Frysk translation
Microsoft did it again, they keep amazing me. The way they handle publicity is just awesome. Every single fart hits the jackpot on the publicity scale. This time I was surprised by the fact that Microsoft is going to make a Frysk (West Frisian) translation of Office.
Fries is spoken in the nothern part of The Netherlands, especially in the province Friesland, it’s a beautiful language and the dutch people can’t really understand it.
It seems Microsoft has worked together with the Fryske Akademy in Leeuwarden to work on a ‘Community Glossary’ to get a unified vocabulary for ICT terms. Which is great, because that’s often a difficulty in a small language: you don’t have a translation for all the specialised terms used in the software.
Microsoft being involved in such a commercially less attractive initiative looks to me as if they are trying to improve their image. I’m not against the initiative at all, because I wish the Frysk people all the best, especially software in Frysk – I hope it includes a spell checker, etc.
I’m just wondering why this is mentioned in the news. KDE provides Frysk for a while already and I seriously doubt it would be on any news site at all if we have made a press release. Seriously, we have to do really weird things to get it on WebWereld for example. Something like releasing KDE4 for example. I think those sites need to wake up and not copy over every single press release Microsofts Martketing Dep. comes up with.
I’ld even like it when a journalist actually did some research before publishing it. Like phone Microsoft and ask why they are the last big Office application being delivered in Frysk (assuming OOo has Frysk too). Or asking them what there involvement is exactly – for me it looks like Microsoft is only repackaging the software, but the story is very superficial. So reporters: wake up, do your job, please!
I really want to give a huge compliment to the KDE Frysk team: Rinse (also the one responsible for the dutch translation for years, and years), Berend and Douwe. I hope I did not forget anyone ;-). Nice Job!
I’m just wondering why this is mentioned in the news. KDE provides Frysk for a while already and I seriously doubt it would be on any news site at all if we have made a press release. Seriously, we have to do really weird things to get it on WebWereld for example. Something like releasing KDE4 for example. I think those sites need to wake up and not copy over every single press release Microsofts Martketing Dep. comes up with.
Hmm, interesting… I notice this at Techzine.nl aswell, I’m missing quite a lot of Linux news. Although it’s not my responsibility (My responsibility lays with the scriptsection), I’ll try to forward any intersting KDE, Linux or open-source news to the newscrew or even write something myself if I have nothing else to do with my time.
En natuurlijk: Als je zelf een steentje wilt bijdragen kun je altijd een artikel insturen ;) (Kan ook slechts een tip zijn)
This was also one thing what frustrated me! I don’t believe MS is doing this because of the Frysian but just because they receiving money for it.
It’s nice to see Frysk getting some attention in the ICT world. And though its really cool KDE supports Frysk, it does not really promote it well. For example the screenshot on kde.nl of the Fryske version is of 2002, nor does the site explain how to get the Fryske version.
It seems guys that you don’t know how the world is working …
really when KDE or OpenOffice.org add Frysk support in their applications, they should have contact the mayor, the educational committee, some professors, the journalists and send them bootable USB keys preconfigured to showcase this with documentation and screenshots.
A website/portail eventually could have been done also.
Last but not least, they should have someone to talk : i.e an association, a representative, whoever who could have been able to represent kde and the Frysk community.
“nor does the site explain how to get the Fryske version.”
The frisian version is shipped by default with linux distributions, like opensuse, kubuntu, fedora, mandriva, etc.
Same with frisian spell checker: it is part of opensuse 10.3 by default.
as for the rest: problem with small opensource projects is the amount of resources. It sounds cool to have bootable usb sticks and so, but they cost money, and people voluntarily translating software aren’t going to pay for spreading it. Also, most of the times the people involved don’t have the time or knowledge to setup web portals etc.
But nonetheless: the Frisian KDE did get local exposure with several articles in local news papers and an item on the Frisian radio. Same with other projects, like the Frisian Firefox and Opera Webbrowsers.
About microsoft office: in a meeting about 2 years ago between a representative of the Fryske Akedemy and volunteers translating kde, opera, firefox, etc and creating frisian spell checkers , the akademy announced that they could raise funding for a large translation project, like translating openoffice to frisian. Apperently, that funding now goes to translating microsoft office in stead.
We saw the same thing over ten years ago, when the Frisian government spent about $ 15,000 on a Frisian spell checker for Microsoft Word.
“KDE provides Frysk for a while already and I seriously doubt it would be on any news site at all if we have made a press release.”
AFAIK the Frisian KDE has been on the news site WebWereld. There also was an article about it in a prominent computer magazine: c’t Magazine..
it’s a beautiful language and the dutch people can’t really understand it
Well, the Frisian people being Dutch themselves at least some of them can.
Sorry, just couldn’t resist ;)
Or did they just grant permission for a private institute to translate their software into a language they wouldn’t otherwise bother with?
Seen something similar before and it seemed to me very much like Microsoft was allowing the educational institute (and indirectly the government) to pay for work they would not do.
Hammers home the importance of having the source code and software freedom.