Human Language Technology Audit 2017/18
Project type: Node Specialisation Project
Project Start Date: 1 July 2017
Project Status: completed
Project Objective:
This project aimed to provide information on the state of HLT R&D in South Africa. Specifically, to replicate the HLT audit completed in 2009 and to update the information on the various HLT tools, resources and applications identified in the 2009 audit. The tools, resources and applications developed since 2009 will be identified and categorised using a more updated version of the technology matrix previously employed.
Summary of the project:
This document reports on all work conducted in the 2017/18 Audit of human language technology (HLT) resources available in South Africa project. The purpose of conducting the HLT Audit 2017/18 is to update the previous HLT Audit conducted by Sharma Grover in 2009 as part of her research thesis. Increased activity in the HLT field in South Africa, an increase in the number of institutions undertaking HLT research and development (R&D) in the country, the increased local interest in digital humanities as a field of study and the recent establishment of the South African Centre for Digital Language Resources, form part of the rationale for undertaking this project – eight years after the previous Audit.
The HLT Audit 2017/18 project consists of five work packages encompassing the Audit design, instrument development, execution, and analysis, as well as a work package aimed at designing a dynamic Audit update system which will enable entities involved in HLT R&D to upload the outputs of their work as this becomes available.
The HLT Research Group at the CSIR Meraka Institute collaborated with the South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR) and the Resource Management Agency (RMA) to achieve the desired outcomes of the project.
This final report provides detailed information on the work completed from 1 July 2017 to 31 August 2018.