Announcement email

Good Day;

It is my pleasure to announce a new project to better the Ubuntu.com website experience, specifically for users who prefer a language other than English. The new project, called Website Localization [1] will put a short (4-5 word) message on any www.Ubuntu.com web page directing users to more resources in their preferred language.

This project has two main parts to it. The first part of the Website Localization project is the technical aspect of the project. It is the goal of the project to create a script that will pull out of a users web browser their preferred language. After obtaining this information, the script will cross reference this language against a list of languages that have approved resources offered, and then display a short link to their languages landing page.

The second part of this project is creating landing pages for as many resources as possible. This part of the project will be done by LoCos and the i18n team. The landing pages will be on the wiki, and will be ever changing to direct users to the best information that we can give them.

Currently, the goal is to have the project completed and implemented by the end of May. I would also like to have a working demo of the project by April 19th so that we have plenty of time to fix any problems that arise prior to the final implementation of this project.

I can't do all of this myself, so I am going to need help from the Ubuntu community. At this point, I need some assistance with the technical side of the project. I need a few people to create the script that will detect the users preferred language, and then show them a link to the landing page in their language. If you have the skills needed to help out with this Website Localization project, please send me an email with your name, launchpad account, a little bit of information about the experience you have and your general ability (time zone, and anything else that may help me out). My goal is to get a group of a few people to work on the technical aspect of this project and have a meeting in the next few weeks to discuss the project in a little more detail, and determine the best way to make this happen.

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Website/WebsiteLocalization

Respectfully,

Chris Johnston - cjohnston
Ubuntu Member
chrisjohnston@ubuntu.com
www.chrisjohnston.org