Independent Media Centre Ireland     http://www.indymedia.ie

"Irish" localised version of YouTube is actually in "English"

category international | sci-tech | opinion/analysis author Wednesday June 20, 2007 12:45author by R. Isible

Youtube Ireland

YouTube (now owned by Google) have launched what they say are "localized" versions for 9 countries: Brazil, Japan and seven EU countries including Ireland. The Irish version appears bizarrely to be localised in English.

Localisation[1] (known by the shorthand "L10n") is the process of providing interfaces to computer programs entirely in the language, character set and time/date formats of a particular country and culture. The Irish site[2] is localised in English.

The press release states that the purpose of this is to allows users in each country to share and create videos in their local language. If the recognition is that Ireland is a predominantly English-speaking country, then it seems pointless to create a redundant version separate from the www.youtube.co.uk site. Probably it's all just a gloss on the fact that Google have servers geographically distributed around the world to speed local access times, consuming huge amounts of power usually in relatively impoverished backwaters[3] that are glad of the jobs at any price.

Click the flag on the top-right to change to e.g. French or Japanese.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Localization

2. http://www.youtube.ie

3. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/23/google_penguins/

In a stunning display of hypocrisy all information for this article was gathered with the aid of Google, who own all of our souls and despite their bullshit corporate propaganda about "do no evil" probably turn over our search results to the torturers in the CIA when asked. Hopefully it won't escape your notice that this article is also fully localised.

Related Link: http://www.youtube.com/press_room_entry?entry=sbopYZ18uVQ

Comments (11 of 11)

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author by Sean Crudden - imperopublication date Tue Jun 19, 2007 18:42author email sean.crudden at iol dot ieauthor address Jenkinstown, Dundalk, Co Louth.author phone 087 9739945

You-Tube is introducing a country specific service to Ireland as well as Spain and a number of other countries.
Will indymedia feel the heat of competition?

Related Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6757525.stm
author by Couch Potatopublication date Thu Jun 21, 2007 01:19author address author phone

Some Irish language content whichh they could highlight if they wanted to: http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=LVYrOn7j7eo

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=GlZd8Cqe37k

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=Gju9iJNx4Qo

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=_GZX5YM_rWA

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=Qqe72bcouPY

and my favourite: http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=GBKKeXSpJiQ

author by Séamuspublication date Thu Jun 21, 2007 16:43author address author phone

If you enter the word "gaeilge" into the YouTube search box you'll get over 300 results. There are obviously plenty of videos they could push if they wanted to, and they fit into all different kinds of categories - music, sport, history, politics, comedy, animation, etc.

author by Dubpublication date Thu Jun 21, 2007 18:42author address author phone

Guess what people? the English language is spoken in Ireland. Indeed it has been spoken by the majority of Irish people for about 150 years. What's wrong with YouTube having it's Ireland pages in English? I'm sure there's more to localisation than language. In saying this I do think Irish language should be facilitated by YouTube as it is a language spoken by a significant minority in Ireland.

author by Setantapublication date Thu Jun 21, 2007 20:34author address author phone

Hit the Gaeilge button on the Indymedia front page and what do you get - yes you've guessed it - cúpla focal and overwhelmingly bearla content.

Says a lot for Irish on this site ... people in glass houses, Indymedia, shouldn't throw shite!

author by Realistpublication date Thu Jun 21, 2007 20:57author address author phone

What a silly discussion! What country are you lot living in? The last time I checked English was spoken by the vast majority of people in Ireland. Irish is spoken as a 1st language by small minority of the population, as is Polish, russian and chinese. These minority languages should be facititated as far as possible but lets get real about the language and not have some pie in the sky views of it

author by bainnepublication date Fri Jun 22, 2007 11:12author address author phone

the material in question is here http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=GBKKeXSpJiQ as you can see on the Irish portal. But listen to the man and you see he closes his video in Polish. Oh well you might think the sight of a rapid ferry link between Cymru and Eire in the background and bit of Gaeilge might be ok - but I want to know why this video isn't to be seen on Polish Youtube. What is the man hiding?
http://pl.youtube.com/ let me hint at it. He looks a bit tellytubbyish. enough said. ceart go leor.

author by ogipublication date Tue Jun 26, 2007 14:10author address author phone

to have a youtube service in irish is a great idea...but to complain about the lack of content is foolish... the content is added by the people.. yes the majority of people speak english and now alot of people speak polish too but those of us who see the importance of our native language still exist... our small little island may have lost her soul ... 150 years ago as someone has pointed out,,, but remember what happened then...a genocide, the halving of the population by a colonial government.... the successful persuasion of the irish to forget their language, has also led us to lose all the innate knowledge and experience of our ancestors accumulated since the initial colonisation of the island until recentely... all of which is carried in the structure, phrazes and expressions of the language.. something which is true for every language... so to lose a language, or discourage a language or neglect a language is not only sad but negatively impacts our understanding of humanity itself...

author by Dubpublication date Tue Jun 26, 2007 14:23author address author phone

I wish to take issue with "Ogi's" historical claims. The reality is that a "colonial government" were not only responsible for the famine. Remember there were plenty of Irish fat-cats during the famine. You misty eyed nationalists never take up that point. There were irish people that made big money during the famine years. There were wealthy businessmen and wealthy large farmers and wealthy Roman Catholic clergy ALL of whom were Irish born and bred.

The English are not to blame for the famine. Indeed the government of the day did not play an honourable role. But thousands of ordinary English people gave to charities for Irish people during the famine years. You nationalists always want to paint the world as if it is divided by nations when in truth it is divided by CLASS.

The famine happened because of capitalism not because of "the English". If you really want to avenge the death and destruction of the famine years why not take on capitalism. If we'd a united Ireland tomorrow we would still have the rack-renting landlords, wealthy capitalists and Roman Catholic clergy all with nice green harps on their passports.

author by ogipublication date Fri Jun 29, 2007 17:28author address author phone

i think ´dub` you are missing the point of my comment, whether on purpose or not .. but anyway...your presumptions are astounding.. im not a nationalist, i mentioned the colonial government,, and not the people of england scotland or wales. or ireland for that matter because the ordinary people of that day didnt have a say in government, thus creating the seperation between corrupt government and ordinary people. Secondly... the societal structure of the day was headed by the british government in london... that government contained all the classes which you have mentioned.. the fat cats.. clergy etc.. you make it sound like an unfortunate mistake that the government of the day did very little to alleviate the affects,, maybe they wernt disinterested... considering as you point out those who got rich off that genocide were indeed those governing the country or at the least members of the same class and known within the clique by family ties or power relations. for me this represents direct interest and complicity... on the other hand if the government had been in dublin the same thing probably would have happened within the same power structure framework, that is undenyable. but.. you still avoided the point i made in my earlier comment... .. no comment?

author by diogenespublication date Fri Jun 29, 2007 19:17author address author phone

& that a big blue flash or cheaper dirty version would really make their skin flake. Today has been extra-ordinary. I fear many Irish people just might have missed the first challenges for a Brown as opposed to Blair cobra committee emergency. Anyway - to speak of capitalism in the mid 19th century and the late 20th century or even right now the beginning of the 21st century provokes many problems for cosy quick comparisons. Just as speaking of "catholic - protestant and dissenter" means different things from the time of Wolfe Tone or Emmet when life was rural and education as well as social policy confined to small communities who suffered varying levels of oppression and the values of republicanism or securalism hadn't yet made it much further than the sort of tea-party Percy shelley would have turned up at - capitalism and its mechanisms in the mid 19th century was very different and so too were capitalists across any imperial system such as the British, French or for that matter Spanish or Portuguese. The insane radicals of that time were those who promoted free trade or bilateralism or aid projects - just like today we are the insane radicals for opposing free trade etc The very mechanisms and rights of free movement which we support were the very same presumptions which brought more than 100 million Europeans out of famine to the Americas (north or south)..... blah blah ribbid ribbid gurggle . the queen's grandson is safe in a bunker with his mot and we don't have to evacuate 800,000 children of Eire
yet.


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