“Tamil computing must be naturalised for average user”

Anyone who is able to read or write Tamil should be able to use the language easily on the computer too.

“When people see their language on the computer screen, they get excited and want to make more use of it,” points out Michael Kaplan, Programme Manager of the World Readiness Team of Microsoft Corp. Hence, “For any user it is necessary to get rid of the computer baggage that makes it harder for them to use their language on the computer naturally.”

Now, English enables the computer users to get more knowledge and opportunities. Those, who speak, read and write Tamil and have learnt English by necessity would be the early adaptors of Tamil computing.

They should be able to lead the growth in Tamil computing. The potential for those getting into Tamil computing is 60 million.

The average users of computer in any language are those who just use it as long as it works.

So, it is important to enable people to use Tamil on the computer the way they think rather than visually how it appears. Tamil computing should be naturalised for the average user, he says.

Mr. Kaplan, whose special interests are in Tamil, Unicode and input methods, is here to participate in the Tamil Internet Conference 2010, a concurrent event of the World Classical Tamil Conference.

He says that Microsoft incorporated Tamil Unicode in the Windows 2000 version and since then, made several changes to improve the use of it.

For Microsoft, research is on to see what people are interested in. “I want people to try more what we have and give their inputs.”