TAKING OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE TO GRASSROOTS LEVELS THROUGH LANGUAGE LOCALISATION USING OPEN TOOLS AND PLATFORMS: A CASE OF QGIS DESKTOP SOFTWARE TRANSLATED IN HINDI

language location of open-source software tools without the need for any programming or typing knowledge, using transliteration tools and open supporting tools and platforms, is the need of the hour, to take the software tools to the grassroots levels. The Hindi localisation of the Graphic User Interface (GUI) of QGIS software started in this direction. The master tutorials and websites can also be localised. Initially, translations were done in the standalone utility of Open-Source Qt Linguist, and later, localisation work of the QGIS project shifted to the online Transifex platform, which is a cloud-based localisation platform that enables continuous translations of digital products and their related support contents. Transifex gives open-source projects free access to the platform. The online and continuous translation is better for dynamic projects where the release cycle is faster and words and string counts increase with every new release, as in the case of QGIS. In the QGIS desktop project, translation was started with the version QGIS-2.8; there were 76289 words and 13526 strings to be translated. Out of those, 40532 words and 11855 strings were translated. Later, the newer software versions increased the number of strings/words. Currently, the QGIS Desktop project has 113 languages under the Transifex platform, open to be translated by any willing community member from anywhere around the world using simple transliteration tools like Google Input Tools. A total of 175466 words and 33922 strings are there to translate. Out of that, 25.8 percent of words are translated, and 11.21 percent are reviewed. This paper describes the flow of language localisation work by a common man, taking the case of language localisation of the QGIS Desktop project in Hindi using standalone and online open support platforms. The challenges and issues related to language localisation are discussed in detail. Currently, the author is the coordinator in the QGIS Hindi Desktop project team on the Transifex platform, and 20 members have joined as translators, as shown on the Transifex website. This paper is intended to make the Open-Source Software users aware of the possibilities of their contribution to the wider use of tools by users of different languages at the grassroots levels.