Grants:Project/Nigerian keyboard project

This project is funded by a Project Grant

statusselected

Nigerian keyboard project

summaryThis project will research the requirements, provide specification and reference implementation of keyboard layout software for the support of the major languages of Nigeria (Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo).

targetAll Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo Wikimedia projects

type of granttools and software

amount6000 USD

type of applicantgroup

grantee• Evertype

contact• everson

evertype.com

volunteer• Blossom Ozurumba

give feedback

join

endorse

created on01:35, 25 September 2017 (UTC)

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Project idea

What is the problem you're trying to solve?

What problem are you trying to solve by doing this project? This problem should be small enough that you expect it to be completely or mostly resolved by the end of this project. Remember to review the tutorial for tips on how to answer this question.

Standardised keyboard software for Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo is unavailable on most platforms and editing of Wikimedia projects in these languages is impeded by this lack. Users have approached us, requesting specific solutions; they report significant inefficiency in editing at present because of the need to cut and paste vowels in order to simply write sentences in their own languages.

What is your solution?

For the problem you identified in the previous section, briefly describe your how you would like to address this problem. We recognize that there are many ways to solve a problem. We’d like to understand why you chose this particular solution, and why you think it is worth pursuing. Remember to review the tutorial for tips on how to answer this question.

Our solution will determine the orthographic requirements and determine optimal character placement for efficiency of text entry.

Project goals

What are your goals for this project? Your goals should describe the top two or three benefits that will come out of your project. These should be benefits to the Wikimedia projects or Wikimedia communities. They should not be benefits to you individually. Remember to review the tutorial for tips on how to answer this question.

Make available specification and software for Wikimedia project editors
Make this software freely available to commercial and non-commercial vendors for distribution.

Project impact

How will you know if you have met your goals?

For each of your goals, we’d like you to answer the following questions:

During your project, what will you do to achieve this goal? (These are your outputs.)
Once your project is over, how will it continue to positively impact the Wikimedia community or projects? (These are your outcomes.)

For each of your answers, think about how you will capture this information. Will you capture it with a survey? With a story? Will you measure it with a number? Remember, if you plan to measure a number, you will need to set a numeric target in your proposal (e.g. 45 people, 10 articles, 100 scanned documents). Remember to review the tutorial for tips on how to answer this question.

The deliverables include:

a graphic and narrative representation of the keyboard software design
reference implementations for at least MacOS and Windows

Do you have any goals around participation or content?

Are any of your goals related to increasing participation within the Wikimedia movement, or increasing/improving the content on Wikimedia projects? If so, we ask that you look through these three metrics, and include any that are relevant to your project. Please set a numeric target against the metrics, if applicable. Remember to review the tutorial for tips on how to answer this question.
The project facilitates editors whose goals are improving both participation and content. As the deliverables will be made freely available to everyone, they will also benefit users outside of Wikimedia. As an example, it will make users be able to search the internet at all for Wikipedia articles in their languages and ultimately contribute to the development of an internet culture in these languages, which will again help to recruit more editors for the Wikimedia projects.

Project plan

Activities

Tell us how you'll carry out your project. What will you and other organizers spend your time doing? What will you have done at the end of your project? How will you follow-up with people that are involved with your project?

Research the orthographic requirements of the languages specified
Design an optimized input layout for keyboarding the languages
Prepare software implementations for a variety of platforms. This project is a pilot project for potentially many keyboard specifications for underrepresented languages and will include research on the feasability of configuring software implementations for a variety of platforms (MacOS, Windows, Linux).

Budget

How you will use the funds you are requesting? List bullet points for each expense. (You can create a table later if needed.) Don’t forget to include a total amount, and update this amount in the Probox at the top of your page too!

Specification for Igbo 1000 USD
Specification for Hausa 1000 USD
Specification for Yoruba 1000 USD
Implementation for Igbo 1000 USD
Implementation for Hausa 1000 USD
Implementation for Yoruba 1000 USD

Community engagement

Community input and participation helps make projects successful. How will you let others in your community know about your project? Why are you targeting a specific audience? How will you engage the community you’re aiming to serve during your project?
Consultation with language users in Wikimedia Nigeria has already been established and will continue throughout the project.

Get involved

Participants

Please use this section to tell us more about who is working on this project. For each member of the team, please describe any project-related skills, experience, or other background you have that might help contribute to making this idea a success.

Evertype - 20 years of experience with Unicode, keyboard design and implementation
MF-Warburg - 5 years of experience in fielding and responding to multilingual language support challenges as reported by users, and assisting them in overcoming technical issue with regard to Wikimedia software
Volunteer I will be very excited to work during the implementation phase and get as many users as possible in Nigeria to use the product when available. Blossom Ozurumba (talk) 11:10, 30 October 2017 (UTC)
Volunteer I am very willing to work with the developer to ensure usability of this software by Yoruba editors :).-Jamie Tubers (talk) 18:57, 10 December 2017 (UTC)
Volunteer Presently,we have 0ver 50 students yearning for contribution to various language Wikipedia in Nigeria. But inability to adapt most of the keyboards on our system to this scheme has been a major demerit to the project... Olaniyan Olushola (talk) 14:15, 16 December 2017 (UTC)
Volunteer I am excited about this project and I am happy to work with the team on this Kayusyussuf (talk) 04:00, 19 December 2017 (UTC)

Community notification

Please paste links below to where relevant communities have been notified of your proposal, and to any other relevant community discussions. You are responsible for notifying relevant communities of your proposal, so that they can help you! Depending on your project, notification may be most appropriate on a Village Pump, talk page, mailing list, etc. Need notification tips?

Endorsements

Do you think this project should be selected for a Project Grant? Please add your name and rationale for endorsing this project below! (Other constructive feedback is welcome on the discussion page).

I support this project. This is a much-needed step in the right direction. --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 08:44, 30 October 2017 (UTC)
This is a well thought out project that has the capacity to greatly improve the delivery of Editors proficient in writing in the three local languages. I am excited to endorse this and I intend to get as many folks as I can that will use the end product to endorse same and use it, post-production. Blossom Ozurumba (talk) 11:37, 30 October 2017 (UTC)
Support GerardM (talk) 14:48, 5 November 2017 (UTC)
Support Baba Tabita (talk) 18:52, 5 November 2017 (UTC)
Support Great initiative... I am super excited!!! . It's been difficult for many of us and our students to contribute to many of our local language Wikipedia this is due to non compatibility of the existing keyboard to our local alphabets, At the moment over, 60 students are waiting to start writing Yoruba Wikipedia ( I hope they can fulfill their dream) Since our ministry of education is not looking at localization of our computer keyboard soon. I am 100% sure that this is the way to go. Olaniyan Olushola (talk) 22:52, 6 November 2017 (UTC)
Support a project that focus on my native language Wikipedia. I will be glad to work with academic institutions on how to use the software to effectively contribute to Yoruba Wikipedia. Wikicology (talk) 09:00, 7 November 2017 (UTC)
Support Amazing. This is a project that is set to make editing in Nigeria local languages easier and should be supported. This is one of the major challenges especially in editing Yoruba wikipedia.Awesome.Kaizenify (talk) 10:57, 12 November 2017 (UTC)
Support Laudable project that will greatly ease editing in these languages and encourage participation from Nigerian people. Also, I will be ready to provide all the necessary support specifically in regard to Hausa language –Ammarpad (talk) 18:10, 23 November 2017 (UTC)
Support This project seems to be very personal to me, as it seeks to address the biggest problem that I face with Yoruba Wikipedia. There's a strong need to have a support for Nigerian languages, if we are serious about increasing the number volunteer editors on these Wikis. This has been reiterated over and over.--Jamie Tubers (talk) 19:04, 10 December 2017 (UTC)
This project will bring about inclusion for a lot of indigenous language users Kayusyussuf (talk) 04:01, 19 December 2017 (UTC)
Support As an administrator of HausaDictionary.com, I know the pains of this issue inside-out. My solutions have been to create keyboard shortcuts (e.g. qqq = ƙ) on my devices along with adding custom buttons of special bent Hausa characters to the tool bar. Look forward to see how this pans out. HausaDictionary (talk) 09:57, 4 June 2018 (UTC)