Te Kete o Karaitiana Taiuru (Blog)

For many years there have always been small groups of people fighting for what they believe is a natural right – to have software and online services presented in Māori. Most groups are short lived while others achieve results, often in a modest fashion.

One-day translation issues and will not be an issue, it will just be taken for granted that software and online services are multilingual and the ability to translate any page simultaneously will occur into any language including Māori. Much the same way many people will today type a macron (āēīōū) into their computer. There will be little consideration for the many years this was not possible and the myriad of technical and policy layers that worked together to achieve the simple written macron, which was once just a dream.

In consideration of the groups of supporters working in isolation asking for large and expensive translation projects to occur, i have written what i believe are the top ten considerations for groups to consider before and during their request to have online services and software translated. This list concentrates on FaceBook as there is much online banter regarding this occurring.

1. The owners of the various groups interested in this project collaborate and offer just one Fan Page or Group.
2. Translate the Fan Page for the project using the FaceBook Translation Tools.
3. Encourage all of the members to use FaceBook connect (in te reo Māori).
3. Encourage written Māori as the preferred language in the Fan Page.
4. Promote the group. This can be extensively done with no budget via FaceBook and other social media services.
5. Seek translators who can create new terminology and make the corpus public via the Internet.
6. Seek support from organsiations such as the Māori Language Commission, Universities and political parties.
7. Network and share ideas with other Indigenous groups who want FaceBook offered in their language.
8. Prepare Press releases about your group.
9. Encourage members to use te reo Māori more often in their personal pages and Fan Pages etc.
10. Don’t be myopic – Challenge that all online services and software to be made available in your language. Twitter apps, MySpace, Bebo etc. After all Google, Microsoft and many other popular open source projects offer Māori as a language option.

During the translation process try not to create new words. There is a large corpus of Māori ICT words already on this site https://www.taiuru.co.nz/publications/dictionary/ICTDictionary.pdf and an online editable version is currently under development.

Once you have the translations completed, and you are co coordinating a group of translators and volunteers – “Don’t take the credit for them”. It is likely they will stop assisting in the future.