ESTeam

The biggest challenge for widespread adoption of the Internet of Things is interoperability. A much-noticed McKinsey report states that achieving interoperability in IoT would unlock an additional 40% of value. This is not surprising since the IoT is in essence about connecting machines, devices, and sensors – ideally cross organization, cross industries, and even cross borders. But while technical and syntactic interoperability are pretty much solved, little has been available so far to make sure devices actually understand each other.

On March 22-24 the DTT Symposion (short DTT) took place again in Mannheim. It is the bi-annual meeting of the German Terminology Association (Deutscher Terminologietag). We were exhibiting and I enjoyed talking to many Coreon customers there. It was a truly exciting event this year and according to the organizers the most busy ever. 200+ participants meant house full!

On 3 – 5 March the 15th DTT Symposion took place in Mannheim. With approximately 160 participants this bi-annual event is probably the largest German speaking conference on terminology. In an exhibition hall several tools and services providers including Coreon presented their offerings. The focus theme of this year's event was "Terminology and Culture". I had slight worries before the conference whether it will be too theoretic, with many "dry" lectures and without practical impact. But no – I was positively surprised by the opposite: Many presentations, particularly during the two afternoon sessions, made the bridge from the humanities research to best practices in daily life.

Last November 150 experts and I from all across the world attended the NATO Terminology Conference. The event took place at the campus of the NATO headquarters in Brussels, hosted by the NATO Standardization Office (NSO).

Jochen Hummel, ESTeam CEO and Chairman of LT Innovate, foresees a major disruption in the Localisation Industry in the near future — one that will elevate the question of multilingual data from translation processes to a C-level concern. How can Language Technology leverage Big Data and transform the industry? Within this framework, Hummel introduces this quarter's issue of the GALAxy newsletter and invites readers to engage in this brave new world.

The European Data Forum (EDF) 2013 took place from April 9-10, 2013 in Dublin, Ireland. EDF is the annual meeting-point for data practitioners from industry, research, the public-sector and the community, to discuss the opportunities and challenges of the emerging Big Data Economy in Europe. Gudrun Magnusdottir, CSO of ESTeam, had the pleasure to moderate the Language Technology Panel.

The EU’s multilingual nature can be an asset for European companies, giving them the tools they need to harness multilingualism as a means of accessing multicultural global markets and gaining a competitive  advantage over their US counterparts, heard participants in this Policy Dialogue, jointly organised by the EPC and the European Academy of Yuste Foundation, and with the kind support of Poliglotti4.eu project.

Last Monday, 4th February, all LISE partners were on their way to Benelux.

On 19 June 2012, over 160 key players of the Language Technology (LT) industry met in Brussels for the first LT-Innovate Summit. The event showcased new technologies in LT, fostered investment opportunities, but most importantly, it successfully conveyed the message that Language Technologies are the missing piece in the puzzle of the EU’s strategy for the Digital Single Market.
Philippe Wacker, Secretary General of LT-Innovate (http://www.lt-innovate.eu), stated: “A multilingual infrastructure is as important for Europe as a broadband infrastructure! Making content produced in any language available to 500 million Europeans is the real opportunity in the decade ahead.”
Jochen Hummel, LT-Innovate Chairman and CEO of ESTeam: “The language infrastructure is an important piece of enabling technology that the EU should procure as soon as possible. It would be a major booster for the European content economy with positive spill-over effects for almost every segment of the economy and society at large.”

Berlin, Töreboda, May 2012 – The European Commission, Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion DG, has signed a 2-year framework contract with ESTeam AB. In order to develop, manage and disseminate the ESCO classification (European skills/competences, qualifications, and occupations), the European Commission requires external expertise to support the development, enhancement, assessment and management of the ESCO taxonomy and other taxonomies.
ESCO’s objective is to develop a multilingual, structured, easy-to-use terminology to describe the most relevant skills, competences and qualifications needed for several thousand occupations. This brings benefits to both jobseekers and employers. For example, it could be used to help jobseekers better describe their skill sets, or to develop new training initiatives adapted to the needs of the labour market and improved career guidance services.

Berlin, Töreboda May 2012 – OHIM, the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs), based in Alicante, Spain, has signed a 4-Year framework contract with ESTeam AB. In a continuous effort to improve business processes, OHIM requires and implements high-quality and value-adding services with regard to the usage of domain language in legal decision support scenarios.

In a support action the EU is funding the creation of a forum for language technologies (LT) companies. The Language Technology Innovation Forum had its constituting meeting on Jan 27 in Brussels. The forum aims to have hundred members by June this year. On June 20 it will have, adjacent to the META meeting in Brussels, its first General Assembly featuring the award session for the LT biz contest.

ESTeam was pleased to host the LISE EMB/TMB meetings in its offices in Berlin. On 2nd and 3rd February LISE consortium members from University Vienna, EURAC, the European Union, crosslang, and ESTeam met to review the first 12 months of the project and to plan the next steps and deliverables.

ESTeam attended the 6th European Ministerial eGovernment Conference, entitled "Borderless eGovernment Services for Europeans" on 17 – 18 November 2011 in the City of Poznań organized by the Polish Presidency of the European Union and the European Commission. The conference, a major event during the Polish Presidency, attracted approximately 900 stakeholders from around the world: ministers from EU member states, officials from national, regional and local administrations, industry representatives, civil society and experts.