Footbag Worldwide Internationalizes!
Footbag Worldwide, home to the International Footbag Players’ Association, quietly underwent a major upgrade last week. The new Member Area is a significant event for the footbag community, not (just) because of the refreshed look, but rather because of the underlying technology that now displays the text as it appears on the page. Footbag Hall of Fame member and Footbag.org founder/administrator, Steve Goldberg, has created a system which allows the language interface for Footbag Worldwide to be localized–that is, translated into any language. Currently available in an impressive 16 languages (!!), both the membership area, as well as the Frequently Asked Questions section have made the transition, with other areas of the site to follow within an unspecified time-frame (over the next few months).
This functionality has been in the works for years. We believe strongly that promoting footbag globally (not just with a U.S.-centric mind-set) starts with offering it in many languages. And now, thanks in large part to our huge staff of all-volunteer translators, footbag.org is truly becoming the global resource we’ve always wanted it to be. I just hope we can continue the momentum and finish the bulk of the translations, then start building on top of this amazing asset for our community.
Steve Goldberg
If you happen to be a person who benefits from this transition to a more globalized presence for footbag and speak a language which is not yet represented, you are encouraged to contact Steve to become a member of the FOOLS (FOOtbag.org LocalizerS) group which administrates this area of our web site. Steve’s system is very unique, if not revolutionary, in that it enables people to translate the various sections of the site incrementally and with great ease. As usual, the footbag community is highly indebted to Steve for the countless hours devoted to essential (and non-essential) facilitation of Footbag Sports worldwide. Thanks Steve!! Thanks are, of course, also due to those FOOLS who have already contributed their time and language skills to the project.
Not to be understated, the graphic face-lift that accompanies this transition is also a pretty major event, though with less impact. The new design brings table-less, CSS driven accessibility goodness to the most important web site in our community and will allow for greater incremental updating and upgrading to the appearance of the site, along with other features that will allow Footbag Worldwide to be truly worldwide and available to people whatever platform they operate on.
