Translations - Which languages would you like to see?


#1

So far we have English and French, with Arabic about 1/2 done.


A) What other languages would you like to see translated?


B) What languages can you help translate?



#2

Unfortunately I cannot help translate Ushahidi into other languages but I do think that Spanish is worth looking into. I say this primarily because it's one of the worlds most widespread languages, spoken by roughly the same number of people as English. Not only is it one of the more practical languages to translate Ushahidi into, it's also spoken in most of Central and South America. I think opening Ushahidi to that many more people could mean good things for the project.



#3

Also, perhaps we should look into translating it into Swahili? It seems only appropriate given the history of the project!



#4

At Meedan we are working on a firefox plugin that will help translate interfaces! I will post screenshots soon. There will be major translation software tools released in 2009, not just from Meedan. So we should definitely plan on having increased language flexibility, however that might manifest in the app.



#5

Meedan looks very interesting. I'm assuming the translation tools will be using machine translation?


... and not to get off topic, I'm really looking forward to Arabic localization.



#6

The translation is actually hybrid human and machine. Crowdsourced.


Basically when the machines get it wrong, humans fix it. The translations are rated and have a change history. Here's a good description of the approach:


http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/mar/26/internet-translation-project



#7

We are in need of Arabic for the HarassMap project (http://cli.gs/HarassMap), but we have a special case. Since the system is meant to be used primarily by women reporting sexual harassment, we are working on a translation using the feminine forms of the commands.


We'd be happy to share it when we are done!



#8

@neuromusic - we'd love to see that translation done. Let us know when you have it complete.



#9

Spanish! plus a way to add additional flags (to switch languages) on the homepage.



#10

I understand we already have a Spanish translation:

http://forums.ushahidi.com/topic.php?id=53

http://blog.ushahidi.com/index.php/2009/06/25/cuidemos-el-voto-monitoring-federal-elections-in-mexico/


and I see a /application/i18n/es_UY


What do we need to to? how can I help.



#11

Well, Farsi uses the Arabic script, but I don't know if it would actually need a different language pack or not, but that would really be useful.



#12

The Spanish translation is not really complete, but I believe that has to do not with the people in charge of the es_UY i18n, but from the fact that there are many strings that are not included in that file, ie. stuff in /application/view/admin/messages.php or /application/views/main.php


Maybe the target is to provide i18n only to some pages?


Pablo



#13

It would be good to set up a common strategy for translations, a "good practice guide" would help.

so we can:

1) help speed translations,

2) make sure all strings are translated,

2) costumize (Spanish has different technical words depending on country).



#14

@unthinkingly


Very good show. We're just starting work on a farsi language pack now, and for other work I'm eager to see the Arabic one in action. We're also looking for ways to crowdsource the project. Yours, and the other one mentioned in the Guardian article look great. Wondering if you know of any resources that are up and running now.



#15

I've installed Ushahidi, and it is working perfectly in my test environment. Now I would like to have it translated to Italian. I've created (root)/application/i18n/it_IT/ and started translating it.


Now, it is not clear to me how to make it live. I see no way of publishing it.


(it is not ready yet, this is just for development purpose, when ready it will be made available to the developers in order to integrate it in to the main software.)


any pointer?


thanks,

Simone.



#16

To see it in action, try this http:///?l=it_IT



#17

Hello from Germany!

I could help to teach i18n german.

Anyone interested? What would be the best way?



#18

Ciao Simone,


if you have already traslated it, please share your work with us, otherwise i'll do the work! Im italian and i need the italian translation too, we could finish the work togheter too.


Let me know :)


Ciao ;)



#19

hi all,

i can't figure out how to get my Arabic interface showing,

when i translate the files in "ar_LB" folder, and i run ushahidi, a language compatibility error seems to pop,but when i write the categories in Arabic they show. is it my php problem that doesn't show the Arabic or is it Ushahidi, or is it an UTF8 thing.

please help me.

thanks,



#20

@Simone and Diac,

here is Anahi. I am in contact with other 2 Italians that are looking for a translation of the platform in Italian and we were thinking about dividing the work to have it ready in max two weeks. Are you already doing it? If yes, please get in contact with me at anahi@crisismappers.net and let me know so that we can coordinate and not duplicate the work. :)


@Brian: I sent to you the files with the translation of the platform in Arabic, I hope you received it! It is the translation of every single word in the platform, including back end. The one contained in the folder LB it wasn't working for me, so we did it again entirely. You can see the result here: http://u-shahid.org/egypt


Cheers!