Bangla/Bengali Projects on FOSS

FOSSAP-II, 2005

1-4 Sep 2005 Siem Reap, Cambodia

Jamil Ahmed

Bangladesh

Contents

The Bangla Language

Bangla Localization Teams

Process of Localization

Current Bangla Localization Projects

Our Activities

Problems Faced So Far

Proposed Steps

The Bangla Language

Spoken in: Bangladesh, India, and several other countries

Speakers: 207 million

Rank: 4

History

February 21, 1952 - Lives Sacrificed for Bangla

February 21 proclaimed as International Mother Language Day by UNESCO in 2000

Bangla Localization Teams

Ankur

Founded by Taneem Ahmed (Bangladesh)

Kbangla – 2001

BengaLinux - 2002

Ankur – 2003

Bangla Localization Teams (Cont.)

Bangla Innovation through Open Source (BIOS)

Founded by Anir Chowdhury (USA)

Current Status: Inactive

Ekushey

Founded by Dr. Robin Upton (UK) and Omi Azad (Bangladesh)

OpenSource Bangla Computing - 2000

Bangla Localization - 2002

Process of Localization

Target an Open Source Software based on popularity and Indic language support

Get or generate PO files

Translate

using Kbabel, poEdit, or any text editor

and a standard word list

Review/Comment/Change

Compile application

Finally, submit to respective distributor.

Target Locales

bn – Bengali

bn-BD – Bengali Bangladesh

bn-IN – Bengali India

Current Bangla Localization Projects

Applications

Gaim

Mozilla Firefox*

Mozilla Thunderbird*

OpenOffice.org

Desktop Environments

Gnome

KDE

GNU/Linux Distributions

Fedora Core

Mandriva Linux

SUSE Linux

*With Ekushey Team

Screen Shots of Some
Localized Projects

Other Projects

Bangla Literature Archive

Bangla Unicode Text Editor

Free Bangla Fonts Project

GNU/Linux Based [Bangla] LiveCD

Ankur LiveCD 1.0 based on Morphix

Ankur LiveCD 2.0 based on Knoppix

Our Activities

Attended the Internet Fair 2004 and 2005

With the help of Internet Service Providers Association of Bangladesh [ISPAB]

Discussions in different mailing lists

Seminars in local universities

Problems Faced So Far

Ignorance about FOSS

Government

General public

Shortage of Volunteers

Lack of interest

Inadequate knowledge

Limited Resources

Internet bandwidth, Hardware

Sponsorship

Problems Faced So Far (contd.)

Issues with bn_IN [Bengali India]

Locale ID (LCID) Values as Assigned by Microsoft

Bengali [LCID Dec: 1093]

Bengali (Bangladesh) [LCID Dec: 2117]

Appropriate Bangla Words for Technical Terms

Proposed Steps

Government

Adopt policies to use FOSS in govt. offices

Media

Cover and promote events related to FOSS

Educators

Include FOSS in Academic Curriculum

People Already Involved

Encourage software development using FOSS

Community Participation

Proposed Steps (contd.)

Vendors

Support FOSS distribution with hardware [HP, IBM]

Set up offices in Bangladesh [Mandriva, Novell, Red Hat]

Foreign Aid Organizations

Enforce use of FOSS in aided projects

Supply related study material as educational aid

Local Infrastructure

Setup affordable, hi-Speed Internet services

Host mirror sites locally

And You!

Thank You!

Jamil Ahmed

jamil@bengalinux.org

Ankur

www.ankurbangla.org

core@bengalinux.org

Jamil Ahmed

2005-07-13T21:16:20