Hi,
Everyone is cordially invited to attend a workshop on Hindi, Kashmiri,
and Urdu localisation. Please see the formal invitation included below.
As this is a public conference, please feel free to print it out, and
post it wherever suitable.
I would also be glad to answer any questions in this regard, and can
also be reached at 9868527992.
Regards,
Gora
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Workshop on localisation, 7-8 March, 2008:
Hindi, Urdu, Kashmiri
The Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF), and Sarai, CSDS, have decided
to enter into a collaboration with the broad goal of making
computing facilities available to people in Indian languages,
thus empowering them to access information and work in their
native tongues. As the development paradigm in India shifts
towards an emphasis on knowledge driven through information
technology, computing in Indian languages becomes increasingly
important for the flourishing of hitherto marginalised languages
and cultures, and their inclusion in the emerging economy. A key
aspect of Indian language computing is localisation, i.e., the
process of translating the user interface of software
applications into Indian languages, thus making it possible to
make full use of them without knowing any English. Towards this
end, RGF and Sarai, CSDS, have jointly funded fellowships for
localisation of free/open source software (FOSS) into languages
including Assamese, Hindi, Kashmiri, Oriya, and Urdu. Typically,
such a localisation effort covers at least two-thirds of the
applications included in a FOSS desktop, working out to the
translation of about 40,000 phrases, or of nearly 3,00,000
words. While the Hindi translation is quite advanced,
localisation work is just commencing in Kashmiri and Urdu, and is
at an early stage in Assamese and Oriya.
We plan on holding a series of public workshops at various places
in the country, focused around the work in the fellowships. The
goal of these workshops will be to disseminate the material created
during the course of the fellowships, and to publicise the
availability of computer interfaces in Indian languages. A
manual review of the application interfaces is needed to identify
any problems with the translations, and we will conduct such a
review by taking advantage of the expertise of the variety of
people from different backgrounds present at the workshops.
The first of these workshops will be held in the seminar room of
Sarai, CSDS, on the 7th , and 8th of March, 2008, from 10am
onwards on each day. It will present the current status of work
done in Hindi, and Urdu. Some translators for Kashmiri will also
be present to discuss the status of work being started on that
language. For Hindi, this will include showcasing work done on
localising KDE 3.5, and on the forthcoming release, KDE 4. The
former work has won an award from FOSS India 2008 as one of the
outstanding FOSS projects in India, and the latter will be
important in ensuring that localisation keeps pace with new
releases of the desktop. For Urdu, this will cover the
preparation of a glossary of technical terms, and the exhibition
of the first few applications localised into Urdu. People
commencing the Kashmiri work will discuss the issues that they
face, and their approach to solving these.
You are cordially invited to be present at the workshop. Sarai is
located at 29 Rajpur Road in North Delhi, in between the Maharana
Pratap ISBT, and Delhi University. The closest Metro station is
Civil Lines, on the yellow line. For complete details of how to
get to the venue see the directions at the bottom of
http://www.sarai.net/about-us/faqs/questions-28-31. The workshop
is open to the public, and you are encouraged to post this note
on public notice boards, and to forward the invitation to others.
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