Talk from the accepted paper, M. Annamalai, T. Shrinivasan, "Tamil open-source landscape - opportunities and challenges", Tamil Internet Conference INFITT (2017); University of Toronto Scarborough.

1. INFITT , 2017 | University of Toronto, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.
Tamil Open-Source Landscape
-
Opportunities and Challenges
Dr. , .
San José, California
ezhillang@gmail.com
Tamil Open-Source Software
(TOSS) Landscape –
Opportunities and Challenges

2. INFITT , 2017 | University of Toronto, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.
Brief history of FOSS
Pioneered by likes of Richard Stallman and Eric. S. Raymond
Relies on collective good of developing software in open and
creatively monetizing it outside of closed-source traditional
models.
Tamil open-source software has its roots from
● TamilLinux, Zha Kanini, etc.
● KDE and Gnome translation teams for Tamil
● Mozilla/Firefox localization efforts
● various GNU/Linux user-groups across Tamilnadu
● Tamilnadu branch of FSF

3. INFITT , 2017 | University of Toronto, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.
TOSS – Challenges (high-
level)
The various challenges are identified below,
1. Limited market for Tamil software
2. Marketing efforts for digital Tamil products
3. Lack of reusable, ready s/w components for Tamil
software delays development and increases costs of
development, production and post-production are limiting
future projects
4. Tamil origin Tech workers are indifferent to TOSS causes

4. INFITT , 2017 | University of Toronto, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.
TOSS –
Barriers/Challenges (2)
Barriers to entry into the Tamil open-source software (TOSS) space are
identified and removal of these issues could spurt a growth phase in TOSS
1. Software not addressing the market – teaching developers to
address real market needs
2. Address demographic needs:
What about other adults, young-adults, teenagers, boys and girls
usage of software?
3. Sometimes CS challenges are hard – CS education and continuous
growth are recommended for developers
4. Multiple roles required for software development, graphic art, testing,
documentation, packaging and release, which are lesser known to
potential Tamil contributors

5. INFITT , 2017 | University of Toronto, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.
Kalsee – talkback calculator
for Tamil
● Available on Google Play store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.urbantamil.kalsee
● Open-sourced at
https://github.com/Ezhil-Language-Foundation/kalsee-calculator

6. INFITT , 2017 | University of Toronto, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.
MinMadurai*
● Open-sourced at https://github.com/Ezhil-Language-Foundation/MinMadurai

7. INFITT , 2017 | University of Toronto, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.
Tamil TTS - demo
https://soundcloud.com/ezhil-lang/

8. INFITT , 2017 | University of Toronto, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.
Data structures named in Tamil (1/2)
Consistency of naming, computer-science equivalence;

9. INFITT , 2017 | University of Toronto, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.
Data structures named in Tamil (2/2)
● array
● set
● stack
● heap
● dictionary ,
● linked list ,
● circular list
● graph /
● queue ,
● priority queue ,
● hash table ,
● binary tree ,

10. INFITT , 2017 | University of Toronto, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.
Github Tamizha community
●
FreeTamilComputing mailing list:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/freetamilcomputing

11. INFITT , 2017 | University of Toronto, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.
Github Tamil projects -
overview

12. INFITT , 2017 | University of Toronto, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.
Github repos by language

13. Karaoke in Roman/Tamil only!

14. Youtube English –> Tamil auto tx

15. INFITT , 2017 | University of Toronto, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.
Tamil trends
●Cinema occupies a central role in Tamil public life;
●Tamil cinema should be generating more requirements for Tamil software
However:
● Lyrics for songs are transliterated or written in Roman Tamil
● Quietly boycott the native script
●Dialogues and lyric production/editing/sharing in movie industry is not using
majority Tamil scripts
● e.g. playback signers are not familiar in Tamil script
●Fiction writers, Journalists would like to have Text to speech, Voice-
Recognition systems

16. INFITT , 2017 | University of Toronto, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.
Last mile-gap in Tamil
computing

17. INFITT , 2017 | University of Toronto, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.
TOSS – challenges 1/2
1)Software is not packaged well
2)Lack of online demos
3)No Windows version
4)Showcase sites absent: try-before you buy
5)Compatibility issues
6)Not user friendly – no GUI
7)Lack of user/developer documentation
8)Lack of offline events – community building absent

18. INFITT , 2017 | University of Toronto, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.
TOSS – challenges 2/2
9) Not much marketing efforts
10) Not mobile friendly
11) No Lobbying
12) No funding
13) Transliteration is cheap alternative
14) Lack of reusing – not many large projects
15) User education issues/awareness

19. INFITT , 2017 | University of Toronto, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.
Recommendations for
growth - TOSS
Groom more youngsters into TOSS
1. A central FAQ about accessing Tamil script/text functions in
various programming languages to address developer training
2. There is a need for institutional effort to have a Tamil coding
school
3. There is a need for marketplace for Tamil software
4. Malayalam friends Swatantra computing make use of Google
Summer of Code to get manpower/training

20. INFITT , 2017 | University of Toronto, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.
: Thanks
● INFITT – 2017
● . .
● ,
● Software: Twitter, GitHub, Travis-CI, Chennai ILUGC,
GLUG-T, freetamilcomputing list, Thamizha group
ezhillang@gmail.com
@ezhillang
https://www.facebook.com/ezhillang
http://ezhillang.org