[Reader-list] Third post to the list on GNU/Linux L10n and ICT4D

[Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay]

Hi,

The subject for my proposal was "GNU/Linux L10n initiatives and their
impact on ICT4D efforts with special relevance to management of such
projects, integration and collaboration protocols, tools and
methodologies".

This post [3rd in order of posting] would thus be in two parts.

Here, in part 1, I'll provide the update on two of the major L10n
[localisation] teams - Hindi [www.indlinux.org] and Bangla
[www.bengalinux.org] with regards to project status and vision.

Part 2 will consider the special implementation domains of such L10n
as well as provide updates on the other L10n teams, namely Punjabi and
Malayalam.

The posts in the form of articles also appeared in the World News
Section of the Linux Magazine

http://www.linux-magazine.com/issue/42/Linux_World_News.pdf
[Correction in the print media]

http://www.linux-magazine.com/issue/43/Linux_World_News.pdf

Warm regards
Sankarshan

*****************************
The Tux speaks in Bengali

The group is just over a year old and it is already making a name for
itself in the Bengali Localisation [L10n] of GNU/Linux. The Ankur
Bangla Project has released the AnkurBangla LiveDesktop v1.0.
Sayamindu Dasgupta (Release Coordinator) prefers to call it a
'Technology Preview'. And that is exactly what it is. With features
being added to the previous beta release, the Technology Preview
(PaantoBhuter Jyaanto Chhaanaa) is rich with possibilities.

Updated packages include xine-lib (now at 1.0-rc1) and Gaim 0.72 (with
support for the newer avatars of MSN and Yahoo! protocols). The
documentation has been updated, and with this release, as soon as the
end users pops the CD into a Windows box, it autoruns with a nice HTML
page coming up with info about the CD and directions on how to boot
from it.

The Ankur group is the example of a classical F/LOSS organisation,
being exclusively virtual in nature. It comprises of hackers,
technologists, linguists, font designers, graphic artists and
enthusiasts from India and Bangladesh. Providing a completely
localised GNU/Linux OS is one of the core issues that this group takes
seriously. The Projects page lists quite a few of them like:

Bangla Archive Project or an archive of Public Domain works in Bengali
Lekho - a multiplatform editor and a document output program
BSpeller - a spellchecking program and a dictionary that is integrated
at the modular level in the LiveCD

Extensive screenshots are provided on the development page of the
Project at www.bengalinux.org.

The Ankur effort is being consolidated at 2 levels - a localised KDE
(with a possible release of a KDE LiveCD) and an enterprise scale
full-scale distribution. The group is also defining the paradigm of
Localised Low Cost Computing, something that is being referred to as
L2C2. Extending the concept of low cost computing, L2C2 involves
extensive customisation of the effort to produce a content rich
computing experience.

********************************
Hindi is the language of the Tux

In his now famous piece on Slashdot titled "Why Linux Makes Sense for
India", Prof Venkatesh (Venky) Hariharan argued that "the localisation
of Linux to Indian languages can spark off a revolution that reaches
down to the grassroots levels of the country". This simple statement
was the inspiration behind setting up IndLinux - The Indian Linux
Project [www.indlinux.org] with initial funding from Netcore
[www.netcore.co.in] and a handful of volunteers.

Addressing the need for localised software and interfaces, the
projects aims to build a fully Indian language enabled distro, with
focus on ease of use and functionality. With a small team of dedicated
volunteers, the IndLinux Project has come a long way. It has managed
to complete 80% of KDE 3.2, 20% of GNOME and 100% of Xfce string
translations. It has also released in the public domain localised
application sets based on GNOME and KDE , Xfce desktops in Hindi as
well as a bootable LiveCD with Indian language interface.

Screenshots of the project are available at

http://www.indlinux.org/hindi/gnome/gnome24.html - GNOME related
http://www.indlinux.org/hindi/kde/gallery/index.html - KDE related

Deployment of the efforts of the project centre around the end-user
primarily the personal desktop or community kiosk. The initial aim is
to provide a functional and localised computing experience which
enables the end-user to learn and reskill.

The project has seen a constant turnaround in the number of volunteers
with quite a few choosing to stay on throughout the lifetime. The
current requirement is for translators and language experts as well as
for people skilled in C/C++, Python, Perl and shell scripting.

IndLinux faces hurdles similar to other localisation projects. These
include small number of volunteers, coordination issues, font and
other technical issues. For Hindi in particular lack of standardized
terminology however has been addressed by creating their own set of
jargon.

IndLinux plans to initiate a Hindi translation project, which would
derive out of GNOME-KDE hindi work done so far. Aim is to have a large
team of translators who can work on technical and general translations
including user documentation. Later down the line there are plans to
integrate content development tools for anyone to develop Indian
language content rapidly.

IndLinux is also involved in team formation and initial support for
Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi and Telugu localisation initiatives.


End of Part 1 of 3rd post for Sarai Independent Research Fellowship
2004
******************************************






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