RE: Controlled Vocabularies Aid Translation and Content Management

Adrian,

> So, how is this relevant to w3c?
 
It is very relevant to W3C, because their Recommendations are, at times,
hard to understand for someone whose native language isn't UK-English or
US-English. Add to that the handicap of not belonging to the happy incrowd
of W3C, so not being conversant with much of the W3C-specific slang and the
abundantly used acronyms.

An all-inclusive and normative W3C glossary of terms and acronyms with a
crystal clear definitions (in understandable English) would help, provided
that all authors would normatively refer to that glossary. A simple case of
QA (meaning Quality Assurance - 'The process assuring the quality of one
organization's outcomes.' (according [1])).
 
Regards,
Hans

[1] http://www.w3.org/QA/glossary
 
____________________
OntoConsult
Hans Teijgeler
ISO 15926 specialist
Netherlands
+31-72-509 2005
<http://www.infowebml.ws/>  
hans.teijgeler@quicknet.nl

________________________________

From: semantic-web-request@w3.org [mailto:semantic-web-request@w3.org] On
Behalf Of Adrian Walker
Sent: Wednesday, October 04, 2006 2:43
To: Karl Dubost
Cc: semantic-web@w3.org
Subject: Re: Controlled Vocabularies Aid Translation and Content Management


Karl --

Interesting numbers.

But surely, the key point is that though many US residents speak Spanish,
Chinese and so forth at home, they mostly speak at least some English at
work.

The international air traffic control system comes to mind -- I believe that
all communication is in English.

However, that  still leaves some room for misunderstandings.  I recall a
story about a European pilot holding over JFK.  He said calmly several times
to air traffic control that he was running out of fuel.  They took no notice
till it was almost too late, because they expected something like that to be
shouted in urgent tones, perhaps with a few expletives.

So, how is this relevant to w3c?  Well maybe there should be a set of tags
such as <red>I'm running out of fuel</red> and <green>I can see a nice
sunset from up here</green>.  Perhaps such tags already exist?

                            Cheers,   -- Adrian

                   
Internet Business Logic (R)
Executable open vocabulary English
Online at www.reengineeringllc.com
Shared use is free

Adrian Walker
Reengineering
Phone: USA 860 830 2085




On 10/3/06, Karl Dubost <karl@w3.org> wrote: 


	Controlled Vocabularies Aid Translation and Content Management
	
	[[[
	One conclusion is that people can easily be confused by the multiple
	meanings and synonyms that words can have, as well as by complex
	sentence structures. But if we look closer at the users of technical
	information, we can also conclude that in today's world of
	globalization our audience has changed, and we need to adapt to
that.
	
	If we look at the readers of our documentation around the world, we 
	see that often English is not their native language. This
	(surprisingly) also applies to the United States. Although English
is
	the main language spoken in the United States, recent studies
suggest
	that this will most likely change in the not too distance future. 
	Much of the world's population is already multi-lingual, and the
	United States is following suit. In 2003, the Census Bureau reported
	that nearly one American in five speaks a language other than
English
	at home, with Spanish leading, followed by Chinese. To learn more 
	about langauges spoken in the US, see the Census Bureau report,
	Percent of People 5 Years and Over Who Speak a Language Other Than
	English at Home.
	]]] -- Required Reading | The Rockley Bulletin
	         http://rockleybulletin.com/requiredreading_comments.php
<http://rockleybulletin.com/requiredreading_comments.php> ?
	id=167_0_5_0_C
	        Tue, 03 Oct 2006 23:59:39 GMT
	
	
	--
	Karl Dubost - http://www.w3.org/People/karl/ 
	W3C Conformance Manager, QA Activity Lead
	   QA Weblog - http://www.w3.org/QA/
	      *** Be Strict To Be Cool *** 
	
	
	
	



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Received on Wednesday, 4 October 2006 09:42:04 UTC