Abstract

COCOSDA is an international organization for coordinating the globalized efforts in language resources and speech technology evaluation. Currently, COCOSDA is organized with a structure which reflects the two dimensions of its functionalities: "Topic Domains" and "Regional Programs". The former considers the dynamic technology environments, while the latter addresses the regional differences and activities. Four topic domains have been established: Evaluation of Speech Understanding/Dialogue Systems, Multi-Modal Corpora, Corpus Annotation Tools and Local Languages. Six regional programs are currently present: North America, Europe, Asia, Oceania, Latin America and Africa. In this report the recent developments of COCOSDA, starting with the previous COCOSDA Workshop at Eurospeech, Budapest 1999, including all relevant activities and programs and the current organization of the Central Coordinating Committee (CCC), will be briefly reported.

I. Introduction

The goal of COCOSDA is to set up, encourage and support globalized coordination and cooperation in developing spoken language resources and technology assessment methodologies. Collaboration in these areas which transcends national boundaries is important both because of the scientific value attached to such systematic work encompassing large number of languages and analytical approaches, and also because of the practical need to establish common methodologies for technology performance description and quantitative comparison The initiative for such international efforts came about as the result of a series of meetings:

- March 1982, Gaithersburg, USA

- September 1989, Noordwijkerhout, the Netherlands

- November 1990, Kobe, Japan

- September 1991, Chiavari, Italy

Starting 1992, formal COCOSDA Workshops have been held yearly as satellite events as ICSLP in even years and Eurospeech in odd years. These include:

─October 1992, Banff, Canada, ICSLP'92

─September 1993, Berlin, Germany, EUROSPEECH '93

─September 1994, Yokohama, Japan, ICSLP'94

─September 1995, Madrid, Spain, EUROSPEECH '95

─October 1996, Philadelphia, USA, ICSLP'96

─September 1997, Rhodes, Greece, EUROSPEECH '97

─November 1998, Sydney, Australia, ICSLP'98

─September 1999, Budapest, Hungary, Eurospeech '99

These annual workshops have been serving as forums for informal presentation of the state of the art, discussions, and decisions on actions to be taken during the following year.

II. Recent Developments

During the Budapest meeting held in Sept 1999 at Eurospeech, it was proposed that COCOSDA should organize〝topic domains〞and 〝regional Programs〞as the two dimensions of its functionalities. The〝topic domains〞reflect the global issues including the dynamic technology environments, while〝regional programs〞address the regional differences and activities. Each〝topic domain〞or〝regional program〞can be organized by a 〝rapporteur〞, whose responsibilities include organizing presentations or sessions in COCOSDA Workshops. Some possible titles for 〝topic domains〞were suggested. It was also suggested that the Central Coordinating Committee（CCC）of COCOSDA should be re-organized, and some possible names for convenor , deputy convenor for 2000-2001 were suggested.

In March 2000, a few key officers were decided via e-mails. Lin-shan Lee at National Taiwan University , Taiwan was assigned the duty as the convenor, and Khalid Choukri of ELRA , France as the deputy convenor. Two new topic domains were then decided via e-mail discussions: the topic domain of〝Evaluation of Speech Understanding / Dialogue Systems〞has Wolfgang Minker of Daimlerchrysler , Germany as its rapporteur, while the topic domain of〝Multi-modal Corpora〞has Satoshi Nakamura of ATR , Japan as its rapporteur. Three regional programs were also initiated, Khalid Choukri of ELRA, France as the rapporteur of Europe, Shuichi Itahashi of University of Tsukuba , Japan as the rapporteur of Asia, and Bruce Millar of Australian National University , Australia as the rapporteur of Oceania. Great efforts were also made in organizing sessions in ICSLP 2000 on Language Resources and Technology Evaluation, including a special session plus a regular session.

Much more actions were then taken during the Athens meetings held May/June 2000 at LREC conference. The Major conclusions of the meetings are summarized below.〝Corpus Annotation Tools〞and〝Local Languages〞could be two new topic domains, and possible rapporteurs were suggested. The term of "local languages" is to replace the previously used term of〝minority languages〞. Although many local languages are spoken in different regions , many issues regarding local languages are common across different regions（e.g. experiences in collecting corpora , technologies for developing applications , and social , cultural , economic considerations）, which could be addressed by this topic domain. Two new regional programs for Africa and Latin America could be established, since significant activities in collecting corpora and developing applications in these regions have been observed, and possible rapporteurs were suggested. Moreover, further approaches were discussed for making efficient use of the Web for COCOSDA activities to be accessed by the global research community.

Much more actions were then taken during June - Sept 2000.Two new topic domains were actually developed via e-mail discussions. The topic domain of〝Corpus Annotation Tools〞has Steven Bird of LDC , USA as its rapporteur, and the topic domain of 〝Local Languages〞has Dafydd Gibbon of University of Bielefeld , Germany as its rapporteur. Two new regional programs were established via e-mail discussions as well. Justus Roux of University of Stellenbosch, South Africa as the rapporteur for Africa, and Elsa Mora of University of Los Andes, Venezuela as the rapporteur for Latin America. The session organization（including a special and a regular sessions）in ICSLP 2000 was finalized. Generic Questionnaires were developed for topic domains and regions to collect information from the research community worldwide. Great efforts were also made trying to improve the COCOSDA Website. The COCOSDA Workshop and relevant activities in ICSLP 2000 were organized.

Ⅲ、Current Central Coordinating Committee（CCC）

The Central Coordinating Committee（CCC）has been re-organized. The Committee has two parts, a working group and an advisory committee. The CCC members as of Oct 2000 are listed below:

(Ⅰ)Working Group：

·Officers

─ convenor：Lin-shan Lee , Taiwan

─ deputy convenor：Khalid Choukri , France

─ secretary：Nick Campbell , Japan

· Topic Domain Rapporteurs

─ Evaluation of Speech Understanding / Dialogue Systems：Wolfgang Minker ,Germany

─ Multi-modal Corpora：Satoshi Nakamura , Japan

─ Corpus Annotation Tools：Steven Bird , USA

─ Local Languages：Dafydd Gibbon , Germany

· Regional Program Rapporteurs

─ Europe：Khalid Choukri , France

─ Asia：Shuichi Itahashi , Japan

─ Oceania：Bruce Millar , Australia

─ Africa：Justus Roux , South Africa

─ Latin America：Elsa Mora , Venezuela

· Data Center Representatives

─ LDC：Steven Bird , USA

─ ELRA：Khalid Choukri , France

(Ⅱ)Advisory Committee：

· Adrian Fourcin , UK

· Hiroya Fujisaki , Japan

· Akira Kurematsu , Japan

· Mark Liberman , USA

· Joseph Mariani , France

· Louis Pols , Netherlands

Ⅳ、More Information

More information about COCOSDA is available at the Website below:

http://www.itl.atr.co.jp/cocosda/