Title: Twelve years of measuring linguistic diversity in the Internet: balance and perspectives
Authors: Daniel Pimienta, Daniel Prado and Álvaro Blanco
Pages: 65 pp.
Source: UNESCO
Publisher: UNESCO 2009
Date (published): 06/03/2010
Date (accessed): 08/03/2010
Type of information: report
Language: English, French
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
...an update to the previous UNESCO study on this subject that was issued for the World Summit on the Information Society in 2005.
FUNREDES and Union Latine have designed an original research method to measure linguistic diversity in cyberspace. The aim was to use search engines and a sample of word-concepts to measure the proportionate presence of these concepts in their various linguistic equivalences.

Research, undertaken from 1996 to 2008, enabled interesting indicators to be built to measure linguistic diversity. The paper describes the research method and its results, advantages and limitations. It also provides an overview of existing alternative methods and results, for comparison.

The paper concludes with the examination of different perspectives in the field which have in the past been considered to have been characterized by a lack of scientific rigor. This has led to some misinformation about the dominant presence of English on the Web. It is a topic that is only now slowly attracting due attention from international organizations and the academic world.

via http://twitter.com/AmUNESCO

Title: Kasahorow, the many tongues of Africa
Author: Nana Kwabena Owusu
Source: www.233tech.com
Date (published): 17/11/2009
Date (accessed): 18/11/2009
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
Ghanaian languages are one of the most difficult and paradoxical topics to discuss in Ghana...Kasahorow is a project spearheaded by a Suuch Solutions (a Ghanaian company) to bring Africa’s languages alive. Kasahorow brings together editors and contributors from all over Africa to help create dictionaries for African languages...Kasahorow is a commercial project but it has several of its end products being open source...Kasahorow also brings African languages into the mainstream by releasing add ons and plugins for open source software and technologies.
(via http://twitter.com/whiteafrican )

Title: Why Localization Matters
Author: Juliana Rotich
Source: Afromusing
Date published: 24/02/2009
Date accessed: 09/08/2009
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"...Localization matters because cultural sensitivity in technology is paramount to designing products that work as well as possible for all communities.

Localization matters because, as this African technologist’s said…
“if it’s meant to be local, it should be locally developed” – Paa Kwesi Imbeah

So where are we today in terms of localization of software in Africa? "