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

Michael Smolens michael at dotsub.com
Mon Oct 20 07:45:47 EDT 2008


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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