Question 1

What is Somast?

Accepted Answer

Somast is a research company building datasets, models, and language technology for Somali and other underrepresented African languages.

Question 2

Are your datasets and models open?

Accepted Answer

We publish Somali datasets, model checkpoints, tokenizers, and evaluation tools under open licences. Each release states its own licence.

Question 3

Who is Somast for?

Accepted Answer

Researchers, developers, students, and public institutions building or studying AI for Somali, plus anyone who wants to contribute to low-resource language technology.

Question 4

How can I use your work?

Accepted Answer

Browse and download released datasets and models from our repositories, cite our research, or build on our tokenizers. Released resources can be used under their stated licenses.

Question 5

Why focus on Somali specifically?

Accepted Answer

Somali is spoken by more than 20 million people yet remains severely underrepresented in modern AI. Building strong local data and models is the fastest path to inclusion, and a template for other African languages.

Question 6

How can organizations partner with you?

Accepted Answer

We collaborate with universities, NGOs, and companies through research partnerships, data initiatives, sponsorships, and applied projects in education, health, and agriculture.

Question 7

How accurate is whisper-som-small?

Accepted Answer

It reaches 11.4% word error rate on held-out Somali radio audio, trained on 320 hours of aligned speech with word-level timestamps.

Question 8

How much more efficient is somast-tokenizer than general-purpose tokenizers?

Accepted Answer

It averages 1.34 tokens per Somali word, versus 2.63 for BERT-base and 1.81 for XLM-RoBERTa-base on the same held-out text, about 2× fewer tokens than BERT, which means shorter sequences and cheaper training and inference for downstream Somali models.

Question 9

What is Soplang, and is it related to the AI models?

Accepted Answer

Soplang is a separate, MIT-licensed, Somali-inspired programming language. It is not an AI model. It is a separate Somast project to build technology in Somali.

Question 10

Are the datasets and models free to use?

Accepted Answer

Yes, for the releases listed on our Hugging Face organisation. License terms vary by release, so check the license listed on each dataset or model card before using it in production.

Question 11

Which models are available right now?

Accepted Answer

whisper-som-small for speech recognition, somast-tokenizer for Somali-native tokenization, and som-en-mt for Somali-English translation. See the Models section for details on each.

Question 12

Is hosting really included?

Accepted Answer

Yes. While you have an active maintenance agreement with Somast, your domain, hosting and business email are included, with no separate bills.

Question 13

What is a maintenance agreement?

Accepted Answer

It is the ongoing agreement in which we keep your software running, secure and up to date. It is how we cover the cost of your hosting, domain and email.

Question 14

Who owns my domain?

Accepted Answer

You do. We register it in your name and keep its renewal dates on record.

Question 15

What happens when the agreement ends?

Accepted Answer

We hand over your files, database and DNS records and a short document about your setup. Your site stays online for 30 days so you can move it, or you can agree a new arrangement with us.

Question 16

Can I move my site somewhere else?

Accepted Answer

Yes, at any time. Ask us for the handover and we will help you move it.

Question 17

What does email include?

Accepted Answer

Business email addresses on your own domain, set up on your phone and computer. The number of mailboxes is agreed with your project.

Question 18

What does support cover?

Accepted Answer

Fixing problems, security updates, monitoring and small questions. New features and redesigns are quoted separately.

Question 19

How much does a project cost?

Accepted Answer

It depends on the scope. We agree it with you before we start, and nothing is charged until you accept the quote.

Question 20

Can I ask for maintenance only?

Accepted Answer

Yes. If you already have a website or app, we can take over its maintenance after a short review.

Question 21

Does it cost anything to partner?

Accepted Answer

No. A partnership is an agreement to work together. Sponsorship is one way to help but it is not required. Client work, such as software or data and AI projects, is quoted per project.

Question 22

Do we have to be a company?

Accepted Answer

No. Universities, community groups, schools, media and individuals with a clear plan are all welcome.

Question 23

How is our work licensed?

Accepted Answer

Our published datasets, models and code carry open licences. Client work is governed by your agreement with us. If your data cannot be shared, tell us in your message and we will say if we can still work together.

Question 24

Can you help with software or consulting?

Accepted Answer

Yes. We build, host and maintain software and do data and AI work for organisations, for example as Skilful's technology partner. See Services for what we offer, then contact us here.

Question 25

How long does an agreement take?

Accepted Answer

We reply within 5 working days. After that it depends on the size of the plan, from a few days for a small collaboration to a few weeks for a larger one.

Question 26

How do I join?

Accepted Answer

Register for the webinar. We email you the join link and a calendar file, and send the link again the day before.

Question 27

Which time zone are the times in?

Accepted Answer

East Africa Time (EAT, UTC+3). Your own local time is shown next to it.

Question 28

Can I watch later?

Accepted Answer

Recordings are added to this page after the event where the speakers agree. If you registered, we email you the link.

Question 29

What happens to my details?

Accepted Answer

We use them to run the webinar and send you the join link and recording. They are deleted 12 months after the event. Write to info@somast.so to have them removed sooner.

Question 30

What is this glossary?

Accepted Answer

Plain-language explanations of AI and data terms, from tokenization to RAG, written for people without a computer science background.

Question 31

Are the terms ranked by difficulty?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Each entry is tagged Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced, with related terms linked so you can follow a topic from fundamentals to depth.

Question 32

Is it available in Somali?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The glossary entries are translated as well as the site navigation. Switch languages from the header to read it in Somali.

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