Rosetta is a web-based platform that does exactly what I thought needed to be done: it makes open source software translation really easy for lots of people, and it makes it easy to collaborate on a translation project.
Instead of having to edit .po files manually, this web interface allows you to easily just … translate. Read the message, type your translation, save. It’s that easy.
Well, almost: the result still should be combed over with a something like POedit.
But Rosetta nontheless is an incredible project about which I am very excited, and I congratulate their team and the 8796 translators (according to public page stats) working to make free software available worldwide. I especially like logging into the website and being able to see the progress on each translation for each of the O.S.S. projects they work with. (Currently there is no Wordpress 2.0, just 1.5, unfortunately. There is also no Swahili team, prior to myself and Ndesanjo.)
The Rosetta project is, I believe, originally the translation interface for the Ubuntu Linux community. Ubuntu is a distribution (a version) of the Linux operating system.
For those who are new to the world of Open Source, Linux is a platform for your computer, just like Microsoft Windows or Apple’s Macintosh OS. But Ubuntu-flavored Linux is free, community built and, indeed, community oriented. Ubuntu Linux is “beating out” a lot of the more traditional flavors of Linux because it is more user friendlily. I like to think of Ubuntu Linux developing enough to enter the mainstream as a free alternative to Windows.
From the Ubuntu website:
“Ubuntu” is an ancient African word, meaning “humanity to others”. Ubuntu also means “I am what I am because of who we all are”. The Ubuntu Linux distribution brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the software world.
The Ubuntu community is built on the ideas enshrined in the Ubuntu Manifesto: that software should be available free of charge, that software tools should be usable by people in their local language and despite any disabilities, and that people should have the freedom to customise and alter their software in whatever way they see fit.
The Rosetta project has a lot of these fuzzy overtones. I love it. I would encourage anyone with strong language skills to log in and start translating one of your favorite programs.
The Community Mapping Network (CMN)provides an online mapping application that allows folks in British Columbia, Canada, to create and edit information about environmental resources in their areas.
The application is used for sustainable city planning efforts and other types of environmentally-sensitive decision making.
Perhaps more interestingly, the CMN also hosts a directory of international projects, which you can contact and volunteer with if you’re so inclined. These are mostly intended to “collect natural resource information about fish and wildlife species and sensitive riparian, fresh water and marine habitats.”
It’s a Canadian grassroots effort, and it’s a wonderful thing to see. I especially like their broader mission to empower communities environmentally:
Mapping typically takes place in rural and urban areas to assist planning sustainable communities and should also be used as a vehicle for empowering community conservation and stewardship of natural resources.”
I love this site and their model (although some of their Macromedia ColdFusion mapping applications didn’t work on my computer.)
I believe that this type of project might be feasable for other types of community projects or collaboratives. Perhaps GPS cellphones and some server-side GIS could make a popular urban system investigating, perhaps, an environmental justice problem.
Here’s this from global-minded site about broadband technologies:
“And now for the fun part….
Did you know that Iceland is only behind South Korea, Netherlands and Denmark in Internet penetration, and 84% of its households have Internet connection?
Australia adds 40,000 broadband connections every month.
In Spain, you can get a 20 megabit/second connection for $36 a month and that includes free phone service and a wifi router from a company called Jazztel.
Nearly 60% of Indians get their broadband at cyber cafes that dot the country?
Uruguay’s telecom monopoly sells a 512/256 kbps connection for $190 a month.”
Read it: Five fun facts from Broadband Wiki
(Found on:Om Malik’s Broadband Blog.)
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has just released a great “Legal Guide For Bloggers,” which goes into some of the concepts that you might not be familiar with.
If your organization is getting into blogging as a way to advocate your cause (and give honest PR, retain donors, keep employees up-to-date, keep volunteers enthused etc. …), this is something to keep around the office, preferably near the water cooler, coffee pot or toilet, where it might actually get read.
Those of us who did the journalism school thing can tell you: media law ain’t that much fun. But it is good to know, for example, that if you quote someone saying something slanderous, you can be legally tried for libel, which is, in fact, worse. (Libel is printed, slander spoken.)
As they are quick to point out: “None of this should stop you from blogging. Freedom of speech is the foundation of a functioning democracy …” (I would also point out that it is a good thing to have in a poorly functioning democracy.)
“Whether you’re a newly minted blogger or a relative old-timer, you’ve been seeing more and more stories pop up every day about bloggers getting in trouble for what they post. … The difference between you and the reporter at your local newspaper is that in many cases, you may not have the benefit of training or resources to help you determine whether what you’re doing is legal. And on top of that, sometimes knowing the law doesn’t help - in many cases it was written for traditional journalists, and the courts haven’t yet decided how it applies to bloggers.”
Get it: EFF: Legal Guide for Bloggers