Dwayne Bailey is passionate about languages. Almost as passionate, in fact, as he is about open-source software – software that is freely available on the Internet to download and modify.<\/p>\n
Bailey is director of the Translate.org.za project, a nongovernmental organisation whose work involves translating popular free software applications into Zulu, Afrikaans, Xhosa and other indigenous SA languages.<\/p>\n
A self-described computer geek, Bailey first started translating software in 2001 while in the employ of open-source software specialist Obsidian Systems. He says he felt it was a great way for him to make a contribution to the community.<\/p>\n
Obsidian provided the first, albeit small, tranche of funding. But, within a year, Bailey had secured a R300 000 investment from the Shuttleworth Foundation. More recently, Translate.org.za has secured funding from Canada's International Development Research Centre and George Soros's Open Society Institute.<\/p>\n
The organisation's first project involved translating the K Desktop Environment, a popular graphical user interface for Linux, into four indigenous SA languages. Web browser Mozilla Firefox and e-mail client Thunderbird followed. Then work began on OpenOffice.org, a popular and freely available open-source alternative to Microsoft Office.<\/p>\n
Today, Firefox, Thunderbird and OpenOffice are available in all 11 official languages. The Afrikaans version of Firefox has proved particularly popular; African language editions less so. Bailey says this reflects the demographic profile of computer users in SA.<\/p>\n
He admits that it is sometimes difficult to translate computer terms – such as "proxy server" or "mail merge" – into other languages. But, he says, it is always possible, with enough thought, to find appropriate terminology. <\/p>\n
"It can be difficult to find the right words but it's not impossible, as some people suggest. By not translating we would make access to technology much harder for non-English speakers."<\/p>\n