Volunteers Wanted
It would be nice to get Joel on Software translated to as many languages as possible. I'm looking for volunteers to translate. You can do as little or as much as you want to any language you want. I also need volunteer copy editors who can edit the translations as they come in. More Info
Wow! 15 languages already!
So far I've got volunteers for 22 languages -- cool! The articles are starting to come in. Everything will be reviewed by a second copy editor before I post it.
If you are fluent in a language other than English and would like to help out, there are still lots of great opportunities. If you only have a small amount of time, why not copy edit a single article? (Copy editing basically means proofread it, correct any spelling or grammar mistakes, and rewrite anything that is not written clearly enough.) If you have more time, you can translate an article or two. Pick your favorite. If you're really ambitious, you can sign up for the 4-part Painless Functional Specifications (still available in most languages) or the 9 chapter UI For Programmers, available in every language except French and Spanish.
The translation of Joel on Software has 110 volunteers so far translating into 29 languages. (But isn't there anyone out there who can do Navajo?)
The first two articles have come in from the copy editors, so today I am pleased to announce the Swedish and Italian versions of Joel on Software.
I made a new CityDesk file to hold all the multilingual versions of the site. CityDesk has pretty extensive multilingual support that was designed to make it easy to support a site in multiple languages, but I've never been able to try it out until today. It took me about 2 hours to create and publish the multilingual site with the first two articles. Adding a language should take a couple of minutes (I just have to copy in a set of standard glossary for things like "Joel on Software" which translators are providing for me). Adding a newly translated article is usually as simple as cutting and pasting from the email that the copy editor sends me. So far I haven't done any languages which require right-to-left text or interesting character sets like Hindi and Cyrillic.
In thinking about the microeconomic principle of complements, I noticed something interesting about open source software, which is this: most of the companies spending big money to develop open source software are doing it because it's a good business strategy for them, not because they suddenly stopped believing in capitalism and fell in love with freedom-as-in-speech.
Strategy Letter V explains.
Joel on Software in Dutch and Indonesian!
Chinese (Simplified) and Hungarian versions of Joel on Software are now live!
1110 posts over 13 years. Everything I’ve ever published is right here.
There’s a software company in New York City dedicated to doing things the right way and proving that it can be done profitably and successfully.