South Africa, 26 July 2007: Translate.org.za, the award winning software translation organisation, proudly announces the availability of a free Afrikaans spell checker for the Mozilla Firefox web browser and the Mozilla Thunderbird email program.

Spell checking as you type allows users to confidently edit web based forms and compose emails. The spell checker works with the award winning and free Mozilla Firefox web browser and Mozilla Thunderbird email programs. The spell checker contains over 170 000 words that have been assembled by dedicated individuals since the 1980s and has since 2004 been updated and maintained by Translate.org.za.

Translate.org.za is a non-profit organisation focusing on delivering Free Software in local languages. They won the African ICT Achiever award in 2006 for bridging the digital divide for their ground breaking and world leading work in providing local language spell checkers, keyboards and software translation. As a result of their work Firefox is the only web browser available in all 11 official languages of South Africa.

The release of this Afrikaans spell checker builds on the recent official release of the Mozilla Firefox web browser in Afrikaans and is helping to create a growing Afrikaans software environment using Free Software. The same spell checker is also available in the Afrikaans version of the free OpenOffice.org office suite.

Building a spell checker is a time consuming process as words need to be assembled, manually checked and validated, and then finally added to the spell checker. Each update adds new words and features to improve the quality of suggestions. Says Director, Dwayne Bailey, “It costs R250 000 a year to improve and keep our Afrikaans spell checker up-to-date. And of course we would also like to improve the quality of our other African language spell checkers.” Funds are raised through Translate.org.za's patron program which companies and individuals who care about language and access to technology are invited to join.

The latest version of the spell checker can be downloaded free from:
http://translate.org.za/content/view/1610/54/

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Dwayne Bailey from Translate.org.za is available for interviews. His fields of specialisation include:

• Free and Open Source Software

• Multilingualism

• Software translation

• Language rights advocacy

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact:

Dwayne Bailey (083 443 7114)

PRESS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Award winning Afrikaans web browser

South Africa, 31 May, 2007: The popular and acclaimed Mozilla Firefox web browser is now officially released in Afrikaans. The Afrikaans translation is the work of award winning non-profit Translate.org.za and its volunteer community.

Between 15-20%, or almost 1 million South African Internet users make use of the Firefox web browser to view the Internet. This follows the growing world-wide trend where in less than two years, tens of millions of people worldwide have discovered the easier, faster and safer online experience that Firefox provides.

This is the first official release of Afrikaans translations in the Firefox 2.0 series. Translate.org.za has been creating interim builds for testing for a number of months. Dwayne Bailey, Director of Translate.org.za, says, “This is the most extensively tested translation release of ours to date, we think our Afrikaans users will appreciate the time and effort that we have taken to ensure quality”.

Translate.org.za is a non-profit organisation focusing on delivering Free Software in local languages. They won the African ICT Achiever award in 2006 for bridging the digital divide. Says Director, Dwayne Bailey, “Firefox is one piece in the puzzle of creating a fully Afrikaans computer”. He adds that with growing Afrikaans internet content it has become more important to have a web browser in Afrikaans.

Translated into more than 41 languages, Firefox 2 is available in a native language version for more people around the world than any other Web browser. Firefox is developed by an international community of contributors working together under the umbrella of the Mozilla Foundation, a non-profit, public-benefit organization dedicated to improving the Internet experience for people everywhere.

“Firefox 2 delivers the best possible online experience for people today,” said Mitchell Baker, CEO, Mozilla. “The improvements Mozilla has made to the ease of use, performance, and security in Firefox 2 reflect our ongoing, singular focus on meeting the needs of Web users all over the world.”

The latest version can be downloaded free from:
http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/all.html

END

Dwayne Bailey from Translate.org.za is available for interviews. His fields of specialisation include:

• Free and Open Source Software

• Multilingualism

• Software translation

• Language rights advocacy

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact:

Dwayne Bailey (083 443 7114)

Press Release (PDF)

South Africa, 8 May, 2007: Wouldn't it be wonderful if the song you had written in your mother tongue, Zulu, could be distributed with a license written in the same language? Creative Commons South Africa and Translate.org.za announced the availability of licenses in Afrikaans, isiZulu and Sesotho sa Leboa at the Digital Freedom Expo in Cape Town in April.

Inventors of World’s first all South African language keyboard re-launch their complete A-Z (Afrikaans to Zulu) languages software in celebration of International Mother-Tongue Language Day

Press Release (PDF)

In celebration of International Mother-Tongue Language Day (21st February 2007) language innovators Translate.org.za, who won the 2006 ICT African Achievers Award for bridging the digital divide are re-launching updated versions of all their mother-tongue software in all South Africa’s 11 official languages.