Localization
A week or so ago Wil gave me a generous time budget and one simple mission: solicit localizations in as many languages as possible, no matter how underrepresented they are in our user base. I pondered the wisdom in those words for a while, then banged out a post on my indelicately-named blog.
The gist of it was this: universities and other organizations trying to preserve pre-colonial languages should help software developers localize their applications. If you're going to truly preserve a language, people must be able to live in that language, including time spent at their computers.
Unfortunately, post-colonial nations are often economically disadvantaged, and public universities are themselves frequently starved for funds. Why would you be interested in localizing an application you can't afford?
Any developer would happily exchange a copy of their application for a localization, but Wil decided to take our initiative one further.
If you are part of a reasonably-sized non-profit organization — or a reasonably-sized department within a non-profit — and you would be willing to localize Delicious Library, we will grant you a site license. When Delicious Library 2 comes out, we'll upgrade you for free.
I hope that will provide a very real monetary answer to the question of "what's in it for me?" Localizers will also have their names listed on the credits panel within Delicious Library 2.
There's also a larger, less tangible benefit. Assuming this crazy plan works and people start adding localizations to Delicious Library, other developers are going to notice. Delicious Library is frequently held up, by Apple and others, as an example of best practices in the industry. If you want developers to start localizing their applications in your language, localizing Delicious Library is a great first step.
So, OK, great, but what if you don't have a lot of time, or access to a Mac? No problem; we've developed special localization routines as part of our Golden%Braeburn project to eliminate the need for any special tools. All you do is translate lists of strings. There are about 30 lists, but most of them have just a few items.
Please drop us a line if you're interested.
The gist of it was this: universities and other organizations trying to preserve pre-colonial languages should help software developers localize their applications. If you're going to truly preserve a language, people must be able to live in that language, including time spent at their computers.
Unfortunately, post-colonial nations are often economically disadvantaged, and public universities are themselves frequently starved for funds. Why would you be interested in localizing an application you can't afford?
Any developer would happily exchange a copy of their application for a localization, but Wil decided to take our initiative one further.
If you are part of a reasonably-sized non-profit organization — or a reasonably-sized department within a non-profit — and you would be willing to localize Delicious Library, we will grant you a site license. When Delicious Library 2 comes out, we'll upgrade you for free.
I hope that will provide a very real monetary answer to the question of "what's in it for me?" Localizers will also have their names listed on the credits panel within Delicious Library 2.
There's also a larger, less tangible benefit. Assuming this crazy plan works and people start adding localizations to Delicious Library, other developers are going to notice. Delicious Library is frequently held up, by Apple and others, as an example of best practices in the industry. If you want developers to start localizing their applications in your language, localizing Delicious Library is a great first step.
So, OK, great, but what if you don't have a lot of time, or access to a Mac? No problem; we've developed special localization routines as part of our Golden%Braeburn project to eliminate the need for any special tools. All you do is translate lists of strings. There are about 30 lists, but most of them have just a few items.
Please drop us a line if you're interested.
posted by Mike Lee at 9:59 PM
27 Comments:
Hello,
I am willing to translate Delicious Library 2 to Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese.
And I'm willing to do it for free(but I wouldn't mind if you could give me a few license >:D ).
Can't wait for DL2!!!
I can help translating Delicious Library to Chinese too, if you want one more person to help.
It's glad to see if there's a way to get the books/DVDs details other than using Amazon (since there's no Amazon service here in Hong Kong), DL still the awesome software though.
Polish translator is here to serve :) !
What you think about Polish localization?
Mike,
you probably already have someone that is translating/has translated DL2 to german, yet if you still need help, drop me a line.
paul from germany
Excellent ideas, guys! Way to innovate.
I'd be glad to help in translating to Spanish. Keep up the great work, guys!
I could work on a Frenchlocalization, but it's pointless if there is already someone in charge of French (and there was for the previous version).
Could you post list of languages you don't need localizers for at this point??
Where do I leave the email address? This site or Golden...?
I can do Serbian Latin and Serbian Cyrillic translations.
Fantastic idea! Serve yourselves and the world. Smart.
I could provide localizations for German, French, Spanish and probably Czech (how much I could do also kind of depends on the time frame and the amount of localizable text). A friend of mine runs a language school and I'm sure she would be glad to cross check my translation (and do the Czech version) to make sure the translation is of highest quality.
Cheers
-stephan in Austria
I would also help to translate to german.
I am willing to translate in Greek. :)
*rimshot*
I could do UK English!
Here are the localizations we already have:
Deutsch
Dansk
Español
Français
Italiano
日本語 (Japanese)
Nederlands
Norsk Bokmål
Svenska
I'll be getting in touch with all of you in the next few days. If you don't have a valid address attached to your comment, drop us a line directly.
Even if someone else is localizating in your language, I'd love to have some polyglots in the beta program, being as it is much more difficult to test everything in place than to translate the strings files.
Since you already have a French localizer (which I suspected :-) ) I can at least definitively help proofreading the French localization (and the address attached to my post shoudl be valid).
I'm also available for Chinese translation. Unfortunately the other three languages I know have pre-existing localizations (English, French, and Japanese). There's some irony there in me knowing "useful" languages and not being able to help more...
I am willing translate it to the so-called New Norwegian (nynorsk). It is the official secondary language in Norway (duh!).
If you are interested, please drop me a line!
Even if someone else is localizating in your language, I'd love to have some polyglots in the beta program, being as it is much more difficult to test everything in place than to translate the strings files.
I volunteer. I live in Japan and speak Japanese, and half my book collection is Japanese. I find many applications, including those by Apple, are poorly or not at all tested in Japanese and often have serious usability problems.
The project sounds promising, if you want to add Luxemburgish, some friends and I can take care of that, just drop me a message ;)
But, it will be a tricky task since not a lot of apps are localized in Luxemburgish, finding the appropriate words will be challenging
I believe you have all you need for French.
However, if you need any help to translate French codes, feel free to ask.
Can't wait for DL2 either!
Hey, Mike,
I'd gladly help you with localizing DL to Latvian, should you be interested.
Hey this is great! I could polyglot for Dutch (Nederlands), German, French, Mandarin Chinese and Thai (no translation for Thai though)
Native german/english translation - two more eyes to smooth out some errors.
If you want to just email me.
Although I felt weird localizing DL to Filipino language since almost 75% of Pilipino's can read/speak/write English; Google has our own local flavor with our own language.
I saw some people using it so if you need someone to have it localize I'll be glad to lend a hand.
I'm unsure if you want such a translation but i am willing to translate to Luxembourgish.
... same as brian: Can't wait for DL2!!!
Please feed us some info on how far from the finish line you are... Pretty Please with a Cherry on top?
just for fun Im willing to translate the app to "swiss german"!
drop me a line if you're interested. mz (ät) feinheit.ch
cheers m. from zurich
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