2023:Program/Submissions/The Quest for Knowledge Symmetry: Wikipedia & ML Translation - LGNHZN
Title: The Quest for Knowledge Symmetry: Wikipedia & ML Translation
Speakers:
Valentin Kravtchenko
Passionate about all things related to technology, Valentin Kravtchenko cumulates 7 years of experience in project management and more than a decade in communication - with a focus on new media and experimental technologies. Back in 2012, during an educational mission in West Africa, I was stuck in a slow and expensive cyber-coffee shop. How could my students do online research for their projects without an easy and fast access to the internet? A few years later, in a Bolivian mission with OXFAM, the same question arose. What about the communities located in remote areas, where internet and electricity access is unreliable? Is it possible to build a tool that promotes empowerment and autonomy on the field? Grey-box was created to address this social and technical issue. Valentin dedicates most of his time to Grey-box, a project that aims at providing access to educational resources to remote areas where Internet and electricity are unreliable (50% of the world lives offline according to UN Broadband Commission).
Room:
Start time:
End time:
Type: Lightning talk
Track: Education
Submission state: submitted
Duration: 10 minutes
Do not record: false
Presentation language: en
Abstract & description[edit source]
Abstract[edit source]
We believe everyone should be able to access the same quality of information – regardless of their native language. This information should be equivalent across various languages. We want to translate content from one language in Wikipedia to another in order to improve the overall Wikipedia content, especially in underrepresented languages.
Description[edit source]
The goal is to build a semantic understanding of similar articles in various Wikipedia languages and provide relevant translations for missing information – and maybe even identify conflicting information and biases. We can do this for multiple languages at the same time, where each of the languages can contribute and benefit from the information contained in the other languages. A team of master’s degree students from the RMIT University (Melbourne, Australia) and students at UAlbany and Laurentian University have come together to work on Project Symmetry.
Our objective is to build accessible digital tools that promote autonomy and empowerment within communities located in remote areas (where Internet access and electricity are unreliable). Please note: The other track for this project is technology.
Further details[edit source]
Qn. How does your session relate to the event themes: Diversity, Collaboration Future?
Project Symmetry’s main issue that it hopes to address is the lower representation of multiple languages and translating them with the goal being a semantic understanding of similar articles in various Wikipedia languages and providing relevant translations for missing information. Moreover, the tool will be easy to use by Wiki editors to identify similarities or missing content between two articles of different languages. This idea relates to diversity as the main idea is to target and translate diverse and underrepresented languages. As for collaboration future, the idea of Project Symmetry is to work with existing communities in order to improve the knowledge and goals that they have. Moreover, as an open-source tool, this means that the project is available for those to use with its source code, making it available for use, modification, and distribution.
Qn. What is the experience level needed for the audience for your session?
Everyone can participate in this session
Qn. What is the most appropriate format for this session?
Onsite in Singapore- Remote online participation, livestreamed
- Remote from a satellite event
- Hybrid with some participants in Singapore and others dialing in remotely
Pre-recorded and available on demand
