SCALLA 2004 Working Conference - Programme

Crossing the Digital Divide shaping technologies to meet human needs

Kathmandu, Nepal, 5th to 7th January 2004

Monday, 5th January 2004
09:00	Registration
09:30	Opening Session Welcome: Laurent Vanopstl, EU Asia IT&C Programme Keynote address: Kanak Mani Dixit - Localisation, Open Source, Market and the People.
10:30	Coffee break
11:00	Session 1: Language, culture, politics and the digital divide Why is support for languages important? What should we aim to achieve in doing this? What are the wider issues that also need to be taken into account? How does national social policy affect the digital divide? Are there cultural differences between East and West, between Europe and South Asia, that might influence the acceptance of information technologies? How many languages are there, how many are written, how different are they form each other? How does the digital divide relate to economic and socio-political development processes? Is literacy an important concern? Discussion leaders: Tariq Rahman, B. Mallikarjun, Jens Allwood, Mark Turin, Vincent Halahakonege
13:00	Lunch
14:00	Session 2: Linguistics and language technology What do we know about the languages of the region? Do western theories of language apply to South Asian languages, or vice versa? Do we have adequate corpora to enable the study of these languages? What computational linguistic processes can we do so far? What support for the spoken language is available? Discussion leaders: B. N. Patnaik, Tony McEnery, Niladri Dash
16:00	Tea
16:30	Session 3: Language technology Discussion leaders: Pushpak Battacharya, Peter Juel-Henrichsen, Roger Tucker, Sarmad Hussain
18:00	Break
19:00	Reception and visit to Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya (MPP), Patan Dhoka, Lalitpur
Tuesday, 6th January 2004
Sessions 4 & 5: How do we currently localise software, what is best practice in the West, how much is done in South Asia? What writing systems are supported, what fonts are available? Are existing technologies adequate for South Asian writing systems and languages? What are the economics of this process? What software is developed locally, and why? What assessments have been made of the usability and effectiveness of software in South Asia?
09:00	Session 4: Software localisation and local software Discussion leaders: Reinhard Schaeler, B.B. Chaudhuri, Mumit Khan, Ruvan Weerasinghe
10:30	Coffee break
11:00	Session 5: Local software Discussion leaders: Venky Hariharan, Rhoddy Chalmers, Amar Gurung, Hema Murthy, Allen Tuldahar, Shalley Minocha
13:00	Lunch
14:00	Afternoon of relaxation and informal discussion Visit of local heritage sites followed by the conference
19:00	Conference dinner at Dwarika Hotel, Kathmandu
Wednesday, 7th January 2004
Sessions 6 & 7: While earlier sessions will have raised open research problems, the focus there will have been on our current state of knowledge. In these two sessions we want to focus on those open research problems, and what do we still need to do. What technologies are seen as routine for European languages, but not yet available for South Asian languages? What has been achieved in South Asia that could be transferred into Europe? How much do we know about the affect of culture on the use of software, what do we still need to find out?
09:00	Session 6: Linguistics and language technology futures Discussion leaders: Udaya Nayaran Singh, Rajeev Sangal and Dipti Sharma, Harold Somers
10:30	Coffee break
11:00	Session 7: Localisation and local software futures Discussion leaders: Pat Hall, S. P. Mudur, Anthony Pym, Yoshiki Mikami
13:00	Lunch
14:00	Session 8: Policy implications What policies should be put into place in SAARC nations to help make these developments happen? What should the EU do to facilitate this? What scope is there for collaborations between South Asia and Europe? Discussion leaders: Om Vikas, Khalid Choukri, Kanak Mani Dixit, Ken Keniston
16:00	Tea
16:30	Closing session