The Mloovi Blog

Mloovi speaking at next09 conference

We’ve been invited to speak at the next09 conference in Hamburg on May 5-6. This year’s conference theme is Share Economy – “The more we share our success with others, the more we profit ourselves. This applies to humans as well as brands.”

next09 is the latest in a successful sequence of networking and trend conferences, bringing together leading decision makers and media information personnel. Mloovi supremo, Mike Robinson, is scheduled to deliver a start-up presentation during the conference, and he’ll try to explain why Mloovi is important to the notion of the Share Economy. He’ll also use the opportunity to explain Mloovi’s history as a recent start-up.

If you have any ideas about Mloovi and the Share Economy, then please *share* them with us. Part of the ethos of the Share Economy is central to the workings of Web2.0: crowd participation! Leave a comment here, and any useful points will be raised during our short presentation.

Tickets for this important conference are available from here.

Tags: Martin Weitzman, Mloovi, next conference, next06, next07, next08, next09, Share Economy

Featured site – Learn10

Learn10 was built to help people create a daily learning habit. The ethos is simple – once you become a member of Learn10 you’ll automatically be sent short, daily learning tasks – such as 10 new words in a foreign language. They use the range of current web technology so you’ll see your content on Facebook, Twitter, in your email, it’s RSSable, can be plugged in to any blog or web page, it’s iPhone friendly and mostly free.

You can use the Learn10 widget to learn, revise, record, test and compete with your friends. Additional (premium) services include a virtual teacher, windows screensaver and content via SMS.

Go here to discover more!

Tags: blog, email, iPhone, language, Languages, learn10, learning, rss, translate, twitter

Mloovi translates your RSS feed using 41 languages!

Thanks to recent developments over at Planet Google, we now offer 41 languages. The revised list is…

Albanian
Arabic
Bulgarian
Catalan
Chinese
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Dutch
English
Estonian
Filipino
Finnish
French
Galician
German
Greek
Hebrew
Hindi
Hungarian
Indonesian
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Latvian
Lithuanian
Maltese
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Romanian
Russian
Serbian
Slovak
Slovenian
Spanish
Swedish
Thai
Turkish
Ukrainian
Vietnamese

Tags: language, Languages, rss, translate

Happy New Year!

Well, here we are – 2009 has begun.

Many will view this new year with a sense of foreboding: money worries prevail, and fretfulness pervades the media – will economic recession becoming a depression?

We at Mloovi, however, feel it pays to be positive. Take a moment to think about what you have in your life. Then take a moment to think about what you lack. For most of us, the former will outweigh the latter. For the rest? Well, we hope that 2009 brings a chance to change that around.

Good luck, and we wish you a happy and healthy new year!

Writing for translation: controlled authorship

Last time we covered the idea of ‘controlled language’. Another concept that greatly improves both machine and human translation is ‘controlled authorship’.

Controlled authorship offers improvements to the writing process that make for better efficiency, and it reduces repeat work. Cost of human translation is often cited as the biggest bug-bear. However, by construction textual pieces with a proper process in mind, over time we can alleviate the cost of repeated translation of the same pieces.

There are four areas for attention…

Modularisation
The aim is to reduce the number of times that text is translated, saving time and potentially greatly reducing cost. With modularisation we break text into areas that could feasibly be used elsewhere – much like a computer programmer would write a general routine and call it multiple times. This is particularly easy to do when writing international instruction manuals for different models of similar products. It’s easy to understand that many instructions will apply to all models.

Standardisation
This is simply the process of ensuring that product or object-specific names are removed from text. For example, “Superputer THX1138 has capacity for extra RAM expansion” should be written as “The computer has capacity for extra RAM expansion”. The product name could then be confined to a section heading, and the translated text could be used for different computer models.

Simplification
This is very straighforward: why use long-winded text when short, punchy (but grammatically correct) statements will translate better, and be better understood?

“When using the computer, make sure all cooling vents are uncovered and unobstructed, to allow efficient case cooling.”

…could be better written as…

“Keep the case cool by not obstructing vents”.

Reduction
Reduction is very similar to simplification in effect, the difference being is that this last pass should focus on the removal of words that add nothing to the sense of the statement.

“To make the sentence structure more efficient without changing the meaning, we can remove words and sections that add nothing to the piece.”

…could be expressed by writing…

“Make the sentence more efficient by removing words that add nothing to the meaning.”

…or even better…

“Improve sentence efficiency by removing redundant words.”

By applying these simple steps, and remembering the guidelines noted here, we can drastically improve the quality of both machine and human translations.

Mloovi and Twitter – tweet to your world!

We’ve just developed a prototype Twitter timeline page that lets you log into your Twitter account, and emit tweets in any of 35 languages. You can also view yours and the public timeline in any language – neat eh?

MlooviTweet is very much a prototype at the moment, not least of which is the visual look. Expect some tightening up of this very soon.

In the meantime, why not trot over to MlooviTweet and give it a try? If you’re not signed up to Twitter, then consider doing so now!

Tags: language, Mloovi, timeline, translate, tweet, twitter

Featured site – Deutsche Startups

Deutsche Startups features news and views on the internet business scene in Germany, with coverage of same in the global context for the most interesting stories.

The site seems to have started in April 2007, and typically features several daily posts – so there’s no lack of activity!

The site features regular guest spots by internet business experts, and is a thriving area for business development news. Additionally, business events are featured, and often entry fee discounts are offered.

Importantly, there’s a startup jobs section which is evidently regulary updated.

The tone of the site is very much as you would expect: business-like, terse and to the point. It’s all the better for it, as the blog entries are kept short and sweet, and stick to the pertinent facts.

Translated site here. Original site here.

Tags: blog, business, Deutsche Startups, Development, internet, marketing

Featured site – OpenLearn

The Open University is the first university in the UK to offer free course materials to the public. The courses are online and made available under a Creative Commons license. The OpenLearn website – www.open.ac.uk/openlearn – has been shortlisted for numerous awards recognising social inclusion and the use of innovative technology to deliver services to help the disadvantaged. The website includes video blogging and video conferencing tools alongside more traditional learning technologies such as discussion forums and learning journals.

Since October 2006 OpenLearn has provided free access to Open University study materials to over 2.5 million learners and educators, supporting the University’s mission to open up access to education for all. Working with key partners, such as unionlearn, the Workers Educational Association (WEA), the Third Age Trust and Lifelong Learning Networks, the website has been used to reach learners from under represented groups in higher education.

Billy Khokhar, Assistant Director of Regional Collaboration and Widening Participation for the OU in Yorkshire has been using OpenLearn to introduce people to learning. He said, “We’ve been recently working with a group of Asian women in community centres in the region. Many of these women would be lost to the system because family, cultural and traditional ties often make their participation at traditional campuses difficult. OpenLearn introduces and provides a flexible method of study and we work to ensure that they have the IT skills necessary to be able to continue e-learning on their own.”

OpenLearn has also been used to train staff working with disadvantaged children. The Children’s Workforce Network in Plymouth City Council is using OpenLearn to provide a common learning experience for a team of practitioners from different disciplines, based at over 15 locations around the city.