Free software for languages big and small: multilingual openness
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Internet Solutionswww.codesyntax.com
Free software for languages big and small: multilingual openness
Luistxo Fernandez
Azitain Poligonoa 3 - KE-20600 EIBAR
Tel: ++34 943 821 780Fax: ++34 943 820 669
Bilbo – 2011.11.12
Librecon 2014 BilbaoFree software, langs big & small2014.11.12
15 years ago
A personal story. 3 types decide to work in the internet. We happen to be bilingual
Business case: Well, bilingual sites will be needed locally; multilingual sites will be needed globally.
We'll learn how to do it right, we'll become rich.
Librecon 2014 BilbaoFree software, langs big & small2014.11.12
Not rich yet, but hey, it was a good plan
Web platforms in the year 1999 were nor really adapted to multilingualism, really
There was a niche... there was really work to do.
Platforms had to be transformed, tinkered, changed from the inside...
It had to be free software.
Librecon 2014 BilbaoFree software, langs big & small2014.11.12
Free software was the obvious choice
Code had to be tinkered and improved, you needed access to the tools to change them and make them work multilingually
And the free software community had already its own tools, its own metodology: GNU Gettext
Librecon 2014 BilbaoFree software, langs big & small2014.11.12
Choices (back at the times...)
Python.
Zope.
A way to adapt the GNU Gettext methodology into Python, Localizer, a creation by a web-programmer in a university (Juan David Ibáñez, of Universitat Jaume I, Castelló).
Librecon 2014 BilbaoFree software, langs big & small2014.11.12
Choices (back at the times...)
Librecon 2014 BilbaoFree software, langs big & small2014.11.12
Today.
Python.
Librecon 2014 BilbaoFree software, langs big & small2014.11.12
Today.
Python.
All we learned about i18n & l10n,
locales, unicode, .po files...
Ad-hoc solutions not so necessary
(Plone and Django, the platforms we use today are, like all decent modern day tools, well adapted to i18n)
We still friends with JD Ibáñez, a brilliant programmer
Librecon 2014 BilbaoFree software, langs big & small2014.11.12
Today. Django.
Librecon 2014 BilbaoFree software, langs big & small2014.11.12
Today. Django. Any Django install.
Librecon 2014 BilbaoFree software, langs big & small2014.11.12
All we learned. The things we did.
We fought the Unicode errors...
Blogging platforms in Basque...
The particular needs of
multilingual CMSs...
As Plone or Django rose, the localised Basque versions of those platforms...
Librecon 2014 BilbaoFree software, langs big & small2014.11.12
From multilingual to... Multisite, multicountry
Plone, and other open source CMS
are prepared to manage a situation
like this one.
But you need the know-how.
Librecon 2014 BilbaoFree software, langs big & small2014.11.12
Meanwhile, as i18n advanced in web development thanks to free software...
Librecon 2014 BilbaoFree software, langs big & small2014.11.12
Meanwhile, as i18n advanced in web development thanks to free software...
Ubuntu is wonderful. Enjoying Ubuntu in Basque is great.
As a working environment.
As the family OS at home.
Librecon 2014 BilbaoFree software, langs big & small2014.11.12
However, as i18n advanced in web development thanks to free software...
Web ecosystems rose:
Google, Facebook, Twitter
Basque and many other languages
have a partial presence there...
Mixed feelings:
• collective translating (work for them for free)
• no sharing of the strings...
• the importance of having those in your language
Librecon 2014 BilbaoFree software, langs big & small2014.11.12
However, as i18n advanced in web development thanks to free software...
Mobile platforms, unclear situation
iOS closed to small languages,
and Apple a clearly hostile company to us.
Android is free, and Android localisation attempts have been made by the community... but, distribution and control issues complicate the matter
Google just released Basque within Lollipop, yet...
Librecon 2014 BilbaoFree software, langs big & small2014.11.12
SoLoMo
Social Local Mobile
Librecon 2014 BilbaoFree software, langs big & small2014.11.12
An extra lesson:
It's not about the menu, it's about the food
Librecon 2014 BilbaoFree software, langs big & small2014.11.12
An extra lesson:
It's not about the menu, it's about the food
Librecon 2014 BilbaoFree software, langs big & small2014.11.12
A conversation in Facebook in Yucatec (interface in Basque)
Librecon 2014 BilbaoFree software, langs big & small2014.11.12
It's not about the menu, it's about the food
Big languages take food for granted.
Small languages... tricky.
• Social interaction easier in some networks than in others.
• Efforts are announced, but language death is a fact for many languages...
• Are there memes in your language?
Librecon 2014 BilbaoFree software, langs big & small2014.11.12
Meme
'A meme (/ mi m/; meem)[1] is "an idea, behavior, or style that spreads ˈ ːfrom person to person within a culture."[2] A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols, or practices that can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena'
A term coined by Richard Dawkins.
Yep. It does have a serious meaning, but memes are also this....
Librecon 2014 BilbaoFree software, langs big & small2014.11.12
Meme
when they give me notice of 'needed changes' one day before the
report/project must be delivered
Librecon 2014 BilbaoFree software, langs big & small2014.11.12
Basque memes are alive!
what the Basques feel when they see the Catalans lead the way
Librecon 2014 BilbaoFree software, langs big & small2014.11.12
Basque memes are alive!
'impossible Basque compact verbs meme': dizerdit, datsegit, dalovit, narruskioke...
Not easy to grasp. Language knowledge level (also Spanish, in many cases) and experience with Twitter humour
Librecon 2014 BilbaoFree software, langs big & small2014.11.12
Social and mobile interaction: key issues for language reproduction.
These things depend more on
• The big powers of the Internet: Google, Facebook, Twitter
• Increasingly, mobile experience
Do these things depend less on free software?
In the SoLoMo environment...
Librecon 2014 BilbaoFree software, langs big & small2014.11.12
And yet, we must try
Librecon 2014 BilbaoFree software, langs big & small2014.11.12
Twitter can't tell Basque from Indonesian
But Langid can.
Librecon 2014 BilbaoFree software, langs big & small2014.11.12
And with Langid, and more, you may build things
Librecon 2014 BilbaoFree software, langs big & small2014.11.12
And with Langid, and more, you may build things
Trending topic detection, twitter user rankings, automated aggregation of news...
Librecon 2014 BilbaoFree software, langs big & small2014.11.12
Trending topic detection, twitter user rankings, automated aggregation of news...
...with languages big & small
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Librecon 2014 BilbaoFree software, langs big & small2014.11.12
Eskerrik asko
Luistxo Fernandez - [email protected]
twitter.com/luistxo - http://www.codesyntax.com