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Local Content and Localization: the Ethiopian Case

Outline. IntroductionThe Ethiopic ScriptThe Challenges: LocalizationResearch Projects at AAU4.1. The VarcityNet Localization project under the UNECA/DISD support,4.2. Other projects on Ethiopic ComputingConclusions. 1. Introduction. Local Content:A content that reflects the language, the culture, and the real life/need of a locality or a country,.

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Local Content and Localization: the Ethiopian Case

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    1. Local Content and Localization: the Ethiopian Case Solomon Atnafu (PhD.) (email: satnafu@cs.aau.edu.et) Department of Computer Science, Addis Ababa University

    2. Outline Introduction The Ethiopic Script The Challenges: Localization Research Projects at AAU 4.1. The VarcityNet Localization project under the UNECA/DISD support, 4.2. Other projects on Ethiopic Computing Conclusions

    3. 1. Introduction Local Content: A content that reflects the language, the culture, and the real life/need of a locality or a country,

    4. Localization: Cultural and Technological aspects Cultural Aspects Formats Date (Ex: 24/1/2005, 1/24/2005), time, number, currency, telephone, etc. User interface language Writing direction, justification, quote character, case rules, character set Others Currency symbol Form layout (paper size) Units of measurement Keyboard,

    5. Localization Technological Aspects Character encoding Fonts Indexing, sorting and searching of data etc.

    6. 2. The Ethiopic Script

    7. What is to be Localized? Need for Standards

    8. 3. The Challenges: Localization Keyboard Mapping and Input Methods (Many Efforts since the 1980s)

    9. The Fonts: many efforts since the 1980s Ethiopians in the Diaspora and Locally, At ESTC (a GOV institute), and Private companies. Now, many fonts: Some Unicode based, others not The mainly used Application software are Ethiopic enabled (Word processors, spread sheets, database systems, etc.) Making the Web understand Ethiopic, since mid 90s

    14. 4. Research Projects at AAU 4.1 The VarcityNet Localization project under the UNECA/DISD support, 4.2 Other projects on Ethiopic Computing

    15. 4.1 Localization of an OSS Content Management System (CMS) Frezewd Lemma, Zemene Adgo, Dawit Bekele, Solomon Atnafu Department of Computer Science, Addis Ababa University Under the VarcityNet Project of UNECA/DISD

    16. Content Management System (CMS): A CMS allows the inception, creation, review, storage, and dissemination of documents as well as managing content of documents and their delivery on the internet and intranet General features of a CMS required - Document repository - Web site creation and maintenance - Searching - Workflow - Security - Versioning - Localization - Browser-enabled work environment - Multilanguage support

    17. The development process Alternatives to develop a CMS: developing from scratch Difficult, costly, and time consuming using proprietary software The cost of most proprietary Software License is much greater than an annual income of an African in many African countries. using OSS The system is developed using OSS Reason: benefits of OSS

    18. The development process Advantages Open Source Software Anyone can use, modify and redistribute software Source code is free No discrimination against persons, groups, or fields of endeavor No Restriction on other Software Independence Flexibility Support Security Transparent Open for customization to local languages and cultures No re-invention of the wheel

    19. The development process Reviewed Open Source CMSs Typo3 Bricolage OpenCms WebGui EZ Publish Midgard Zope Wiki Selected for testing OpenCms Zope WebGui Adopted OpenCMS

    20. The development process Selection criteria set Major features, Support Base, Language, OS platform, Database Platform, Support of Localization/Internationalization Selection OpenCms Satisfies the requirements of the systems Written 100% in Java Supports Localization

    27. 4.2 Other Projects on Ethiopic Computing Optical Character Recognition (OCR) For printed Ethiopic text For hand written Ethiopic text Ethiopic SMS: Short Text Messaging with Mobile phones in Ethiopic texts, Online Ethiopic Character Recognition under a PDA Environment,

    29. 5. Conclusions Why Local Content in Africa? If we want to address the majority of Africans, we need to make the computer speak the languages of Africans. How is ICT4D? Efficiency, Creating informed society. An informed society can decide better But, the majority need to learn first: Education But, a Formal Education is a long process Go Multimedia (oral and visual), (until the young and educated takes the place)

    30. Conclusions Access: Africas Key to an Inclusive Information Society: But, for Access we need the Infrastructure and useful content to be accessed Go for Infrastructure & Content development Parallel Processing for: Education, Infrastructure, Economy, Affordability, and local content development.

    31. Take care of the mobile devices: Because, pervasive computing is the next wave of IT revolution. Explore the possibilities of Localization for African languages, Explore and exploit the benefits of FOSS. Conclusions

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