Dr Grahame Davies, BBC Wales, presents this guest lecture on; “BBC Vocab: a highly innovative new media language application on the web”
Abstract: BBC Vocab is a highly innovative new media application operating on BBC Cymru’r Byd www.bbc.co.uk/cymru, the biggest and most-used website in the Welsh language. Vocab tags a 22,000-word Welsh dictionary to the site, turning Welsh words into highlighted tooltips which can be cursored over to produce instant English translations, thereby allowing the acquisition of new vocabulary at a far faster rate than via paper or online dictionaries, due to the elimination of look-up time. This link shows the application in acton: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-perl/vocab/show.pl/cy-en/www.bbc.co.uk/cymru/ Soft-launched in August 2004 and hard-launched in November, it has generated extremely positive feedback worldwide, and is now being developed for a range of other languages and uses, including for other Celtic languages.
Already an English-Somali version is in operation, http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-perl/vocab/show.pl/en-so/www.bbc.co.uk/wales/southeast/, there is also a version which translates opera terms (http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-perl/vocab/show.pl/cardiffsinger05/) and the possibilities of the programme are being investigated with a view to catering for South Africa’s linguistic situation.
An innovation stemming from the challenges of bilingualism in Wales is therefore being adapted to facilitate understanding between other cultures in the UK and abroad, and, as a public service, is being made available under a free open source licence for other internet sites. A system is also being created whereby Vocab can be hosted on BBC servers for non-BBC sites to use, thereby being enabled to offer Vocab assistance on their own sites. The site of the Welsh Language Board, is already running the application: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-perl/vocab/show.pl/cy-en-x/www.bwrdd-yr-iaith.org.uk/cy/index.php
This lecture will give the opportunity to demonstrate this innovation, in the context of a study of the initial five years of the first general internet service in the Welsh language, and against the wider background of the adoption of new media within the Welsh language community historically.
Biography: Dr Grahame Davies is Editor, Broadcast Development for BBC Wales. A journalist by profession, he spent seven years in weekly, daily and Sunday newspapers, before joining the BBC in 1991, where he worked in current affairs, news and where he was responsible for establishing and running the BBC’s new media services for Wales in English and Welsh. He devised and implemented the Vocab tooltip translation application, whose script was written by BBC New Media developers. He has a doctorate from the University of Wales, and is a prominent literary figure in Wales, as the author of 10 books. He has won numerous literary and broadcasting industry awards.