[OLPC library] activities and bundles for G1G1, and more

Thu Dec 11 12:01:03 EST 2008

Revisiting this conversation:

We are now hosting and using subtitled videos on the OLPC dailymotion channel:
 http://www.dailymotion.com/olpc
 http://www.dailymotion.com/group/olpc

I don't know if you have figured out integration yet with dailymotion
but we have 10 languages of subtitles for the first olpc public
service announcement on the site.   I'd like to make sure that our
translators are working with these and other videos on dotsub...

SJ

On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 6:45 AM, Michael Smolens <michael at dotsub.com> wrote:
> Hi LuYu
> Thanks for your kind words, and thoughtful questions.  dotSUB already offers
> most of the suggested features in your email, we haven't been very good
> about making them obvious.  Please see comments below in red integrated with
> your questions.  I would be happy to speak with any of you to help implement
> any of them.
>
>
> On Oct 20, 2008, at 3:56 AM, LuYu wrote:
>
> Okay, I must admit:  I am blown away by your website.  This tool is really
> cool.  I have already had long discussions with friends on this subject who
> could not understand the purpose of universally translated subtitles would
> be.  Your effort is certainly to be commended.
>
> However, I find myself wondering: Is this a web only technology?
>
> Captions & subtitles can be done offline, in any of 4 formats, .srt, .stl,
> .tt & .ass and ingested into dotSUB - which is a relatively new feature.
> Errors with the time codes in pre-existing files prevent the auto ingest
> from working.  For example, if a single caption/subtitles has a start time
> later than an end time, or the same time. It will not work.  (See screen
> shot below)
>
> This technology would be much more useful if it was also available offline.
> Kids with XOs may not be connected when they go home (even when their range
> is extended by the mesh).  What is the possibility for subtitle files being
> shared with each video file?  What is the possibility for sharing subtitles
> for non-web video formats (not encapsulated in Flash)?  Also, will there be
> some protocol for sharing subtitle files automagically?
>
> Any captions or subtitles in any language can be downloaded into any of 4
> formats, .srt, .stl, .tt & .ass and then worked on off line, then to be
> re-ingested.  (See screen shot below)
>
> How about machine translation of an existing subtitle file?
>
> We have a full integration with google translate in all languages it
> supports, but have yet to launch this feature because of totally
> inconsistent quality of the translation depending on subject matter and
> language. (To see it work with one of your captioned videos, pick one of the
> 34 languages supported, hit 'translate' - then hit (control-shift-g), and
> you will see the lines of text filled in with that language subtitles).  In
> addition, we are at the forefront of working with Asia Online, for example,
> to create a MT (Machine Translation) hybrid with human assisted editing.
>  Please remember we are a small start-up hoping to have a profound impact on
> removing language as a barrier to cross cultural communication, and can only
> devote resources as they are available.  Suggestions and assistance are
> always welcome, and next week we are having our first 'dotSUB user group'
> call, with 5 people from around the world who are 'power users' of dotSUB to
> continually receive feedback.
>
> How about movies?  How about YouTube videos?  Is there a way to add this
> functionality to websites that do not have it?
>
> We can access any web based video that exists with an underlying .flv file
> by using the feature on our 'post a new video page' called 'create from
> existing internet address' - (see screenshot)
>
> Like a browser plugin?  What about subtitle files that already exist?  There
> are lots of .srt files on the web.
>
> We have integrated dotSUB with numerous other websites, players, but this
> requires custom development, and are working on a widget for more general
> player/site use - stay tuned.
>
>
> Also, what about cutting and pasting?  Can the children copy subtitles to
> quote them?  Can they use those in text based conversations and research
> papers?  Or are they completely locked up in the Flash file?  Obviously, the
> child could screen scrape the wiki, but it would be much nicer to have a
> subtitle app that would allow the same text to be seamlessly shared with say
> Write, Browse, and whatever the multimedia viewing activity may be called.
> Children should also be able to subtitle their own video and audio files.
>
> Should there be a Subtitle activity?  Or should subtitling be an intrinsic
> function which is available in other activities?  This might be a good idea
> for the annotation of books with shared comments or whatnot.
>
> In any case, this web based system is a good start, but Sugar should
> probably have built in functionality for this.  Speech is what all this is
> about, right?  Education through communication, I assume, is one of the
> goals of the XO.
>
> Hopefully, this gives you a better idea of the current state of our
> development, and we hope to be able to work with the OLPC community to
> remove language as a barrier.  Feel free to contact me with any further
> questions.
> Michael L. Smolens
> Founder & CEO
> dotSUB llc - Any Film Any Language
> 360 East 72nd St. #C3104
> New York, NY 10021 USA
> michael at dotsub.com - email
> 1-917-742-0158 - tel
> 1-646-403-9944 - fax
> mlsmolens - Skype
> http://dotSUB.com - website
>
> Sincerely,
>
> LuYu
>
>
> Michael Smolens wrote:
>
> Thanks for the intro SJ - nice seeing you, however briefly, in NY at
> OneWebDay.
> Sebastian - would love to have a call to see how we can integrate dotSUB
> captioning/subtitling functionality into what Daily Motion is doing with
> OLPC, as well as perhaps other aspects of your offering.  The easiest thing
> to do is to set up a time for a phone call so we can have a show & tell
> together.
> And Natalia - no one ever thinks about subtitling music videos - but we feel
> there would be so much greater connection if people could actually
> understand the lyrics in their native languages as the listen/watch the
> video.  Here is a link to a music video in 20 languages
> http://dotsub.com/view/e72dd5fd-1729-4d6e-bb32-34a8f49faebe
> In general, dotSUB enables web based video to be captioned subtitled from
> language A to language B either using an open, wiki type process for
> allowing users to do the work as volunteers, like Wikepedia for video, or in
> a closed environment, for corporations or projects that want professional
> translation.  As far as we know, we are the only technology available like
> this.
> You can see how this works at the Twitter home page at http://twitter.com -
> hit the watch video tab, you see a video open with an embed from our site -
> pick any of the 41 languages on the 'choose language' pull down menu, and
> the video will play with subtitles from that language.  Hit the down arrow
> on your keyboard, and scroll through the languages.  All these were done
> with volunteers - and even more powerful this video is embedded on over 1500
> other URLs, sites and blogs, of which 85% are in languages other than
> English.
> All this was done with no phone calls, no money changing hands, and the
> video has been viewed more than 750,000 times, about twice as many times as
> the same video on YouTube.
> We want to enable as much video into as many languages possible on OLPC as
> we can, so hopefully we can work together to make this happen.
> Thanks again SJ
>
>
>
>
>
> Michael L. Smolens
> Founder & CEO
> dotSUB llc - Any Film Any Language
> 360 East 72nd St. #C3104
> New York, NY 10021 USA
> michael at dotsub.com - email
> 1-917-742-0158 - tel
> 1-646-403-9944 - fax
> mlsmolens - Skype
> http://dotSUB.com - website
>
>
>
> On Sep 26, 2008, at 12:38 PM, Samuel Klein wrote:
>
> Dear Sébastien,
>
> Two introductions :  Please meet Natalia Tsarkova, who runs
> i-concerts.com and is getting music videos from Africa (and  the music
> tracks behind some of them) for release as bundles for G1G1 this year.
> She is interested in feeding part of the olpc portal on DM, and
> producing some new content every month for release over the coming
> year.
>
> Meet also Michael Smolens, who runs dotsub, a multilingual video
> subtitling project.
>
> Natalia and Michael, Sébastien is spearheading the olpc projects @
> Dailymotion (such as dailymotion.com/olpc).  The portal he has set up
> has a good framerate and encoding for the laptops, and he can help
> convert other media formats as well.
>
> All - we have a draft set of software, activities, and collections for
> this winter's OLPC giving program, which you can see here:
>    http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Activities/G1G1/8.2
>
> I would love to add more audio and video bundles to the lot.  10MB is
> a good size for a content bundle, as a rule of thumb.  I copy Joy and
> Siobhan and our public library list to keep everyone in the loop.
>
> Regards,
> SJ
> --
> 617 529 4266              skype:metasj
>
> ps - if any of you need XOs for your testing or work, or know
> developers that do, let me know.
>
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>
> --
>
>
> LuYu <egyptian-cup.gif> <freeculture-icon.png>
>
> "How a society produces its information environment goes to the very core of
> freedom."
>
> -- Yochai Benkler