Off-topic: Translators wanted for opensource

[Samuel Murray (Groenkloof)]

G'day everyone

Please allow me to tell you about our translation project.  I'm hoping 
that some of you might be able to help us with translations or ideas.

One of the types of programs that I'm sure will be useful to translate, 
is message programs.  Since you guys already work on or translate a 
message program, would you mind telling me what you think one should 
look for in a message program from the point of view of translating it? 
  What things do you think one needs to keep in mind when selecting a 
single message program for a translation project with volunteers?

We call our project the Decathlon because we want to encourage people 
who feel passionate about their language to translate up to ten or more 
opensource programs into their languages in 2008.  This year, we limit 
our selection of translated programs to applications aimed at end-users, 
and preferably programs that run on multiple platforms.

All translations are done in our web-based translations system, Pootle. 
  The value of Pootle is that a team of translators can work together on 
a single file.  Pootle also has quality checking features, to ensure 
that translations don't break the software they are used in.   Pootle 
requires the Gettext PO format, but we can convert certain other formats 
to and from PO.

You can read more about the Decathlon project at 
http://translate.sourceforge.net/wiki/decathlon/mainpage.
Or take a look at the online translation system:
http://pootle.locamotion.org/
Or join the low-volume newsletter mailing list:
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/translate-decathlon
Or contact the project leader, Samuel Murray, at samuel at translate.org.za.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely

Samuel Murray
Decathlon project leader