Hi, guys. I'm sorry for the disappointment around the India Portal. I was told that the user groups were notified about the announcement. And I had hoped this would be a positive addition to the India OpenSolaris community. I apologize for the misunderstanding.
I was aware that there are many languages in India and that English is pervasive in the tech market. However, I was also told that Hindi is the national language and that the main Indian portal page should be in Hindi -- but that there should a way to replicate the content in to other languages as well. I agree with that (which was Suresh's position as portal lead), but at the present moment the site can't support that. The portals are basically altered project spaces just to get some translations out there and to get teams/communities formed and working on the content over the long term. Future versions of the site will have much more internationalization support, but it's up to the portal leads to specify what they want/need for the future (which they certainly are doing now as we work on portals). The portal is for the India community. You guys can make it into anything you want (within the scope of the current site, of course). I'd love to see the portal grow, to diversify, to add leaders, to point to all the user groups, and for unique and original content to be added. In other words, you can add to the portal, you can have English on the front page explaining the complex language situation and pointing to other languages and areas where sub-communities are busy translating to other languages. Think of in.opensolaris.org as a project space where site translations take place, but you decide what those translations are, who does them, and where they go. Suresh is portal lead and this is only the first step. Perhaps in.opensolaris.org can grow into something that everyone is happy with? That's my hope and my intention and I'm happy to help in any way. Jim -- Jim Grisanzio http://blogs.sun.com/jimgris Moinak Ghosh wrote: > Hi Jim, > > This is the reason why I was lukewarm to the idea of an India specific > portal in the first place. India's situation is unique, in that there is > no common accepted language of communication across the country except > for English (among the literate population). For eg. all the BOSUG meets > and even the Linux User Group meets happen in English. > > So for a country specific portal you'd have to put enough resources to > translate the site in all the major local languages. For eg: Tamil, > Telugu, Kannada, Malaylam, Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Gujrati, Kashmiri, > Oriya etc. Have a front English page with links as Shiv points out. > > Hindi as a means of spoken communication does cover most of the northern > states but leaves out all the southern states in the Lurch. Hindi as a > means of written communication has lesser coverage. For eg. my native > tongue is Bengali. What about that ? Though most Bengalis can speak > Hindi, a much lesser number can read it. I can read it with a little > difficulty. Hindi is also not the language of Karnataka which houses > India's Silicon Valley. > > Again tomorrow if you have a translation in Kannada then the Tamilians > and Telugus will start asking as well as these are other major Southern > languages. Hence I agree with Shiv's views. > > Regards, > Moinak. > > S h i v wrote: > >> (Jim/Eric, when it comes to co-ordinating between the projects you two >> are the most visible face of opensolaris.org and hence am marking a >> copy of this mail to you. Please read through) >> >> Hi All, >> >> I was pleasantly surprised to see Jim's blog saying "The India >> OpenSolaris Community http://in.opensolaris.org"; >> (http://blogs.sun.com/jimgris/entry/india_opensolaris_portal_opens). >> The announcement should probably go to all the other Indian user >> groups (not sure how many are there). Whoever has the bird's view here >> should be able to do it. >> >> I visited the site and I must say that I was quite disappointed. The >> entire website is in Hindi a language using which I can manage to >> converse, but would find it very difficult to read/write. Going >> through the site reminded me of my school days where I barely managed >> to clear my hindi exams :-) >> And I can safely say that I represent a good majority of Indian >> populace. For one, majority of the bosug members might find it not >> usable. >> >> Instead of Hindi if it had been in *Kannada*(official language of >> Karnataka state) I would have found it very convenient to browse >> through. What does this mean ? >> Here is some background for the unitiated : >> >> India has over 22 "official languages" (as per constitution). There is >> no national language status accorded to any single language. >> All union government departments communicate in Hindi. The Supreme >> court uses English for its proceedings. >> All state government departments have their own official language of >> communication based on what is predominantly in use in the state. >> Hindi is used for written communication predominantly in the country's >> capital and a handful of states in and around the capital. >> (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_languages_of_India) >> >> If http://in.opensolaris.org is about creating providing local >> language support in OpenSolaris and creating documentation, then the >> opening page should be in English and point to additional pages for >> the different languages where the people interested can participate. >> The link names in the front page can be in English and one another >> Indian language as per the link (Chandan's opensolaris odp template >> page is a hint). >> >> If it is about providing an opensolaris.org website to the Indian >> population, it has been misguided since this site will be usable by >> only a small portion of the population. >> >> By the way, I did catch a typo in the first word that I read on the page. >> ??????????? (OpenSolarsi) should have been >> ??????????? (OpenSolaris) >> >> cheers >> Shiv
