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Language teams wanted for FOSS "Africanisation" project

Submitted by Silvia on Mon, 08/24/2009 - 21:00.

The African Network for Localisation (ANLoc) - Localise Software sub-project is excited to announce a call for language teams to localise software into TEN African languages.

ANLoc Localise Software sub project is embarking on a new localisation initiative and is urgently seeking language teams.

ICT is necessarily adapted to human languages in order to enable its use by non-specialists. For historic and economic reasons, however, certain languages dominate in this role, regardless of where ICT is used. So, when technology is used where the language and culture are different, it will exert an unintentional influence on the latter that could be negative. Localisation – the adaptation of ICT to the language and culture where it is used – allows that cultural pressure to be reduced, eliminated or even reversed.

By addressing the issue of localisation ANLoc and its sub-projects aim to address these dimensions to indeed turn ICTs into a positive force for all of the above dimensions.

The goal of the Localise Software sub-project is to localise existing Open Source projects into ten African languages.

The ten language teams will be assisted with a small team of technical experts, who will help them with the different localisation processes for each of the software they will be localising.

List of Open Source Software to be localised:

  • Firefox (multi platform browser)
  • Fennec (mobile browser)
  • Pootle (online localisation tool)
  • Virtaal (multi platform offline localisation tool)
  • GlossMaster (terminology tool)

The project period is from September 2009 to April 2010, including localisation, review, testing, communication with software developers, releasing the localised software and promoting it.

All applications (or any questions) should be sent to localise@africanlocalisation.net with the subject title "Language Team Application" by 27 August 2009.

For further information, click here.