Janice Campbell's Weblog: Localization & Netbeans

Contributors to TranslatedFiles cover the globe; they develop applications in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. They get satisfaction from seeing their work downloaded and distributed around the world, and from knowing they are helping non-English speaking developers gain access to tools.

Of course, it's also fun to get a t-shirt for your contribution! It's not the driving force, but it gets recognition when you wear them at developer events and conferences.

I do my best to send out t-shirts to the active contributors. I also like to get back a photo of them wearing the t-shirt. I often use these photos (with permission) in my blogs or in presentations to management. Because, well, it's about the community and the people, as individuals, who make a product great.

Once in a while I run into trouble getting a t-shirt to a well-deserved contributor. There have been a number of incidents, but the oddest one has to be the first t-shirt I tried to send to Ahmet, a long-time NetBeans Albanian-language contributor. He lives in Kosovo. Until it became independent recently, it was under United Nations administration (UNMIK). We packaged up the single t-shirt and sent it by a well-known global carrier. It came back as undeliverable. They didn't know where Kosovo was. Next, we made sure to spell Pristina without the "h" this time and add "Serbia Montenegro". After a week, it came back again as undeliverable. We added "UNMIK" this time. Still came back. I was about to give up. We tried the regular postal service. Once again, it came back. Not as undeliverable, but hand-scrawled across the top of the package "Please indicate whether the recipient is Christian or Muslim". How ridiculous. I refused to play that game. Finally, we tried another global carrier" and called by phone and asked for specific instructions on how to address the package. Finally got there.

And, here is Ahmet, sporting the NetBeans 6.0 t-shirt at a robotics competition in Linz, Austria. No, this isn't the one I sent. It was sent from the Czech Republic. I guess they know where Kosovo is!

Hello NetBeans localization and translation community! Also known as TranslatedFiles community. The project was started some years back by community member and NetBeans Dreamteam member Vincent Brabant (French) and later joined by Maxym Mykhalchuk (Russian) and Manfred Riem (Dutch).

Now, we are on a mission to create a mission statement. Please join us in this effort to bring NetBeans to developers worldwide and inspire them to use the "only IDE you need".

http://wiki.netbeans.org/TFMission

Today is Independence Day in the US. Families and friends gather together to barbecue, swim, play sports, picnic in parks, eat watermelon, enjoy each other's company, and watch fireworks displays.

The founders of this country fought for people to be able to think freely and pursue their beliefs without repercussions.

Today, I honor Amaury Rodríguez Pérez, a developer and NetBeans fan from Cuba, who, because of US export laws, is unable to freely download NetBeans. My hope is that one day the political issues between our two countries will be healed. Hope for equality, liberty and justice around the world.

Amaury and his son Adrian showing off the NetBeans 6 and Translation Team tshirts.

They have finally arrived! These were designed by the NetBeans global TranslatedFiles (Localization) Community, which encompasses developers, fans, and students from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe! If you are a member of the community, you know how to contact me.

I am pleased and proud to announce that the Japanese, Simplified Chinese and Brazilian Portuguese versions of NetBeans 6.1 are now available for download. A special thanks to the Sun Globalization team but especially to the TranslatedFiles community contributors for their support, collaboration and contributions.

View the story and download the bits.