<div dir="ltr">Definately, as possibility worth exploring as that was the main thrust of my concerns, lack of languag/culture knowledge. I know we have the wiki expertise. <br><br>Now if Angela is available WMAU should assist her in getting there, or sending someone else as a WMAU representative even if we dont pursue this one it'd be good PR for WMAU anyway<br>
<br>Gn..<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">2008/8/3 Liam Wyatt <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:liamwyatt@gmail.com">liamwyatt@gmail.com</a>></span><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div style="">
<div>Speaking of which, there was this article in today's, August 3, Sunday Herald in Sydney (and presumably syndicated in other Fairfax papers):</div><div>"Ancient Path to Universal Knowledge" by Sarah Price</div>
<div><a href="http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/ancient-path-to-universal-language/2008/08/02/1217097610608.html" target="_blank">http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/ancient-path-to-universal-language/2008/08/02/1217097610608.html</a></div>
<div><br></div><div>I describes a programme by the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation <a href="http://www.alnf.org" target="_blank">http://www.alnf.org</a>/ to write down what had only been oral language amongst aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory as a way of both (A) cultural preservation and (B) gaining literacy skills.</div>
<div><br></div><div>This might be exactly the kind of other organisation that Angela referred to. Those amongst us with the time and effort to set aside might be able to travel to the NT with the ALNF and participating in some way. Another option would be to simply receive a hard copy when the programme ends and transcribe their results into Wikisource (without necessarily participating in the programme itself). </div>
<div>The article does not mention the internet or any technical aspect but I don't believe this is any barrier. </div><div><br></div><div>As I said In a previous post, I don't personally believe that even with institutional support (such as ALNF might be able to provide) that this justifies the creation of a wikiPedia edition for that particular language due to the small population size and lack of literacy in the first place (let alone internet access and learning how to use wikis). Rather, this could justify the creation of a wikiSource/wikiQuote for that language as the transcription of oral history matches these projects nicely (and we can do all the technical work for them). </div>
<div><br></div><div>Does anyone thinks this is a possible "first project" for wikimedia-AU ? </div><div><br></div><div>The final paragraph of the article gives us the contact:</div><div><div><br></div><div>"The foundation is hosting a celebrity chef fund-raising dinner at the Shangri-La Hotel in Sydney on September 20.</div>
<div>You can email <a href="mailto:alnf@bigpond.net.au" target="_blank">alnf@bigpond.net.au</a> for tickets to the dinner."</div></div><div><br></div><div>Best, </div><div>-Liam</div><div><span style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><div>
<div style=""><div><div style=""><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.wikipediaweekly.org" target="_blank">www.wikipediaweekly.org</a></div><div>Skype - Wittylama</div><div>Wikipedia - [[User:Witty lama]]</div></div></div>
</div></div><div><br></div></span><br> </div><div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c"><br><div><div>On 31/07/2008, at 8:39 PM, Angela wrote:</div><br><div style="margin: 0px;">On Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 11:16 AM, Gnangarra <<a href="mailto:gnangarra@gmail.com" target="_blank">gnangarra@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</div>
<blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin: 0px;">The first question is do we have anyone with the language skills, the wiki</div><div style="margin: 0px;">skills and the time to dedicate to getting an aboriginal language(any one of</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">them) Wikipedia up and successful.</div><div style="margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br></div><div style="margin: 0px;">Literally we can could do more harm to the language, culture and WMAU</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">through ignorance and misspent good intentions.</div> </blockquote><div style="margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br></div><div style="margin: 0px;">We have people with the wiki skills and for the language skills, we</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">might do better to parter with another organization that does have</div><div style="margin: 0px;">those skills. Preferably one with experience so that we can avoid the</div><div style="margin: 0px;">
potential harm you mentioned. I expect there are grants available for</div><div style="margin: 0px;">this sort of work which is definitely something the chapter should</div><div style="margin: 0px;">look into.</div><div style="margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;">
<br></div><div style="margin: 0px;">Angela</div><div style="margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br></div><div style="margin: 0px;">_______________________________________________</div><div style="margin: 0px;">Wikimediaau-l mailing list</div>
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