Edited by author 11-23-2007 02:01 PM
During the last four weeks there has been a discussion about keyboard layouts on the a12n-collaboration list. The main topic is plans by the One Laptop Per Child project for a multilingual keyboard for its "XO" laptop. The keyboard layout would be intended to support languages of Nigeria or the whole of West Africa. In fact it seems to be OLPC's hope to have a single QWERTY (English) layout for the region (which could later be adapted to the French AZERTY keyboard).

If you are interested, see http://lists.kabissa.org/lists/archives/pu...a12n-collaboration/ (Note- this list is not an official OLPC forum)

The OLPC layouts are shown at:
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Image:WAfrica-Alt-1.png
&
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Nigeria_Keyboard

The main website of OLPC is http://laptop.org/

Don

Edited by author 11-23-2007 01:05 PM
Don't always believe what you read in the newspapers. The News Post of Frederick, Maryland, USA had an article* last August about the number of languages represented in among students in local schools. It included this statement:

"One student speaks Twi, an African language with no formal written alphabet."

Such misinformation can undermine efforts to promote localization and various uses of the language in ICT. Also, how did this kind of misinformation get out there - did the source simply not know that Twi has been written for some time? Are there people in Ghana and Ghanaian expatriates who have never been exposed to writing in major Ghanaian languages?

I do realize that there is an issue about a unified Akan orthography, but that's not the same as saying Twi has "no formal written alphabet."

Don


* "Learning the language" (Originally published August 27, 2007), By Nancy Hernandez http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/...l.htm?StoryID=72173

There is an Akan word processor / "light-weight text editor" called Nkraata V1.1, which is available for free download at http://www.nkraata.com/

Edited by author 04-19-2007 10:51 AM
There is a nice article in the Accra weekly, Public Agenda, on women and ICT that discusses advantages of localizing in Ghanaian languages. See:

"ICT Can Transform the Lives of African Women," by Isabella Gyau Orhin, Public Agenda, April 4, 2007
http://allafrica.com/stories/200704090934.html
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AfricanLanguages/message/809

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net
PanAfriL10n.org

Edited by author 03-02-2007 03:30 PM
I made a small change to the group name due to a problem the RSS software had with the "&" in the old name. So Ghanaian languages & ICT is now Ghanaian languages and ICT. Don

Just added some RSS feeds to http://www.panafril10n.org/wikidoc/pmwiki.php/GH-L10n/L10nForums . It's simple to do now that the necessary add-in to the software has been uploaded.

BTW, the PanAfriL10n site now has over 10K unique hits over about 4 months. Part of that added traffic is related to a workshop on localisation just held in Marrakech.*

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net

* See http://www.panafril10n.org/wikidoc/pmwiki.php/Marrakech/

Edited by author 01-27-2007 08:51 AM
A "wikigroup" on the PanAfriL10n.org wiki that has a more flexible structure than that set up on the main wiki (see /m69) is at http://www.panafril10n.org/wikidoc/pmwiki.php/GH-L10n/ . Note that there is space for listings and links in the directory page.

This is intended as a kind of portal and a free space for efforts related to localization in Ghana and use of Ghanaian languages in ICT. It is hoped that, among other things, RSS from this forum and sites such as Kasahorow can be added. It is not intended to take the place of any other resource, but on the contrary raise the profile of Ghanaian efforts.

The PanAfriL10n.org wiki has received about 6000 unique hits over the last 3 months. The hope is that it can facilitate finding information on diverse African localisation efforts (by other African localizers, content developers, policymakers, etc.).

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net
PanAfrican Localisation project

Ah, nice! In fact Project Nyalasi got kasahorow started by providing the first keyboard input methods that we used.

16 Oct 2006 02:15:52 -0000, QT - BisharatNet
<qtopic+16-9xffAXi7whnv@quicktopic.com>:
>


--
www.kasahorow.com > communicate
< replied-to message removed by QT >

Hey, glad to find this place where you all talk about ghanian langauges.
Ive starded a recent reaserch for finding servel of phrases in 250 languages, among them - Ga, Ewe, Twi, Kasen, Dangme, nzema and gonja.

The phrases are :
-How are you ?
-Thank you.
-I love you.
-What is your name?
-My name is...
-I dont understand.
-Do you speak English?.

Some of those i found already but some not, id love id some of you will the the time and help me find the following :

-How are you ? Dangme, Nzema, Gonja
-Thank you. Nzema, Gonja
-I love you. All of the following languages.
-What is your name? Nzema, Gonja
-My name is... Nzema, Gonja, Twi, Ga
-I dont understand. All of the following languages.
-Do you speak English?. All of the following languages.

Thanks alot in advence any kind of help will be highly aprriciated.

Just came across mention of the Ghana Keyboards site: http://www.ghanakeyboards.com/

Apparently the keyboard effort began under the name "Project Nyalasi." Looks like I missed mention of this on GhanaThink last year.

They also have an Ewe dictionary project.

It would be great to have mention of all of this go to a place where wider audiences will see it. The PanAfriL10n wiki is intended to help in that way with - in the case of Ghana - a page like http://www.panafril10n.org/wikidoc/pmwiki.php/PanAfrLoc/Ghana and the language pages linked to it. Current plans are to link pages like that to a more free form (and semi-independent) set of wiki pages for localization communities, with the advantage that all these can all be searched within the common PanAfrican Localisation wiki. But each page will also serve as a sort of wiki-form gateway page with external links to projects like Kasahowow, Ghanakeyboards, etc. (as well as whatever other useful common interest content is generated. (More info on this soon.)

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net