Open Source: the new paradigm for international digital content development? LRC '04: Open Source Localisation September 2004

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Localisation: Open Source What is open source? How has the open source achieved such a depth and breadth of language coverage? How can the open source movement leverage the existing developments of the proprietary localisation industry? What do the large multinational digital content providers have to learn from the success?

All software is written with source code  Open Source software code protected by a special license that ensures everyone has access to that code Freedom means choice. Choice means power  Proprietary software development occurs within one company Programmers write code, hide it behind binaries, charge customers to use the software then charge them more to fix it when it breaks  Linux is a major new operating system that was developed using open source methodologies  Linux is FREE ~ if your time is worth nothing

Open source and Closed source

The state of open source today The open source model has proven itself ● Delivering fully competitive operating system and application environments Customers are adopting open source solutions because they provide unbeatable price/performance, security, and vendor independence Open source is now in the mainstream ● Suppliers – OEMs, ISVs, channels, technology integrators ● Customers – corporate, academia, commerce, government, end users

Why open source? Standards. Technology built on true open standards Value. Customers pay for what they need. Lower TCO Innovation. Unmatched speed of development model Quality. Open source model builds better software Choice. No vendor lock-in Flexibility. Full customization capability Nov. 2002

Rise of Linux “Are you planning to increase your Linux usage in the next two years?” [Base: 50 $1 billion-plus companies] 2002 Share Yes No, usage decreases No, usage stays flat Don't know 2% 72% 6% 20% Forrester Research, March 2003

Soon Only Two Operating Systems Will Matter Source: IDC, Sep Note: Only paid shipments are included

Customers

The Contribution Paradigm Horizontal - Desktops, Web Browsers, Office Suites ● Applications with a broad user base, gain volunteer contributions in many areas: ● Software Developers, Technical Translators, Writers ● Majority of GNOME and KDE desktops translated by volunteers Vertical – CAD, Graphic Tools ● Applications with a specialized purpose gain volunteer contributions from the specialist and limited number of users Vendor Contributions ● Vendors generally have specific time tables and quality criteria ● Pay technical translators to contribute to open source projects ● Coordinate localization quality assurance and testing ● Develop internationalization software and support

Fedora Project The Fedora Project is a Red-Hat-sponsored and community- supported open source project It is also a proving ground for new technology that may eventually make its way into Red Hat products It is not a supported product of Red Hat, Inc. The goal of The Fedora Project is to work with the Linux community to build a complete, general purpose operating system exclusively from free software Development will be done in a public forum The project will produce time-based releases of Fedora Core about 2-3 times a year with a public release schedule.

Fedora Project Translation goals of the project ● Foster community of quality ● Focus on establishing reference terminology ● Establish roles and responsibilities via Translator Portal ● Self-organising system Fedora Red Hat Enterprise Linux Innovators Early Adopters Early Majority Late Majority Laggards The Chasm

Fedora: Translator Interface

Fedora: Performance 879 Volunteer Translators for 77 Languages

GNOME Project The goal of the GNOME Translation Project is to translate GNOME applications and documentation to every language in existance Tasks ● Translate po files ● Translate general user documents ● Translate application documentation Status ● GNOME 2.8: 88 Languages ● Including Complex Text Languages, such as Thai, Indic, and Arabic

Open Source Globalisation: Summary Software Internationalization ● mature multi-lingual (Unicode) graphic toolkits: ● Qt, GTK+ ● maturing input method technology: ● IIIMF – Red Hat/QUT Research Project ● wide ranging locale support in system libraries: ● glibc, 160+ locales defined Software Localization ● mature message string processing library, gettext Multilingual Documents and Data ● no dominate process or toolkit Multilingual Websites ● no dominate process or toolkit

Learning Opportunities from Proprietary World Beyond software applications ● open source moving into documentation, web applications ● Proprietary localization industry has already faced these challenges Standards for multilingual document translation ● TMX - kbabel initial support ● XLIFF - kbabel (Red Hat/QUT Research Topic)

Opportunities for digital content providers Open source vendors still require translation services ● need to work with open source formats ● open source community is a meritocracy ● prior volunteer contributions have significant value ● community engagement is paramount Open source will soon meet localization open standards ● improve ability to interact with open source vendors, and community The time is now ● Linux is the fastest growing operating system in the world! In a CIO Magazine survey of 375 IT executives, 54% said within five years their dominant platform would be open source.