[Localization] [FM Discuss] Proposed book on Reading and Publishing for Sugar

[Clytie Siddall]

To: FLOSS Manuals, OLPC Localization

On 16/04/2010, at 2:11 AM, James Simmons wrote (in part):

> There is also a shortage of free books in languages other than English

This is a key problem which came up recently in an OLPC project in Vietnam. The OLPC volunteer needed immediate information on how to use the ebook facility on the XO, so your book will definitely help with that.

However, finding free non-English ebooks is a much larger issue.

It comes down to the lack of translated or non-English texts in key sources like Project Gutenberg. For example, there are no Vietnamese texts in PG. However, there is a great deal of Vietnamese literature and popular fiction in print.

The OLPC volunteer was unable to find free Vietnamese ebooks online. I did some digging around myself, to try and help her, and it was a messy task:

1. licensing: there are a lot of pirated texts available online as "free ebooks"

2. sites require you to register and login

3. sites are extremely difficult to navigate, and overburdened with flashy advertizing

This may well apply to other third-world languages.

How does the OLPC user find non-English ebooks?

Hopefully, we can identify at least one reliable source for each language. Does anyone here know of any non-English free ebook sources?

We could also supply a viable search string for each language (as part of the ebook activity, translated via Pootle). It would need a specific comment, because I'm sure that Vietnamese is not the only language in which there are two ways to translate the English word "free".

free = miễn phí (no cost)

free = tự do (up to you)

from Clytie 

Vietnamese Free Software Translation Team