#Mifos in #Georgia

One of the projects at translatewiki.net that has its own dynamic is Mifos. It does not just rely on the existing community of translators and it no longer relies on the Grameen foundation for further development. It is now developed by a community of developers with SolDevelo in Poland taking a lead role and implementing new features.

When you follow the translations for Mifos, you will find that the localisation for Georgian is well organised and largely done and that Mongolian is being started. At the same time, localisations in languages like Dutch, Hungarian, Khmer and Tagalog are doing fine.

Mifos is doing fine; its customers are asked for what they feel Mifos is lacking, there are several cloud implementations of the software and with a growing number of organisations implementing the software, more people have access to basic banking.
Thanks,
       GerardM

Professional #localisation at #translatewiki.net

When you are going to implement an Open Source application, there are no warranties. When the usability needs improvement, you can pay for improvements or, you can scratch your own itch.

Mifos is going to be implemented in Andhra Pradesh. The easiest and most obvious usability improvement is localisation and as you can see from the graphic for Telugu localisations, a lot of work was done in an extremely short period of time by Avshyd.

When so much work is done, it is always of interest to how this was done.Was it a one-man show or were multiple people involved. Was there any quality control and finally what do the users think. As Mifos is implemented in Telugu, there will be people working with the software and they can complain when the localisation needs improvement.

At translatewiki.net we are happy when our localisations are used. We are happy when people come to us and do the work for their own reasons. In the case of Mifos, it will mean that many more people will have access to credit, microcredit at that but it is a huge step up.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Mifos #localisation; scratching your own itch

The #translatewiki.net community is quite diverse and everyone has their own sweet reason to contribute. Mifos is an open source application for organisations who are working in the microcredit business.

When you want to learn why microcredit is important for so many people, watch the video.

When a microcredit business wants to use Mifos, it really helps when the software has been localised in the language of the people administering these loans. At this time Mifos is being localised in Telugu because it will be implemented in Andhra Pradesh.

Mifos is open source, it is localised at translatewiki.net. We appreciate it when the software is implemented as widely as possible. It will professionalise a business and this will provide its customers with an improved and more consistent service.
Thanks,
       GerardM 

#mwhack11; Managing the #stack of #MediaWiki

#LAMP is considered to be that stack. It could also be seen as a pyramid of functionality. When you look at this illustration for LAMP is that "Application" represents any application.

As MediaWiki is the application that runs Wikipedia, it is obvious that language related technology in the LAMP stack is of special relevance to us. With some 270 Wikipedias in as many languages it has a coverage that is bigger then some of the standards that should cover "our" languages as well as all the others.

At translatewiki.net we feel the pain of the missing data. We feel it for MediaWiki, for Mifos, for many of our applications. To alleviate this pain, we can use what we have. We know what is in the CLDR, LIB-C; this can be merged. We have a community representing all the languages we support who we can ask the data for their language.

We have discussed this in the WMF language committee at the Berlin Hackathon, we discussed it with the translatewiki.net managers. It is now a matter of finding out how best to do it, do it and get the data that is new into the standards where it belongs if it to support the whole stack.
Thanks,
       GerardM

Teaching an old dog new tricks

At #translatewiki.net, #Mifos had an infusion of all the messages of all its old modules. To provide the best possible support, localising only the latest software is not an option. The complete package has to be localised for it to work properly.

This sounds obvious and easy and yes, it is obvious but easy it is not. The existing messages are in a different format and had to be converted. Many messages did not pass the quality checks at translatewiki.net so they needed to be fixed or ignored.

The statistics of the lines of code give a good impression; the green line is the new code and, its messages were already available for localisation and the red line is the old code and its messages have just been added. The plan is to replace all the old code .

The size of the localisation opportunity that Mifos provides shows best in the number of modules and the number of messages per module. There are now so many of them that they no longer fit on a screen.

For the people who localise, this list provides the best illustration and to get this illustration, this old dog had to learn how to stitch several screen shots together. Luckily there are people in our community who are happy to teach me such operations using the GIMP.

When localisation is not your thing, you may want to consider this. You can help the users of Mifos and thereby the beneficiaries of microfinance by localising here.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#translatewiki.net, its essence is #community

When people localise at translatewiki.net, they are likely to get acknowledged for the work they do for our supported projects. New messages count in to its statistics like these for Mifos. The one project that does not get acknowledged is translatewiki itself and new messages in English do not count.

The feel of translatewiki is one of getting things done. Key is to ensure that what translators do makes a difference. Projects that need to learn about internationalisation find the developers at translatewiki helpful. They find in the localisers a critical audience that insist on clear and workable messages.


This is what Adam Monsen has to say about how translatewiki makes a difference for Mifos:

I often refer to comments/help/suggestions from Nikerabbit, Siebrand and other translators as examples of how y'all are helping us improve our translations immensely. Before we were welcomed into the TWN community, we (well I, anyway) didn't know much about the quality of our translations. Some parts of Mifos are untranslatable, et cetera. Before we were terrible at i18n. Now we're passable. translatewiki.net is helping us to become great at i18n.

The community of translatewiki.net is part of the Open Source / Free Software world and, it is a vital part for it to reach out all over the world because it brings a freedom that Richard Stallman does not mention; the freedom to use software in a language that is understood.
Thanks,
       GerardM

The next #Mifos Marie is called Elsie

The Mifos developers are hard at work preparing their next release. As is customary, they dedicate a release to one of the women who are helped with a micro credit. For this release, the honour goes to Elsie Saldivar from the Philippines.

At translatewiki.net we have received new messages that are ready to be translated. They come in new modules and so far three modules have been added and there are more modules to follow.

When you read the product road map, you learn that this release is about business intelligence and analytics. To achieve such intelligence and provide the analytics in many languages there will be many more messages that will come our way.

The best way to deal with this is to regularly check things out and help out by localising messages for your language. At translatewiki.net we prefer a steady trickle to a flood of new messages as this ensures that there is often something to do.

The people who use Mifos or consider using Mifos, can help themselves by working on the localisation in their language. Our volunteers can help their fellow country men and women by doing the same.

Those who have the least are helped by providing them with a micro credit. Helping the organisations who provide micro credits is what this is about. Helping them is like manufacturing nets so that these organisations can provide people with nets to fish.
Thanks,
     GerardM

Supporting #Mifos in the light of the Indian #microcredit crisis

The BBC informs us about the problems the microcredit industry faces in India. There is a problem and, it is not a simple one. The problem is that without microcredit many people are not able to get a loan at all except from loan sharks and consequently it is a lifeline for many people and typically it is the only way for people to start a business, to earn a living.

The stories of people in India and Bangladesh who default on their loans are heartbreaking. Then again, the stories are about parents who want to give their children an education, who paid for essential health care, who lost everything due to a flood. Lets recognise that an appendicitis left untreated does kill that a lack of education is what holds people back and compare this to mortgages for a second house or loans for a second car with people who default and just walk away...

When you read the BBC article and associated articles, you learn the difference in interest people pay microcredit organisations and usurious money lenders. You learn that there are politicians everywhere that do not have the public interest at heart.

Mifos is a tool to administrate microcredit. Microcredit emancipates people by providing them with tools to function economically. At translatewiki.net we support open source software. Mifos cuts the cost of microfinance and each implementation of Mifos in yet another language will help people realise their Indian dream, Bengali, French or American dream.
Thanks,
     GerardM

Portuguese ready for #Mifos Leila E

Beria finished the last messages for Mifos. She was told that the time was running out to include the localisations into the Leila E release. Beria went into high gear and localised 350 messages in two and a half hours.

Now that the localisations for the initial release of Leila E are in the bag, the need for localisations has not gone away. It is quite normal to have security or point releases and Mifos can follow the example of MediaWiki and include the new localisations.

When micro credits are important in your country, you will find the latest statistics of Mifos localisations for your language at translatewiki.net.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Mifos localisation rally / sprint at #translatewiki.net

With Wikipedia we aim to bring knowledge to the people of this world. Often we are criticised because we do not reach the people who do not have the necessary technology. Microfinance helps people to grow economically and this gets many of them telephones...

Mifos supports the administration of the microfinance industry. The microfinance industry make loans available to millions of people. So hey, our wiki movement can make a difference by localising Mifos at translatewiki.net.

The next release of the Mifos software called "Leila E" will have its code and translation freeze on November 23. When you look at the statistics for the localisation for Mifos, it does not even cover the languages it needs to cover, languages like Portuguese, Chinese and Spanish.



 So what will the rally be like. The prize is three signed copies of the book "Small Loans, Big Dreams: How Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus and Microfinance are Changing the World" by Alex Counts for the people who contribute the most localisations before November 23. When people finish the localisation in a language that will help the microfinance industry, they will get a book anyway. Think languages like Bengali, French, Tagalog, Portuguese, Arabic, Swahili, Hindi ... 
Thanks,
     GerardM

NB Some breaking news from Kenya..

Put your two pennies in without it costing you a cent

Enda inter-arabe celebrates its twentieth anniversary, throughout that time it has empowered many women throughout Tunisia to rise from poverty. Its 500,000th loan was given to Mrs. Leila Gharbi who Mifos chose to highlight as the Marie (featured borrower) for which their upcoming release, Leila E, is named.

Enda inter-arabe is a Tunisian organisation and, I am sure they will be happy to find that their software will now an improved French localisation.

The roadmap does not state it, but it is going to be a welcome surprise that in addition to what has been scheduled, the internationalisation and localisation of Mifos has been much improved. Through translatewiki.net, volunteers have started to localise many languages and there is time until November 23 to get a localisation for a language into shape for Leila E. 

As this work has started very recently, a lot of work is going into making sure that the messages can be properly localised in the many languages we have experience with at translatewiki.net. At the moment we are working on improving plural and gender support.

We would love to find people who help us with the languages of Asia, Africa and South America. When Mifos can be used in the local languages, it becomes possible for many organisations who provide microfinance to improve their business and improve their service. A service that helps people help themselves out of poverty.
Thanks,
      GerardM

Doing the right thing, doing a great thing

As #Mifos was getting localised in French, we were really happy because French is used in many countries in Africa and this makes Mifos usable.

Sadly it turns out that Verdy_p thought that its localisations are part of the current translation rally at translatewiki.net. His contributions do not qualify for the rally as Mifos is not MediaWiki.

As a sign of appreciation and encouragement is very much in order, I hereby grant Verdy_p a bit of the big cheese.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Mifos gets its core messages in

At @translatewiki.net we are busy introducing the Mifos core messages. It is quite exciting because a group of Mifos developers is making sure that any internationalisation issues are sorted out quickly. Normally they hang out in their own IRC channel, but now they can also be found in our channel.

The core messages are for the next release of Mifos and improved language support is one of the new features. This makes what is already a compelling offering for micro finance organisations much more useful. Many micro finance organisations use Mifos when they have outgrown using spreadsheets. Now that it becomes possible to use Mifos in their own language, it becomes that much easier to make the step to improved management.

As micro finance becomes better organised, more money becomes available to the people who need this. Mifos is open source software developed by the Grameen foundation. Its founder, Muhammad Yunus received the ultimate accolade, an appearance on the Simpsons, an ultimate accolade according to his daughter Deena.

There is plenty of scope for growth for microfinance, at this time it is not available for many of those who need this. Helping out with the localisation of Mifos is one way in which you can make a difference.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Mifos, #microfinancing and #Wikimedia

In the strategic considerations of the #Wikimedia Foundation, the economic ability to get on the net is not considered. It is out of scope. Microfinancing however provides money to the people that are currently outside of our reach. This may eventually have these people bring themselves in scope.



When you have seen this Youtube video, you have a clue what it is about. You have a clue that microfinance is and you have an idea where to place Mifos. When you want to know what it means in Africa, you may want to see this video as well.

They have created their open source software, they are creating their market and now they find that internationalisation and localisation is getting to the top of their agenda.



When you listen to the talk by Mr Conard, you here him talk about international clients, development but the whole subject of internationalisation and localisation ... nada. He talks about kick arse software but he does apparently not know that software and documentation in a persons native language does make them more productive.

With the initial work done at translatewiki.net, with the initial localisations committed back, more modules will come our way. There is a need for people who are willing to help with the internationalisation and the quality control of the localisation.

We wiki people want to bring information to all the people of this world. But first they need to live and accumulate wealth to have their own browser.
Thanks,
       GerardM

#Mifos localisations get pushed

There are two important first moments for a new application at translatewiki.net; getting the software ready for the localisers and pushing the localisations back to the application.

For Mifos, the first localisations have now been pushed. Pushing localisations back to the application is what it is all about; this is the prerequisite before a language is supported in software use.

Mifos statistics

The first results are encouraging; with Tagalog there is support for use in the Philippines and English, Marathi and Telugu do India proud.
Thanks,
     GerardM

#Mifos is the latest software supported by #translatewiki.net

Mifos, a product developed by the #Grameen foundation, is all about providing microfinance with a sound management information system. It is open source;  developers are welcomed to support its development and this helps make Mifos a power house application in the microfinance industry.

Statistics for Mifos in Dutch

The questionnaire module is now available for localisation at translatewiki.net, the first localisations have gone in and as always, the first internationalisation questions have been raised. Many more modules will certainly follow.

Where the Grameen foundation operates

I am happy welcoming the new software that will provide a new interesting challenge to the translatewiki community. We hope that this will enthuse the localisers of the many countries where the Grameen foundation operates ..
Thanks,
      GerardM