[Localization] localized keyboards for EU

Tue Jun 10 03:18:56 EDT 2008

just my input on this issue...

i agree that there will have to be localized keyboards for a european G1G1!

one crude and dirty hack that came to my mind was to just take the
existing membrane of the XOs and overprint them with a "blank" color and
than any keyboard layout we need. this could be accomplished by local
groups since the silkscreening process is a rather trivial one to get done
in our part of the world.

that would be an alternative if it was an unacceptable effort to get the
blank original rubber keyboards shipped with each XO (which i still find
hard to believe) of the G1G1 europe.

again as others have stated before i do not see any chance for the OLPC
project to be promoted successfully within europe if we can only show
interested parties (especially school personal) XOs with a US-keyboard.

> It is my opinion that this is a great roadmap to deal with the problem.
>
> I have requested Kim Quirk to help contact whomever is the one with
> power to make this happen (would that be Chuck?).
>
> It would help probably if someone among the interested parties (Laské,
> someone in DE, CH, IT, etc) could wikifi this and somehow keep it alive
> among the Europeans (copy to your own lists) and keep us apprised if
> this idea would work for y'all at least sort of.
>
> I agree it would be better an EU G1G1 would have localized keyboards
> built in, but find that unlikely, yet OLPC tends to change its mind, so
> we can always hope.  If it doesn't happen, Chris' idea would work.
>
> Another similar alternative would be to buy blank membranes off the OLPC
> supplier and then ourselves take charge of the rest of the process,
> which technologically would assure much better quality for the keyboards
> than anything I can fashion out of silicone.
>
> Yama
>
> Chris Leonard wrote:
>>
>> On Mon, Jun 9, 2008 at 11:00 AM, Carlo Falciola <cfalciola at yahoo.it
>> <mailto:cfalciola at yahoo.it>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>      What about to delivery plain intn'l machines with default keyboard
>>     and then set up some stocks of nationalized keyboards (FR, DE, IT,
>>     GR, etc.. ) and offer them at a price that's commisurated to the
>>     production cost of the keyboard itself (and the planned numbers),
>>     not burdening at all XO production?
>>
>>
>> I sincerely hope the OLPC has learned some lessons from the first G1G1
>> program.  While it seems clear enough that the logistics of providing a
>> "factory-localized" laptop are very likely insurmountable, it also seems
>> clear that shipping only US International keyboard to an EU-focused G1G1
>> program will NOT be well received and will only bring accusations of
>> cultural and linguistic imperialism and the like to an organization that
>> should be earning praise for it's efforts to make computing in local
>> languages possible.
>>
>> There must be a third path. Imagine instead a different sort of G1G1
>> process that incorporates Carlo's suggestion.  The  web-site for an EU
>> G1G1 program clearly explains some of the XO's remarkable flexibility
>> (both in hardware and in software) and the immense level of control
>> handed over to the user.
>>
>> EU donors order their G1G1 in a selection of several languages (en, fr,
>> es, de, it, however many are relevant and feasible).  It is clearly
>> explained that what the donor will receive is a US International
>> formatted XO and an envelope containing the keyboard membrane for the
>> language of their choice along with a beautifully illustrated brochure
>> explaining how to swap keyboard membranes, the brochure to be localized
>> in the same language as the keyboard. The brochure will also explain how
>> to use a newly created activity called LocalizeMyXO.
>>
>> LocalizeMyXO comes pre-installed in the EU G1G1 image.  The user changes
>> the keyboard membrane using the supplied hard-copy directions and then
>> clicks on one of the flags displayed by the LocalizeMyXO activity as
>> described in the brochure.  The LocalizeMyXO activity reaches out to a
>> controlled location on OLPC servers (or mirrors in EU) and in a scripted
>> fashion, performs all of the necessary steps to re-localize the laptop
>> to the relevant language, switches keyboard settings, downloads a fresh
>> image with the right Pootle strings, including activities, etc.
>> LocalizeMyXO does all of this without any substantial user intervention
>> once the language has been selected.  The LocalizeMyXO activity stays
>> available, and if the donor wants to switch back, they just click on
>> another flag.
>>
>> This requires no special logistics in manufacturing, other than
>> preparing some additional membranes in various languages and adding the
>> proposed LocalizeMyXO activity to the image.  There would need to be
>> better logistics on the distribution end, but we knew that already.  The
>> language choice field have to be tracked by the hopefully much improved
>> donor tracking/shipping system (it should not be guessed from ship to
>> address).  The packing and shipping operation will need to drop the
>> correct envelope into the correct box.  Distribution processing could be
>> bulk sorted into several streams (by language packet) to make it
>> simpler.  Let's say you do a different language every day, in rotation,
>> for the heavy phase of the shipping cycle to avoid slighting any one
>> language group, or do it for several days, whatever, just don't leave
>> one language group to the bitter end.
>>
>> Net result, G1G1 donors ultimately get the localized machine they want
>> for their Get One.  They know upfront they will have to do a little work
>> (keyboard membrane change), but the logistics of manufacturing runs and
>> cost savings have been clearly and politely explained to them in
>> advance and they knowingly opt in.  They gain the experience of how
>> easily an XO keyboard is swapped (beauty of hardware design) and how
>> cleanly a localization change can be performed, if executed in
>> more-or-less one-click fashion by LocalizeMyXO (beauty of software
>> design).  OLPC distributes the accumulated Give Ones to children without
>> buying itself a totally unnecessary public relations nightmare.
>>
>> Final score:
>> Get One Donor, Win.
>> Give One Child, Win.
>> OLPC, Win.
>>
>> Additional mfg costs:
>> Must factor extra membranes into cost.  Make mfg/distribution cost of
>> membrane explicit.  Need to create LocalizeMyXO activity, it would be a
>> variation on theme of scripts/procedures already existing for updating
>> to newer builds (Update.1 and after) and for re-installing G1G1 bundles
>>
>> Additional distribution costs:
>> These would need to be factored in as well.  If a competent EU-savvy
>> distributor is selected, these should be relatively modest and can be
>> rolled into membrane upcharge.
>>
>> I'm a North American G1G1 donor, and while it took longer than I had
>> hoped to get my XO, I got it and I'm very happy with it.  It got me to
>> work on contributing to OLPC (mostly on wiki, focused on content, not
>> code).  That's the sort of "fringe benefit" you want to get from a G1G1
>> program.  How can OLPC expect to draw in volunteers, (we could certainly
>> use more translators), if you only "talk the talk" of i18n/l10n and do
>> not "walk the walk".  The current state of upkeep on www.laptop.org
>> <http://www.laptop.org/>, particularly translations is bad enough a flag
>> of shame as it is (by way of example, the English language version lists
>> Walter Bender as President, Software and Content,
>> http://www.laptop.org/vision/people/).
>>
>> Please don't make the blunder of failing to offer  some sort of language
>> options to an EU G1G1 program, that can only make OLPC look greedy for
>> the money, contemptuous of the donors and culturally and linguistically
>> incompetent to perform it's self-declared mission.
>>
>> With regards and concern,
>>
>> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Cjl
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Localization mailing list
>> Localization at lists.laptop.org
>> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/localization
> _______________________________________________
> Localization mailing list
> Localization at lists.laptop.org
> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/localization
>