We would like to install a Multilingual Scratch Server to support our educational projects here in Switzerland.
Is it possible to reconfigure the Scratch interface so that it connects to our local server for sharing? If no, is it possible to get support in this issue from the Scratch Team?
We needed the Scratch interface completly translated in our local languages (i.e. German, French, Italian). We offer to overtake this task therefore we needed language libraries or the source code from the Scratch Team. Is there any possibility for collaboration in this issue with the Scratch Team?
As well we needed all documentation in our local languages to support our local, not English speaking children during educational projects. Is it possible to get the English originals to translate? We would share our results back as well.
However is it possible to get into a partnership with the Scratch Team to ease our local educatinoal Scratch projects and activities here in Switzerland?
Thanks for all help and replies!
Martina Pozzi
GHOST GmbH for Objectoriented Systems & Technologies
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Hi Martina,
We can share with you the software necessary for you to run your own Scratch Sharing Server (we call it ScratchR). It is a web application that needs Apache, MySQL and PHP. The only thing we are worried about is that if you set up a separate Scratch community all those projects won't contribute to the main Scratch website. I would be interested in collaborating with you to create a way of connecting the two websites in some way. Are you or do you know a web programmer that would be interested in working on this? Also, we would certainly welcome help in making the Scratch Sharing Sever (ScratchR) multilingual.
Please let me know what your thoughts.
Re Languages: Scratch is already translated into most of the main European languages (German, French and Italian among many others). Just click on the Language button and you can switch languages.
Re support materials original files: they are being prepared to be released publicly so that anyone can translate them.
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Hi Andres,
thank you very much for your reply. Our thoughts and statements to the misc. issues as follows:
- The Language button doesn't switch the whole interface of Scratch. To establish Scratch in eduacation in German speaking regions (i.e. Switzerlang, Germany, Austria) the interface must be completely translated. We could settle the issue if we had access to the system configruation as we have a lot of experience with squeak programming.
- Is it possible to get a pre-released version of the documentation? We are going to translate ourselves anyway because we need it in the same quality (appearance and language) as your English versions are.
- European children which are the target group of scratch usually don't know at all or not enough fluent English. When they don't understand - News, Forums, Projects, Guidelines, Manuals - they loose interest in an English spoken platform. To succeed in Europe the local language approach on the Scratch plattform is a must. It is not in our interest to seperate from your community rather we try an adequate integration of our local needs.
- Yes, we could work on a multilingual Scratch Sharing Server. We are experts in informations systems, we know the products you use and my partner is an expert in web development. To get an idea of what we are talking about we needed to have a look at your systems source code. Additionaly we needed another way for information exchange.
- To connect a multilingual community covered by different servers we needed to align in targets and work out an adequate concept. Basically we could help in this issue. Could you please give us an idea of how collaboration with your team works?
For exchange of documents and technical details you can reach our team via info@ghost.ch
Looking forward to your answers and kind regards
Martina (Scratcher 'fantasma')
GHOST
GmbH for Objectoriented Systems & Technologies
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