UB Lecturer Translates Google into Setswana
A University of Botswana Senior Lecturer, Dr Thapelo Otlogetswe from the Department of English is leading the team of translators to render the Google Search and other Google software programs in Setswana.
Google is a Corporate Information Company founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin as Stanford University students in the 1990s. The company was first incorporated as a privately held company on September 4, 1998. Its principal source of revenue is advertising business related to its internet search program (Google Search), email services (Gmail), online mapping (Google maps) and many other online available pieces of software.
According to its website (www.google.com/corporate/), Google's mission is "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful". As part of this drive, Google is involved in localizing most of its software so that they would be better accessible to local communities. These include Google Search, Google Scholar, Gmail, Google Chrome and others. This is where Dr. Otlogetswe, a passionate Setswana activist and lexicographer comes in.
In an interview, Dr Otlogetswe explained that he was approached by the Google sub-Saharan office based in Israel with its additional offices in Kenya to consider leading a team of translators to render the Google Search and other Google programs in Setswana, an invitation he readily accepted. On the team that he leads are other two researchers who are Mr. Pontsho Pusoetsile of Consult Information Technology Botswana and Miss Gao Mosweu of Botswana Innovation Hub. Dr Otlogetswe said all the work is done totally on volunteer basis.
He said he was most excited about the translation challenge since he is passionate about empowering the Setswana language. This is not the first initiative that Dr. Otlogetswe has been involved in. In other endevours geared to strengthen the computerisation and technicalisation of Setswana. Dr. Otlogetswe, together with Dr. Kevin Scannell from the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science in Saint Louis University has developed a Setswana spellchecker for OpenOffice software in 2004.
For this challenge to translate Google’s interface into Setswana, Dr Otlogetswe explained that it will demonstrate the ability of Setswana language’s power to function in a scientific and technical environment which hitherto has only done in limited roles.
For Dr Otlogetswe to be involved in a project of this magnitude is significant that the University of Botswana has highly qualified and dedicated professionals. Furthermore it demonstrates that the institution is leading in functional research which has practical applications in a technical 21st century. Forging links with teams in the corporate world exhibit that the skills resident in UB academics may be utilised to contribute to the full empowerment of the country. Dr Otlogetswe observes that academics’ skills should be used to solve immediate social challenges and be functionally visionary to predict challenges of the future and address them before they arise.
As result, Batswana will therefore by the end of 2010 be able to log onto www.google.co.bw and have the entire webpage in their language. He noted that such linguistic empowerment brings pride and dignity to the people, that their language is not just a language of oral discourse, but it is an independent and powerful language that is able to carry a scientific message across, said Dr Otlogetswe.
At the moment, Dr Otlogetswe said they are in the middle of translating the Google Search into Setswana. They expect the search program to be active sometimes in December and other Google software programs will be available in Setswana sometimes in 2010.