e-Government and interoperability : the role of Machine Translation Francisco García Morán Chief IT Advisor European Commission e-Government powered by Machine Translation Brussels 06/12/2013

The language barriers The European Union has put a lot of efforts to remove internal barriers for free trade and movement. But we still have invisible but strong barriers making it hard to access information and communicate across countries: the language barriers. Language is the key element of our social and business communications, an essential part of our identity, social and cultural treasure of every nation. Multilingualism is a source of richness and diversity in Europe. But language diversity also creates barriers for business, communications and cooperation across Europe and globally. Language barriers become an obstacle in advancing European unity and competitiveness.

 only 39% of European Internet users use other language than their mother tongue to communicate online (e.g. using , Twitter, Facebook etc.)  46% of Europeans are not able to hold a conversation in other language  about the same percentage do not read content in a foreign language  43% of Internet users in Europe do not purchase goods or services in non-native language  For three in five Europeans translation has an important role to play in their everyday life and 2012

The role of Machine Translation  Machine translation is the only viable solution for instant and cheap access to information in foreign languages. This is why machine translation (MT) is a critically important technology for multilingual Europe.  Machine translation almost instantly provides access to information written in a foreign language that otherwise could not be used or would require substantial time and costs to translate  Machine translation can make websites multilingual, it can facilitate cross-lingual information search and analytics

6 Interactions > Interoperability

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8 EIFv2: 12 Underlying principles Need for community action Subsidiarity and Proportionality User needs and expectations User Centricity, Inclusion and Accessibility, Security and Privacy, Multilingualism, Administrative Simplification, Transparency, Preservation of Information Collaboration Openness, Reusability, Technological Neutrality and Adaptability, Effectiveness and Efficiency

High-level analysis Semantical Multilingualism 9 66% of the portals provide a translation in non-national languages. However, in 12% of these, only a small portion of the pages is translated 13% of the public administration portals provide a Google Translate functionality. Looking at the translations in non-national languages of a Member States’ portal, 61% translated their information in English (excluding portals offering "Google Translate").

10 Vision Wouldn’t it be great if I could start my search for a public service in any Member State from any place and obtain the information in my mother tongue? ISA: European federated catalogue of public services (FCOPS)

11 Vision Concepts Scopeall public services of all countries in ISA’s scope at a supranational, national, regional and local level Specific public servicespublic services which are actually rendered by a specific public administration to citizens (A2C), businesses (A2B) or public administrations (A2A) Generic public servicesservice which is defined generic i.e. it only contains information that applies to all the administrations that offer this service, detailing the what but not the how and where ISA: European federated catalogue of public services (FCOPS)

12 Scenario evaluation Long-term objectives -Build a single point of contact for all public services offered within the EU and EEA Member States and with multilingual support -Enhance the service levels of public administrations by providing them public service information of other administrations -Improve cross-border standardisation (semantic metadata model, taxonomy, etc.) -Develop a learning environment for public administrations (service portfolio, organisation and reusable system ISA: European federated catalogue of public services (FCOPS)

13 User stories 1.Increase customer satisfaction of public services -Faster responses by public administrations on requests of services provided by other administrations -Cross-border, supranational, national, regional and local public service information are accessible in multiple languages 2.Creating better public services -Public administrations are able to compare their public services with services offered by equivalent administrations -Learn how other administrations offer and organise their public services 3.Supranational public services for the public -Public services offered by the EU are included within the scope of the federated catalogue of public services -All government levels are in scope User stories illustrate when FCOPS is used and what the added value it brings to the users ISA: European federated catalogue of public services (FCOPS)

14 Key concepts Scenario 1 -Current state of affairs across the EU and EEA Member States, no changes to the AS-IS situation are required -Member States are working autonomously and loose- coupled -The Member States have the freedom to determine whether they use a catalogue of public services or provide information through a portal -No federation of public services at European level and no single point of contact (decentralised) -No standardisation across Member States for information exchange or communication between public administrations -Each Member State defined an own semantic metadata model and taxonomy -Complex and high-demanding to search for other public services -No learning aspect (service portfolio, organisation of public services and reusability of assets) The first scenario represents the current situation; there is no federation or cross-border standardisation Situation view Member State 2Member State 1 No federation Member State level Federation at European level

15 Member State 2Member State 1 Federated catalogue of specific services Member State level Federation at European level Scenario 2 -A catalogue of specific public services is introduced at European level -Only the Member States with a catalogue are able to cooperate with the catalogue at European level -Federation of specific public services at European level and a single point of contact is set up (partially centralised) -No standardisation across Member States for information exchange or communication between public administrations -Each Member State defined their own semantic metadata model and taxonomy -The catalogue creates a mirror of the Member States’ catalogues (using the semantic models and taxonomies of the Member States) -Complex and high-demanding to search for other public services due to no common format (semantic model) and structure (taxonomy) -Limited learning aspect (service portfolio, organisation of public services) In the second scenario a European federated catalogue contains mirrors of all Member States’ catalogues of public services Key concepts Situation view

16 Scenario 3 Member State 2Member State 1 Mapping with catalogue Catalogue of generic EU public services Member State level Federation at European level -A catalogue of generic public services is introduced at European level -The Member States have the freedom to determine whether they use a catalogue of public services or provide information through a portal -A single point of contact is set up for only generic public services (partially centralised) -There will be standardisation involved at European level (metadata model and taxonomy) but at Member State level there will be no standardisation required -The Member States are able to reuse the assets to build their own catalogue or create a mapping with the catalogue at European level, this can result in initial cross-border standardisation -A mapping between the catalogues will be initiated at Member State level and not at European level -The generic public services will be defined by consolidating specific public services from the Member States -Search functionality is easy to use but it is limited to the generic public services (a distinct view on all services will be generated) -Limited learning aspect (generic and distinct view on service portfolio and organisation of public services and reusable solutions) The third scenario introduces a catalogue of generic EU public services build on standardised assets; it is possible for the Member States to map their public services to the generic public services Key conceptsSituation view

17 Scenario 4 -A federated catalogue of public services is introduced at European level covering specific and generic public services -The Member States have the freedom to determine whether they use a catalogue of public services or provide information through a portal -A single point of contact is set up for all public services (partially centralised) -There will be standardisation involved at European level (metadata model and taxonomy) but at Member State level there will be no standardisation required -The Member States are able to reuse the assets to build an own catalogue or create a mapping with the catalogue at European level; this can result in initial cross-border standardisation -A mapping between the generic and specific services will be created within the catalogue -Generic public services will be defined by consolidating specific public services from the Member States -Search functionality is made possible for all public services offered across the Member States due to common format and structure -Complete learning aspect (service portfolio, organisation of public services and reusable solutions) Federated catalogue with specific services mapped to generic services Manual Automatic Mapping with specific services Catalogue with generic services Manual Member State 3 Member State level Federation at European level Member State 2Member State 1 The fourth scenario represents a federated catalogue with specific services mapped to generic services; in this scenario standardised assets are defined at European level Key concepts Situation view

18 Vision FCOPS provides users with easy access to European Public Services information across Europe in their own's mother tongue! ISA: European federated catalogue of public services (FCOPS)

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