The need for up to date maps

Once disasters impact on island countries like Haiti or Japan, existing maps no longer reflect the reality on the ground. You hear of whole towns swept away by a tsunami but there will be hope for survivors. Survivors who need care as soon as possible if they are to survive.

Getting that care in place and on time depends on many factors and one puzzle that needs solving is how to get there. After the earth quake in Haiti, satellite pictures were made available and people from all over the world helped by creating up to date maps in OpenStreetMap for the disaster relief effort.

The value of such maps is raised when local people can use the maps. The good news is that for Japanese the localisation is already quite good. It is gratifying to see people volunteer now to work on the Japanese localisation of OpenStreetMap.

When you compare this with the localisation status for Haitian Creole, you will find that the disaster maps are still not usable in the local language. This while the effects of an earth quake in Haiti have proven to be so much more destructive. Disaster can happen again, so we would love to be prepared for wherever a disaster will strike next.
Thanks,
      GerardM

Give us proper translation tools at #Wikimedia Meta

While #MediaWiki is excellent for writing encyclopaedic articles; it is not the right tool for all text jobs. We are asked to translate the Editor survey. It consists of a long list of short sentences, often repetitive. When translating these sentences, it would be useful to see the original text and existing translations to other languages. Add to this comments that make the context clear and the process of translation becomes easy and efficient.

The Translate extension developed for translating and localising at translatewiki.net provides all of these things in one convenient screen. Plain MediaWiki doesn't provide any of this and the translator has to laboriously move between screens.

Reviewing translated messages is a breeze with Translate. MediaWiki has this long list of translated questions which is very distracting. The Translate extension by comparison has a review mode that shows the translations juxtaposed with the original strings.

The Translate extension automatically offers translation for repeated sentences from its Translation Memory and automatic translations are suggested from Google and Microsoft. This is very efficient, but sadly MediaWiki doesn't have this either.

Modern browsers provide spell-checking functionality, which is very helpful for getting the translated text right. Mixing several languages in one editing box confuses the spell-checker and having a very long text in an editing box makes the spellchecker slow. With the Translate extension this is not a problem.

The Translate extension applies proper directionality to each language: Left-to-Right for English, Russian and Hindi; Right-to-Left for Hebrew, Arabic and Urdu. Translating using plain MediaWiki puts the original language - usually English - and the target language in one editing box and mixes up the directionality.

Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי
http://aharoni.wordpress.com
"We're living in pieces,
 I want to live in peace." - T. Moore

The perfect companion to the #Tropenmuseum on #Commons

When the Tropenmuseum donated their incredible collection of photographs, the sheer size is such that it is hard to take it all in. I could not be more pleased to learn about the imminent publication of "Photographs of the Netherlands East Indies". The book will be presented at the Colonial Nostalgia symposium on Thursday March 17.

Before the symposium there will be guided tours by the authors of the two books published by the Royal Tropics Institute. The other book is about Oceania at the Tropenmuseum. This book will cover the history of the Tropenmuseum collection from what was Dutch New Guinea.

These English language books together are bound to offer an intriguing glimpse in the evolution from what was orginially a colonial collection.

To make the occasion extra cheerful, a new look and feel with much improved information about the Tropenmuseum will be available on Commons.
Thanks,
      GerardM

PS I do not know the ISBN numbers

Checking visually the #MediaWiki #localisation

Understanding #statistics takes a thousand words while pictures paint a thousand words. The continuous flood of new MediaWiki messages at translatewiki.net is met by our localisers with varying levels of success. The reality of a localisation is experienced best by looking at the screens involved.

There are two ways to do this. You can change the language in your preferences, this may leave you a bit disoriented trying to find the preferences again to change them to something sensible or, you can add ?uselang=xx at the end of the URL.

When you do this for the main page of translatewiki, you will not only see the user interface change but also the main page itself localised. Both are localised by the Translate extension and benefit from all the specialised functionality that help localisers be efficient and provide the statistics that are a big help when decisions need to be made.
Thanks,
      GerardM

From a #Wikimedia #strategy to a #Wikimedia plan

Once a strategy is defined and adopted, it is time to plan. As the strategy took a lot of effort by many people to define, the resulting plan is quite complex as a result.

With the product whitepaper published it is time to read and comment. It is a big read and, it takes quite some effort to take it all in. As Sue writes in her March strategy update, by publishing early we can comment early and be involved.

As you can imagine, there are improvements to make; I would for instance like to see "Text input and rendering" under languages. This allows for web fonts and this will enable more people to read our content. The good news is, that this can be found in the taxonomy (G.2) so it is just needs fixing in this illustration.

It is well worth getting your teeth in to this document and help cross the t and dot the i as the result of this plan will very much influence our future.
Thanks,
      GerardM

Most used messages are about to change

One of the requirements for a new #Wikipedia is the localisation of the "most used messages" at translatewiki.net. The messages contained in this collection is at the discretion of the developers at translatewiki. Very infrequently new statistics are sought to define what messages have the most impact to our users.

Siebrand informed me that he is about to ask for these new numbers as the MediaWiki software has changed quite a bit.

The languages seeking a first Wikimedia project who completed the current "most used" messages before the date of the change will have a grace period of two additional months to show sufficient activity to convince the language committee that the new project can be approved.

We hope to have the Babel extension ready for use in the Incubator in a months time. When there are no unforeseen circumstances, it may even be sooner. I do ask the localisers of languages with projects in the incubator to complete the Babel messages because it will help us understand the abilities within a community.

Babel messages in Angika

Thanks,
      GerardM

Which languages offer the most potential for your website?

When resources are limited, this question is relevant. Then again, what resources are limited. When commercial translators wonder which languages offer the most potential, the resources are people translating.

Affluence is a factor as well as the size of the Internet population. When Inuktitut is rated over Bengali however, it makes you wonder what value such numbers hold. Surely the people in Bangladesh who have Internet make more then the average wage.

For Wikipedia its resources are not limited by the number of editors as they are by volunteers. With over 270 Wikipedias even another language is hardly noticed.

The limiting factor for the potential of many of our projects that is solvable is technology. In order to invest in such technology, the potential of the languages involved has to be considered. The direction of the answer for the Wikimedia Foundation is quite unique; the question is not what language but what technology to invest in. Many enabling technologies have applications for any script, any country even any language.

Technical issues do have a direct impact on the generated traffic; Malayalam Wikipedia provides a typical example. As we support the latest Unicode technology its traffic suffered. There are two solutions that will generate more traffic

• web fonts so that everyone can read the text
• providing search engines text expressed in different variations for a script

The best part of many language technologies is that they are generic. The technology is often applicable for multiple languages, scripts and even platforms and applications. As we invest in such things as off line readers, even Internet penetration is not that important when our off line support hits its mark.
Thanks,
      GerardM

Wiki loves monuments can do with monumental efforts

#WLM is organised by #Wikimedia chapters. So what if there are no chapters. Does that mean that a country is not on our map of Europe?

When the question: "does your country have monuments" can be answered with a "yes",  we like to have pictures and articles about the architecture, the architects, the monuments of your country.

It is relevant to understand what organising a Wiki loves Monuments takes. The original project was only possible because volunteers of the Dutch chapter reached out to the Dutch national monuments organisation. The list they provided was analysed and published on the wiki with geo data and references to the Monuments databank and the existing pictures of buildings were matched with this list. Press releases were written, prizes were found and a committee of judges was formed and yes, there was a party.

All this proved to be a serious effort and several people worked really hard over many months to make this happen. When your country does not have a chapter and you think you can pull it off with fellow Wikimedians, your country may be added to the list. When monuments are not organised on a national scale, there may be a need for regional outreach. As a country is bigger more regional involvement is needed anyway.

The WLM competition is European in nature. The effort it will take to pull it off on this scale is Herculean. It is an effort that like Catalan castells reaches for the sky.
Thanks,
       GerardM

I stepped royally into it ....

When I blogged about Wikilovesmonuments.eu I was happy to inform about the plans for an European photo competition. I am sad that some countries are not able to participate and I expressed my hope that Italian regions will allow us to do our thing in their area.

The Spanish chapter is participating and, for a chapter newly formed this is really amazing. Organising an event like this does take a serious amount of effort.

Responses to my blog post show that not everybody is happy with European chapters taking an initiative.

This is not a Spanish bull but an Hereford

As I understand it, some Catalans feel excluded. They have their own chapter and apparently do not consider themselves part of Spain. While I can appreciate such sentiments to some extend, Catalonia is not the only region that may feel a bit separate. The Basque region is even better known for its independent sentiments.

Wikimedians are meant to work together. With sentiments a bit spirited, they can use their energy and try to outdo each other. What Wikipedia can represent the architecture of the Iberian peninsula best. Promoting the Catalan or Basque monuments will be easier because they speak Spanish as well.

The Spanish chapters and communities will have to work as a federation. From a marketing point of view people go on a holiday to Spain and end up enjoying its varied culture when they are lucky. When they are not, all they see is the beach and the bars. Then again, they do not need Wikipedia to decide where to go and what to do.

My message then and now is the same; enjoy Europe's cultural heritage and take part in the Wiki loves Monuments competition where you can.
Thanks,
      GerardM

Test #offline #Wikipedia on your #Android or #iPhone

#Okawix is completing its functionality for the best selling smart phones. Now they need people to test it for them so that they can pick off all the bugs.

Testing and localising the Okawix software are the perfect preparation for the next phase of its development, the support for openZIM. The realisation of this next phase will surely make the Wikimedia Foundation really happy because it will finally provide them with an application that supports Wikipedia content in the openZIM format with a user interface in the same language.
Thanks,
      GerardM

How #Toolserver can do much more good

The Toolserver is a cluster of servers hosting tools written by many people. Some of these tools provide essential services like the traffic statistics of the collections provided to us by GLAMs.

Every individual tool is experimental and essentially provides a proof of concept. The implication is that once a tool has proven itself, it could go to a next level and gain all the trappings of a production service.

Criteria for the tools that deserve to be upgraded to production quality are:

• the service it provides is being relied upon
• the service can be of value to an international public
• it stimulates the use of the Wikimedia projects by new demographies

Currently none of the Toolserver tools are of a production quality. The tools are in many code repositories and they do not comply with best practices. They are for instance not internationalised and when they are, they are not localised at translatewiki.net. Screens are not designed to take additional data into account.

As these tools are freely licensed, it must be possible to either fork the code or preferably work with the primary developer to provide the service that the concept hints at.

When you consider the size of the Toolserver server park, it is not a project that can be dismissed as "Spielerei".

Thanks,
       GerardM

Local time does not fly

#MediaWiki bug 19412 informs us that the parser cannot make hay from a French or a Bengali time or date. As a solution is needed, it is these wonderful people at translatewiki.net who provide us with an even bigger picture; date and time functionality needs its own localisation.

What is wonderful in the proposal by Nikerabbit is that he provides us with the idea what is involved and what use cases are possible.

What this example also shows is that there will be new issues popping up every now and again. For me, the creation of a definitive list of language support and localisation issues is a waste of time. The realisation that issues exist and can be tackled comes first. As we work our way through our known bugs, we will make local time fly and have input methods and web fonts where needed.
Thanks,
      GerardM

Comment period for 2010 #ISO 639-3 Change requests

Every year #SIL, the maintainer of the ISO 639-3 prepare a list of changes that people can comment on with the changes of the previous period. This list contains changes like codes for new languages, changes to existing codes and last but not least codes that are retired.

When the language committee decides that a request for a new language is not admissible, applying for a code is the best way of getting a reversal of that decision. This has happened several times.

So this is your chance to peruse the crop of changes to the standard. When your language is in there, we will be happy to consider your request for a Wikipedia once these changes are finalised.
Thanks,
       GerardM

Keep your eyes on the prize

The #Wikimedia #strategy is clear; double the #traffic and particularly double the traffic from the "global south". With the prize defined, we should  do what it takes to realise this result.

Having defined a goal and knowing our current status, it is important to look for potential. What does it take to realise the involvement of communities that have not warmed to Wikipedia yet.

The two of the biggest success stories are Russian and Indian. Both are inspiring and both leave accepted wisdom behind. The Russian approach to newbies is inspiring and the Indian approach to their languages is outreach at its best.

For the Indian language communities, the English language Wikipedia is where much of its potential readers are hanging out. If they are to take articles in their native languages seriously, the quality of these articles has to be as good. When you look at the number of workshops organised, it is amazing. They come thick and fast for the many languages.

Indian developers are also getting into the act. The first results can be found in the Narayam input methods. This is combined with outreach to the language communities who can benefit from this and testing is done both on a private wiki and at translatewiki.net. These technical Indian Wikimedians are also involved in projects outside of the Wikimedia Foundation. As a consequence, solutions can be local to MediaWiki and external to MediaWiki.

The solutions we should adopt and develop are those that do the most good and provide real solutions for our language communities. Particularly solutions that remedy flawed production processes like our PDF export or the openZIM support are strategic.

They are strategic because they demonstrate the importance the WMF gives to providing equal opportunities to its communities. Any investment that we do not only helps us to enable our communities, but they also provide perfect opportunities to reach out to the people who do not know our projects yet.

These opportunities are what our man in India will want to leverage in marketing our opportunities and culture to the people of a country we recognise as having the biggest unrealised potential.
Thanks,
      GerardM

... may they live happily ever after ...

My neighbour is exchanging marriage vows today. I wish him and his partner all the marital bliss they can muster. My wish for them ... to live happily ever after.
Thanks,
      GerardM

The big cheese will be back

Danese wrote in the official blog that Brion is going to do an Arnold on us. He will be back on March 31st, 2011.
Thanks,
      GerardM

Plan your #holidays with Wiki loves #Monuments in mind

When you are playing the tourist, it is nice to be on a mission, when you are not only moving about "because that is what you do" but  when your movements have a purpose. Wiki loves Monuments can give you such a purpose.

The Wikimedia chapters of Europe are working together in one big photo competition to document the architectural heritage of Europe. Some countries like Belgium do not take part because there is no Belgium chapter and others like Italy do not take part because their laws assume copyright of Italian monuments.

This Belgium problem can be solved by its Wikimedians.

Italy deserves a quite different response. Just do not go. Ignoring Italy as a travel destination because your pictures are not yours to license is quite appropriate. A solution may be found in cooperation with the regional authorities in Italy; when this allows us to ignore such silly dictates from Rome, you will find it amazing what the Italian country side has to offer.
Thanks,
       GerardM

Dealing with Internet #Trolls - the Cognitive #Therapy Approach

Trolls and #vandals are the bane of polite and effective conversations and collaboration on many projects and mailing lists. They poison the atmosphere and particularly newbies are the victims of what easily can be described as a war of attrition. While trolls and vandals are dysfunctional in many respects, many who are perceived as such did not intent to be disruptive at the start.

A blog post titled "Dealing with Internet Trolls - the Cognitive Therapy Approach" recognises that there will be always someone inadvertently feeding the troll. Consequently the standard wisdom of dealing with trolls is flaky at best and the need for another approach is obvious.

Hugging a troll is a bit much, but learning about cognitive therapy can help in dealing with this subspecies of the Homo sapiens. The recommended book by Dr. David D. Burnsis is a self help book teaching cognitive therapy. Key is how to properly handle criticisms from peers. The super-executive summary for the key part  is: "On the Internet, don't be right - be smart".

Obviously a self help book is intended for those in need of help. However, when dealing with trolls or vandals we are in need of help. The objective for us is not to swat the newbies like flies but to help them become competent and collaborative peers.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Spring cleaning

At #translatewiki.net the oomph of spring and the new server gives of this urge to look at things again. To get rid of old annoyances and even look anew at our practices.

Being the "official" project running head has its advantages too; it makes translatewiki.net a great place to search for memory leaks and other annoyances. Getting them before they go live does motivate Wikimedia developers to help us clean out and establish best practices.

One annoyance tackled are the rectangular logos we use on our main page and on our templates for project localisers. They suck; you cannot read what they say, they do not show the project to its best advantage. So after some searching for replacements, the FUDforum, the Okawix, the NOCC and the WikiBlame logos have been replaced with something square.

Walking through the screens also showed that the WikiBlame localisers did not get their recognition so a new template and a new category were created to help these people find their peers. Initial population of this category has taken place however you are free to add yourself when you have done the work.

As we are so used to our project, there may be things we just do not notice. When you have annoyances in need of some tender loving care, you are welcome to suggest or even be bold.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Italy loves its #monuments

When you go to Italy on a holiday, its monuments, its #culture and its #food are the star attractions. The tourists take their snapshots and share it with their envious friends who also want to see Napoli before they die.

When these friends prepare for their trip to one of the roots of the classic civilisations they seek out Wikipedia for information. Arguably it is in the macro economic interest of Italy to provide them with superior articles and magnificent illustrations.

It is therefore astonishing to learn that Italy cannot take part in Wikipedia loves Monuments because the state is said to have the copyright on all of Italy's monuments. Some will argue that we cannot have photos of Italian monuments on Commons. Others will argue that the swarms of tourists who descend on Italy are exempt from such Mafia practices. As monuments are monuments for a reason, it is reasonable to expect to find illustrations in images that are out of copyright.

It is likely that these illustrations may need as much restorations as the buildings that are still standing. This is something we can certainly do as Wikipedia loves Monuments.
Thanks,
       GerardM

#CLDR and #GLIBC - what makes a #standard for locales

When the standard for locales, the CLDR, does not provide the information needed, what are you to do. When the locale information in GLIBC conflicts with information in the standard what then?

In a perfect world, such dilemmas do not exist. In the real world they do.

There are two basic issues; the definitions of the locale information needs to be harmonised and the information in these formats needs to be merged, verified and codified. Finally there is culture.

In the standard world, the inclusion of new data can take years. In software, when people with the right seniority have gone through the motions of defining and testing a new locale, it goes into production and before you know it everyone using the latest version of GLIBC will support it in their application.

The GLIBC data for India for example supports Konkani and Sindhi. There are keyboard layouts, fonts and spell check dictionaries. Depending on possible collaboration on the font, Saurashtra can be supported in months, not years.

The problem is that GLIBC is great for everyone who uses it exclusively. Most people involved in language support in the Free Software world have to deal with the reality of an outside world where the CLDR defines the standard.

Saurashtra rendered with an experimental font

With the definitions harmonised and the existing data included in the CLDR, there will still be a need for developing support for new languages and locales.  When for every new language or locale the information is provided to the CLDR for inclusion it is only a matter of correcting the implementation for a language or a locale when the standard boys and girls find an error.
Thanks,
       GerardM

Saurashtra, a language from India new to #translatewiki.net

Saurashtra is a language written in three scripts. they are Saurashtra, Tamil and Devanagari. To top it off, there are people who transliterate to the Latin script.

As there is a request for the localisation in to Saurashtra, there are a few things that are essential. One of them is the availability of a Unicode font another is the name of the language in the language also called autonym.

The good news is that according to Saurashtra.info an Unicode font does exist. Not so good is the news that Unicode knows two versions and, there is a font that is not Unicode.

• Sourashtra Unicode font version 1.0 - ꢓꢾꢥꢶꢒꢾꢬꢶ
  
• Sourashtra Unicode font version 2.0 - ꣅ ꣅ ꣅ ꣅ ꣅ ꣅ

Not so good is the news that these fonts only work with Windows and Firefox... I have not found license information but I found this blog from someone who is likely to know or knows who to contact.
Thanks,
       GerardM

Are you ready for the new #translatewiki.net server ?

With a new server running translatewiki.net, we are again ready for old and new business. This is the time to hammer our server by localising some of the best open source software around.

With more hardware resources we will provide our community with a better service. Whenever you have a spare moment, we are quite happy to make the most of your time and make you as productive as we possibly can.

Our aim is to make your work as easy and relevant as we can make it. LocalisationUpdate ensures that your MediaWiki localisations have the fastest turn around time into production. Narayam helps you to enter the characters of the script for your language from a standard keyboard. Machine translation engines are available to make suggestions to you.

With you localising software, we do what we can to utilise the technology that makes your time with us effective and ensure that your work makes a difference.
Thanks,
       GerardM

Getting ready for the new #translatewiki server

Translatewiki.net may already be live on the new server that has been made available to us by netcup.de when you read this..
Thanks,
      GerardM

Narayam II may even support the Latin #script

Typing with 10 fingers is a skill that makes using a computer so much easier. It is utterly frustrating when you have to use an AZERTY keyboard at Fosdem in Brussels. The keys are not where they should be and your ability is downgraded to the hunt and peck entry method.

Typing AZERTY is relatively straightforward; a small number of keys are positioned differently but all the keys are there. It is different for languages like Lingala where a word like Mbɔ́tɛ has characters you will not find on the US International keyboard. Seriously more difficult.

The InScript keyboard

At this time the Narayam extension is focusing on the languages and scripts of the Indic languages. When you consider that there are over 500 languages in India, you will appreciate that there is a lot of ground to cover. The last news is that Oriya and Sinhala are supported as well.

At this stage, Narayam expects the US International keyboard so the AZERTY keyboards are still safe for now from foreigners overlaying it with a keyboard layout they are comfortable with,
Thanks,
      GerardM

Véronique Kessler leaves the #Wikimedia Foundation in June

When Véronique joined the Wikimedia Foundation, she joined an organisation that was very much smaller and very much in the process of improving its act. As a certified public accountant, with a B.A. in Economics she was able to improve the financial processes and return with financial plannings and statements like clockwork.

Now that she is leaving in June, our organisation is very much in a different shape. It has grown from a nickel and dime shop into an organisation that turns nickels and dimes into a globally federated multi-million organisation. This has been very much a team and community effort but it would never have happened without the firm foundation of its administration.
Thanks Véronique,
       GerardM

Digital restoration: making the most of what is already great

This picture of Donald Pleasence by Allan Warren shows how some tender loving care can improve a great photo into a superb photo. For me the most important part of a portrait are the eyes and their expression in a face. The picture as a whole shows a composed man, posing relaxed in front of a camera. These two crops show in high resolution a before and an after image.

A lot of work goes into a successful restoration like this.
Thanks,
      GerardM

Portraits of friends and foes

As #Wikipedia provides a neutral point of view, we need pictures that show friends and foes alike in a high quality. When the quality of such pictures is considered, being an European is hardly a valid argument to oppose the picture of a former USA president.

At this moment there is a civil war developing in Libya and it will slowly but surely find its way into our many Wikipedias. Many people are hopeful we do not have to wait long for the next president of Libya. In the mean time, we have a quality portrait of the current president. I entered it as a a featured picture candidate and, I am interested what the comments will be this time around.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Fundraising in #India

In telling the developing story of Narayam, only one aspect of the issues languages face on the Internet is concentrated on. It is the part that helps our editors write articles in our projects. It is understood that they are able to read what they write and, for this to be true they have the right font, the right browser on their computer.

Having the right font and the right browser is something that is easily taken for granted. For many people the realities are starkly different. Santosh told me that in the cyber cafes in rural India Windows XP with IE 6 are dominant. The screen shot I received from Santosh comes with annotations of everything that is wrong when displaying Malayalam with IE 8.

When people see their language mangled like this, it is quite obvious that they will not get to the page where Jimmy is telling us that he is also a volunteer let alone that people will donate. There may be many poor people in India, there are also many rich people in India and in order to lure the latter to our donation link, a solution is needed that makes the Indic languages look good for all of them.

Webfonts provide an answer to this problem. It is a solution under development and this solution has a working solution for Firefox users. As there are still cross browser issues, there is no complete solution yet. Indian news portals are using Unicode technology with webfonts and these do not work for Chrome.

Even though more development is needed, supporting our languages with a partial solution will give us more traffic. It will bring our content to more readers and we will even get a fighting chance to raise funds in India.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Spring is in the air

I received a happy e-mail announcing that the #birds are at it again. The website shows how eight types of birds are busy doing their spring thing; making a nest, laying eggs, sitting on the eggs, feeding chicks and seeing them fly away.

Experience spring !!

There are already five feeds for five species of birds and, it would be cool when we could incorporate such feeds in our articles on these birds or on the subject of spring. It being a feed, it shows the real deal and in a way it is quite compulsive watching these animals doing .. not that much really.

Technically it may be a challenge. For us and for potential partners like the Dutch society for the birds it is a great opportunity as it brings the reality of nature to a much greater public.

Thanks,

       GerardM

Narayam shows the scope of an #Internet #language issue

Narayam is a #MediaWiki extension and it helps with writing articles in #Wikipedia. With several languages supported, additions for Narayam are queuing up.

When a mail is received from someone who is working for the government of Karnataka on a knowledge base asking for support in his application, a better perspective of the issue transpires. It is truly hard work to write Indic language content.

With the recent addition of Santhosh Thottingal to the Wikimedia language committee, we have a person who adds a history of practical involvement to the existing awareness of issues like these. When we provide support in MediaWiki for a language like Kannada or Singhala, similar support is needed in LibreOffice, Drupal or Wordpress to name but a few.

As the Wikimedia Foundation is through its projects the 500 pound gorilla of diverse language content, we hope to effectively raise awareness of language issues and stimulate solutions inside and outside our movement.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#StatusNet is getting ready for the big 1.0

Brion posted a heads-up: "StatusNet main development will be moving from 0.9.x to 1.0.x branch soon". A 1.0 release is the holy grail when software is considered feature complete.

At translatewiki.net, we have amassed a huge amount of StatusNet extensions and these 83 extensions contain together with the core StatusNet software 2319 messages. Surely at a time like this, when a release is in sight, it is a great moment to help out with the localisation.

The great thing of the StatusNet software for a localiser is that everything is in one place. It is just a matter of getting your teeth in and you are helping to make micro blogging software ready for your language. This software is great at connecting with other StatusNet servers and, you can even reach out to a Twitter.

A start with the localisation has been made for many languages; this is where you can check how your language is doing.
Thanks,
      GerardM

The 50 most spoken languages

At #translatewiki.net localisers for all languages are welcome. The 50 most spoken languages however provides a benchmark that indicates to what extend we are reaching the people of the world. Such statistics are used to report to the Wikimedia Foundation about how well we are doing with the localisation of MediaWiki.

Recently the first localisers for the Oriya language have surfaced and in a few days, the score for the Oriya localisation has gone up from 3 to 12. This is a happy occasion because the user experience of the Oriya Wikipedia has already improved as a consequence.

This new activity is the result of the close cooperation that exists between the Indian language projects. One of the newbie localisers was introduced in the vagaries of translatewiki by an experienced localiser and he is clearly finding his feet.
Thanks,
        GerardM