reed
Steve Yost
Jeneane Sessum
Brian Micklethwait et al
Tom Matrullo
Gary Turner

Sporadically

Small Pieces
Stuart Cheshire
RageBoy
Nonzero
Neil Gaiman
Thomas Vincent
Brad deLong
Andrew Odlyzko
ProSUA

No to Mickey Mouse Computers

powered by blogger

Blog Archive

  • ►  2017 (2)
    • ►  May (1)
    • ►  April (1)
  • ►  2015 (7)
    • ►  November (2)
    • ►  May (3)
    • ►  April (1)
    • ►  January (1)
  • ►  2014 (3)
    • ►  October (1)
    • ►  April (2)
  • ►  2013 (5)
    • ►  June (1)
    • ►  May (1)
    • ►  April (2)
    • ►  March (1)
  • ►  2012 (8)
    • ►  December (1)
    • ►  May (1)
    • ►  April (1)
    • ►  March (1)
    • ►  January (4)
  • ►  2011 (11)
    • ►  December (1)
    • ►  November (1)
    • ►  September (2)
    • ►  August (2)
    • ►  July (1)
    • ►  April (2)
    • ►  January (2)
  • ►  2010 (16)
    • ►  November (1)
    • ►  October (1)
    • ►  September (3)
    • ►  June (1)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ►  April (2)
    • ►  March (2)
    • ►  February (2)
    • ►  January (2)
  • ►  2009 (22)
    • ►  November (2)
    • ►  October (2)
    • ►  September (2)
    • ►  August (3)
    • ►  July (2)
    • ►  June (2)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ►  April (1)
    • ►  February (2)
    • ►  January (4)
  • ►  2008 (29)
    • ►  December (2)
    • ►  November (3)
    • ►  August (1)
    • ►  July (3)
    • ►  June (3)
    • ►  May (5)
    • ►  April (2)
    • ►  February (3)
    • ►  January (7)
  • ►  2007 (45)
    • ►  November (3)
    • ►  October (4)
    • ►  September (4)
    • ►  August (10)
    • ►  July (3)
    • ►  June (8)
    • ►  April (2)
    • ►  March (6)
    • ►  February (3)
    • ►  January (2)
  • ►  2006 (119)
    • ►  December (13)
    • ►  November (8)
    • ►  October (16)
    • ►  September (10)
    • ►  August (3)
    • ►  July (6)
    • ►  June (24)
    • ►  May (3)
    • ►  April (10)
    • ►  March (7)
    • ►  February (8)
    • ►  January (11)
  • ▼  2005 (101)
    • ►  December (10)
    • ►  November (13)
    • ►  October (9)
    • ►  September (8)
    • ►  August (7)
    • ►  July (7)
    • ►  June (8)
    • ►  May (12)
    • ►  April (7)
    • ►  March (6)
    • ►  February (1)
    • ▼  January (13)
      • Links and Votes
      • Tagging is for posts
      • Why not sell News?
      • Welcome, Google. Seriously.
      • Tag spec published
      • Clarifying tags
      • Can I have an inclusive?
      • Silly names department
      • Technorati developers contest winners
      • Gillmor gets Hayekian
      • Semantics in translation
      • Online maps for cyclists and pedestrians
      • A strange view of reality
  • ►  2004 (53)
    • ►  December (8)
    • ►  November (5)
    • ►  October (6)
    • ►  September (7)
    • ►  July (5)
    • ►  June (3)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ►  March (3)
    • ►  February (7)
    • ►  January (7)
  • ►  2003 (196)
    • ►  December (12)
    • ►  November (14)
    • ►  October (21)
    • ►  September (23)
    • ►  August (19)
    • ►  July (11)
    • ►  June (14)
    • ►  May (9)
    • ►  April (22)
    • ►  March (20)
    • ►  February (16)
    • ►  January (15)
  • ►  2002 (225)
    • ►  December (15)
    • ►  November (21)
    • ►  October (22)
    • ►  September (12)
    • ►  August (11)
    • ►  July (28)
    • ►  June (19)
    • ►  May (29)
    • ►  April (18)
    • ►  March (19)
    • ►  February (17)
    • ►  January (14)
  • ►  2001 (13)
    • ►  December (2)
    • ►  November (11)

About Me

My photo
Kevin Marks
Kevin Marks works on IndieWeb and open web tech. From 2011 to 2013 he was VP of Open Cloud Standards at Salesforce. From 2009 to 2010 he was VP of Web Services at BT. From 2007 to 2009, he worked at Google on OpenSocial. From 2003 to 2007 he was Principal Engineer at Technorati responsible for the spiders that make sense of the web and track millions of blogs daily. He has been inventing and innovating for over 25 years in emerging technologies where people, media and computers meet. Before joining Technorati, Kevin spent 5 years in the QuickTime Engineering team at Apple, building video capture and live streaming into OS X. He was a founder of The Multimedia Corporation in the UK, where he served as Production Manager and Executive Producer, shipping million-selling products and winning International awards. He has a Masters degree in Physics from Cambridge University and is a BBC-qualified Video Engineer. One of the driving forces behind microformats.org, he regularly speaks at conferences and symposia on emergent net technologies and their cultural impact.
View my complete profile