[kictanet] Why Microsoft Swahili Version Failed

Fri Mar 14 10:05:57 EAT 2008

This is sad. The amount of work that has gone into this project is a lot. I know because my final year project at the university was an interface to MSDOS in Kiswahili. The research that went into this project took 3/4 of the year. The translations. at time we did not have swahili words for DOS commands so we had to reach an agreement with the supervisor and the kiswahili proffesors at Moi university. Well Sadly the project never saw the light of day even after I was given a B.  All the exitment just faded. Reason. No one in East Africa who was computer literate at that time cared much for the Kiswahili language.

The year was 1992. Supervisor was Dr. Kulubi.

Regards,
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From: kictanet-bounces+bmwenda=iwayafrica.com at lists.kictanet.or.ke [kictanet-bounces+bmwenda=iwayafrica.com at lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of alice [alice at apc.org]
Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2008 9:20 PM
To: Bernard Mwenda
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: [kictanet] Why Microsoft Swahili Version Failed

Kenya: Why Microsoft Swahili Version Failed
Business Daily (Nairobi)
http://www.bdafrica.com/ <http://www.bdafrica.com/>
OPINION
11 March 2008
Posted to the web 11 March 2008

Beatrice Gachenge

When Microsoft announced in 2003 that it had launched a Kiswahili version of
their Microsoft Office applications, linguists saw it as a big triumph for
the language - and a chance to make its speakers have a feel of the emerging
technology and in their own language.

However, five years later, the roar has turned into a whimper.

Microsoft is not forthcoming with answers, but a debate is shaping up on
what may have gone wrong.

"It failed miserably on the roll out process because Microsoft never pushed
the product," says Mr Patrick Opiyo, managing director of Rivotex Kenya, a
consulting dealer for Microsoft Technologies, who was then Microsoft's
localisation manager.

Mr Isaiah Okoth, who was at the time the general manager of Microsoft East
Africa, said the new Kiswahili office application, if marketed well, would
have allowed many Kiswahili speakers to experience personal computing in
their home language.

It had taken close to two years to develop the programme at a cost of Sh8
million, drawing linguistic experts from East and Central Africa. The
programme was headed by Prof Kulikoyela Kahigi of the University of Dar- es-
Salaam.

Kiswahili experts translated over 700,000 words in Windows and Office
software while close to 70,000 words were translated in the help manuals.

The final product was targeted at about 150 million speakers of the language
in the world.

But three years down the line, analysts now deem the product a major
letdown.

"Technology should find itself into the language. Microsoft invented words
that did not exist to fit the technology, and the problem with this is that
people don't understand the Kiswahili used in the Microsoft Office
applications,

" explains Mr Alex Gakuru, director of ICT Consumer
Association.

Mr Gakuru told the Business Daily that technology is all about the people
and not the gizmos or software; a concept Microsoft failed to consider.

Another major issue was the methodology used to develop the application.
Peter Mugambi, Dean of Humanities at Kenyatta University, says the project
was more of a 'private affair' than an institutional one.

In his view, the project did not integrate the wider community and also
failed to educate people on the usage of the product either through seminars
and workshops.

Although the process of changing to Kiswahili version is simple , the
software has not been utilised in Kiswahili departments in major
universities including Kenyatta University and the University of Nairobi.

By simply downloading a Language Interface Pack ( LIP), from the Internet,
free of charge, users of genuine versions of Microsoft Office 2003, can
localize their interface by installing the LIP.

It then turns Microsoft Office, including Word, Excel, Outlook and
PowerPoint from English into Kiswahili. The beauty of the product is that
one can switch back to the language of choice with ease.

"With the Kiswahili LIP, computer users are able to instal a Kiswahili
desktop version as a 'skin' on top of existing installations of Windows and
standard Microsoft Office applications," said the consulting dealer for
Microsoft Technologies.

Currently, the Kiswahili LIP is also available to Windows XP.

Analysts say the biggest issue that made the hefty exercise a major fiasco
was the lack of promotion for the product.

University of Nairobi linguist and prolific author, Prof Kithaka wa Mberia,
doubts whether he would have known about the project had he not been part of
it; casting more doubt if the programme was marketed well.

There was also a conflict of policy between open source and proprietorship.
Mr Gakuru says the approach Microsoft took was academic instead of looking
at the programme as a community based issue, a move that would have resulted
to community ownership of the product.

"If the company considered making it a community project where the East
Africans who were the recipients of the product, then fund it, the ownership
aspect would automatically lead to identifying with the product," said the
IT analyst. "What is the essence of a good product that people don't know
about? At the end of the day, who will use it?"

The idea could have been a turning point not only for the East African
region but other parts of the world because several years back, it was
unthinkable that computer software products and solutions could be made in
local languages, of which some risk extinction due to dominance of English
and other European languages.

There are 100 million Kiswahili-speakers in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and
parts of the Horn of Africa, Great Lakes, Malawi, Mozambique and the Indian
Ocean islands. Dr Clare Momanyi, a Kiswahili lecturer at Kenyatta
University, who was also part of the task force that created the Kiswahili
version, blames deep rooted problems and negative attitude of Kenyans
towards the language, which they consider inferior to the English language.

"Language is developed through communication as well as through the
education system. The syllabus does not favour Kiswahili. Little has been
done since it was made an examinable subject in 1995 to help Kenyans tie
economic gains to Kiswahili," said Dr Momanyi.

English, she added was the preferred language to enhance economic activities
while Kiswahili on the other hand was viewed as a language for the masses,
or the poor.

"Kenyans need to wake up and smell the coffee. Kiswahili is gaining
international acceptance, with more than 70 universities teaching it in the
United States alone. If we do not change our attitude, we shall not go far,"
says Dr Momanyi.

But still, one of the programmes that would have connected people failed to
gain foothold in its own turf.

She explained that the Kenyans historic background also played a major part
in degenerating the liking of the language among Kenyans. While it is the
national language, Dr. Momanyi said that there lacked any functions,
institutions or policies attached to the growth of Kiswahili.

The localization programme is a project under the Microsoft's Local language
Program (LLP), which was formally launched by the company in 2004.

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