content/editorial/ec15Mar.html - openoffice-org - Git at Google

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 <TITLE>The International OpenOffice</TITLE>

 <h2><font color="#cc6600" face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="+2">Open Views</font></h2>
 <p><a href="//lspintro.html" target="_blank">-Louis Su&aacute;rez-Potts</a></p>
 <p>19 March 2001</p>
 <P><b>The International</b></P>
 <P> My subject, the &quot;internationalization&quot; of OpenOffice.org, derives
   from an ongoing debate over issues whose importance to Open Source projects
   demands substantive treatment. I want here, then, to briefly sketch out the
   argument that has been engaging participants on the discuss list of OpenOffice.org
   regarding the creation of versions of OpenOffice.org mailing lists (and even
   of the site) in various &quot;major&quot; languages. If my terms are a little
   coy, that&#146;s because there has not been so far (as of Friday, 16 March),
   any certain definition of what such a process of internationalization would
   entail, should it even go forward. But for those who want to read more on the
   issue, I urge you to refer to the extensive thread in the <a href="//mail_list.html" target="_blank">discuss
   mailing list</a>. </P>
 <P>Some background is in order to understand some of the issues that were raised
   by the discussions. OpenOffice.org <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/ebiz/9909/em0915.htm" target="_blank">traces
   its origins</a> to the German software developed by the German company Star
   Division, and most of its Sun developers are German and speak German. Star Division
   was bought by the U.S.'s Sun Microsystems two years ago. Today, work on OpenOffice.org
   software is conducted primarily, if not exclusively, in English. That work is
   not done entirely in the U.S. It is in fact global, with the support staff located
   both in the San Francisco Bay Area and Ireland, and developers in Germany and
   throughout the world. From this perspective, then, it would seem that OpenOffice.org
   is anything but provincial; that it is, in fact, very international indeed.</P>
 <P>The very fact that OpenOffice.org is so international raises some questions:
   Why is English (and not German, say) the predominant language? Does the de facto
   predominance of English in the website and in the mailing lists help or hinder
   the growth of the community? And, would it be reasonable (and feasible) to set
   up special mailing lists and website sections that would allow non-English speaking
   developers, users, and the merely curious to exchange ideas (if not necessarily
   code) efficiently? </P>
 <P>As Guy Capra of the French site<a href="http://www.openoffice-fr.org" target="_blank">
   OpenOffice.fr</a> (an independent shadow of OpenOffice.org) has <a href="//www-discuss/current/msg02156.html" target="_blank">argued</a>,
   the advantage of linguistically diversifying OpenOffice.org content is that
   more developers might wish to join the community and participate in developing
   the code. According to this argument, not only would they find it easier to
   <a href="//www-discuss/current/msg02205.html" target="_blank">communicate</a>
   amongst themselves in their native language but they would also, perhaps, <a href="//www-discuss/current/msg02206.html" target="_blank">feel
   less of a resentment to participating in yet another English-only project.</a>
   Developers would not only feel more inclined to contribute code without feeling
   that they had to enter an English-only community but would be more inclined
   to contribute to a project that was more &quot;theirs.&quot; The project would
   thus grow as it linguistically diversified.</P>
 <P>But the <a href="//www-discuss/current/msg02185.html" target="_blank">opposition</a>
   to this argument is quite strong and has been most precisely<a href="//www-discuss/current/msg02268.html">
   expressed by Sun's Bill Roth</a> and Dietrich Schulten. Any dynamic open-source
   project always veers towards the chaotic and needs an organizing principle in
   order to stay focused. Otherwise, any project risks not just a centrifugal disintegration,
   but a forking of content (and perhaps even code) that ultimately diminishes
   the value of the anticipated product. Thus, if OpenOffice.org were to create
   satellite or parallel sites in various languages, the project as a whole might
   suffer because developers may either cease crossing linguistic gaps to communicate
   with other developers (French developers may not bother to communicate with,
   say, German developers)&#150;which is a fairly unlikely scenario&#150;or there
   might just be the specter of a terrible <a href="//www-discuss/current/msg02177.html">confusion</a>,
   as redundant lists and redundant messages in various languages start proliferating.
   And, for those developers working in a language other than English, they could
   use one of the Web's translating services (such as Alta Vista's <a href="http://world.altavista.com/" target="_blank">BabelFish</a>)
   to translate messages into English and back into their chosen tongue.</P>
 <P>I would like to stop here this week. As I mentioned above, the discussion is
   still ongoing; Bill Roth, in fact, enabled a <a href="http://www.123voting.com/takepoll.cgi?id=4646">site</a>
   where opinions on the issue can be polled. Next week, I will resume this debate
   and examine how other open-source projects have dealt with this problem (if
   at all). If you wish to discuss this, please feel free (in fact, feel encouraged)
   to post your responses to the OpenOffice.org <a href="//mail_list.html">discuss</a>
   list. To post, you will have to subscribe. And we have made that part very easy.</P>
 <P>&nbsp;</P>
 <h4>Previous articles </h4>
 <p>9 March 2001 <i><a href="ec9Mar.html">Creating the
   New Open Source</a></i></p>
 <p>1 March 2001 <i><a href="ec1Mar.html" target="_blank">Interview:
   Sander Vesik</a></i></p>
 <p>22 February 2001 <i><a href="MSFTArticle.html">Allchin's
   Demagoguery, by Bill Roth, guest contributor</a></i></p>
 <p>15 February 2001 <a href="ec15Feb.html"><i>Interview
   with Wilfredo S&aacute;nchez</i></a></p>
 <p>9 February 2001 <a href="ec8Feb.html" target="_blank"><i>Organizing
   Open Source</i></a></p>
 <p>1 February 2001 <i><a href="ec1Feb.html" target="_blank">Open
   Source and Its Culture</a></i></p>
 <p>23 January 2001 <i><a href="communityaction.html" target="_blank">Community
   Action</a></i></p>
 <p>16 January 2001 <i><a href="ec16Jan01.html" target="_blank">Quo
   Vadis OpenOffice.org?</a></i></p>
 <p>9 January 2001 <i><a href="thebuild.html" target="_blank">The
   613 build:&nbsp; problems and opportunities</a></i></p>
 <p>3 January 2001 <i><a href="SunsOpenDoor.html" target="_blank">Sun's
   open door</a></i></p>
 </body>
 </html>
	<html><head>
	<meta HTTP-EQUIV="content-type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
	</head>
	<body>

	<TITLE>The International OpenOffice</TITLE>

	<h2><font color="#cc6600" face="Courier New, Courier, mono" size="+2">Open Views</font></h2>
	<p><a href="//lspintro.html" target="_blank">-Louis Suárez-Potts</a></p>
	<p>19 March 2001</p>
	<P><b>The International</b></P>
	<P> My subject, the "internationalization" of OpenOffice.org, derives
	from an ongoing debate over issues whose importance to Open Source projects
	demands substantive treatment. I want here, then, to briefly sketch out the
	argument that has been engaging participants on the discuss list of OpenOffice.org
	regarding the creation of versions of OpenOffice.org mailing lists (and even
	of the site) in various "major" languages. If my terms are a little
	coy, thats because there has not been so far (as of Friday, 16 March),
	any certain definition of what such a process of internationalization would
	entail, should it even go forward. But for those who want to read more on the
	issue, I urge you to refer to the extensive thread in the <a href="//mail_list.html" target="_blank">discuss
	mailing list</a>. </P>
	<P>Some background is in order to understand some of the issues that were raised
	by the discussions. OpenOffice.org <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/ebiz/9909/em0915.htm" target="_blank">traces
	its origins</a> to the German software developed by the German company Star
	Division, and most of its Sun developers are German and speak German. Star Division
	was bought by the U.S.'s Sun Microsystems two years ago. Today, work on OpenOffice.org
	software is conducted primarily, if not exclusively, in English. That work is
	not done entirely in the U.S. It is in fact global, with the support staff located
	both in the San Francisco Bay Area and Ireland, and developers in Germany and
	throughout the world. From this perspective, then, it would seem that OpenOffice.org
	is anything but provincial; that it is, in fact, very international indeed.</P>
	<P>The very fact that OpenOffice.org is so international raises some questions:
	Why is English (and not German, say) the predominant language? Does the de facto
	predominance of English in the website and in the mailing lists help or hinder
	the growth of the community? And, would it be reasonable (and feasible) to set
	up special mailing lists and website sections that would allow non-English speaking
	developers, users, and the merely curious to exchange ideas (if not necessarily
	code) efficiently? </P>
	<P>As Guy Capra of the French site<a href="http://www.openoffice-fr.org" target="_blank">
	OpenOffice.fr</a> (an independent shadow of OpenOffice.org) has <a href="//www-discuss/current/msg02156.html" target="_blank">argued</a>,
	the advantage of linguistically diversifying OpenOffice.org content is that
	more developers might wish to join the community and participate in developing
	the code. According to this argument, not only would they find it easier to
	<a href="//www-discuss/current/msg02205.html" target="_blank">communicate</a>
	amongst themselves in their native language but they would also, perhaps, <a href="//www-discuss/current/msg02206.html" target="_blank">feel
	less of a resentment to participating in yet another English-only project.</a>
	Developers would not only feel more inclined to contribute code without feeling
	that they had to enter an English-only community but would be more inclined
	to contribute to a project that was more "theirs." The project would
	thus grow as it linguistically diversified.</P>
	<P>But the <a href="//www-discuss/current/msg02185.html" target="_blank">opposition</a>
	to this argument is quite strong and has been most precisely<a href="//www-discuss/current/msg02268.html">
	expressed by Sun's Bill Roth</a> and Dietrich Schulten. Any dynamic open-source
	project always veers towards the chaotic and needs an organizing principle in
	order to stay focused. Otherwise, any project risks not just a centrifugal disintegration,
	but a forking of content (and perhaps even code) that ultimately diminishes
	the value of the anticipated product. Thus, if OpenOffice.org were to create
	satellite or parallel sites in various languages, the project as a whole might
	suffer because developers may either cease crossing linguistic gaps to communicate
	with other developers (French developers may not bother to communicate with,
	say, German developers)which is a fairly unlikely scenarioor there
	might just be the specter of a terrible <a href="//www-discuss/current/msg02177.html">confusion</a>,
	as redundant lists and redundant messages in various languages start proliferating.
	And, for those developers working in a language other than English, they could
	use one of the Web's translating services (such as Alta Vista's <a href="http://world.altavista.com/" target="_blank">BabelFish</a>)
	to translate messages into English and back into their chosen tongue.</P>
	<P>I would like to stop here this week. As I mentioned above, the discussion is
	still ongoing; Bill Roth, in fact, enabled a <a href="http://www.123voting.com/takepoll.cgi?id=4646">site</a>
	where opinions on the issue can be polled. Next week, I will resume this debate
	and examine how other open-source projects have dealt with this problem (if
	at all). If you wish to discuss this, please feel free (in fact, feel encouraged)
	to post your responses to the OpenOffice.org <a href="//mail_list.html">discuss</a>
	list. To post, you will have to subscribe. And we have made that part very easy.</P>
	<P> </P>
	<h4>Previous articles </h4>
	<p>9 March 2001 <i><a href="ec9Mar.html">Creating the
	New Open Source</a></i></p>
	<p>1 March 2001 <i><a href="ec1Mar.html" target="_blank">Interview:
	Sander Vesik</a></i></p>
	<p>22 February 2001 <i><a href="MSFTArticle.html">Allchin's
	Demagoguery, by Bill Roth, guest contributor</a></i></p>
	<p>15 February 2001 <a href="ec15Feb.html"><i>Interview
	with Wilfredo Sánchez</i></a></p>
	<p>9 February 2001 <a href="ec8Feb.html" target="_blank"><i>Organizing
	Open Source</i></a></p>
	<p>1 February 2001 <i><a href="ec1Feb.html" target="_blank">Open
	Source and Its Culture</a></i></p>
	<p>23 January 2001 <i><a href="communityaction.html" target="_blank">Community
	Action</a></i></p>
	<p>16 January 2001 <i><a href="ec16Jan01.html" target="_blank">Quo
	Vadis OpenOffice.org?</a></i></p>
	<p>9 January 2001 <i><a href="thebuild.html" target="_blank">The
	613 build:  problems and opportunities</a></i></p>
	<p>3 January 2001 <i><a href="SunsOpenDoor.html" target="_blank">Sun's
	open door</a></i></p>
	</body>
	</html>