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Zagreb reporting — final chapter
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Too busy with the conferences, not too much time to write a lot. And every evening I catch myself saying “too tired, will definitely post something tomorrow”, which of course never happens. :/ So tonight I’ll try to get something up, even with a pair of half-open eyes.
Let’s see, where were we…? Ah yes, the cultural beverage party at OTT07. What to say about the party? Well, first of all, there were lots of drinks. Lots. 20-25 bottles (excluding beer etc.) might not sound too many, but the same number in shots down your throat probably does. At least it did say something to most of the people, who, in turn, happened to also talk and sing a lot more than they did before.
I’m glad many people liked ouzo. I tried some awesome drinks as well, really unique stuff. I asked to get their names documented as well. If they do, I’ll get back with recommendations for some of them.
Oh, did I mention I speed-geeked about Transifex? Had exactly 4 minutes to talk about it to a group of 3-4, and after that time, a bell rung and those people moved to the next speed-geeker and a fresh group would arrive. Had 10 such sessions in 40 minutes. The purpose was to concentrate on the important stuff and have a small audience that won’t be afraid to interrupt you and ask questions. Very tiring experience, fun though!
So, OTT’07 was after all a good event. Lots of good discussions. I tried listening a lot rather than trying to talk about tools and stuff. The image I got is that people agree that Transifex does clearly cover a missing piece in the localization puzzle. At least in the open source world. ‘Cause not all content providers have their files in PO files and on a VCS with SSH access. Shame on them, yes, but that’s how things are.
What I tried to pass was the use of standard formats, in order to be able to compliment existing workflows with other processing paths as well. Do build a cool AJAX web interface for translations, but please, store them in a standard format (eg. PO files) if you want to approach existing translation communities.
The event guys (Aspiration) have done a very good job in creating good documentation for the event. If you are interested on the brainstorms, the tools mentioned and the use cases discussed, take a look at the OTT’07 wiki.
Aspiration Tech organises unforgetful events.
Thanks for the blog summaries.