This is response I tried to send to the foundation-l and than foundation-l-owner without any success. Someone on foundation-l suggested this discussion take place on textbook-l anyways. I have no idea if Pharos is subscribed or reads the archives though.

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Pharos wrote:

A multilingual Wikibooks would be valuable to the extent that it would focus on smaller languages which don't have their own language project yet.

This makes perhaps more sense with Wikibooks than other projects because each "book" is relatively autonomous and of significant educational value in its own right, and even if someone were to donate a textbook in a rather obscure language I don't think that we should turn such a gift away.

Thanks, Pharos

Exactly, we shouldn't turn people and textbooks away. I think this project can help with that.

People willing to translate textbooks have been turned away at times too. I think this project can help with that as well.

Some instruction manuals and how-to guides include multiple translations as a single work. We shouldn't turn away people willing to provide free alternatives here either. These books are autonomous too.

I know some people are concerned that Multilingual Wikibooks' focus overlaps too much with existing projects. I think this can be managed by turning away:

* Source text previously published by an author. Thats Wikisource. * Translations of source text. Thats Old Wikisource * Original writing that is within the scope of an existing Wikibooks project and it is not intended to become an autonomous work in two or more languages. This applies to finished translations as well. * Research not previously published. Thats Wikiversity.

Thanks, darklama