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| == The Importance of Localization ==
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| Currently, people who want to use computers must first learn English. In a country with low [[w:Literacy|literacy rates]], this blocks access to [[w:Information technology|information and communications technologies]] (ICTs), especially for the rural poor and women who do not have equal access to education. Even after having learnt English, users must pay hundreds of dollars to license foreign software, or resort to widespread illegal copying of software, in order to gain access to ICTs. In short, access to information technology is one of the keys to development, and localized FOSS applications remain a crucial missing link in communications infrastructure.
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| [[w:Localization|Localization]] brings the following benefits:
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| # Significantly reduces the amount of training necessary to empower end-users to use a computer system.
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| # Facilitates the introduction of computer technology in [[w:Small and medium enterprises|Small and Medium Enterprises]] (SMEs).
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| # Opens the way for the development of computer systems for a country's national, provincial and district level administration that will allow civil servants to work entirely in the local language and manage databases of local language names and data.
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| # Facilitates the decentralization of data at provincial and district levels. The same applies to utility companies (electricity, water, telephone), who will develop local language databases, thereby reducing costs and giving better service to citizens.
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| # Allows citizens to communicate through e-mail in their own language.
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| # Empowers local software development companies to work for the administration, the public sector and private companies.
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| # Provides the local design industry with good fonts.
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| # Helps universities train more software engineers.
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| The beneficiaries of this multi-stakeholder project are:
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| # Directly, all local computer users, who will have easier access to the use of computers as they will not have to learn English first.
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| # Indirectly, through improvements in governance using native computer systems, all local citizens in the quality of their dealings with the administration.
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| # The local government who will have the opportunity to develop databases and applications in the local language. Sufficient technology and empowered local development companies will be available. The government will also have the tool to coordinate applications among similar administrations (e.g., provinces), so that IT-based improvements in governance can be made at the lowest possible cost.
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| # The [[w:Software industry|software industry]]. The government's use of standards-compliant computer technology encourages software companies to start developing compatible computer systems that will be used by the different bodies of the administration, thereby creating a stable software industry in the country. Once this expertise is developed (using FOSS), these companies will be empowered to undertake similar projects for foreign companies at extremely competitive prices, facilitating sales beyond the local market.
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| Source: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/FOSS_Localization/Introduction
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| ==Culturally Biased wrong Assumptions== | | ==Culturally Biased wrong Assumptions== |