Re: Arabic applications for education

[Abdulaziz Al-Arfaj <aalarfaj at gmail dot com>]

On 5/14/05, Nadim Shaikli <shaikli at yahoo dot com> wrote:
> --- Maja van der Velden <maja at xs4all dot nl> wrote:
> > Maybe this is a good opportunity to mention Skolelinux (school linux) a
> > project that started in Norway but that is slowly moving around the
> > world. It won the Linux New Media Award for Best Newcomer Linux
> > Distribution 2004. Someone has started working a bit on the Arabisation
> > (click on the green crescent in the top right corner) but I don't know
> > in what stage it is. Here is the link:
> >
> > http://www.skolelinux.org/portal/
> 
> Thanks Maja.  We were made aware of this project approx a year ago and
> Abdulaziz (per the thread noted [1]) was supposed to look into the project
> to see how we it can be "Arabized".  Seems like that effort has fallen
> through the cracks.
> 
> Abdulaziz, any of this ring a bell ?  Thoughts ?
[...]

Yeah it rings a bell. This project might be worthwhile any effort we
put into it. I think we all agree education sectors are our main
audience we do Arabization work. The project contains many educational
apps, but they're not specific to Skolelinux. Examples are Gcompris
and Ktouch. I think Gcompris is already in our GNOME translation repo.
Translation will be the easiest part of all when it comes to
Skolelinux.

The hard part is cultural localization. Skolelinux is targeting mostly
young schoolchildren. If we don't want it to be at the recieving end
of uberzealous censorship in Arabic countries, there are certain
cultural elements which need to be removed/replaced. We don't have the
resources (and not by a long shot) to hack each and every program that
will need cultural modification.

It would be nice if Skolelinux became a culturally modular
distribution. Insert the cultural module of your choice, and the
programs and apps will behave accordingly. (Someone once mentioned the
example of the Christmas tree in a card matching game. This module
plan would make it possible to install Skolelinux with a different
module from the default, and then said Christmas tree would be
replaced by something else). We on Arabeyes can certainly develop said
module, or even several modules if we want to be even more culturally
specific and want to make something that pertains to each and every
country or region and whatever is considered acceptable over there.
This method is going to take a lot of work and time, and I don't
expect it will implemented any time soon, but I strongly urge
Skolelinux's developers to incorporate it into their long term plans.

Salam,

Abdulaziz,