project proto proposals

[Gregg Reynolds <gar at arabink dot com>]

Hi all,

I have two suggestions.

First is to expand the scope of Arabeyes from Linux/Unix to Free/Open 
software.  Many (probably most) of us will not have the option of using 
Linux/Unix, at least not at work, no matter how well it supports Arabic. 
 But we do have the option of using Arabic-enabled applications on 
Windows.

So I propose that Arabeyes change from "The Arabic Unix Project" to 
something like "The Project for Free/Open Computing in Arabic".  The 
operating system should not be the focus; after all, these days many if 
not most open source projects are OS agnostic, and usually even end up 
supporting Windows.  The focus should be first on Arabic support, and 
second on portability.

For end-users, the Arabeyes proposal then becomes "no matter what your 
operating system is, we can help you compute in Arabic with free/open 
software, and most of it will be cross-platform as well, so that you can 
later switch to a different OS and your computing environment will look 
the ssame."  For developers, the proposal is "we can help you enable 
Arabic support regardless of your target OS, and we'll also help you 
make sure your app is portable across OS's."

Now my second proposal is a little more concrete.  I've been looking 
into RDF since last winter, and although I'm still learning it looks 
like a very promising and useful technology.  (Lots of RDF info at 
http://www.w3.org; I recommend the Primer at 
http://www.w3.org/2000/10/swap/Primer.html)  So the idea I have for 
Arabeyes is to create an RDF vocabulary for describing the Arabic 
capabilities of software.  Given a piece of software like a text editor, 
one needs to know basic things like which charsets it supports, does it 
support arabic shaping, etc., but one would also like to know which 
platforms it works on, whether it supports local date/time formats, 
sorting/searching, etc.  Also whether the GUI is fully R-to-L and in 
Arabic, if help files are translated, etc. etc.

What got me thinking about this is that last winter I spent a lot of 
time researching diff programs and xml editors trying to find good 
Arabic support.  So I ended up with a checklist of products and 
capabilities.  I didn't know it at the time but RDF is perfectly suited 
for that kind of metadata.

For Arabeyes, development of an "Arabic-Capabilities" RDF vocabulary 
could potentially make it much easier to find and evaluate 
Arabic-enabled free/open software.  If it were successful (easy to use 
and understand, I guess), then software developers could start including 
such info with each release.

Naturally I don't have much time at the moment but I thought I'd throw 
out the idea and see if anybody else likes it.

Whaddya think?

-gregg