A Manifesto for Open Language Technology

We, the undersigned, declare our support for the following principles to be upheld by all vendors, producers and distributors in the software and digital services industries:
  • Open localisation: all software should be localisable independently of the producer of the software.
  • Open interfaces: all language-related programming interfaces should be open by default.
  • Open resources: all language resources should be open and accessible for everyone, given the permission of the language community.
  • Accessible standards: language-related international standards should be respected, fully implemented and implementations should be updated regularly.

We believe adherence to the above principles would lead to a better world for indigenous and minority languages, and agree that it is of utmost importance to push ahead with enabling indigenous self-determination in the digital realm.

Signatories

Quotes

“Тэгкэ ле̄в чофта важнэ я шӯрр кэ̄жьнэгк удць кӣле гуэйкэ. Быдҍсувв кырьйхэ я паӆьпсэ компьютренҍ ке̄һпсэнне я рэ̄зха.”

Michael Rießler, Head (The Freiburg Research Group in Saami Studies)

“El segle XXI és el segle de la digitalització de les llengües. L'única forma de no perdre moltíssimes llengües és obrir els recursos i les interfícies, i permetre l'accés i participació de les comunitats de parlants.”

Joan Montané

“This is of great importance!”

Kent Svahnstrom

An initiative of Divvun and Giellatekno.