Evan Brown, Software Developer at Cànan

Cànan was delighted to share some of our knowledge with delegates at one of the biggest gatherings of academics from Gaelic disciplines at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, on the Isle of Skye.

At ‘Rannsachadh na Gàidhlig 2006’, a biennial Gaelic language conference, software developer Evan Brown delivered a paper on ‘Software provision in minority languages’, looking specifically at whether Open Source software can remove the limits of economic viability.

Evan’s paper was very well received, and allowed Cànan to share ideas and opinions with other experts from Scotland, Ireland, England, Germany and the USA.

After speaking at conferences in Taiwan and Holland recently, Evan managed to mix hard fact, academic analysis, experience and wit to emphasise that minority language communities cannot rely on multinational software companies to develop and deliver software packages in languages which require massive investment of time and resources for little commercial reward.

Instead, efforts should be pooled to localise computer software, and software steering groups should be established in minority language communities to oversee this process. This may encourage these companies, such as Microsoft, to develop products of their own.

Cànan has, through projects such as the Gaelic localisation of OpenOffice.org 1.1.1, a wealth of experience in this type of cross-community operation.