Commutative Languages and their Composition by Consensual Methods

Commutative languages with the semilinear property (SLIP) can be naturally recognized by real-time NLOG-SPACE multi-counter machines. We show that unions and concatenations of such languages can be similarly recognized, relying on -- and further developing, our recent results on the family of consensually regular (CREG) languages. A CREG language is defined by a regular language on the alphabet that includes the terminal alphabet and its marked copy. New conditions, for ensuring that the union or concatenation of CREG languages is closed, are presented and applied to the commutative SLIP languages. The paper contributes to the knowledge of the CREG family, and introduces novel techniques for language composition, based on arithmetic congruences that act as language signatures. Open problems are listed.Comment: In Proceedings AFL 2014, arXiv:1405.527

On What Counts as a Translation

In this article, instead of taking a particular method as translation, we ask: what does one expect to do with a translation? The answer to this question will reveal, though, that none of the first order methods are capable of fully represent the required transference of ontological commitments. Lastly, we will show that this view on translation enlarge considerably the scope of translatable, and, therefore, ontologically comparable theories

Direct deliberative local governance using online media – consensual problem solving or a recalcitrant pluralism?

This paper describes and analyses distinct patterns of 'governance conversation' observed in interactions on a discussion list that aims to support local, direct, governance in a geographically colocated community in South Africa. Although each pattern relates to governance, making 'binding decisions', which has been seen as a key attribute of deliberative democratic processes, is almost entirely absent from the observed interactions. Nonetheless, the exchanges appear to be relevant and useful to the broader process of local direct deliberative governance. We investigate the extent to which the patterns feature instrumental or expressive dialogue, and subsequently support consensual or pluralist outcomes. The results propose that online interaction is particularly suited to facilitating the pluralist deliberation required to manage complex local governance problems. The outcomes observed in the case study further suggest the potential value of an infrequently investigated context of online deliberation – that of citizen-to-citizen deliberation of geographically local issues; and presents a broader conception of the role of online deliberation in local governance, where formal decision making is frequently over privileged in research

The ontology of signs as linguistic and non-linguistic entities: a cognitive perspective

It is argued that the traditional philosophical/linguistic analysis of semiotic phe-nomena is based on the false epistemological assumption that linguistic and non-linguistic entities possess different ontologies. An attempt is made to show where linguistics as the study of signs went wrong, and an unorthodox account of the na-ture of semiosis is proposed in the framework of autopoiesis as a new epistemology of the living

Counter culture

Considers the future of libraries in a Web 2.0 world. Looks at how libraries have responded to technological change historically; argues in favour of Prensky's digital native/digital immigrant divide and a fundamental change in user behaviour. Discusses the failures of libraries and librarians in responding to this and argues the need for an underpinning philosophy of e-libraries. Considers what future competencies will be required by the professio

The EAGLES/ISLE initiative for setting standards: the Computational Lexicon Working Group for Multilingual Lexicons

ISLE (International Standards for Language Engineering), a transatlantic standards oriented initiative under the Human Language Technology (HLT) programme, is a continuation of the long standing EAGLES (Expert Advisory Group for Language Engineering Standards) initiative, carried out by European and American groups within the EU-US International Research Co-operation, supported by NSF and EC. The objective is to support HLT R&D international and national projects, and HLT industry, by developing and promoting widely agreed and urgently demanded HLT standards and guidelines for infrastructural language resources, tools, and HLT products. ISLE targets the areas of multilingual computational lexicons (MCL), natural interaction and multimodality (NIMM), and evaluation. For MCL, ISLE is working to: extend EAGLES work on lexical semantics, necessary to establish inter-language links; design standards for multilingual lexicons; develop a prototype tool to implement lexicon guidelines; create EAGLES-conformant sample lexicons and tag corpora for validation purposes; develop standardised evaluation procedures for lexicons. For NIMM, a rapidly innovating domain urgently requiring early standardisation, ISLE work is targeted to develop guidelines for: creation of NIMM data resources; interpretative annotation of NIMM data, including spoken dialogue; annotation of discourse phenomena. For evaluation, ISLE is working on: quality models for machine translation systems; maintenance of previous guidelines - in an ISO based framework. We concentrate in the paper on the Computational Lexicon Working Group, describing in detail the proposals of guidelines for the "Multilingual ISLE Lexical Entry" (MILE). We highlight some methodological principles applied in previous EAGLES, and followed in defining MILE. We also provide a description of the EU SIMPLE semantic lexicons built on the basis of previous EAGLES recommendations. Their importance is given by the fact that these lexicons are now enlarged to real-size lexicons within National Projects in 8 EU countries, thus building a really large infrastructural platform of harmonised lexicons in Europe. We will stress the relevance of standardised language resources also for the humanities applications. Numerous theories, approaches, systems are taken into account in ISLE, as any recommendation for harmonisation must build on the major contemporary approaches. Results will be widely disseminated, after validation in collaboration with EU and US HLT R&D projects, and industry. EAGLES work towards de facto standards has already allowed the field of Language Resources to establish broad consensus on key issues for some well-established areas - and will allow similar consensus to be achieved for other important areas through the ISLE project - providing thus a key opportunity for further consolidation and a basis for technological advance. EAGLES previous results in many areas have in fact already become de facto widely adopted standards, and EAGLES itself is a well-known trademark and a point of reference for HLT projects.Hosted by the Scholarly Text and Imaging Service (SETIS), the University of Sydney Library, and the Research Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences (RIHSS), the University of Sydney

Improving EU Constitutional Politics? A Preliminary Assessment of the Convention

The Convention appears to many as both a confirmation of the thesis of the new institutionalism on the value of institutions for shaping the outcome of constitutional politics (the politics of creating EU fundamental rules) and a new model for democratic deliberative politics. From this second perspective, there is no doubt that it significantly improves EU constitutional politics but, when viewed against stringent procedural requirements defining the deliberation process, some defects appear. Representativity, procedures, the consensus rule and the Convention mandate provide standards to measure the criteria for assessing the democratic and legitimate character of the Convention.constitutional change; democracy; legitimacy; European Convention; treaty reform; political science

from regular to strictly locally testable languages

Comment: In Proceedings WORDS 2011, arXiv:1108.341

Knowledge formalization in experience feedback processes : an ontology-based approach

Because of the current trend of integration and interoperability of industrial systems, their size and complexity continue to grow making it more difficult to analyze, to understand and to solve the problems that happen in their organizations. Continuous improvement methodologies are powerful tools in order to understand and to solve problems, to control the effects of changes and finally to capitalize knowledge about changes and improvements. These tools involve suitably represent knowledge relating to the concerned system. Consequently, knowledge management (KM) is an increasingly important source of competitive advantage for organizations. Particularly, the capitalization and sharing of knowledge resulting from experience feedback are elements which play an essential role in the continuous improvement of industrial activities. In this paper, the contribution deals with semantic interoperability and relates to the structuring and the formalization of an experience feedback (EF) process aiming at transforming information or understanding gained by experience into explicit knowledge. The reuse of such knowledge has proved to have significant impact on achieving themissions of companies. However, the means of describing the knowledge objects of an experience generally remain informal. Based on an experience feedback process model and conceptual graphs, this paper takes domain ontology as a framework for the clarification of explicit knowledge and know-how, the aim of which is to get lessons learned descriptions that are significant, correct and applicable