Alberto Escudero-Pascual, a software localisation developer known for his work on the Swahili translation of Linux (KiLinux) is responsible for the development, and says the tool aims to help facilitate the creation of African language locales.
A locale is a set of software parameters that defines a user`s language, country and any special variant users want to see in their computer interface, he says.
"A major challenge for Africa in terms of computer access is language and linguistic barriers," says Escudero-Pascual, who is based in Sweden. LocaleGEN aims to overcome these barriers.
There is a great need for localisation projects like the one Escudero-Pascual has developed, says Nhlanhla Mabaso, manager of the CSIR Open Source Centre. "About 50 million people in East, Southern and Central Africa are unable to absorb the Internet and other computer software suites because all the ICT vocabulary is in the mainstream languages of English and French, leaving Africa and Africans with a great need for IT software support"
According to Escudero-Pascual, the online tool is a platform which allows not only developers but "minority" language users to submit language specific information in order to build locales that suit specific users and communities. "In the Igbo province of Nigeria for example, there is four-day week as opposed to a conventional seven-day Western day week."
The data collection and standardisation tool has been on trial for a month, and has already been used to build six locales in the African languages of Ewe, Akan, Gaa, Lingala, Igbo and Kamba, says Escudero-Pascual.
He is hoping local developers will use the tool, to build a large common locale data repository.
After the submission of the different linguistic data by the interested user, Escudero-Pascual and his team are responsible for the checking of the internal technical details and the submission and standardising process.
Escudero-Pascual and his team are creating the locales around the open source OpenOffice software package.
"Localisation of software in Africa is slowly taking shape, but there is a definite gap around the developing of 'African` software," said Escudero-Pascual.
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