FUEL Becomes Integral Part of e-Gov Standard vide CoE Marathi

Ravikant ravikant at sarai.net
Tue Aug 7 10:10:20 UTC 2012


Congratulations to Rajesh Ranjan and the Fuel teams in general. On the 
typing front, I do not really understand what is the confusion. People 
are sending hordes of smses in roman day in and day out. I agree 
transliteration is better for bilinguals. But we just have to have a 
skin which is user-friendly in a context-specific way. INSCRIPT is good 
for Indian language multilinguals, and it is fast., but we will hardly 
ever find a multilingual who does not know a bit of English. However, if 
you are used to any one system, choose it from the installed systems and 
use that and you will be fast as well.

It is also a sad story about the Govt's failure in promoting and 
standardising Indian-languages hardware in term of keyboards. Still, we 
are much better placed than the Chinese here, who are at a sea when 
confronted with an English Keyboard - because they write English too, 
using a Chinese keyboard! But thank God, we can change anything at the 
software level.

ravikant




On 07/08/12 14:42, pravin.d.s at gmail.com wrote:
>
>
> On 6 August 2012 19:00, Nitin Nimkar <nvncom at yahoo.com 
> <mailto:nvncom at yahoo.com>> wrote:
>
>
>
>     I think the most important and critical skill needed at user end
>     is not of IT but is of Typing in Indian languages. Here I would
>     like to point out that all of us who are involved in IT and
>     localization are bi lingual in English and Marathi or any other
>     Indian language, and therefore are comfortable using English
>     QWERTY Keyboard for both English and Indian languages. Therefore
>     we think that a transliteration method is just the best way of
>     inputting info in Indian languages. However, my experience in
>     running above mentioned forum and e learning initiative tells me
>     that INSCRIPT is the best method of inputting content in Indian
>     Languages. That is the most comfortable solution for those who
>     only speak Indian Language. I think this is the single most reason
>     why all efforts to update content in Indian Languages fail.
>
>
> I hope you know regarding 
> https://fedorahosted.org/indic-typing-booster This project is 
> presently in second stage will report in details regarding second 
> phase soon.
>
>
>     When we are talking about Unicode, standardisation, etc.  we
>     should also give equal importance to the standardization of
>     INSCRIPT Typing across the state/Nation. Here, I would like to
>     point out that QWERTY keyboard for English has a history of 135
>     years. An attempt by DOVARK key board which comes in
>     all Windows edition could not replace QWERTY for English. However,
>     this isn't the case for Indian Languages. We have 8 keyboards in
>     Marathi, and those are creating havoc.
>
>
> Standardization is painful activity. One can udnerstand it from the 
> perspective that Enhanced Inscript layout is still under Draft stage 
> even after 3 years.
> I remember we started activity with CDAC and DIT regarding 
> standardization of phonetic/transliteration standardization as well 
> but nothing progressed, will ping them soon on same.
>
>
>     I am aware about the initiative by C-Dac of offering various
>     keyboard drivers in one application for those who resist to
>     change. This is something similar  like Indic IME. This could be
>     a temporarily solution, but I think we should make determined
>     efforts to standardise INSCRIPT keyboard, for which a driver comes
>     along with all flavours of operating systems.
>
>
> We can recommend but user is king in this case. I think the most 
> effective solution can be making it mandatory for hardware providers 
> to paste Indic characters on keyboard itself according to Inscript layout.
>
>
>
>     We should embark upon a state wide and a Nation Wide Training and
>     Certification program  in INSCRIPT for Government Employees,
>     Teachers, professors in Universities, students and for all those
>     who are involved with Indian Languages.  Let us ignore the present
>     employees who are resisting to change from earlier keyboards. But
>     let us not leave this as a loose end.  My experience with the
>     students and teachers is very much encouraging.  The students,
>     teachers and those who do not have a baggage of non INSRIPT
>     keyboard learn the basic typing skills in just 15 to 20 days with
>     a practice of 1 hour daily. So it is a question of only 15 to 20
>     hours for a learner.
>
>
> That is good to know. Yeah even me too think Govt. should push it 
> little bit harder.
>
>
>     I have taken initiative at personal level to teach INSCRIPT typing
>     to all those who are involved with our websites, e learning
>     initiatives. However, if we can reach to other sections of the
>     society with the help of C-Dac or Red Hat and Government, we can
>     change the situation. I think I will be of some help with this
>     initiative.
>
>
> I am planning one session on Marathi and Open source in Red Hat, Pune 
> around first week of October to let know developments happened on 
> Language side example Indic typing booster, Fonts, Standards side. 
> Hoping so it will help. Same we can execute for other languages as well.
>
>
>     On  a lighter note, I would like to inform you all that, I
>     read yesterday in a news paper that Kabir Khan, director in
>     Bollywood, told media that Katrina Kaif is the only actress who
>     needs Hindi script in Devanagari, because she has learned Hindi
>     that way. But to get those script typed in Devanagri is a hell of
>     a job for Bollywood, because there are not many who can type in
>     Devanagari efficiently. Can we change this situation?
>
>
>
> Consistent efforts can definitely help this.
>
> Thanks for informative mail.
>
> Regards,
> Pravin Satpute
>
>
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