Community-driven Translation of Software and E-Content Education Without Borders 2007 Asgeir Frimannsson

My Background Internationalised from Birth Passionate about Open Source Software 2 years of localisation-related research at QUT – Red Hat Honours Scholarship in Software Internationalisation nd Year of a PhD looking at Translation Reuse in Community-driven Localisation

The role of Language A strong binding factor for a culture and people Example: The European Union – 23 official languages – EUR 1.1 billion annually in translation & interpreting services (2005) – 1% of annual budget(!) “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart” - Nelson Mandela - [Source:

The role of Language Children Learn faster when taught in their mother tongue (Mehrotra, 1998, quoted in Brock-Utne, 2001) Technology is a key factor to the survival of a language (Crystal, 2000:143) “Digitally Endangered Languages” (Bailey, 2006) – Languages with little or no presence in technology

Localisation & Translation Localisation: The process of modifying a product to a specific language, culture and region – Cultural Adjustments (e.g. colours, images, etiquette) – Political Adjustments – Legal Adjustments The major component is Translation of textual content

Open Source Software Software that is free to modify and redistribute Developed by a global community of contributors – Strong Commercial Support Greatest Hits: – Mozilla Firefox – OpenOffice.org – Linux Distributions

Open Source Software Great for developing nations! – Can be used on cheaper, old hardware – No licensing costs – Very Customizable [Source:

Community-driven Translation “The process through which a community may contribute their language and cultural knowledge to enable localisation of a product to their region and language” Originated in the translation of open source software Now practiced by some large vendors – Microsoft, Google

Community-driven Translation Vendor- driven Localisation Motivated by financial gain Policy- driven Localisation Motivated by Laws and Regulations Community- driven Localisation Motivated by a local need

The Community Native Language Speakers A representative in a local community that sees a need. – Often not the typical User of the Product Participants – Governments – Universities – Non-Government Organisations – Resourceful Individuals – Localisation Service Providers(!)

The Evolution Translation initially performed by developers – Tightly integrated with the development process – Limited tool support Open Source Software has since enjoyed tremendous success – Translation driven by end-users and vendors – Work being done to make the translation process more user friendly – Translator-friendly tools

Example: Rosetta and Pootle Web-based translation systems – Allows contributors to translate open source applications using their web browser

Current Limitations Translation is a ridiculously technical task – Steep Learning Curve – Better tool support needed Operating System Support for New Languages – Fonts, Input Methods, Keyboard Layouts – Date and Number formats A few people do a lot of the work – Burnouts

Community-driven Translation The Internet is enabling creativity, communication and sharing like never before – YouTube, Flickr, MySpace, Blogs, Wikis – Easy to Learn, Easy to Use, Easy to Share – According to Time Magazine, [You] are the person of the year Can we channel this innovation to the benefit of community-driven translation? – Software, Educational Material, Web content [2.0]

Thank You A/Prof James M. Hogan, QUT Red Hat Internationalisation Team