Empowering Communities and Local Tech Companies with Government-Supported FOSS Localization Project

Day 1 | 15:35 | 00:25 | UB5.230 | Open Culture Foundation, Ian Liu

Note: I'm reworking this at the moment, some things won't work.

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Since 2022, the Open Culture Foundation (OCF) has been collaborating with Taiwan’s Ministry of Digital Affairs (MoDA) and STEPS (a local tech company) on government-funded localization projects. These initiatives aim to make civic tech and open-source tools more accessible in Taiwan while enabling international projects to take root and thrive locally.

As a coordinator, OCF has completely localized projects such as GOV.UK Notify, GOV.UK Forms, Matrix Client (Element Series), IRMA, Yivi, Standard for Public Code, Bitwarden, Nextcloud, FreeOTP, GIMP, and Mattermost. Some of these projects have been contributed back to their upstream repositories, while others have evolved into localized solutions tailored to Taiwan's needs. OCF’s efforts focus on three key areas to ensure government funding provides not only financial support but also a foundation for sustainable development.

This talk will explore these three main focus areas:

  • Optimizing the Government Perspective on Open Source Educating government officials about the nature of open-source communities, their collaboration models, and the unique attributes of various international open-source projects. OCF also developed a collaborative glossary process to bridge communication gaps among stakeholders and ensure consistent terminology usage.

  • Collaboration Among Taiwan’s Communities Partnering with Taiwan’s L10N community, OCF established structured review processes to meet the government’s high standards for quality and timeliness. Over three years, OCF conducted two major surveys during COSCUP. One survey identified critical open-source projects needed in Taiwan, while the other focused on addressing challenges that hinder contributions, aiming to encourage broader participation.

  • Engagement with Local Industry and International Communities Although Taiwanese tech teams are highly skilled, many are unfamiliar with the culture of open-source contributions. OCF facilitated understanding of licensing, contribution practices, and engagement with upstream communities. For example, OCF helped Mattermost report and resolve a date display bug in Chinese (CJK) scripts and worked with upstream communities to address significant differences between Simplified and Traditional Chinese, including grammar and linguistic nuances.

Localization is not merely about technical translation; it is a strategic approach to connecting governments, communities, and international open-source projects. This talk will share OCF’s experiences in bridging these gaps and invite Community DevRoom participants to exchange ideas on how to effectively integrate open-source projects into their respective countries.