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In a time where the adage ‘there are no free dinners’ is a social norm and not an academic concept, anything that comes for free is a welcome change.
So when Ali Mozaffar Jafry and Azad Qalamdar, two ambitious entrepreneurs, decided to introduce the first online/offline downloadable English-to-Urdu dictionary, the concept not only seemed novel but was particularly refreshing since it was being offered not only for free but was also for a language that has millions of speakers and was still awaiting a breakthrough online.
The initiative might just be the first step but certainly the one in the right direction. Jafry and Qalamdar partnered up for Pakistan Open Knowledge Foundation (POKF), a non-profit organization, in collaboration with the Lingoes project to introduce the downloadable dictionary keeping in mind the growing needs of Pakistani computer users, both in private and public sectors.
Lingoes, an easy dictionary and text translation software, offers lookup dictionaries, full text translation, captures words on screen and translate selected text and pronunciation of words in 80 different languages.
Qalamdar discovered the Lingoes translator online and after further study of search trends discovered that more than six million annual dictionary related searches for Urdu translation were just on Google alone. He realized that Lingoes was a valuable software that should be shared with Pakistani users. In order to reach into an untapped market, Qalamdar created a website and promoted it on search engines and social networks to the Pakistani internet market. He then approached Ali Mozzaffar Jafry for financial support to cover site expenses and promotional costs.
“If it were not for Mr. Jafry, the project would never have materialized,” said Qalamdar. The duo then planned to broaden the scope to language tools development and promotion which gave birth to Pakistan Open Knowledge Foundation.
POKF’s main objective is to develop and promote free educational resources and applications to Pakistani users, starting with the Lingoes Translator.
The website www.lingoes.pk was launched in 2009 and got an outstanding response from all over the world. According to Lingoes, the website has received and served more than 30,000 plus unique visitors from over 80 different countries, 90,000 plus page views and an estimated 12,000 downloads.
“Our inspiration is Wikipedia and that all POKF's software will always be 100 percent free and open-source,” said Qalamdar. However, Qalamdar and Jafry’s determination to keep the website free for users did come across some obstacles. While seeking corporate sponsorships – they received a negative response.
Jafry said that “most of them thought that we were frauds as there are lots of people roaming with such ideas.” “We are not doing all this for financial gain, it is the self satisfaction and the appreciation of the people which makes us happy and motivates us.” So far, the only corporate sponsor has been Nokia Pakistan for which they are very obliged and appeal to the corporate sector to support such initiatives.
Their argument is that the Pakistani corporate sector is already benefiting from all kinds of free office productivity tools and therefore it should support the sustaining of open-source development culture in Pakistan. Currently, the POKF is working on an Urdu-English dictionary for use with Lingoes. They are also working on a widget for websites catering to Pakistanis, which will enable point-click-lookup functionality to each webpage of the site i.e. users reading an article at www.Dawn.com will be able to get instant English-to-English and English-to-Urdu meanings and listen to human voice pronunciation of any word, any where on the page. Another project that they are in the middle of is an Urdu plug-in for the Google Translate Engine, which will offer full page machine translation of pages in English to Urdu. Currently, Jafry and Qalamdar are working on an ambitious plan to develop dictionaries for regional languages such as Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto and Balochi for the website.
