Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Funambol Forge in Chinese
There are many ways a world-wide community works together towards a common goal. One is sharing and improving code. Another one is testing and making sure it works on any phone and mobile operator in the world (mostly in the Funambol case, but it can be generalized). Another one is supporting all the users that belong to the community. There are more, but one stands out for simplicity: localization.Localization is a killer. If you have a mass market consumer product and you are going after the entire world (which is flat, so you have to...), then you are facing the need of translating the UIs and web site and manuals in hundreds of languages. Granted, English works pretty much everywhere - if you are a developer. But if you are an end user, you want to see your language. No exceptions.
There is where the community kicks in. It is relatively easy - if you plan it properly - to have a community member in a country to do translations on the UI (not the funny one you see sometimes, really good ones), on the web site, on the manuals, instructions to use and configure phones and so on.
At Funambol, a big chunk of our downloads come from China. Actually, it is the #1 country for downloads. Mobile is exploding there. We are now about to have a presence in the region (we are expanding fast, first stop was the Middle East with Dubai), but we still rely on the community for making our product great.
One example is the new Funambol Forge in Chinese. I have absolutely no idea if the content was translated properly, but faith is what a community is built on. If you find anything wrong on the site, just join the translators and make it better. As simple as that.
Posted by Fabrizio at 12:33
4 Comments:
Gabriele Barni said...
Localization sound easy, but it is not.
btw:
"At Funambol, a big chunk of our downloads come from China. Actually, it is the #1 country for downloads. "
this words sound really not new! , it seems the global motto of the year 2008, China is leading every sector. This year is the: "China year" started with the olympic game and never end..
PS: i like this new blog graphical design!
Comment Posted at 13:59
Good move! Especially if you remember China has been the largest economy some 18 centuries of the last 20!
Comment Posted at 10:11
Congrats on the Funambol Forge in Chinese. The translation looks very good.
If you look for very high quality java developers in Beijing, you should talk to Derek A.
Cheers, Jason
Comment Posted at 15:40
Nice looking Forge in Chinese...The translation is pretty good (They are in simplified Chinese, so people from Taiwan, HK might have issues).
If you look for good java developers in China, give Derek A a call. I helped him assembled a great team there in ZPark, Beijing.
Cheers, Jason
