Newsletter No 1/2010 (Jan 2010)
The Rosetta Foundation was established in 2009 to provide information across languages for underserved customers, those who currently do not represent a market for the translation and localisation industry. Many people across the world have enthusiastically embraced our mission and are now keen supporters of our work. With your help, we will mark 2010 as the year when the fight against information poverty became a centre piece of the translation and localisation community. This is the first issue of our new regular newsletter that will keep you up-to-date on our activities.
The Rosetta Foundation Global Launch The Rosetta Foundation at the UN's 4th Internet Governance Forum (IGF) The Rosetta Foundation Technology Platform Board and Supporters
The Rosetta Foundation Global Launch
150 volunteers, NGO representatives and technology providers from Asia, Africa, Europe and the USA gathered this summer at the University of Limerick, Ireland, for the global launch of The Rosetta Foundation at a week of Action for Global Information Sharing – AGIS ’09 from 21-23 September. The free event included courses, seminars and workshops delivered and organized by leading translation and localisation experts, as well as networking sessions, a one-day excursion to the Irish-speaking island of Inis Oir, off the Atlantic west coast, and a fundraising concert of world music in Limerick’s ancient St Mary’s Cathedral.
More information www.agis09.org
Video Footage of the event click here
A month later, The Rosetta Foundation had its North American launch at Localization World Silicon Valley (20-22 October), hosted by Reinhard Schäler and Smith Yewell. Participants from around the world spent a morning collaborating in small working groups on their vision for The Rosetta Foundation providing invaluable feedback and ideas for the Foundation.
To read Smith’s speech click here
The Rosetta Foundation at the UN's 4th Internet Governance Forum (IGF)
A Dynamic Coalition for an Open Localisation Platform was launched at the UN-sponsored 4th Internet Governance Forum in Sharm-el-Sheik (15-18 November) initiated by The Rosetta Foundation and supported by ICANN (Kieran McCarthy), welocalize (Smith Yewell), DotSUB (Michael Smolens), Translate.org.za (Dwayne Bailey), Arabize (Manal Amin), National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences Pakistan (Sarmad Hussain), Translators without Borders (Lori Thicke), Adobe (Francis Tsang) and AOL (Stephen Roantree). Since November, a further twelve organizations and individuals have joined the coalition.
To join the coalition visit www.localization4all.com
For video footage of The Rosetta Foundation at the UN's IGF click here
The Rosetta Foundation Technology Platform
It is the aim of The Rosetta Foundation to promote equality through language and cultural diversity in order to make information and knowledge available universally across languages. The Foundation needs strong community support from volunteers backed by an appropriate organisational infrastructure and state-of-the-art technology. The Rosetta Foundation Technology Platform will be launched in 2010 offering content publishers the opportunity to collaborate with volunteers (translators, support engineers and project managers) to make their content available across languages. The development of this platform is supported by developers working at the Centre for the Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) in Pune, India, lead by Mahesch Kulkarni; by developers working for welocalize; and by a team at the Localisation Research Centre (LRC) at the University of Limerick, funded by the Centre for Next Generation Localisation (CNGL). CDAC hosted a one-week planning and kick-off meeting for the group in Pune (1-4 December). First pilots are already under way with Translators without Borders.
For a video report on the Pune meeting click here
Board and Supporters
Board
The work of The Rosetta Foundation is supported by its Board: Alan Barrett, Brian Kelly, Mahesh Kulkarni, John Papaioannou, Stephen Roantree, Reinhard Schäler, Páraic Sheridan, Michael Smith, Francis Tsang, and Smith Yewell.
Alan Barret works on web applications for education using open source code. He is supporting the Rosetta development effort. Brian Kelly held various roles as COO, Snr VP, MD and Founder with Lionbridge, Bowne Global Solutions, Berlitz and Softrans. A believer and supporter of the Rosetta Foundation. Mahesh Kulkarni is Programme Coordinator at the Centre for the Devlopment of Advanced Computing (CDAC) in Pune, India, and leading the Foundation's technology development efforts. John Papaioannou is Director of Release Services at Bentley Systems and coordinates the customer requirements with the NGOs. Stephen Roantree is Senior Localisation manager at AOL and manages the deployment of the Foundation's Translation Platform. Reinhard Schäler is founder and director of the Localisation Research Centre at the University of Limerick and the founder and president of The Rosetta Foundation. Páraic Sheridan is Operations Director at the Centre for Next Generation Localisation (CNGL) at Dublin City University and helps to develop the Foundation's social entrepreneurship agenda. Michael Smith is Language Specialist at iStockphoto and the Foundation's community development specialist. Francis Tsang is Senior Director Globalization at Adobe Systems Inc. and supports the Foundation especially in the field of globalization and technology know-how. Smith Yewell is the CEO of welocalize and is driving the GlobalSight open source initiative. Smith is involved in the strategy, finance and marketing of The Rosetta Foundation.
Supporters
The Rosetta Foundation would also like to acknowledge the support of the following companies and organisations: Andrä AG, Centre for Next Generation Localisation (CNGL), Centre for the Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC), Localisation Research Centre (LRC), ProMT, University of Limerick, and welocalize.