Seminar On “e-potentials Of Tamil Language"
There is a compulsion, not option, to use technology. Hence, whatever barriers we come across, mainly language, should be circumvented to make technology available to all, said N. Raveendran, President of the Computer Society of India, Coimbatore Chapter, here on Friday. He was inaugurating a two-day seminar on “e-potentials of Tamil Language in Telecommunication” organised by the Department of Linguistics at the Bharathiar University. While the operating system of the computer was available in many languages like Japanese and Chinese, it was still not available in Tamil, he said.“Efforts are being made to infuse Tamil into Information Technology. Developing a keyboard in Tamil will be complicated as Tamil is not made up of single letters like the English letters. At the initial stage, the Tamil operating system should go parallel with the English system. Later on, when all the systems are completely put in place, it can be made an independent operating system,” Mr. Raveendran added. Such measures, he believed, would enable those who could read and write in Tamil to make use of the computer with the Windows, Internet and other operating systems.
“Today’s gadgets and systems do not require the user to be formally educated. With patience and practice anybody can use them”. Since the use of technology began early, with even school children getting initiated into computers and mobile phones, the infusion of Tamil into the software would enable the students to make use of it from an early stage. “The shift in mind set about using Tamil for sending SMS or e-mails will begin in early youth and adaptability will also be easy,” he asserted.
Vice-Chancellor G. Thiruvasagam lamented that there was not enough attention given to the seminar topic by Information Technology users. “It is the age of e-governance. People are extensively using the Internet and e-mail as effective means of communication for their cost-effectiveness, high speed and easy reach. But for those who know only Tamil, it is difficult to use them, since computer applications in Tamil are yet to become popular,” Mr. Thiruvasagam said.
“Language is a major barrier. There is talk in all quarters about promoting Tamil. But, nothing seems to be reaching the masses. Information Technology can be used as an effective tool to popularise the language. The development of the right software in Tamil can bring about this change,” the Vice-Chancellor said.
