[Freecats-Dev] Prototype of message for Translators' Discussion Lists

[Henri Chorand]

Hi all,

A new step in project communication :-)

As discussed with Kirk and other team members, translators all around the
world use several discussion lists and we should try to use them so as to
reach a broader audience.

For instance, I'm subscribed to TCR discussion list. This moderated and
non-free (even though but I was granted a free access) list enables
translators to exchange info about payment practices of translation
agencies. Most subscribers are therefore, either free-lance translators, or
small agencies run by a translator (like Kemper DOC). So this makes it a
relevant target.

Kirk is going to search the Internet in order to build a list of them.

I'm enclosing below a draft of the message I intend to send to such lists.
Please review it and add your comments.

Remember that we should not send these messages until we have somewhat to
show. Before contacting a broader audience, we need to polish our various
draft documents and to publish them on Savannah, Picolibre, etc.

---------------------------------

Message subject:
[Off-Topic but Of Interest] About Free CATS project


Hi Laura and all, [Name of Moderator]

I hope you will allow me and Free CATS project team (a majority of
translators) to take advantage of TCR discussion list [List Name] in order
to publish basic information about it.

It should be of interest to all TCR readers who presently use, or may use
some day, a Computer-Aided Translation (CAT) software.

As Laura Hastings, moderator of TCR list, recently wrote:
> There are very few people who can surpass the
> technical knowledge of most of the people on this list.

This is exactly why I believe my request is appropriate.

I, as a translator and agency owner, began to be more and more fed up with
the limitations of proprietary CAT software we are using (and which are a
must for large-size, technical translation & localization projects, our main
activity). Especially as despite the high prices (upgrade of Trados 5.x
network version being higher than a new license of another software), we
still don't have lots of features we might want.  The availability of a Mac
or Linux version, full Unicode support and the ability to share a
Translation Memory in real-time across the Internet were, to me, among the
most important ones. (So yes, it will be a Team version).

So, last December, I talked about this situation with a few fellow
translators from Brittany, where I live (especially among professionals who
are, like me, lecturers at the Université de Bretagne Occidentale's new DESS
(post-graduate degree) "Traducteur et Rédacteur", and we decided to launch a
free software project, which we named Free CATS.

Once this software will be available, as defined in its GPL license, any
translator will be able to:
- Download it FREE of CHARGE, including source code
- Suggest new features (and, if possible, help implementing them) - as a
rule, this happens very quickly with free software projects

In fact, GPL license allows anybody to do pretty anything with it, EXCEPT
changing its name, adding a few blinking LEDs and begin charging money for
it :-)

This project is how hosted on the Free Software Foundation's Savannah
portal, at:
http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/freecats

As it's still at the design stage (hopefully, not for a very long time), you
will mainly find the following items of interest:
- Various specification documents, either draft or more advanced
- A discussion list (non-moderated, but you must request admission)

So, why are we contacting all of you?

We presently need to hire a few more developers. Experienced translators who
have some experience of programming would be most welcome. Still, any
translator interested by this project can help a lot by:
- Informing other, potentially interested fellow translators
- Helping to set up future community of users, grouped by mother tongue, and
possibly translating some of specifications documents into these languages
(the development list's language is English)

As soon as the first software versions are released, I'm confident
volunteers will be available and willing to:
- Help localizing this software into as many languages as possible
- Write and translate its user documentation.

At this stage, we'll also provide, free of charge, user discussion lists set
up per language, so that users can help each other in using this software.

We will also greatly welcome development help in making this software work
with as many languages as possible. We are starting with Western languages,
but want it to cover other languages.

Also, we plan to:
- Develop a fully portable tool, made up of a client and server components
which will run on MS Windows, Mac OS X and Linux (on the same computer in
standalone mode).
- Provide an end-user solution, with easy, automated installation
- Include (from the start) full compatibility with TMX translation memory
exchange format
- Include as many native existing file formats as possible (plain text,
various resource files, HTML, XML, RTF) once the core modules are done
- Work in close cooperation with the teams of various free software
projects, in order to obtain help to add their corresponding file formats:
Open Office, Latex, Abiword...
- Add terminology management, a legacy translations alignment module, etc.

A last word about free software. Today, it seems some software editors want
to "embrace and extend" so as to make the whole world dependent upon their
proprietary products. Now that Trados is partially owned by Microsoft, we
can't hope a Linux version any too soon.

This project has therefore a strategic importance for two categories of
people:
- Translators will be able to produce quality translation while choosing on
which computer and operating system they want to work with. Nobody will be
able to force them into any specific platform. Plus, considering the price
of most CAT tools, it will represent an opportunity for a number of people,
like translators who want to work in less-developed countries, for charity
work, etc.
- Also, the authors of free software projects will be able to use a CAT
system in order to produce quality translations for their software and
documentation. Today, several free software developers give us their time in
order to help us built this tool. So I hope that the future users of this
product will remember it and, in turn, give some of their time to translate
their favorite piece of free software into their mother tongue. If you ever
used free software and enjoyed it (Apache, Mozilla, Open Office and so many
others), I believe you will agree their developers deserve such help.

For me, this is clearly a win-win situation where developers and translators
can truly help each other.

So, anybody interested with a little free time to contribute, please contact
us!

And remember, it won't be our tool - it will be yours.


Kind regards,



Best regards,

Henri Chorand
Project Coordinator

Free CATS
Free Computer Aided Translation Software

E-mail: henri AT xtradoc DOT com