[L-A Lokalisointi] Report of meeting with translation department of the Helsinki university

Hi,

I meant to send a report earlier, but didn't really get around to it.

Last month (16.2) Sakari Aro had setup a meeting with the head of the
translation department, Pertti Hietaranta, at the Helsinki university.

After a short introduction of each-other, it became clear Linux and the
concepts behind Open Source needed no explanation, Pertti uses Linux at
home.

The translating department has English, Russian, Swedish and German in
their curriculum. Naturally Finnish is also important, but you won't be
translating from Finnish to Finnish. :-)

It became clear the department is stimulated from several fronts to
cooperate with industry players. This stimulation happens on an European
Union level, but also at the local level of Kouvola itself. The
department is located in Kouvola due to its history, even though it is
now part of the Helsinki University, 
Cooperation with the localisation working-group is certainly possible
and seen as very positive for the department and its students.

We agreed to give a guest-lecture during March, describing the tools
used in localising software. But such lecture should surely also include
a discussion of what internationalisation means, and what is considering
localisation. Also to make the point it isn't just of translating a
bunch of strings.
The lectures also functions as a first step towards a possible project
during next academic year. The lecture should create awareness among the
students for such possibility.

If enough interest is found among students, we can start a project next
year with a group of 4-6 or so students. Naturally students will receive
the proper amount of credits for participation.

The topic of the project hasn't been decided upon, it could be helping
out with the dictionary or perhaps helping one the localisation projects
(e.g. gnome-fi). But we can determine the exact details later, as it
also depends on the schedules of the various software-projects.

This is a great step forward for the localisation-project, as it adds
some needed resources, at least for a while. 

If you want to help somehow, please let us know.

We will keep you informed,

-Aschwin