Facebook and social media

[Martin Benjamin, Kamusi Project International]

The African Languages group on Facebook (links below) has been used to
mobilize volunteers for the ANLoc 100 African Locales initiative, with quite
positive results.  Many Facebook members were among the participants who
have completed 70 locales so far, of which 54 are in final review for
acceptance by CLDR. The group now has over 1500 members.

For the UNESCO Year of Languages, many group members posted their status in
their favorite African language on the 15th of every month.

I have also been able to use Twitter constructively to find volunteers for
the ANLoc project.  For example, by searching Twitter for mentions of
"Malagasy", I was able to locate a group of people who were able to complete
several locales for Madagascar.  This technique has its limits, however -
neither Twitter, Facebook, nor any other social media have been able to
attract volunteers for some big languages such as Kirundi, nor any of the
languages of Nigeria other than the big three (Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo).

Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=info&ref=search&gid=4676065512

100 African Locales initiative: http://www.it46.se/afrigen

ANLoc (African Network for Localization):
http://www.africanlocalisation.net/

Best,
Martin Benjamin
http://kamusi.org

On Mon, Jan 25, 2010 at 7:06 PM, Paul M Rickard <okimah at mac.com> wrote:

> Is there anyone out there using the whole social media network such as
> Facebook, Twitter, etc. in promoting language initiatives or announcements
> on these sites.  One of the great things about this list service is
> receiving information about what's happening from various users, but I also
> think the whole social media network is another great opportunity to share
> this information and create a community.
>
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