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The Malta Independent | Thursday 14 April 2011
ICT Feature Thomas Pace
The use of the Maltese language in computer H
ave you ever needed to type something in Maltese but could not find any Maltese fonts? Or have you downloaded a set of Maltese fonts but then realised that these were useless, since everytime you send your documents to other persons the Maltese characters change into strange symbols which make them difficult to read? The solution is a click of a button away.
Thomas Pace is Executive Director at the National Council for the Maltese Language The National Council for the Maltese Language was founded in 2005 with the enactment of the Maltese Language Act. It is the government entity with the main function and duty to adopt and promote a suitable language policy and strategy, and to verify their performance and observance in every sector of Maltese life, for the benefit and development of the national language and the identity of the Maltese people.
What happens? What am I doing wrong? This thing happens because the fonts which were made available around ten years ago (like Arius, Tornado, Malta, Maltadel, Maltaard, Maltime, Maltnen and Maltv) and which used to be downloaded from the internet or shared between different users, are not compatible with every computer and cause undesired difficulties. This is because the persons receiving the document also need to have these fonts installed on their computers. Otherwise, they would find it hard to read your document since the Maltese characters would change into symbols. For this reason, these fonts are no longer used and should not be installed. What can I do instead? Is there a solution? Unlike what some users think, typing Maltese and other non-Latin characters does not require special hardware (keyboards), software (drivers) or fonts. Today, all users with a moderately modern computer are able to use such characters in their writing by
adding (not changing or installing) another keyboard layout from their operating system. This layout is based on the MSA 100:2002 Maltese Keyboard Layout Standard.
All you have to do is activate the language bar or its equivalent. This is found in various operating systems including Windows XP, Vista, 7, Mac OS and Linux and it enables you to keep on using the most common Serif and Sans-serif fonts (such as Arial, Calibri, Century Gothic, Comic Sans, Tahoma, Times New Roman and Verdana) with Maltese characters. Does it sound complicated? Surely not! The language bar is activated through a straightforward procedure which you have to do only once. It will not slow down or crash your computer, notebook or tablet and you can still write documents and emails in English. You would be only adding an extra feature to your computer to be also able to type Maltese characters.
But can I use shortcut keys instead? Whereas with the shortcut keys and the outdated Maltese fonts you could write Maltese characters in documents only, once you activate the language bar you can use them practically everywhere – in word processors, spreadsheet applications, presentation applications, web development applications, image editing applications, open source software, in online forms, web browsers (like IE, Firefox, Chrome and Safari) and even in chatrooms and social networks (like MSN, Facebook and Twitter). That’s not all. You can also use Maltese characters in your emails. This can be done because the language bar is Unicode (UTF-8) compatible – an encoding system which nowadays is widely used.
Is this only done for Maltese? And how do I activate my language bar? No, this is not only used in Maltese because of Ċċ, Ġġ, Ħħ and Żż. This system is also used in other languages which have particular diacritic letters such as French, German and Swedish. To help users type Maltese, the National Council for the Maltese language has published a second edition
of the user-friendly manual. This includes a step-by-step procedure (using screenshots) of how to activate the language bar together with various FAQs.
The manual can be downloaded as a pdf from: www.mita.gov.mt/MediaCenter/PDFs/1_manwal_kompjuter.pdf. If you would like to receive a copy of this manual or have any queries, you can contact us on: kunsilltalmalti@gov.mt. You can also visit the Facebook Group of the Technical Committee for IT: Il-Malti u l-Informatika.
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This thing happens because the fonts which were made available around ten years ago (like Arius, Tornado, Malta, Maltadel, Maltaard, Maltime, Maltnen and Maltv) and which used to be downloaded from the internet or shared between different users, are not compatible with every computer and cause undesired difficulties
Roderick Spiteri Roderick Spiteri is Marketing and Communications Executive at MITA and editor of Malta Independent ICT feature
Priscilla Bugeja
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mon reference source describing the various ICT roles, together with their respective competences, which are required by the ICT and ICT-using industries. This shall help educational institutions in aligning the learning outcomes of the courses they offer to the actual needs of the industry. Students aspiring to become ICT professionals will also find this
Framework valuable as it can lend itself as a comprehensive career and guidance ‘handbook’ with defined career paths in the industry and clear guidelines of what is expected from the ICT professional with every advancement. During the session, the high-level blueprint for a National ICT Professional Body was also announced. This
Body will serve to promote the ICT profession at par to other traditional professions. This state-backed Body will promote continuous professional development for both established and aspiring ICT professionals. The national ICT professional society will also act as a partner and supporter of other already established small local chapters of international ICT associa-
ropean e-Justice portal and eCodex. We also look at a meeting recently held in Malta by the Council for European Professional Informatics (CEPIS). We report on the issues covered and on the involvement of the eSkills Alliance Malta.
Bringing ICT to cross-border justice
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be used by human resources managers and ICT professionals responsible of the ICT labour force, will be the official set of Maltese ICT occupational standards and will serve as a common ‘language’/taxonomy of planning, developing and validating guide for e-competences. Educational institutions ‘producing’ the skills will therefore have a com-
fonts. ICT is being applied in all aspects of life and work. In today’s feature we will look at how it’s being applied in the judicial world by primarily looking at two recent projects in which ICT has been applied in the judicial world; the Eu-
Another initiative where ICT is an enabler is the e-CODEX (e-Justice Communication via Online Data Exchange) project which aims to improve the cross-border access of citizens and businesses to legal means in Europe as well as to improve the interoperability between legal authorities within the EU
In his address, Mr Ambrogio gave an overview of the work which the eSkills Alliance Malta has accomplished in its first six months of operation
tions. The eSkills Alliance Malta is driven by joint efforts from Government, the industry and the educational authorities. Representatives of the Alliance include MITA, the Ministry for Education, Employment and the Family, MCST, the University of Malta, MCAST and key industry players led by the Chair of the IT Business Section of the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry and the Malta Employers Association. For further information on the Alliance kindly visit www.mita.gov.mt/eskillsalliance and/or email eskillsalliance.mita@gov.mt.
In today’s ICT Feature we will be looking at the use of the Maltese language in computer. Whereas in the past, whenever we wanted to write something in Maltese, we had to install ‘special’ fonts, now the process is simply a few clicks away and we can still use our favourite
ICT is nowadays part of every sector of society and is used on a daily basis in various fields; including justice. According to recent studies carried out by the European Commission, approximately 10 million people are currently involved in cross-border civil proceedings. This figure is rising as a result of the increase in the free movement of citizens within the European Union (EU). The increase in demands for justice throughout Europe are adding to the workload of judicial systems and more than ever, it’s making it necessary to continuously adapt to new working methods, sometimes within constrained budgets. The application of ICT within judicial systems is helping the rationalisation and simplification of judicial procedures. This results in the reduction of procedural deadlines, operating costs and is also making justice more accessible – all this for the benefit of citizens, businesses, legal practitioners and the administration of justice. Two recent ICT-enabled projects in the judicial world are the European e-Justice portal and e-Codex. The European e-Justice portal which was launched by the European Commission in July 2010 provides European citizens practical information on judicial system and procedures. This portal, which is available in 22 languages, aims to increase visibility and become a one-stop shop for information on justice across Europe. In particular:
Forging IT talent for the future Last Saturday, the Council for European Professional Informatics (CEPIS) held its 46th council meeting in Malta. With the participation of over 40 representatives from more than 20 countries, the meeting tackled various strategically important areas of ICT skills. For this meeting, CEPIS invited the Chairman of the eSkills Alliance Malta, Mr John Ambrogio, to address the meeting and deliver the keynote intervention. The meeting saw representatives of various national informatics societies from different European countries discuss various matters such as European and national policy on ICT, ICT professionalism, the continuous development of IT managers, green IT and the need to increase participation of women in ICT. Through his address, Mr Ambrogio gave an overview of the work which the eSkills Alliance Malta has accomplished in its first six months of operation. He also talked about a series of action plans which the Alliance has already formulated, in particular, for the launch of a national e-Competence Framework and for a set of joint activities which the ICT industry would like to implement in the area of compulsory education. Ms Fabianne Ruggier, the Executive Secretary of the Alliance provided further detail on the action plan and said that once implemented, this would improve the level of engagement which the local ICT industry has with secondary school students, teachers and parents. The meeting was also addressed by Daniela Busuttil Dougal, a consultant working on the Alliance’s activities. Mrs Busuttil Dougal pre-announced the high-level design of the Maltese e-Competence Framework which will soon be launched with the private and public ICT and ICT-using sector. The Framework, which shall mainly
The Malta Independent ICT Feature
” Priscilla Bugeja is an IT Consultant at MITA
• Citizens can find information on the legal system of all 27 member states, related costs and how to find a legal practitioner in other member states. Citizens can also find guidelines on legal rules concerning family matters (e.g. divorce, parental responsibility and maintenance claims) and rules applicable to legal aid; • Businesses can find links to business, insolvency and land registers across the 27 member states. Furthermore, they can find information on legisla-
tive instruments that facilitate crossborder proceedings; • Legal practitioners, such as lawyers, notaries and judges can access legal databases, contact colleagues through judicial networks and find information on judicial training. Additionally, they can also find information on arranging cross-border video-conferences. The Maltese Courts of Justice and the Malta Information Technology Agency (MITA) contributed towards the creation of the European e-Justice portal. Information was gathered from various national stakeholders and this was then used to complete the Maltese factsheets., MITA also participated actively in the user acceptance testing period to ensure that the portal was, amongst others, user-friendly and accessible for people with special needs. Another initiative where ICT is an enabler is the e-CODEX (e-Justice Communication via Online Data Exchange) project which aims to improve the cross-border access of citizens and businesses to legal means in Europe as
well as to improve the interoperability between legal authorities within the EU. This project, which is also being supported by the European Commission, was launched in January 2011 by a consortium of eighteen partners from fifteen EU member states, associated states and stakeholder organisations. The e-CODEX project will build on existing national e-Justice systems and will provide a platform for cross-border access to national e-Justice solutions through the development and piloting of an interoperability layer and reusable components in identity, exchange of document/data and document standards. The Maltese Courts of Justice and MITA are also participating in this project which will run over a period of three years till the end of 2013. More information about the European e-Justice portal and the e-CODEX project can be found at http://e-justice.europa.eu and http://www.ecodex.eu respectively.