[multikulti-tech] Lasa Multikulti Update - October 2004

[lasa]

Lasa Multikulti Website Update - Autumn 2004 
 
 http://www.multikulti.org.uk 
 
 *Multikulti receives funding from the Big Lottery
 We are delighted to announce that Multikulti has been successful in its bid to the Big Lottery Fund for the continuation and development of the project. Our plans over the next three years are to translate a number of new documents for the Immigration & Asylum and Health topic areas of the site; to create a new Racism topic area, and to add two new languages to Multikulti – Urdu and Portuguese. 
 
 We have also been successful in obtaining EQUAL European Social Fund funding from two different partnerships working with asylum seekers and refugees. These partnerships are headed up by Islington Training Network and RETAS and involve us publishing other translated materials on Multikulti. We have also been awarded funding from a partnership lead by the London Borough of Islington to provide translated materials for small business development. We’ll have further details on this later in the year. 
 
 *New baby for Multikulti
 Even more good news – Njomeza Kartallozi, our project co-ordinator has just had a baby. Both are doing well. Whilst Njomeza is away on maternity leave Masoud Lashkari will be taking over her duties. 
 
 *Multikulti wins Social Innovation Award
 The good news keeps on coming. Multikulti has won the Best Social Innovation 2004 award (Communications Category) from the Institute for Social Inventions/Global Ideas Bank. The Global Ideas Bank promotes good creative ideas to improve society. It also encourages the public to generate ideas, and participate in the problem-solving process. Information on the award and the Institute is available at http://www.globalideasbank.org. 
 
 *10th Round Translations now uploaded to site
 The 10th round document 'Children’s ‘challenging’ behaviour' is now available in the Education topic area. In response to user feedback we are also adding translations of the site’s ‘disclaimer’ into Multikulti languages. We are currently working on the 11th round of translations including documents provided by Islington Law Centre on 'Buying Goods - Your Rights' and 'Tricks – beware of fraud and deception', NHS leaflets on mental health issues, and leaflets on 'Autism' and 'Asperger Syndrome' from the National Autistic Society. 
 
 *New Languages – Urdu and Portuguese
 We get much useful feedback on the Multikulti site (please keep it coming) and as a result of numerous requests received from users we planned to add Urdu and Portuguese to the current 10 Multikulti languages. Thanks to the new funding from the Big Lottery this will now be happening. We’ll let you know when the first Urdu and Portuguese documents appear. If you are a bi-lingual adviser with experience of translating community documents into Urdu or Portuguese then please get in touch with us at 020 7247 7226 or email mlashkari at lasa.org.uk. 
 
 *Multikulti and Open Source
 The software behind Multikulti – MKDoc - is now fully open source. On 16th September 2004 the license of MKDoc was changed to the GPL which means that MKDoc is now Free Software (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software for an explanation of Free Software). Open Source/Free software is a co-operative method of producing software for common usage, so it is especially suitable for the voluntary and community sector. (For more details see http://www.lasa.org.uk/it/penguin/). Multikulti will be working closely with Webarchitects, the software developers, and also with the MKDoc http://mkdoc.com/ developer community. 
 
 *Project Evaluation on site
 The Evaluation of the NOF funded Multikulti project will soon be available on the ‘About Us’ section of the site at http://www.multikulti.org.uk/about/. 
 
 *Information not Advice
 We’ve been getting a number of messages and phone calls recently asking for advice on asylum and other issues. Unfortunately we cannot respond to these queries. The Multikulti project is a translated information website service only. The project team cannot offer further advice other than what is contained in the information leaflets published on site. The site’s local agency finder, however, can direct people to agencies with the appropriate language skills who can offer one-to-one advice. 
 
 *Unicode Multikulti
 The Multikulti site delivers all information as text in different languages including non-Roman scripts like Chinese and Arabic. This makes Multikulti documents easier to access and to edit, and also enables Multikulti to comply with accessibility standards like the Web Accessibility Initiative, and the Disability Discrimination Act. The ‘Unicode’ content is also searchable, so Multikulti’s resources are easier to find via Internet search engines. Making this possible across all Multikulti languages is a pioneering achievement in web technology. Because we are pushing the boundaries of multilingual technology we are still having some troubles with Bengali and Gujerati. We will continue to deliver PDF’s for these languages as well as Unicode. Lasa’s Multikulti website currently provides information in 10 community languages. The website contains translations of leaflets covering 7 key areas: immigration and asylum, welfare benefits, employment, housing, health, debt, and edu!
 cation. Content so far has been translated from material provided by Age Concern, Carers UK, Coventry Law Centre, Haringey Citizens Advice Bureau, Islington Law Centre, MIND, National Debt Line, One Parent Families, ROAP, Shelter, the Spinal Injuries Association and Lasa. 
 
 *Multikulti User Group
 If you would like to become involved with the project, you can become a Multikulti User Group member. The User Group provides feedback to the Project Team on how the digitised Multikulti material is experienced by agencies and their clients. You will also be able to access Lasa’s free IT Helpline service and receive a free subscription to our magazine Computanews. For further information about the project or if you would like to provide feedback on the site, please email mlashkari at lasa.org.uk. 
 
 Lasa’s Multikulti project is funded by the Big Lottery Fund. 
 
 Multikulti Project, Lasa, Universal House, 88/94 Wentworth Street, London, E1 7SA 
 
 http://www.multikulti.org.uk 
 
 
 
 
 
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