online African dictionaries planning meeting

The Kamusi Project (www.kamusiproject.org) is pleased to announce that
we are about to begin work on PALDO: the Pan-African Living Dictionary
Online. PALDO will build on the Kamusi architecture to create an
interlinked multilingual dictionary for African languages, creating a
powerful communications tool that will be useful throughout the African
continent.

The first step for PALDO will be to program the database, multilingual
tools, and enhanced user interface. This work will begin on April 2
with our partners at Kasahorow (www.kasahorow.org), at a meeting in
Accra, Ghana. This meeting will be simulcast LIVE ONLINE, and the
transcript will also be posted on a special blog at
www.kamusiproject.org/paldo

WE INVITE YOU TO PARTICIPATE IN THE MEETING by logging into the live
chat session or commenting on the blog, beginning at 9 a.m. Ghana time
on April 2. The timezone for Accra is GMT.

We are particularly hoping for participation from:
1) computer programmers and database specialists
2) linguists, lexicographers, and people with an interest in languages
3) users of the Kamusi Project, kasahorow, or other online dictionaries
4) people interested in helping shape the next generation of tools for
African languages

If you would like to participate in this meeting online, please visit
www.kamusiproject.org/paldo for more information.

If you are in Accra and would like to attend in person, the meeting will
be held at the Kofi Annan Centre, beginning at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, April 2.

NOTE: THE DATE OF THE MEETING MAY BE MOVED BACKWARDS ONE DAY IF A 45
MINUTE FLIGHT CONNECTION IS MISSED IN ROME. If the meeting is
rescheduled for April 3, we will place a notice on
www.kamusiproject.org/paldo

Evolution in the Open Source world

OmegaT is a great open source CAT tool. It is written in Java, it has a growing group of users and Sabine Cretella, who is my weather cock for what is happening in this space, has been a long time champion of the software. As OmegaT makes sense to me for several of the things I am involved in, I have invested and I have been looking for funding to expand its functionality.

Yesterday I was astounded by Sabine. "Anaphraseus", she says, "is a CAT tool that does the things that are critical to me. It allows me to translate into Neapolitian properly; it allows me to enter nap, the ISO-639-3 code and consequently I am able to build my translation memory without having to remember what code I used in stead. They do not have a proper TMX yet, but they are working on it. Now given that I can finally work properly in my language, who cares that I do not have it yet?"

Anaphraseus used to be called "Open Wordfast" and makes use of the Open Office macro tool. It uses the same translation memory format like Wordfast, it supports text segmentation and it is great for proof reading.

Sabine has been investigating Anaphraseus's functionality and so far she is quite pleased. When I asked her why the change, she said that she had been asking for the ISO 639-3 support for almost two years, it was not forthcomming and Anaphaseus is as good for the job.
Thanks,
Gerard