Re: Ten Questions for the Implementation of the Digital Single Market

I hope you'll indulge a non-European's questions and comment. Mine are in 
response to Philipp's 10 Crucial Questions 
(https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-ld4lt/2015Apr/att-0001/LD4LT_2_4_2015_DigitalSingleMarket.pdf) 
--

- Does Common European Sales Law require SMEs to provide product/feature 
information in 24 languages?

- Why is it necessary (for an SME, implicitly), to provide for online 
dispute resolution in 24 languages?

- Is there a governmental mandate that an SME should be able to interact 
with customers in 24 languages and in listen to the voice of customers in 
24 languages?

I read through the 1 November 2014 letter from Jean-Claude Juncker to 
Andrus Ansip, regarding the Digital Single Market mandate 
(http://ec.europa.eu/commission/sites/cwt/files/commissioner_mission_letters/ansip_en.pdf). 
Nowhere does it use the word "language" (or "linguistic" or similar). It 
does use the word "pragmatic," and it uses "efficient" twice. The second 
use is in the sentence, "When we act, we will always look for the most 
efficient and least burdensome approach."

I also read the December 2012 Single Market Act document 
(http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/smact/docs/20120206_new_growth_en.pdf).

It says, "We need to... put in place a future-proof digital single 
market," which is a completely stupid notion, that you can put in place a 
future-proof digital (or non-digital) anything. Put that point aside. It 
also doesn't mention "language."

So really my questions are, Where does the desire -- or is it more than a 
desire? -- to for SMEs (and large enterprises as well) to operate in 24 
languages come from? And why does LIDER want -- or how is LIDER compelled 
-- to support a pursuit that forces participating (European) technologists 
to go broad when the commercial market, which is moved by consumer and 
business demand rather than essentially non-productive governmental 
mandates, is instead going deep?

Going for 24 languages is anti-efficient, and so long as less-used 
European-origin languages are prioritized over large-market, non-European, 
export-target languages it's anti-pragmatic from a business point of view.

      Seth


On Tue, 7 Apr 2015, Víctor Rodríguez Doncel wrote:

> Philipp, all,
>
> Regarding:
>
>   /1) How do we support SMEs in providing information about products
>   and their features in 24 languages? //
>   //2) How do we ensure consistency and homogeneity of product
>   information so that Pan-European cross-vendor comparison becomes
>   possible? /
>
> unless the "products" refer to "LT-related products", the scope is maybe too 
> broad. Bounded problems like those related to an EC Regulations are 
> tractable...
>
> In 10 years from now, harmonization of the copyright legislation at EU level 
> will have been a fact, as well as data protection (forthcoming EC 
> Regulation). It might even happen that the Digital Single Market must include 
> USA, if the TTIP is finally signed. Cross-national commerce will become more 
> important, hence the publication of offers, terms and conditions will have to 
> be multilingual. If I had a (digital) product to offer I would like web 
> browsers to find me in any language (does schema.org support multilingualism 
> well enough?), to check if my product/service complies with the local 
> legislation and to publish terms & conditions using the applicable 
> legislation terminology. Perhaps the juridical localization has a say 
> here....
> Of course, it is very hard to say how the future will be in 10 years. I guess 
> that sure bets like Machine Translation will be also hot topics...
>
>
> Regards,
> Víctor
>
>
> El 07/04/2015 9:09, Philipp Cimiano escribió:
>> Dear Victor,
>>
>>  thanks for joining the discussion. I am a bit puzzled by your repsonse. 
>> Actually, I thought that we as LD4LT community would have most interest and 
>> expertise to contribute to questions 1 and 2.
>> 
>> I see this as a problem essentially of supporting linking and localization 
>> of product catalogues across countries. And to me this is a core topic for 
>> this community, would you not agree?
>> 
>> It is true that points 8 and 9 are not specific to LD4LT, but important 
>> topics that we should be aware of to create synergies between different 
>> initiatives.
>> 
>> So question back to you: which questions would you say are relevant to 
>> drive our R&D effort in the next 5-10 years?
>> 
>> Regards,
>> 
>> Philipp.
>> 
>> Am 06.04.15 um 12:25 schrieb Víctor Rodríguez Doncel:
>>> Dear Philipp, all,
>>> 
>>> I had read the same sources you cite in the PPT and in consequence I share 
>>> your view.
>>> Nevertheless, I would like to comment on the questions. See below.
>>> 
>>> El 02/04/2015 15:54, Philipp Cimiano escribió:
>>>> Dear all,
>>>>
>>>>  thanks to those who attended the call today on the topic "Multilingual 
>>>> Linked Data for the Digital Single Market".
>>>> 
>>>> Here are the 10 important questions that I raised in my slides...
>>>> 
>>>> 1) How do we support SMEs in providing information about products and 
>>>> their features in 24 languages?
>>>> 2) How do we ensure consistency and homogeneity of product information so 
>>>> that Pan-European cross-vendor comparison becomes possible?
>>> I dont think there is much we can do regarding 1-2)
>>>> 3) How do we support online dispute resolution in 24 languages 
>>>> effectively?
>>>> 4) How do we support finding previous online dispute resolution similar 
>>>> cases, also across languages?
>>> There is a recent Directive (Directive 2013/11 on alternative dispute 
>>> resolution for consumer disputes) and a new Regulation (Regulation  No 
>>> 524/2013 on online dispute resolution for consumer disputes), and the
>>> Online Dispute Resolution is a hot topic in the EC agenda. There are a few 
>>> hundreds ADR systems in force, and there is a plea in favour of their 
>>> coordination.
>>> Multilingual Linked Data can play a role here but not a leading role. It 
>>> would be good knowing the requirements of the ODR/ADR community and 
>>> determining if we can be of help.
>>> 
>>>> 5) How do we support linking of public sector datasets (e.g. business 
>>>> registry data, open government data) etc. across languages effectively to 
>>>> allow for mashups, cross-country comparisons, repurposing of data etc.?
>>>> 6) How do we support SMEs and other organizations in finding and 
>>>> accessing public sector data intuitively?
>>>> 7) How do we ensure interoperability of public services across borders?
>>>> 8) How do we ensure quality of and trust in data?
>>> This problem is not specific of the Multilingual Linked Data
>>>> 9) How do we support clearance of licensing issue to ensure compliance in 
>>>> data use?
>>> This belongs to the private law sphere, and we can do little here, but 
>>> provide the means for a data market --for which we are working already at 
>>> LIDER.
>>>> 10) How do we support SMEs in interacting with customers in 24 languages 
>>>> and in listening to the voice of customers in 24 languages?
>>>> 
>>>> Do you have any feedback or comments on these 10 questions?
>>>> 
>>>> Comments on how Multilingual Linked Data Technology could contribute to 
>>>> develop solutions to address the above mentioned challenges are more than 
>>>> welcome (see slides 10-15 in my presentation, attached for the sake of 
>>>> easier reference).
>>> Thanks and see you soon!
>>> Victor
>>>> 
>>>> Happy easter to everyone!
>>>> 
>>>> Philipp.
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> -- 
>>> Víctor Rodríguez-Doncel
>>> D3205 - Ontology Engineering Group (OEG)
>>> Departamento de Inteligencia Artificial
>>> ETS de Ingenieros Informáticos
>>> Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
>>> 
>>> Campus de Montegancedo s/n
>>> Boadilla del Monte-28660 Madrid, Spain
>>> Tel. (+34) 91336 3753
>>> Skype: vroddon3
>> 
>> -- 
>> --
>> Prof. Dr. Philipp Cimiano
>> AG Semantic Computing
>> Exzellenzcluster für Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC)
>> Universität Bielefeld
>> 
>> Tel: +49 521 106 12249
>> Fax: +49 521 106 6560
>> Mail:cimiano@cit-ec.uni-bielefeld.de
>> 
>> Office CITEC-2.307
>> Universitätsstr. 21-25
>> 33615 Bielefeld, NRW
>> Germany
>
>
>

-- 
Seth Grimes    grimes@altaplana.com   +1 301-270-0795    @sethgrimes
Alta Plana Corp, analytics strategy consulting, http://altaplana.com
http://SentimentAnalysisSymposium.com, July 15-16 2015, New York, NY