Li18nux Working Group Charter

September 3, 1999

Name

This group shall be called the Linux Internationalization Initiative, and may be abbreviated as Li18nux or LI18NUX

Description

This is a voluntary working group, consisting of Linux-related contributors who are working on Globalization, which is composed of Internationalization and Localization.

Group Status

The LI18NUX working group is currently not incorporated.

Focus and Goals

This group shall focus on the Internationalization of a core set of APIs and components of Linux distributions in order to achieve a common Linux environment where an internationalized Linux application can be executed and behave correctly regardless of distributions. The results of the working group shall be open to everyone, and be proposed to Linux Standard Base for its LSB 2.0 or later.

The scope of our activities will be focused on software/application portability and interoperability in the International context.

Objectives

The objectives of the working group are as follows:

Background

Linux is an operating system that is used widely all over the world. However, most Linux distributions are originally developed for English speaking people and have not yet been internationalized well. Therefore, local Linux distributors and user groups are providing many patches to the English Linux distributions to support local language and local cultural conventions. We call this kind of patch approach direct localization.

The direct localization and patch approach has the following negative effects:

In order to let worldwide Linux users enjoy Linux and Linux applications in their preferred language environment, and to allow writing  real globalized applications, such as Internet based applications, Internationalization of Linux is an urgent requirement for all  Linux users, Linux distributors, and Linux application developers.

Subworking groups

Subworking groups will be established as necessary to work on tasks associated with realizing our objectives.

Membership requirements

The membership of this working group shall be open to anyone who is interested in contributing to Linux Internationalization. A registration form will be available on our Web page, and the form filled in shall be submitted to Li18nux.

Co-chair and administration officers

The group shall have the following co-chair and administration officers by geography. The co-chairs are responsible for all administrative matters regarding the operation of this group (e.g.,
communication among this group, meeting arrangements, and official announcements from this group).

Steering committee

The steering committee of this working group consists of co-chairs of this working group, leaders of subworking groups, a representative from interested distributions (commercial and non-commercial), and a representative from the Linux Standard Base. The following is the mission of the steering committee:

Meetings

This working group shall have face-to-face meetings on a bi-monthly (that's every two months) basis. The regular meetings will mainly be held in the San Francisco Bay area, but this group would like to have at least one meeting outside of the United States annually. This group encourages adhoc meetings or BOFs (Birds-of-a-Feather) at Linux or Internationalization related events.

Online discussion and information Web sites

This working group shall use the linux-i18n@example.com (or linux-i18n@example.com, when available) mailing list for communication among the members. This working group may have other mailing lists that are specific to sub tasks as required. The administrative request to the linux-i18n mailing list should be sent to linux-i18n-request@example.com

This working group shall have an Web site, www.li18nux.org for information sharing. The Web pages in the site shall include, at a minimum, an official information section, sub group section, and free discussion and information section. The contents in the official information section is the subject to be approved by the steering committee, and content of each sub group section is subject to be approved by either sub group or its leader.

Relationship with standards organizations

This working group will establish necessary liaisons with groups who are working on Globalization or Linux standardization.
 

The candidate liaisons are to be with:

Charter Duration

This working group and its charter will is expected to last through December 2001. The continuation of the working group may renew the charter at that time.