Several sets of tests are now available related to line breaks, word breaks and hyphenation in CSS3 Text and Unicode Standard Annex #14 (Line Breaking Properties). Some of the tests are rewrites of previous tests in the Internationalization Activity test suite. There are also many new tests.

See the main i18n test page for list of tests and results for major browsers. The tests are also published in the i18n-css3-text test suite in the W3C Test Harness.

The previous set of tests in the Internationalization Activity test suite looking at white space handling for various non-Latin scripts has been rewritten and published today. The new tests are based on behavior described in the CSS3 Text Module. These tests explore, in particular, how browsers render text in Asian and South-East Asian scripts when white space appears at the end or beginning of a line in the source text.

A list of tests and a snapshot of results for major browsers is available. The tests are also published in the i18n-css3-text test suite in the W3C Test Harness.

The results page is the latest to be adapted so that the results shown are automatically pulled from the W3C Test Harness database when the page is displayed. This functionality has now been extended to all test results pages using the new format.

A new version of Internationalization Tag Set (ITS) 2.0draft has just been published as a Working Draft.

ITS 2.0 responds to current and future needs to extend ITS 1.0, that is: provide metadata (ITS “data categories”) also for HTML5, use the data categories for RDF, and add new data categories relevant for localization and language technologies.

In addition to various clarifications and smaller changes, this second version of the document provides several new data categories discussed during the MultilingualWeb workshop in Dublin in June (e.g. Domain and Locale Filter).

Please take a look at the new version, and send any comments to public-multilingualweb-lt-comments@w3.org (subscribe at the archive main page). Use “ITS 2.0 WD Comment” at the beginning the subject line of your email, and add something descriptive after it.

Send any comments before the end of August. We are planning to publish a new working draft in late August, and a feature complete “last call” working draft in November.

The program page of the 5th MultilingualWeb Workshop in Dublin on Multilingual Linked Open Data and the MultilingualWeb-LT Requirements has now been updated with links to speakers’ slides, IRC logs, and video recordings (hosted by Videolectures). It also includes links to social media information (such as tweets) about the workshop. If you have any blog posts, photos, etc. online that you would like to add to the page, please let Arle Lommel ( arle.lommel@dfki.de) know so that we can link to them from this page.

The workshop was a great success. While intentionally smaller than previous Multilingual Web workshops, it brought together many of the world’s leading experts in the emerging field of linked open data and multilingual linked open data. Thanks to the efforts of the excellent speakers and the local organizers at Trinity College Dublin, the program was of great benefit to attendees.

A summary report of the workshop will follow soon.

After discussing requirements at a dedicated workshop in June, the MultilingualWeb-LT Working Group has published a first public working draft of Internationalization Tag Set (ITS ) 2.0.

ITS 2.0 responds to needs that emerged since the creation of ITS 1.0 in 2007. First, ITS 2.0 focuses on HTML5. We can expect that huge amounts of Web content will be produced using HTML5 in the future, and ITS 2.0 will provide the means to properly internationalize and localize HTML5, using both human translation or language technologies like machine translation.

In addition, ITS 2.0 builds bridges to the Semantic Web area, by providing mechanisms to re-use ITS metadata (so-called “data categories”) with RDF.

Finally, ITS 2.0 defines new data categoriesthat are demanded by the localization and language technology communities.

The development of this first draft of ITS 2.0 would not have been possible without the MultilingualWeb project: via MultilingualWeb, stakeholders of quite diverse communities have provided input to the initial metadata definitions. The W3C Internationalization Activityis now the place for these communities to move that metadata and its implementations forward.

We very much welcome feedback also from outside the Working Group – see issues discussed within the Working Group . Please send your comments to public-multilingualweb-lt-comments@w3.org . Use “ITS 2.0 WD Comment” at the beginning the subject line of your email, and add something descriptive after it. The archives for this listare publicly available.

Editors: Dave Lewis (TCD), Arle Lommel (DFKI), Felix Sasaki (DFKI/W3C Fellow), Jirka Kosek (UEP)

A report summarizing the MultilingualWeb workshop in Luxembourg is now available from the MultilingualWeb site. Alongside the summaries are links to slides, video recordings, and the IRC log for each speaker and the discussion sessions.

Entitled “The Multilingual Web – The Way Ahead”, the workshop surveyed and shared information about currently available best practices and standards that can help content creators and localizers address the needs of the multilingual Web. Attendees also heard about gaps that need to be addressed, and enjoyed opportunities to network and share information between the various different communities involved in enabling the multilingual Web.

This workshop also included a half-day Open Space discussion session run by Jaap van der Meer of TAUS, where attendees split into breakout groups to discuss topics of their own choosing.

You can also find links to videos, slides, etc as well as links to social media related to the event on the program pageof the workshop.

This is the final workshop in the series belonging to the first MultilingualWeb project. The MultilingualWeb-LT project, which follows on from the original project, is holding a workshop in Dublin on 11-13 June entitled The Multilingual Web – Linked Open Data and MultilingualWeb-LT Requirementsand plans to hold additional workshops next year that will be similar in format to those run so far.

Over the past five years since its release in 2007 the Internationalization Tag Set (ITS) has shown itself to be a very powerful tool for simplifying the translation of XML content, but a lot has changed since then as improved technologies to support translation have emerged and we have seen greater levels of integration between content production and translation. As a result new needs have emerged and the W3C’s MultilingualWeb-LT Working Groupwas formed to develop ITS version 2.0 (ITS 2.0) to respond to these needs.

Requirements for Internationalization Tag Set (ITS) 2.0gathers metadata categories – essentially items like ways to indicate whether or not specific text should be translated, support for machine translation, and so forth – developed within the MultilingualWeb-LT Working Group. The proposed metadata targets web content (primarily HTML5) and “deep Web” content, such as content stored in a content management system (CMS) or XML files from which HTML pages are generated, that facilitates its interaction with multilingual technologies and localization processes.

In order to ensure that the proposed metadata categories reflect the needs of the organizations that produce and translate content, interested parties should review the document and send comments to public-multilingualweb-lt-comments@w3.org. (You can also join the public discussion list and view its archive ). We also invite you to review the issues discussed within the Working Group.

We will discuss the draft at the upcoming MultilingualWeb workshopand plan to publish a new version of the document incorporating public feedback by the end of June 2012, followed by a first draft publication of the ITS 2.0 specification.

(If you are interested in taking a more active role in working on ITS 2.0 you may also register for the Dublin workshop, at no fee, until May 30. See the call for participationfor more details.)

Editors: Dave Lewis (TCD), Arle Lommel (DFKI), Felix Sasaki (DFKI/W3C Fellow)

The program has been publishedfor the upcoming W3C MultilingualWeb workshop on Linked Open Data and the MultilingualWeb-LT Project Requirements in Dublin, 11–13 June 2012.

Divided into two portions, the first day (11 June) will focus on Linked Open Data. The keynote presentation will be given by David Orban, CEO of dotSUB, who will be followed by a full day of presentations on various aspects of Linked Open Data. The following two days will deal more specifically with development of the MultilingualWeb-LT project’s requirements document. Speakers come from organizations like Adobe Systems, the European Commission, the World Wide Web Consortium, and leading research institutions from around the world.

See the Call for Participationfor details about how to register for the workshop. Participation in the workshop is free.

Important: The deadline for registration is May 30. Please be sure to register by then.

The MultilingualWeb workshops, funded by the European Commission and coordinated by the W3C, looks at best practices and standards related to all aspects of creating, localizing and deploying the multilingual Web. The workshops are successful because they attracted a wide range of participants, from fields such as localization, language technology, browser development, content authoring and tool development, etc., to create a holistic view of the interoperability needs of the multilingual Web.

We look forward to seeing you in Dublin!

The deadline for submissions to speak at the Multilingual Web – Linked Open Data and MultilingualWeb-LT Requirements in Dublin has been extended until 9 May. We are building a strong program with expected contributions from Adobe, the Centre for Next Generation Localisation, the Italian National Research Council (CNR), the European Commission, Google, and many others, and we will be filling the remaining slots soon.

If you want to speak at the event registeras soon as possible.

This MultilingualWeb workshop will be held in Dublin, Ireland, hosted by Trinity College Dublin.

The purpose of this workshop is two-fold: first, to discuss the intersection between Linked Open Data and Multilingual Technologies (11 June), and second, to discuss Requirements of the W3C MultilingualWeb-LT Working Group(12 – 13 June). We expect that both topics will attract an overlapping set of participants, and we hope to increase the overlap by this workshop.

Participation is free. We welcome participation from both speakers and non-speaking attendees. For more information and to register, see the Call for Participation.