One blogger hoping to help change that, however, is Spaniard David de Ugarte. In a recent post he described an effort underway to translate Claroline - an open source e-learning platform - into Quechua, Aymara, and Guaraní. Patrick Hall has translated de Ugarte's original post below.

The principles of the Ubuntu manifesto state that “software should be available free of charge, [and] software tools should be usable by people in their mother tongue…”

Accordingly we would like to translate Claroline, the most widely used, free platform for web-based learning and distance education in Latin America, to Quechua, Aymara, and Guaraní.

Here at the Biblioteca de las Indias Electrónicas we're putting out a call: we're looking for three volunteers for each of these languages who speak and write the language correctly to translate the localization file for the platform.

To encourage participation in the project, together with our friends at Sin Género de Dudas, we have opened a fund with 900 euros, of which each translator will receive a minimum of 100 euros for their work. Of course we wish it were more, so you're invited to donate to the fund with Paypal at the campaign page.

We're hoping to present the first results in Montevideo during the Iberoamerican Summit, which for the first time is focusing on the recognition and promotion of all these languages.

It goes without saying that it's a modest effort: to translate the software and put the translation into the public domain so that it can be used by anyone and incorporated into the official, free distribution of Claroline. But we think it can also serve as the seed for something much bigger. To say the least it serves as an example of collaboration between advocates of free software on both sides of the Atlantic, and one based on a recognition of the uniqueness and linguistic diversity of America.

It's from this point of view and with these values that we're announcing the campaign and we invite you to spread the word through your blogs.

http://www.lasindias.org/claroline.php
http://meneame.net/story/software-libre-quechua-aymara-guarani

[More debate at menéame [ES]]

Update: In an update post [ES], David de Ugarte writes that the effort has already collected over 1,093.85 € to pay translators. “The other great news,” according to de Ugarte, “is that we already have a Quechua translator, Noemí Vizcardo. Noemí isn't just an author of one of the most well-known blogs in Quechua … [she] is one of the two official translators of the Peruvian Congress and also a professor of Quechua with more than 34 years of experience.”

The team is still looking for translators in Aymara and Guaraní, however. If you feel moved to help this project alone, a single donation of 50€ before November 1 will, in turn, equal a $200€ donation using PledgeBank.

More information [ES] is also available on the Chilean citizen journalism site El Morrocotudo.

At the “unqualified joy” end of the scale an amateur radio operator in the northerneastern state of Piauí was positively effervescent over a Piauense's ham radio conversation with Pontes (pt):

IT'S TRUE… THE FOLLOWING TOOK PLACE THIS AFTERNOON (14:47 LOCAL TIME), 03 APRIL 2006. HAM RADIO OPERATOR JOÃO NETO (PS8PY) WAS THE FIRST RADIO AMATEUR FROM PIAUI TO MAKE CONTACT WITH BRAZILIAN ASTRONAUT MARCOS PONTES (PY0AEB). IT WAS AN INCOMPARABLE THRILL FOR JOAO. THE CONTACT WAS MADE IN VOICE ON FREQUENCY 145.800 (RECEIVING) AND 144.490 (TRANSMISSION). CONGRATULATIONS NETO, YOU'RE A GIANT AMONG RADIO AMATEURS!!!!!!!

Over!

In a rather less capitalized post, Daniel Ferreira da Silva is happy to see a Brazilian in space (pt), but wonders whether now is the right time to be focusing the country's resources on such adventures:

In other news: of course we were happy to see the first Brazilian astronaut, Marcos Pontes, carry out in first mission into space… It's also important that the government invest so that we can join the club of countries that send up astronauts (which today includes the United States, Russia, and China), which could happen in the longer term. But is this really something that's necessary today, and not in a more ?stable future? Perhaps this investment could be used for more urgent needs, like the development of Brazil's own space program, which is running a bit behind schedule? Something to think about. In any case, good luck to our space pioneer, on this the anniversary of the first flight of Santos Dumont.

In his post “Pontes, Patriotisms, Politics and Perspectives (pt)
“, a young skeptic argues that while Pontes is to be commended for showing that it's possible for a Brazilian to reach orbit, the public would be better served by more sustained media efforts to popularize science in Brazil, particularly by recognizing the work of Brazilian Scientists such as physicist César Lattes:

It would be better if the press would explain the thoughts that have made it possible for him to be there. It wasn't the Catholic Church, it wasn't the President of the Republic. It's because of people like Newton, Godard, and even Sagan. It's an offense to the intelligence of these people to say that Marcos Pontes or any other astronaut conquered space or is closer to the stars. 350 km are insignificant compared to a light-year.

But what happens? Everyone thinks that getting into orbit is further than that, and no one makes the effort to understand the physical principles that are involved. Telescopes reach much further than Pontes every day. And no one makes the effort to inform the public how far they go. After all, there are people who have never been in orbit 350 kilometers above the lithosphere, but who deserve far more praise than Marcos Pontes. The people who are working on the reconstruction of the launch pad in Alcântara, for example. HOW MANY BRAZILIANS KNOW WHO CÉSAR LATTES WAS??! We're less worthy of recognition than Marcos Pontes, and Marcos Pontes is less worthy of re cognition than César Lattes.

One wag suggested that a certain politician take direct inspiration (pt) from Pontes' flight:

The day before yesterday in the embassy of China in Brasilia, when Lula saw the first Brazilian travel into space on TV, he couldn't contain himself and he said “That's the kind of trip I'd like to take…” … So I'm launching a campaign so that we can all help poor Lula in some way. HELP HIM REALIZE HIS DREAM OF BECOMING AN ASTRONAUT!

Apparently not a Lula fan!

O Velho introduces Microsoft’s recent launch into the Brazilian mass market. In a deal with a huge department store called Magazine Luiza, they’re releasing a consumer machine with an unusual payment plan:

“The machine will work more or less the way pre-paid cell phones do: to use it, you have to buy a card that enables you to use the machine for a set number of hours.”

But “Hell Cyberdeliah” crunches some numbers, and he thinks that they don’t add up—free software on commodity hardware is a better deal, in his opinion:

“R$48 would come out to 48 hours of computer use, after the credit runs out the “system” stops working, and the owner has to buy new cards until the price listed in the agreement is reached.”

His tabulation:

• Cost of the same machine in any mass-market store with free software: R$1200.
• Total cost of a “pre paid” machine: R$3000

A bit of digging around in Brazilian online stores will prove that you really can get a preinstalled Linux box: R$999. And guess where? At the same place selling the Microsoft machines, Magazine Luiza!

But it seems that the low entry price of the Microsoft offering has won over a fair number of Brazilian consumers: Michel Lent Schwartzman at ViuIsso? (“Did you see that?”) describes just how quickly those Microsoft “Connected PCs” are selling—15 thousand Microsoft PCs sold in 13 days.

fofinhopil, on the other hand, reminds us that with a sense of humor you can sidestep all those decisions, and create your own PC… with common household items!

“After the computer for millions, the government created another way hahahaha of popularizing computing in Brazil. What did they do? Easy. They proposed a simpler way to make your own PC. And wow, did that ever work out hahahaha.”