[OLPC library] activities and bundles for G1G1, and more
Michael Smolens
michael at dotsub.com
Thu Dec 11 14:01:40 EST 2008
Never connected with dailymotion after a few emails. Will make sure it
happens now. Sorry about that.
Sent from my iPhone
Michael L. Smolens
michael at dotsub.com
917-742-0158
On Dec 11, 2008, at 12:01, "Samuel Klein" <sj at laptop.org> wrote:
> 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.
>>
>> ________________________________
>> _______________________________________________
>> Library mailing list
>> Library at lists.laptop.org
>> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/library
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>>
>> LuYu <egyptian-cup.gif> <freeculture-icon.png>
>>
>> "How a society produces its information environment goes to the
>> very core of
>> freedom."
>>
>> -- Yochai Benkler
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