BENGALURU: Since the past few days, a campaign to translate content on the internet into Kannada, is being carried out under the name, Karnataka Rajyotsava Localization Sprint 2017 or the Anuvadotsava (Translate) 2017.Conducted by the city-based Free Software Movement Karnataka (FSMK), it is part of a larger goal and long-term going on since three years to attract more people to the initiative and to ensure a wider reach of online content to the the local masses.
“The campaign has been envisaged in context of the Karnataka Rajyotsava this year. During this time our objective is three fold - one is to ensure more content in Kannada gets translated and uploaded in Wikipedia, second is to ensure that we get interesting articles on issues of online and software copyright and those available under the creative common license translated into Kannada. There is no need for any technical expertise for doing these,” says Shijil T V, a software engineer who is an FSMK core member.
The third goal is to localise software which are in English at present.
Explaining the concept of localisation, an FSMK blogpost explains that it refers to making a software available for the locals in a community using a local language rather than the language in which the software was originally packaged.Several ‘sprints’ have been carried out throughout the state that have received widespread participation.
In Hassan, for example, a few localisation events were carried out in schools and colleges. Others in the Mandya and Bengaluru is also being planned.“The number of Kannada articles in Wikipedia is still very less when you compare to even other local languages such as Malayalam and Tamil. Our aim during the ongoing campaign is to increase the number of Kannada articles,” adds Ram, another FSMK member.
The campaign is being promoted online under the #Anuvadotsava2017, #Localisation #Kannada
When did it start
The localisation sprint started from October 15 and will go on till November 16. However, people are expected to continue the contribution even after it is over. FSMK is also trying to form a dedicated team to focus on localisation and related activities to carry forward localisation efforts.
How to be a part of it
Anyone who knows to read and write Kannada language can be a part. Though emphasis will be given to Kannada localisation efforts, one can decide to contribute any local language one knows to read and write.