Lingua Libre/SignIt/2022/Phase 2

Hello team.

Second state of the art after the 2022 Lingua Libre Hackathon, where I worked a lot on SignIt.

Project

Project definition

A project page now defines this project : Lingua Libre/SignIt.

The raison d'être of the project was posed in alignment with the strategic axes of the Wikimedia Foundation (inclusiveness):

Lingua Libre SignIt aims to increase awareness and mastery of signed languages among the general public.

[...] We believe universal and transgenerational designs helps individuals and society to be more resilient, inclusive, peaceful and efficient.

Target audiences

In consumption, the general public of all major languages.

In production, signers in French (LSF) and foreign signed languages.

Coding

Summer 2022 > SignIt > Phase

The effort was conducted through one month of development by myself, in two phases:

• Phase 1 pre-hackathon: handling and repair of the existing (see previous report)
• Phase 2 hackathon and post-hackathon: addition of functionalities in view of an improved and multi-league compatible service.

Phase 1 (2022), bugs fix

LinguaLibre SignIt addon is simply back running.

Phase 2 (2022), adding features

Developments carried out on Phase 2:

1. Added "double video playback, normal then slow speed" option
2. Added "sign language choice" option
3. Added "choice of interface language" option
4. Added "quick access icon"
5. Added "colorization of available words"
6. Added a location system (i18n), for point 3.

On the organizational side:

1. Added the project to Translatewiki.
2. Project page creation: Lingua Libre/SignIt.

Phase 3 (2022), systematic user interface translations

1. User interface translations into 13 high-usage languages.
2. User interface translations into +30 languages and +32 locales: ar,de,en,es,fr,he,hi,it,ja,kk,ko,mk,nb,pt,pt-br,ru ,scn,sv,tl,tr,zh-hans,zh-hant,sw,…

The application is now stable and friendly, ready to solicit target audiences.

Staled due to LinguaLibre bugs

Fixed, see Lingua_Libre/SignIt/2023/Phase 1#2023 URFIST Occitanie sponsoring.

The project's growth is stale due to few bugs LinguaLibre's video recording studio which is necessary to produce new videos. The following 3 bugs degrading or preventing participative contribution :

• T312554 - Sign language video recordings appear as audio on Commons.
• T316097 - Sign language video recording stuck on first word forever.
• T316104 - RecordWizard always default to audio recording even if user's default language is signed.

These lingua libre bugs are well documented, explained, and seem fixable by professional PHP / JS developper.

Current assets

SignIt is now able support displaying multiple signed languages since its recent UI expansion (Phase 2). Yet, the project is a pilote with French only contents so far.

Language	Quantity	Contributor	How	Comment
LSF	560	Laura Jauvert	Import via bot	Based on longer free licence Youtube video and bot by Edouard Lopez.
LSF	100	Association Elix	Import via bot.	Initially a collaboration, they eventually cancelled it to develop their own extension based on our idea.
LSF	~6	User:0x010C	Record Studio (Video)	Tests, worked.
LSF	~10	User:Yug	Record Studio (Video)	Tests, videos displayed as audio.

Strategy

Vision

Outreach is possible to:

• French (LSF) and foreign signed communities.
• foreign Wikimedian communities, as relays.

Development partnerships are possible: the modest-sized extension can be handled in a few days, accessible to computer science students.

The interest of the developers seems visible:

• Amire80 (Israel, i18n), Manu1400 (France, JS best practices), Kravekdu (France, translation) made minor contributions.
• The Github directory (stable) lists possible further developments.
• The extension seems portable to other browsers.

Competition and alliances

Note: this section worth expanding in the future.

Wikisigns.org

This active project mainly in 2014~2015.

They index and load their videos from Youtube.

The site is CC-by, but the videos themselves are hosted on Yourtube and the copyright status are unclear and likely diverse.

Their production chain is archaic compared to Lingualibre Record Wizard (video).

⇒ Friction = opportunity for innovation (Lingua Libre recording) = possible collaboration.

Their network is interesting and a possible axis of development for the Lingualibre civic service. See pending contacts.

Elix Bubble

The extension La Bulle Elix

• is better made.
• has a good lead on the video side with 25,000 videos, while we have just 660.
• Francophone, not open licensed and without RecordWizard, Elix's growth potential in France and abroad is therefore nearly nil.

→ We can catch up with them with 60 hours of video recording, assuming Lingua Libre Recording Studio is fixed.

Video creation

Lingua Libre Recording Studio can video record 400 signed words per hour.

This remains the most effective way to boost Lingualibre SignIt.

This system, which worked for 2 years, requires debugging.

Top priorities

For more recent developments, see 2023/Phase 1 and 2023/Phase 2.

Reminder:

1. SignIt is attracting public interest, the extension is easy to use, sign languages are really easy to learn, every public can consume bits of it.
2. SignIt has activist contributors at reach, contacted, ready to produce content when the recording system is fixed.
3. SignIt is ready to receive content in various sign languages and valorize immediately those content toward 20+ of the largest lingusitic communities.
4. Wikimedia has the visibility and userbase to make SignIt a popular extension and actually spread sign language mastery. (inclusivity)
5. SignIt present a low-hanging opportunities, easy to seize.

The priority is therefore to :

1. remedy the remaining bugs on LinguaLibre" (see above)
2. make SignIt known to our networks in order to...
3. identify, contact, and "activate" willing signers.

See also "Minimalist guide to creating signed videos".

Closing of phase 2

The code, repository (tickets, docs), and wiki pages (meta, translatewiki) are stable and clean.

This 2nd post-hackathon inventory closes the refloating and the 2022 summer sprint.

This report will be published on meta.

Best regards, Yug (talk) 18:45, 16 September 2022 (UTC)

See also

• WikiCon Strategies