The Universal Networking Language Project in Cooperation with the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA)
Posted on
Alexandria — The Universal Networking Language (UNL) program was initiated within the United Nations and devised by the Universal Networking Digital Language (UNDL) Foundation. The project aims at enabling all people to generate information and have access to cultural knowledge in their native languages. UNL is an artificial language attempting to replicate the functions of natural language in human communication. UNL applications will vary including creating multilingual web pages, UNL encyclopedia, etc. Currently, 15 languages have been incorporated and a number of institutions have started to work on their respective native languages.
In July 2004, partnership with the UNDL was established and an agreement was signed in favor of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina to host the Ibrahim Shihata Arabic-UNL Center (ISAUC). The Center is funded by the ARAB Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD) in honor of the memory of Dr. Ibrahim Shihata, an international jurist and expert on international developments, and a great promoter of Arabic culture. ISAUC will play the major role in designing and implementing the Arabic component in the development of this language and will act as an active language center for Arabic.
In June 2005, progress had been made in three different components. Firstly, the Arabic Dictionary has been designed and the first version has been produced with about 49,000 entries. In addition, the workflow has been established for developing the Deco rules within the Arabic deconversion component and the Deco rules design has been completed. Finally, design of the UNL Library Information Systems (LIS) is in progress in preparation for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).