Offering practical approaches to finding a place for African Languages in the information revolution, this overview lays the foundation for more effectively bridging the "digital divide" by finding new solutions to old problems. Conducted by the PanAfrican Localization project under the sponsorship of Canada’s International Development Research Center, this survey explores obstacles that impede greater use of African Languages in computer software and internet content, assesses possible solutions and maps for their reach, and identifies future trends in the field. Among the key issues discussed are the importance of localization in the African context; barriers to more widespread use of African Languages in internet computer technology; and by whom, for which Languages, and in which countries efforts are being made. Central to the discussion is the introduction of the concept of "localization ecology" to account for the key factors, facilitate discussion of their interaction, and call attention to how planning and implementing localization can and should consider these issues.
Authors
- Bibliography, etc. Note
- Includes bibliographical references and index
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- 303.48/33
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 22
- General Note
- Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- Geographic Area Code
- f------
- ISBN
- 9781552504734 9780796922496
- LCCN
- HM851
- LCCN Item number
- O83 2010eb
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- CaOONL
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (xvi, 150 p.)
- Published in
- Canada
- Publisher or Distributor Number
- CaOOCEL
- Rights
- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)slc00224689 (OCoLC)650311586 (CaOOCEL)434012
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Title proper/short title
- Challenges and opportunities for indigenous language computing
- Transcribing agency
- CaOONL
Table of Contents
- Contents 6
- List of tables and figures 9
- Foreword 10
- Preface 13
- Acronyms and abbreviations 16
- 1 Introduction 18
- 2 Background 22
- Importance of African languages and implications for ICT 22
- What is localisation? 24
- Overlapping regional contexts: localisation where? 29
- Who localises? 31
- What is the current state of localisation across the African region? 32
- 3 Introducing ‘localisation ecology’ 34
- An ecological perspective on the environment for localisation 34
- The PLETES model 37
- Dynamic complexes within localisation ecology 42
- Relevance to questions of ICT and localisation 46
- 4 Linguistic context 48
- Languages, dialects and linguistic geography 48
- Sociolinguistics and language change 51
- Oral and literate traditions 52
- Language and language in education policies 55
- Basic literacy, pluriliteracy and user skills 57
- Terminology and accommodation of ICT concepts 58
- 5 Technical context I: physical access 60
- Physical and soft access 61
- Basic infrastructure 62
- Computer hardware and operating systems 63
- Connectivity and ICT policy 64
- 6 Technical context II: internationalisation 66
- The facilitating technical environment 66
- Handling complex scripts: from ASCII to Unicode 67
- The ‘last mile’ of internationalisation 71
- Internationalisation and localisation 72
- 7 African-language text, encoding and fonts 74
- Non-Latin scripts and ICT 74
- Typology of Latin-based African orthographies 75
- Evolution of African-language text use in ICT 76
- Fonts 78
- Languages without writing systems 80
- 8 Keyboards and input systems 82
- Keyboards 82
- Keyboards for Africa 85
- Alternative input methods 87
- 9 Defining languages in ICT: tags and locales 90
- Languages and the ISO 639 standards 90
- Locale data 92
- 10 Internet 96
- E-mail 96
- Internationalisation and the web 97
- Web content in and about African languages 97
- Internationalised domain names 100
- 11 Software localisation 102
- Applications and operating systems 102
- Trends in proprietary software 102
- Trends in free and open-source software 103
- Software localisation in Africa 104
- Web interfaces 105
- 12 Mobile technology and other specialised applications 108
- Mobile technology 108
- Audio dimensions: voice, text-to-speech and speech recognition 109
- Geographic information systems 110
- Computer-assisted translation 111
- 13 Achieving sustainable localisation 114
- Needs by kind of localisation and localiser 114
- Understanding the needs of localisers 116
- Analysis of needs from a pan-African perspective 119
- Facilitating communication about localisation 120
- 14 Summary, recommendations and conclusion 124
- Major themes 124
- Strategic perspectives 126
- Conferences and workshops 128
- Training and public education on localisation 130
- Information resources and networking 132
- Languages, policy and planning 133
- Basic localisation, and ICT policies and programmes 135
- Africa and ICT standards for localisation 137
- Advanced applications, tools and research 140
- Conclusion 144
- Notes 147
- References 156
- Index 163
- A 163
- B 163
- C 163
- D 164
- E 164
- F 164
- G 164
- H 164
- I 164
- K 165
- L 165
- M 166
- N 166
- O 167
- P 167
- R 167
- S 167
- T 167
- U 167
- W 167
- Y 167
