Global Initiative for Local Computing
Reinhard Schäler - Localisation Research Centre (LRC) &
Pat Hall - Open University
Intended Audience: Individuals and organisations who are concerned about localisation for communities for which there is no economic case
Session Level: Intermediate, Advanced
Internationalisation and localisation efforts are driven primarily by commercial considerations and interests. Probably the most significant aspect of the decision making process - whether to internationalise/localise or not - is whether the expected return on investment justifies the effort. The effect of this approach is that digital content and applications are not localised for economically less developed countries and their languages and for languages used by commercially less significant groups. Recently a number of initiatives have been established to counter this state of affairs.
The objective of the Global Initiative for Local Computing (GILC) is to create synergies between these initiatives, coordinate their efforts and pool their resources.
This presentation will introduce the objectives of GILC; report on non-commercial initiative which aim to provide local computing solutions for locales so far not covered by main-stream commercial efforts; discuss the infrastructure necessary to support these initiatives; propose a schedule for its implementation.