PanAfrican Localisation Resource Wiki is back

This past September, I began the process of bringing back the Pan African Localisation Resource Wiki,* the second, or really third transition since its inception over ten years ago as part of the PanAfrican Localisation project.

The PanAfriL10n wiki - then as now - was intended to bring into one place information of use to localizers in Africa, and also to others working on projects in the intersection of African languages and ICT (information and communication technology).

Background

The wiki is currently hosted on the Bisharat site, on a provisional basis, to facilitate upgrading and updating. As such it actually is back to where it was started before being moved to the PAL project's then new site, www.PanAfriL10n.org. That domain was transferred to the African Network for Localisation* (ANLoc) in 2008, with the wiki getting a make-over in the transition. It was managed as part of the ANLoc project until its website went offline in November 2013.

The wiki now has another new look, mainly a functional one matching a "skin" that works well with the latest version of the PmWiki software. More importantly I'm trying to build in some more functionality into the interface, and doing some updating. The updating of course will require a wider effort  - which is part of the reason to publicize it here.

Reasons for reviving the PanAfriL10n wiki

The main motivations for making this effort are that on the one hand, the wiki already had a lot of information about African languages and localization, and on the other, there is demand for such information (I personally get questions).

Beyond just recreating and updating an online reference, there are four dyamics I see in developing such a resource:

1. Moving from a "localization resource" to "knowledge base" for localization and language technology in Africa. This concerns a specialized wiki that was begun with a focus on information useful to supporting localization in Africa, but which can also address more broadly the intersection of ICT and African languages in ways that anticipate changing technical and sociolinguistic environments.
2. Combining matrices of knowledge. The wiki has always included information in several categories - languages, countries, technology, writing systems, and organizations and initiatives. In that, it's not different in kind from a number of more prominent resources, but arguably it differs in degree (for instance inclusion of organizations and localization topics along with country/language/script information). However, bringing ICT for development (ICT4D) information into a localization resource, and including specialized software like GIS into its treatment of software localization are examples of associating different specializations in the same information space.
3. Preserving history. It is important to retain information and lessons from past efforts, like early versions of software localized in African languages, or organizations that did some good work but no longer exist. The history, as part of the ongoing story of localization in Africa, is something that shouldn't be lost, and which may be important for understanding current trends and potentialities.
4. Localization ecology as both an organizing principle and a scope of potential utility. In African Languages in a Digital Age, I introduced the concept of "localization ecology" as a  way of understanding the interaction of factors in the environment for localization. I see this as a framework for development of the wiki (for example, one factor in localization ecology - economics - is almost totally absent from current content). It also can point to potential audiences of this evolving knowledge base (for example, localized software and language technology for education in Africa).

The task of bringing together material related to localisation in a linguistically diverse continent where many languages have short (if any) written tradition and tend to be disfavored in national policies is vast. The original concept 10+ years ago was to develop a database, but that proved impractical given not only the size of the task, but also the quality of data (for instance, where an orthography was not well established), and the nature of the technical and sociolinguistic environments alluded to above. Also the linguistic terrain is complex, with for instance the number of languages and distinction among them depending on the criteria used and needs addressed.

The wiki approach that was retained allows for more flexible grouping and linking of data that appears in different forms. One challenge has been how to structure that data - relatively simple in the case of standard organization of say pages on languages or pages on countries, but more complicated when dealing with questions like choice of languages to prioritize, or how to divide and group different kinds of organizations with varying national, regional, and/or international scope.

The main challenges, however, which are being faced these days even by Wikipedia, are how to maintain a community of contributors and how to assure the means to sustain the effort over the long term.

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* The project names used the British spelling "localisation," which has been retained. Otherwise in the text of this blog I use the American spelling "localization."

Modifications on this blog

I made some minor changes, including modifying the blog description and adding a new group/list - MINEL - to the lefthand column.

The previous blog description (for the record) was:
Don Osborn's reflections on the Sahel, language, agriculture, development, education & more... "Beyond Niamey" has the sense of a personal & family transition, and also of reference to a key conference on African language transcription in 1978 that has implications for ICT work today

I am not sure how the RSS feeds are working - I suspect they are not but cannot see them where I am (continued trouble with accessing the blog, though much less, curiously, for accessing the blog editor).

Description of Bisharat, its evolution, & a12n

Andrew Cunningham asked me for a brief description of Bisharat (see link on lefthand column under "Work") and how the ICT4D focus has come to link with other issues, and of a12n. I copy it below:

Bisharat began with a vision that can be summed up as "ICT in African languages for rural development in Africa." The various insights, observations, and conversations that led up to this are another story. But the motivation was and is to address the barriers to greater use by Africans of their indigenous languages in ICT, and its audience is as much foreign ICT for development programs active in Africa as technicians and others from the continent.

Evolution of the idea of Bisharat has basically involved 1) a progressive exploration of different mainly technical factors that make possible computing and internet usage in African languages, and 2) a gradual recognition of various other factors having to do with language but not ICT that are unavoidable considerations. In addition to a largely informational and networking role that will continue, it is hoped to participate in the implementation of some projects in the near future, including about software localization..

"A12n" - Africanization with an explicit ICT meaning - is essentially localization (l10n) in Africa plus those aspects of internationalionalization (i18n) that facilitate use of African languages on computers and the internet. I sought some sort of term or acronym that was as linguistically neutral as possible, simple, and widely recognizable to capture this concept and use for a gateway page and e-mail fora on the Bisharat site. "Africanization" is a term with some historical baggage, but A12n gives a fresh take on it.

We are starting to see much more activity in African language localization of content and software. An interesting dimension that does not get a lot of attention is the importance of African expatriates abroad in localization.

Focusing most efforts now on the newly incorporated Bisharat, Ltd. Also some messages on the various lists (see bar at left). More in time, so Alla jaɓii ...

A few quick items. In the last few weeks I've done some updates to several pages on the Bisharat! site (link on left), notably the links pages and the "basic documents." For the latter I am particularly indebted to CELHTO here in Niamey for the loan of some books and reports that I'm trying to find free time to scan - already done material for Abidjan '64, Ibadan '64 (tous les deux en français), Bamako '79, and la version française de Harare '97 (previously had only the English).

A few correspondence items relating to language in Africa, esp. of education. For instance just recently on the "Africa-oped"* list at:

• a reflection on monolingual non-African language education in some African homes


• comment on a posting re Cheick Anta Diop

I also discovered the "Mwananchi"** list - both it and the abovementioned have a staggering amount of traffic BTW - and posted something that was reposted on Africa-oped where you can see it in the latter's open archives:

a response on the topic of culture & development - here I veer off onto the question of language again

Mwananchi, so I discover, has a lot of input by George Ayittey, an American Univ. professor who has published on aspects of African development. His reply to the above I don't have permission to repost here - and the group is closed- archive - but here is my response to him today (in the socially equalizing etiquette of such groups, one is pretty much automatically on a first name basis):

Thank you, George. I'd be interested what you (and others) think of the work of Kwesi Prah and CASAS - http://www.casas.co.za - on standardization of regional & transborder languages for intercommunication in Africa. Certainly sets out to challenge some of the conventional wisdom.

The multilingual nature of African societies is a challenge but many argue a resource as well. The trick I guess is to find solutions to have the best of all possibilities, and Africa ends up (for reasons such as you indicate) with the worst instead.

I've been very interested in this regard to go over a number of documents on language policy in Africa from the last 40 years - which I find very thought provoking indeed. It seems that many good and realistic proposals for African languages have been made but never really implemented. See http://www.bisharat.net/Documents

Of course English, French & Portuguese have roles that are important, I'm not suggesting otherwise, but I do agree with those in other world regions that use of first languages in formal education (in proven bilingual approaches) has a lot of advantages for learning and personal development.

Anyway, that's one foreigner's take on it. Thanks again & in advance...

Don

* http://groups.yahoo.com/group/africa-oped/
** http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mwananchi/