Questions regarding Facebook and language revitalization efforts

[Andrew Cunningham]

Facebook is an interesting beast

I'm more familiar with content in Dinka and Burmese on facebook.

With Dinka, more and more Dinka users are using Dinka language on
status updates, wall postings and notes.

And a few people have got together via facebook to publish a Dinka
language magazine in Kenya and Sth Sudan.

The one issue i'd mention is that of font requirements.

Facebook uses a single font stack regardless of the language being
used, and relies on operating system level font fall-backs or on
browser level font fall-backs

So for some languages, depending on operating system, getting text to
display correctly can be complicated.

Andrew

On 30 November 2010 14:31, Aliana Parker <alianaparker at gmail.com> wrote:
> Thank you so much, Neskie. This is very helpful indeed- I wasn't previously
> aware of the Facebook translate application.
>
> Best wishes,
> Aliana
>
> On Fri, Nov 26, 2010 at 11:42 PM, Neskie Manuel <neskiem at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Weytk Aliana,
>> I think you should check out the Inupiaq word of the day.  I think it has
>> been posted it on here before.
>> I don't know how many people know this but you can translate the Facebook
>> application itself.:
>> http://www.facebook.com/translations/
>> I know that the Cherokee Nation is working on localizing and translating
>> Facebook into their language.  To translate facebook you need to first have
>> it listed as an option on their.  We don't have it for Secwepemctsín, so I
>> just wrote a browser add on that seems to work well:
>> https://github.com/neskie/secwepemc-facebook
>> Now I remember what phone is in Secwepemctsín
>>
>> On Thu, Nov 25, 2010 at 7:46 PM, Aliana Parker <alianaparker at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Winter greetings to all,
>>>
>>> First, thank you to all for your many interesting and thought-provoking
>>> emails! I joined the ILAT just last winter and have really enjoyed learning
>>> through your discussions. I am a linguistics graduate student in Canada and
>>> I hope participate and contribute in some small way to language
>>> revitalization efforts through my research.
>>>
>>> Currently, I am trying to learn about the role of web-based media in
>>> indigenous language education, particularly regarding the use of Facebook
>>> for education and revitalization. Earlier this year in January an email
>>> exchange went around regarding the use of Facebook with indigenous
>>> languages, and I would like to follow up on that.
>>>
>>> Are any of you currently using Facebook, either pages, groups, games or
>>> other applications to help your language efforts, or do you know of others
>>> who are? Do you use FB in a personal way in your own language as a concious
>>> choice to maintain your language? Also, even if you can't answer the first
>>> questions, do you have any thoughts regarding the use of FB in such a way?
>>> Do you think it is an effective tool or do you think there are problems with
>>> the use of it for language revitalization?
>>>
>>> Any thoughts or comments or links you might have would be greatly
>>> appreciated.
>>>
>>> With many thanks and warm wishes,
>>>
>>> Aliana Parker
>>
>
>



-- 
Andrew Cunningham
Senior Project Manager, Research and Development
Vicnet
State Library of Victoria
Australia

andrewc at vicnet.net.au
lang.support at gmail.com