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<Paper uid="W03-0811">
  <Title>ing in Language Generation: An Abstract Reference</Title>
  <Section position="7" start_page="0" end_page="0" type="concl">
    <SectionTitle>
6 Conclusion
</SectionTitle>
    <Paragraph position="0"> MULTIPLATFORM provides a practical framework for large-scale software integration that results from the realization of various natural language and multimodal dialog systems. The MULTIPLATFORM testbed is based on an open component architecture which employs message-passing to interconnect distributed software modules. We propose to operationalize interface specifications in the form of an XML language as a viable approach to assemble knowledge-based as well as conventional components into an integrated dialog system. The testbed software is currently being refactored and we are planning to make it publicly available as open source software.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="1"> More than one hundred modules have already been used within the MULTIPLATFORM testbed. So far, however, these dialog system components are not freely available for public distribution. The availability of prefabricated modules as part of the testbed software would also enable third parties to develop complete dialog system applications through the reuse of provided standard components.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="2"> In addition to the software infrastructure, the practical organization of the project constitutes a key factor for the successful realization of an integrated multimodal dialog system. Stepwise improvement and implementation of the design of architecture details and interfaces necessitates an intensive discussion process that has to include all participants who are involved in the realization of system components in order to reach a common understanding of the intended system behavior. Independent integration experts that focus on the overall dialog system have proven to be helpful for the coordination of this kind of activities.</Paragraph>
  </Section>
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