[Wikimedia-l] The case for supporting open source machine translation

[Federico Leva (Nemo)]

Erik Moeller, 24/04/2013 08:29:
> [...]
> Could open source MT be such a strategic investment? I don't know, but
> I'd like to at least raise the question. I think the alternative will
> be, for the foreseeable future, to accept that this piece of
> technology will be proprietary, and to rely on goodwill for any
> integration that concerns Wikimedia. Not the worst outcome, but also
> not the best one.
>
> Are there open source MT efforts that are close enough to merit
> scrutiny? In order to be able to provide high quality result, you
> would need not only a motivated, well-intentioned group of people, but
> some of the smartest people in the field working on it.  I doubt we
> could more than kickstart an effort, but perhaps financial backing at
> significant scale could at least help a non-profit, open source effort
> to develop enough critical mass to go somewhere.

Some info on state of the art: 
http://laxstrom.name/blag/2013/05/22/on-course-to-machine-translation/

Nemo