The TraduXio Project : Precise Translation and Multilingual Content Management
Zanchin NGO (Paris, France)

http://traduxio.hypertopic.org (private beta version)

TraduXio is a free, open source, web based collaborative environment for computer assisted translation. Aiming at precision and customization, instead of approximate mass-translation, it considers linguistic diversity as a cultural wealth to be cherished and sustained, and not an obstacle to be overcome.

TraduXio has been developed using innovative technology that is especially suited to tackling the challenges of cultural (non commercial, non repetitive) texts. Inspired by the strong collaborative spirit of “Web 2.0”, the platform uses social devices (wikis, forums, networks, etc.) and promotes the creation of common goods, guided by a logic of pooling (gradual feeding of the database).

The Public Domain is in danger of being restricted by agreements to digitise Europe's cultural heritage. These contracts sometimes include exclusive rights that restrict access to newly digitised works for years or even decades.

This is why Europeana has recently published the Public Domain Charter: a statement that calls for the Public Domain to be kept freely accessible to Europe's citizens.

Europeana believes that material held in trust for the public for generations, often at taxpayers' expense, should not enter the private sector when it is digitised. As well as asking content providers to keep material in the Public Domain, Europeana will take steps before the end of 2010 to label all new content on Europeana.eu with rights information. This will allow users to exclude content from their results that requires payment or doesn't comply with the Public Domain Charter.

Some classical Texts from the French National Library (Public Domain) will become widely accessible thanks to an agreement with Wikimedia France (Wikisource project) : http://www.wikimedia.fr/wikim%C3%A9dia-france-signe-un-partenariat-avec-...
(English: http://paigrain.debatpublic.net/?p=1582)

In Brazil, a public program was recently started to digitize Brazilian Culture and make it Open, along with the Brasiliana Library initiative (created by some researchers of the University of Sao Paulo) : http://culturadigital.br/simposioacervosdigitais/sobre/ Practical apects are still being discussed (http://www.brasiliana.usp.br/bd_projeto)
Some technical issues are discussed (in Portuguese) here
The project includes the preservation and promotion of Brazilian Portuguese.

Tomorrow, a parliamentarian resolution will be submitted in Iceland in order to turn the country into a model for freedom of expression on the Internet. Far away from the conservative vision displayed by many confused governments who try to control freedom of communication on the Net through "three strikes", Internet blocking or the ACTA, this would be a historic event. La Quadrature du Net supports this project and congratulates the coalition of Icelandic Parliamentarians at the origin of the initiative.

Le premier Forum mondial sciences et démocratie (FMSD) s’est déroulé à Belém (Brésil) les 26 et 27 janvier 2009 et les premières conclusions ont été présentées à l’Assemblée des assemblée du Forum social mondial (FSM) le 1er février 2009. Ce fut un succès au-delà de ce que les initiateurs et organisateurs espéraient, tant les moyens humains et financiers qui ont permis sa tenue furent modestes.

Près de 300 personnes issues de 18 pays sur 4 continents ont échangé sur la place que les sciences et les techniques jouent aujourd’hui dans « la marche du monde », sur leurs évolutions et sur la nécessité de faire émerger à l’échelle internationale un espace/réseau qui puisse remettre en perspective le fonctionnement de l’institution scientifique (financement, politique scientifique, mode de production des connaissances) à l’heure de la mondialisation et en liaison avec les mouvements sociaux.

The droit d'auteur is not tantamount to the copyright. The chinese system relates more to Civil Law than to Common Law : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LegalSystemsOfTheWorldMap.png

source: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/100110/business/china_company_google_book...
Internet giant Google has issued a public apology to Chinese writers and admitted that it scanned books under Chinese copyright for its Google Books digital library project.

The Google books project has also raised objections from authors and publishers in the United States, France, Germany and elsewhere. Google reached a settlement with US authors and publishers last year over a copyright infringement suit filed in 2005.

"We are not recommending a direct assault on institutionalized higher education, but rather establishing new alternatives to learning for more people in the world. Bold change at the edges of the formal education system, at all levels, will eventually propagate into and change the core".

D. Atkins, J. S. Brown, A. L. Hammond (February 2007). A Review of the Open Educational Resources (OER) Movement: Achievements, Challenges, and New Opportunities. Report to The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, p. 55. http://cohesion.rice.edu/Conferences/Hewlett/emplibrary/A%20Review%20of%...(OER)%20Movement_BlogLink.pdf

Aspiration December 2009 Newsletter

Through our events, programs, and consulting, we work to put organizations and individuals in control of their technology destiny while advocating for user-centric approaches to nonprofit software development and web design. Here's what we've been up to lately.

In this Newsletter:

• Nonprofit Software Dev Summit Caps a Rich Year of Events
• eAdvocacy Mentoring and Capacity Building Enters 4th year
 read more »

On Tuesday, the Federal CTO and CIO announced the open government initiative directive. The directive has 4 steps: (1) publish Government Information Online, (2) improve the quality of government information, (3) create and institutionalize a culture of open government, and (4) create an enabling policy framework for open government.

Acquia Webinar: The Open Government Directive and Open Source Social Publishing
Tomorrow I'll be giving a webinar along with the New York State Senate CIO, Andrew Hoppin. I'll be presenting on Social publishing and the Open Government Directive. Andrew will be presenting about his efforts to implement transparency, participation, efficiency, and collaboration at the state level. If you would like to learn more, please register for the webinar at https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/423743946 .

To read more visit: http://acquia.com/blog/kieran/Drupal-Open-Government-Initiative-Directiv...

source: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/19510

The pilot phase of P2PU (Peer 2 Peer University) ended in October, after having run for six weeks with seven courses and approximately 90 participants. Last month, the pilot phase volunteers, including the course organizers, met in person for the first time at the first ever P2PU Workshop in Berlin. The goal of the workshop was to integrate pilot phase experiences into a working plan for the future of P2PU. Judging from the outcomes, the workshop achieved its goal. Check out CC Learn’s video download of the workshop at Blip.tv, Vimeo, or YouTube. (It’s CC BY, so feel free to share and remix!)

Background

source: http://www.tge-adonis.fr/?OpenAIRE-une-e-infrastructure-pour

Lancé le 1er décembre dernier et présenté à la conférence Berlin7, OpenAIRE (Open Access Infrastructure pour la recherche en Europe) est un nouveau projet financé par le 7e programme cadre (FP7) de la Commission européenne.

Il développe une infrastructure électronique d’identification, de dépôt, d’accès et de suivi des articles de recherche issus de FP7 et l’ERC (European Research Council). Ainsi, tous les articles déposés seront accessibles gratuitement dans le monde entier à travers un nouveau portail construit dans le cadre de ce projet.

source: http://digitalcampus.tv/2009/11/24/episode-48-balkanization-of-the-web/

24 November, 2009

What will be the impact of the loss of non-Anglophone books in the revised Google Books settlement? How about the loss of News Corporation content in Google’s search? Or the loss of physical books from the library? And what exactly does the loss of tens of thousands of editors mean to Wikipedia? Mills, Amanda, and Dan discuss these changes to our information environment in a special Thanksgiving edition of the podcast.

Links mentioned on the podcast:
Revised Google Books Settlement
News Corp. Weighs an Exclusive Alliance With Bing
Report: Wikipedia losing volunteers
Syracuse University Library Considers Relocating Books
Citizendium
Top 100 Books Cited by Wikipedia

Download the .mp3 (Running Time: 49:38)

(This is a cc-by-sa-nc blog post)

(source: http://www.tge-adonis.fr/?Le-portail-de-revues-du-CAPES)

Online shs Journals Portals - Brazilian CAPES
(just an example: http://www.ufcg.edu.br/~raizes/)

Une nouvelle version du portail de revues en ligne (portal de periodicos ) du CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível. Superior), l’agence brésilienne de l’enseignement supérieur et de la recherche vient d’être lancée.

L’agence nationale a pour originalité d’être non seulement une agence de moyens mais a aussi pour rôle d’accompagner les institutions d’enseignement supérieur « post graduate » (master et doctorats). Elle est ainsi chargée de la formation, l’évaluation, le financement des enseignants-chercheurs et de l’achat mutualisé des ressources documentaires électroniques.

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