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Feature: Open Source
Open Asia: Japan and Korea embrace open source
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CommentsA country-by-country survey of the state of Free Software in Asia is difficult, not least because of the disparate natures of Asian societies, the wide use of languages other than English, and the lack of international reporting on technical issues. However, we'll begin looking this week at recent initiatives in two countries, Korea and Japan, and follow up in the future with views from other regions.
Korean computer science professor Jin Hyung Kim serves in several Korean organizations and committees related to FLOSS. He is chairman of Free and Open Source Movement, a member of Open Source Forum, and a vice chair of Korea Linux Association. Kim says, "It is very timely to organize an Asian forum to promote Open Source. We are also seeking international collaborations, particulary with Asian friends."
In Korea, according to Kim, there are several forum and associations promoting FLOSS activities, and working together to foster FLOSS practice. "Some government supported research institutes studied the potential advantages of Open Source. We are holding many seminars and meetings annually. For the last three years, we have runned a voluntary training program teaching Linux to high school teachers. Most of our activities are local, except some congress and conference participations. Documents are written in Korean," he says.
| Recognizing important contributions |
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Asians are contributing to GNU/Linux in an increasingly significant manner. Among the Japanese contributors, for example, are Itojun with IPv6, Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto with Ruby, Hiroyuki Yamamoto with Sylpheed. Chinese developer H.J. Lu is a prominent contributor to libc, gcc, and related projects. Indonesia developer Ariya Hidayat is known for his work on KDE. And several Indians are contributing in various ways. |
Meanwhile, across the Sea of Japan (if you're Japanese) or the East Sea (if you're Korean) several groups are springing up to promote FLOSS.
On July 10, 2002, a non-profit group chaired by Prof. Masayuki Ida formed the "Free Software Initiative Japan" (FSIJ) under the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to "support developers and users of free software, advocate the principle of free software, organize international symposium, and facilitate the release of high quality free software from Japan to the rest of the world." The FSIJ organized Free Software Symposium 2002 in Tokyo on October 22 and 23, the first event of its kind in Asia, with speakers invited from China, Thailand, Japan, Singapore, Germany, Italy and the USA.
Besides the more technical presentations, there were speeches about the larger issues of Free Software. Also discussed were issues of better cooperation for internationalization of programs and documentation as well as the possibility of a solution-oriented database for Free Software. Some of the ideas that arose at the conference now continue to be pursued by mail. A follow-up event is being planned for this year in Thailand.
Niibe Yutaka, who works for the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, says, "There are many domestic Linux users groups (I think more than 20). The central one is Japan Linux Association."
In addition, Japan's non-profit Centre of the International Cooperation for Computerization plans for CICC to hold a symposium in Thailand on Open Source Software in partnership with Thailand's National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC).
Comments
on Open Asia: Japan and Korea embrace open sourceNote: Comments are owned by the poster. We are not responsible for their content.
i'm not an expert, but they probably use the word "free" because it would translate more easily into japanese and korean than "open source". both languages use chinese characters as a foundation their languages.
next time, please think a fraction of a second before posting your kindergarten stereotype...
Too many tech jargons that get translated into Chinese is just plain confusing to most Chinese people.
Also it is due to cultural heritage, we Asians are always told that there is no such thing as a free lunch!
Eric
Malaysia
On top of that most Chinese have two names because idiots like you can say there Chinese name. For example I know a guy called “Chi Kin� and people say “chicken� instead. His western name is “Hennery�. The just pick a random name when they do to a western country and use it. Often you’ll get names from books or movies because they like the character.
Re: Free Software (yup ur rite!) - I am Chinese
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on July 22, 2003 11:01 AMMy given name is Eric, since I am a Christian. I speak six languages excluding Chinese dialects, how many do you speak?
And by the way, I never mentioned that I cannot translate the term Open Source into Chinese, it is just that it will sound odd, much like if one were to translate certain Chinese word or phrases into English.
Eric
Malaysia
Infact in Asia there is not much culture of drinking beer
Inface here (I am from India so I do not know what exactly happens there) some perfer to say it as free as free speech not free as free cha (tea) or lassi.
Also in my lang Open does not mean liberal or libra so frr software is more suitable which means with out any restrictions or more perfectly libra in my lang it it "mukto"
hope you guys understand my english<nobr> <wbr></nobr>;-)
Anirban Biswas.
Japanese people tend to use the English words when they make sense and create Japanese words when the English is too difficult. Free Software would be easy to translate into Japanese because Japanese know "Free" and they use "Soft" for "Software." It would probably be something like "Furi- Safuto." Regular Japanese could use that term and both Japanese and English speakers who speak Japanese would be able to easily figure out what was being talked about. "Open Source" on the other hand is not as easy for either Japanese or English speakers to understand. Unless you are actually doing any programming the two are basically the same.
If a Japanese word were to be used, "Muryo" would be the closest to Free software, but since Japanese words do not have the same meanings as English words I am sure they would just use Japanese pronunciation and convert it like that. The Japanese are very different from the French in that they are willing to accept other languages into their lexicon right now.
Oh, I see a bunch of SCO press releases on some brand new legal initiatives. I guess not.
The professor who is interviewed did almost nothing regarding the real FOSS stuffs. For normal FOSS users in Korea, 99% of real activities are done in amature base. Ask that professor exactly what did he did in the "real world". The biggest & well-organized FOSS activitists do not have time to travel abroad to join overseas conference.
I understand the reporter don't have chance to meet more people but please do not mislead the readers that that single person is the most active/important one. It's kind of marketing hype.
Please understand my English is broken but I want to stress that the article is very discouraging to people who have been working/promoting FOSS for long time who did not get any support as the professor/officer do.
Tom Copeland
tom@infoether.com
Free Software
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on July 21, 2003 09:20 PM#