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Volunteers for translating the British Highway Code

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Written By asj - 10 October, 2008

Traffic Bangalore Driving Pune Pune kannada Hindi Action marathi highway

Dear all, A short while ago I applied to the crown copyrights permission to translate the British Highway Code in to Indian languages. They have granted that permission. India does not have an equivalent resource and it may be great to translate this material. I am exploring whether anyone would like to work as a group working towards translating this wonderful resource (perhaps using Baraha software). ASJ

COMMENTS

Yelli Iddira in London

asj - 12 October, 2008 - 13:12

My understanding is that Yelli Iddira is an SMS service for bus updates. London buses are undergoing a major transformation by implementing the i-bus systems. This basically uses GPRS technology and on bus stop real time indicators are available increasingly. Further, helpline and text phone services are also in place. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/media/newscentre/archive/7799.aspx ASJ

I am game!

shas3n - 12 October, 2008 - 08:45

ASJ,

I would be game for doing the translation in Kannada. Highway code is a wonderful resource that I can not praise enough!

I am glad to know that you have got a copy-right clearance.

I was under the impression that most UK Govt documents are available in Hindi, Gujarathi and Bengali as well. I am not sure if Highwaycode already is.

In any case, this will be a worthwhile effort to make.

-Shastri

How about "Yelli Iddira?" for London buses?

murali772 - 12 October, 2008 - 12:32

Doc Can you check with 'London bus service' if they would be interested in 'Yelli Iddira?' service? I can organise to set it up for them. Muralidhar Rao PS: This highway code translation is a commendable initiative.

Lets get translating

asj - 12 October, 2008 - 13:08

Shastri, Great. Many thanks for offering to help. I have googled and found one publisher who does Urdu and Gujrati (possibly Hindi) versions in UK but sells the same at around £6-8. If anyone wants more details on issues pertaining to copyright, please feel free to send me a private message. If I leave the Kannada work with you (and other could join to help or work on other languages) I will focus on Marathi and probably Hindi. The license to translate has to be in keeping with crown copyright rules, i.e. our work should be non-commmercial. It will be great were we able to make the code available in different languages as a free download for all. Shall we work towards Dec end as a cut-off? ASJ

Highway code translations

shas3n - 13 October, 2008 - 08:29

December end sounds like a good target Doc. I will start with it today to see potential problems. Basically, I am worried about maintaining the right tone in translations. For example, the highway code makes liberal use of 'MUST' and 'MUST NOT' etc., which are a little challenging to translate without going in roundabout ways with the language.

The other thing is that for several of the technical terms like Roundabout, Hard shoulder, Kerb etc, there might not be Indian language equivalents. Probably makes sense to use the original terms as they are in such cases.

BTW, what copy-right issues we have to adhere to when we translate? Can we post it free on the website? Can we find a sponsor to print it for non-commercial redistribution? What else can be done and what can not be?

BTW, I have a PDF copy of the highway code that I purchased. But I am not sure if I can make it available on a website. [Here is the highway code for anyone who wants to read it. Althought its not in one single PDF and does not integrate all the images]. Do you know if this can be done under the crown copyright?

-Shastri

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