I have not seen a comprehensive overview of MediaWiki localisation discussed on the lists I am posting this message to, so I thought I might give it a try. All statistics are based on MediaWiki 1.12 alpha, SVN version r29106.
==Introduction==
*Localisation or L10n - the process of adapting the software to be as familiar as possible to a specific locale (in scope)
*Internationalisation or i18n - the process of ensuring that an application is capable of adapting to local requirements (out of scope)
MediaWiki has a user interface (UI) definition for 319 languages. Of those languages at least 17 language codes are duplicates and/or serve a purpose for usability[1]. Reporting on them, however, is not relevant. So MediaWiki in its current state supports 302 languages. To be able to generate statistics on localisation, a MessagesXx.php file should be present in languages/messages. There currently are 262 such files, of which 16 are redirects from the duplicates/usability group[2]. So MediaWiki has an active in-product localisation for 236 languages. 66 languages have an interface, but simply fall back to English.
The MediaWiki core product recognises several collections of localisable content (three of which are defined in messageTypes.inc):
* 'normal' messages that can be localised (1726)
* optional messages that can be localised, which usually only happens for languages not using a Latin script (161)
* ignored messages that should not be localised (100)
* namespace names and namespace aliases (17)
* skin names (7)
* magic words (120)
* special page names (76)
* other (directionality, date formats, separators, book store lists, link trail, and others)
Localisation of MediaWiki revolves around all of the above. Reporting is done on the normal messages only.
MediaWiki is more than just the core product. On http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Category:All_extensions some 750 extensions have some kind of documentation. This analysis will scope only to the code currently present in svn.wikimedia.org/svnroot/mediawiki/trunk. The source code repository contains give or take 230 extensions. Of those 230 extensions, about 140 contain messages that can be visible in the UI in some use case (debugging excluded). Out of those 140, about 10 extensions have an exotic implementation for localisation localisation support at all (just English text in the code). 10 extensions appear to be outdated. I have seen about 5 different 'standard' implementations of i18n in extensions. Since MediaWiki 1.11 there is wfLoadExtensionMessages. Not that many extensions use this yet for message handling. If you can help add more standard i18n support for extensions (an overview can be found at http://translatewiki.net/wiki/User:Siebrand/tobeadded) or help in standardising L10n for extensions, please do not hesitate.
==MediaWiki localisation in practice==
Localisation of MediaWiki is currently done in the following ways I am aware of:
* in local wikis: Sysops on local wikis shape and translate messages to fit their needs. This is being done in wikis that are part of Wikimedia, Wikia, Wikitravel, corporate wikis, etc. This type of localisation has the fewest benefits for the core product and extensions because it happens completely out of the scope of svn committers. I have heard Wikia supports languages that are not supported in the svn version. I would like to get some help in identifying and contacting these communities to try and get their localisations in the core product. Together with SPQRobin, I am trying to get what has been localised in local Wikipedias into the core product and recruit users that worked on the localisation to work on a more centralised way of localisation (see Betawiki)
* through bugzilla/svn: A user of MediaWiki submits patches for core messages and/or extensions. These users are mostly part of a wiki community that is part of Wikimedia. These are usually taken care of by committers raymond, rotemliss, and sometimes others). Some users maintain a language directly on SVN. At the moment, 10-15 languages are maintained this way: Danish, German, Persian, Hebrew, Indonesian, Kazach (3 scripts), Chinese (3 variants), and some more less frequently.
* through Betawiki: Betawiki was founded in mid 2005 by Niklas Laxström. In the years to follow, Betawiki has grown to be a MediaWiki localisation community with over 200 users that has contributed to the localisation of 120 languages each month in the past few months. Users that are only familiar with MediaWiki as a tool can localise almost every aspect of MediaWiki (except for the group 'other' mentioned earlier) in a wiki interface. The work of the translators is regularly committed to svn by nikerabbit, and myself. Betawiki also offers a .po export that enables users to use more advanced translation tools to make their translation. This option was added recently and no translations in this format have been sumitted yet. Betawiki also supports translation of 122 extensions, aiming to support everything that can be supported.
==MediaWiki localisation statistics==
MediaWiki localisation statistics have been around since June 2005 at http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Localisation_statistics[3]. Traditionally reports have focused on the complete set of core messages. Recently a small study was done after usage of messages, which resulted in a set of almost 500 'most often used messages in MediaWiki', based on usage of messages on the cluster of Wikimedia (http://translatewiki.net/wiki/Most_often_used_messages_in_MediaWiki).
Up to recently there were no statistics available on the localisation of extensions. Through groupStatistics.php in the extension Translate, these statistics can now be created. Aside from reporting on 'most often used MediaWiki messages', 'MediaWiki messages', and 'all extension messages supported by extension Translate' (short: extension messages). Additionally, a meta extension group of 34 extensions used in the projects of Wikimedia has been created (short: Wikimedia messages). A regularly updated table of these statistics can be found at http://translatewiki.net/wiki/Translating:Group_statistics.
Some (arbitrary) milestones have been set for the four above mentioned collections of messages. For the usability of MediaWiki in a particular language, the group 'core-mostused' is the most important. A language must qualify for MediaWiki to have minimal support for that language. Reaching the milestones for the first two groups is something the Wikimedia language committee considers to use as a requirement for new Wikimedia wikis:
* core-mostused (496 messages): 98%
* wikimedia extensions (354 messages): 90%
* core (1726 messages): 90%
* extensions (1785 messages): 65%
Currently the following numbers of languages have passed the above milestones:
* core-mostused: 47 (15,5% of supported languages)
* wikimedia extensions: 10 (3,3% of supported languages)
* core: 49 (16,2% of supported languages)
* extensions: 7 (2,3% of supported languages)
==Conclusion==
So... Are we doing well on localisation or do we suck? My personal opinion is that we do something in between. Observing that there are some 250 Wikipedias that all use the Wikimedia Commons media repository, and that only 47 languages have a minimal localisation, we could do better. With Single User Login around the corner (isn't it), we must do better. On the other hand, new language projects within Wikimedia all have excellent localisation of the core product. These languages include Asturian, Bikol Central, Lower Sorbian, Extremaduran, and Galician. But where is Hindi, for example, with currently only 7% of core messages translated?
With the Wikimedia Foundation aiming to put MediaWiki to good use in developing countries and products like NGO-in-a-box that include MediaWiki, the potential of MediaWiki as a tool in creating and preserving knowledge in the languages of the world is huge. We have to tap into that potential and *you* (yes, I am glad you read this far and are now reading my appeal) can help. If you know people that are proficient in a language and like contributing to localisation, please point them in the right direction. If you know of organisations that can help localising MediaWiki: please approach them and ask them to help.
We have all the tools now to successfully localise MediaWiki into any of the 7000 or so languages that have been classified in ISO 639-3. We only need one person per language to make it happen. Reaching the first two milestones (core-mostused and wikimedia extensions) takes about 16 hours of work. Using Betawiki or the .po, little to no technical knowledge is required.
This was the pitch. How about we aim to at least double the numbers by the end of 2008 to:
* core-mostused: 120
* wikimedia extensions: 50
* core: 90
* extensions: 20
I would like to wish everyone involved in any aspect of MediaWiki a wonderful 2008.
Cheers!
Siebrand Mazeland
[1] als,crh,iu,kk,kk-cn,kk-kz,kk-tr,ku,sr,sr-jc,sr-jl,zh,zh-cn,zh-sg,zh-hk,zh-min-nan,zh-yue
[2] crh,iu,kk,kk-cn,kk-kz,kk-tr,ku,sr,sr-jc,sr-jl,zh,zh-cn,zh-sg,zh-hk,zh-min-nan,zh-yue
[3] older locations are http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Localisation_statistics/stats and
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Localization_statistics
Below is the e-mail announcing the new Fundraising system, most likely
this will not change any more except for possibly the addition of new
"stories".
This system is made up of 3 pages
* Donate/lang-code
* Donate-options/lang-code
* Donate-thanks/lang-code
which are made by templates. I have made a break-down of what text
needs to be translated with the templates on it at:
<http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/User:Cbrown1023/Donate>. If
someone things that looks overly complicated, just tell me and I will
try to give a simplified version on the talk page.
A lot of the text has already been translated for the previous
fundraising system ([[wikimedia:Donate]]), but there are some new
parts like the "thanks" screen and and the "story box".
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask on the mailing
list and thanks for all the work you guys do as translators!
Happy holidays if you celebrate them,
Casey
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Erik Moeller <erik(a)wikimedia.org>
Date: Dec 25, 2007 5:53 AM
Subject: [Foundation-l] New fundraising site
To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List <foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
We're trying out a new fundraising site:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate/en
Big thanks to Frank Schulenburg from the German chapter, who designed
it, and to Tim Starling and Brion Vibber, who implemented it. Thanks
also to David Strauss and others who helped along the way. Special
thanks to PediaPress.com for creating a gift certificate PDF generator
on very short notice on a pro bono basis. :-)
Obviously this is too late to make a big difference, but parts of it
will hopefully be re-usable. There's still some work to be done --
translations, integrating chapter donation methods, etc. -- but I
think the core of it is sound. I'm copying Frank's rationale for the
design, and some more thoughts of my own below:
- - - - -
[Story box:]
People love to hear stories. We have great stories to tell. I'm
convinced that people are more likely to donate after reading one of our
stories around Wikipedia. But we are talking about a webpage and
therefore our stories have to be short and they need to have a clear plot.
Just have a look at the example of Patricio Lorente. The story has four
parts:
1) Introduction of Patricio as a normal kind of guy. There seems to be
nothing unusual to tell about him.
2) Something happened in the life of Patricio. Something that changes
his attitude towards life in general.
3) Patricio gets involved with Wikipedia. He begins to do something very
special and useful.
4) You don't want him to stop his very special and useful work just as a
result of a lack of money, don't you? Donate.
Each story we are telling should have the same or a similar plot, but if
it's necessary you can change the sequence:
1) Jaan-Cornelius, one of millions of pupils on earth.
3) He does something very special.
2) Something happens (terrorist blasts) and Jaan-Cornelius' work
suddenly proves to be very useful.
4) You should donate to give him the opportunity to continue his work
(properly meaning: donate to keep the servers running)
In the next days and weeks we should collect as many good stories as we
can. Perhaps another example could be the story of one of our volunteers
who helps to keep the servers running. Or one of our technical staff who
cares about the usability of Wikipedia. Or one of our volunteers of the
e-mail support team...
We should jump at the chance and try to involve the communities. We all
know: Wikipedians love to get involved. They strongly dislike not being
asked. Let's have a posting at the village pump, illustrate our new
fundraising concept and ask the community members to tell us "their"
Wikipedia stories.
[Donate box:]
The fastest route to donate: let visitors enter the amount and the
currency on the _first_ page. Enable them to "donate now". Nobody likes
to click through four or five webpages before he gets the sign to
"donate now". Let's keep things simple.
As tax deductibility is a key interest for most of our donors we provide
a short text which points out that the Wikimedia Foundation is a tax
exempt charitable corporation. This part of the webpage is planned to be
variable. The dutch version should have a notice like "If you want to
deduct your donation from your taxable income please donate to Wikimedia
Netherlands".
[Additional donation methods:]
What's the most common way to donate in the Netherlands? or in France?
At this part of the page we can provide information about how to deposit
money in our bank account, how to send a cheque, and so on...
That means: we really need information about the most common payment
options in each country. Perhaps Delphine as a chapter coordination can
help with that.
- - - - -
I might find some time over the holidays to work on some additional
stories for the site. But if you have any ideas yourself, feel free to
post them, to me or to the list. :-)
Technically, the entire design is served through a wiki, which
hopefully will make it reasonably straightforward to make changes as
needed.
Any feedback is appreciated. :-)
Happy holidays to all!
Erik
_______________________________________________
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foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Unsubscribe: http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
--
Casey Brown
Cbrown1023
---
Note: This e-mail address is used for mailing lists. Personal emails sent to
this address will probably get lost.
Dear all,
I write you because I've recently created a Wiki from the Euskal Poesia project on http://euskalpoesia.wikispaces.com/ . This is a project for translating a poem of the Basque writer Joseba Sarrionandia into as many languages as possible. Now there're a few there, but I think it would be interesting for depicting relations between languages (I mean, when in a wiki we make an article about another language).
If you could translate it, please do it!
Cheers
_________________________________________________________________
La vida de los famosos al desnudo en MSN Entretenimiento
http://entretenimiento.es.msn.com/
Hello Wikimedia translators,
With courtesy of gmane.org, translators-l is now being archived as:
gmane.science.linguistics.wikipedia.translators at http://gmane.org/
This mail will be the first post which they'll archive on their website.
I'd appreciate Wolfgang of gmane for his management of our request,
and S.J. Klein for arranging this archiving. Also I'd like to
appreciate Elisabeth aka Spacebirdy, kicking us to prompt this long
time lacking service :)
We expect this will be greatly improvement to access to our archive
for the people who cannot use our own archive at lists.wikimedia.org.
Enjoy!
--
KIZU Naoko
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/Britty (in Japanese)
Quote of the Day (English): http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/WQ:QOTD
Hello,
At Cbrown1023's request, I've created a new translation template to
fix the {{#ifexist}} problem with the current templates. For those who
don't know about it, all pages using the current translation templates
will break in the near future when the developers implement a limit of
100 {{#ifexist}} checks per page (the templates use 117). See the
announcement at <
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2007-November/035316.html
>.
I've worked with a few other translators to make it a complete
improvement over the current set of templates. You can try it yourself
on < http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Privacy_policy >; in particular,
try clicking on the "+/-" link at the top of the template to edit it,
or click on "(needed)" beside the example red link at the bottom of
the list to start a new translation.
If there are any improvements or features you think would be useful,
please reply on this mailing list. A summary of current improvements:
==Usability==
* There are no longer any "/source" and "/status" subpages for every
set of pages. (You can edit a simplified template directly, and the
original page is specified in the template.)
* When starting a new translation, it is no longer necessary to save
the page before starting. The text is editable from the first edit.
* The template recognizes over 3000 languages and allows others
(without the language name), instead of only 117.
* The translation list format has been greatly simplified and
compacted, so it is much easier to see the status of current
translations at a glance, and it is less intrusive.
* The different statuses have been simplified to "missing",
"progress", "proofreading", "updating", or "published" (the old system
used "wait", "created", "started", "translated", "copyedited",
"updated", "finished", or "published"). This makes it easier for
spontaneous translation without transcom needing to organize it.
* Clicking a link to edit a template or start a discussion
automatically brings up complete instructions.
==Technical==
* {{#ifexist}} problem fixed.
* The number of templates has been reduced to a dozen or so per page
to three, which makes it much easier to maintain.
* The code is simpler and more intuitive (to those who understand
complex template coding).
* All translation templates are automatically categorized and
documented, so it's no longer necessary to copy and paste comments or
categories.
==Others==
There are a lot of other changes I've lost track of over the last few
days; try it yourself and see. :)
--
Yours cordially,
Jesse Martin (Pathoschild)
Jimmy Wales wrote:
> Dear Wikipedia community,
>
> A major new declaration on free content and education is in the process
> of being released now, with the support of several major organizations
> and influential individuals...
>
> http://www.capetowndeclaration.org/
>
> What I am writing you to ask about is help with translations:
>
> http://www.capetowndeclaration.org/translations
>
>
> I am not sure where the best place on-wiki is to find people who would
> perhaps be willing to assist with translation of this document, but
> could someone post there for me? Or post it in the Village Pump of
> whatever languages you speak?
>
> --Jimbo
>
>
In case you're interested.
--
Cary Bass
Volunteer Coordinator
Your continued donations keep Wikipedia running! Support the Wikimedia Foundation today: http://donate.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
Phone: 727.231.0101
Fax: 727.258.0207
E-Mail: cbass(a)wikimedia.org
Well I'm not sure if Persian translation will be "practically" useful, but
I'll handle it shortly. I'll also try my best to poke my Arab friends to
handle the "ar" one.
Cheers,
Hojjat (aka Huji)
On 12/8/07, translators-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org <
translators-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
>
> Send Translators-l mailing list submissions to
> translators-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
> http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/translators-l
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
> translators-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>
> You can reach the person managing the list at
> translators-l-owner(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of Translators-l digest..."
>
>
> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Wikimedia Quality Portal translations needed (Casey Brown)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2007 16:37:15 -0500
> From: "Casey Brown" <cbrown1023.ml(a)gmail.com>
> Subject: [Translators-l] Wikimedia Quality Portal translations needed
> To: "Wikimedia Translators" <Translators-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>,
> wikiquality-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> Message-ID:
> <4053450b0712071337l37c5681w500c1af196035dfd(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>
> The Wikimedia Quality portal <http://quality.wikimedia.org/> is being
> mentioned more and more lately. That being said, we should probably
> work to get more translations made of it so that more users will be
> able to read and understand it.
>
> I have made a list of what translations should be done at
> <http://quality.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Cbrown1023/Translations>.
> However, translations in languages other than those on that page are
> more than welcome. Currently, the following languages are especially
> needed:
>
> * Japanese - ja - ???
> * Arabic - ar - ???????
> * Bengali - bn - ?????
> * Hindi - hi - ??????
> * Indonesian - id - Bahasa Indonesia
> * Dutch - nl - Nederlands
>
> If you have any questions about the meanings of the words used, feel
> free to e-mail me or the list. :-)
>
> Thanks in advanced for any translations you can do or help with!
>
> --
> Casey Brown
> Cbrown1023
>
> ---
> Note: This e-mail address is used for mailing lists. Personal emails
> sent to
> this address will probably get lost.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Translators-l mailing list
> Translators-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/translators-l
>
>
> End of Translators-l Digest, Vol 30, Issue 4
> ********************************************
>
The Wikimedia Quality portal <http://quality.wikimedia.org/> is being
mentioned more and more lately. That being said, we should probably
work to get more translations made of it so that more users will be
able to read and understand it.
I have made a list of what translations should be done at
<http://quality.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Cbrown1023/Translations>.
However, translations in languages other than those on that page are
more than welcome. Currently, the following languages are especially
needed:
* Japanese - ja - 日本語
* Arabic - ar - العربية
* Bengali - bn - বাংলা
* Hindi - hi - हिन्दी
* Indonesian - id - Bahasa Indonesia
* Dutch - nl - Nederlands
If you have any questions about the meanings of the words used, feel
free to e-mail me or the list. :-)
Thanks in advanced for any translations you can do or help with!
--
Casey Brown
Cbrown1023
---
Note: This e-mail address is used for mailing lists. Personal emails sent to
this address will probably get lost.
I think some of the people on this list could be especially helpful
(or at least interested) in this. :-)
Thanks. :-)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Erik Moeller <eloquence(a)gmail.com>
Date: Dec 4, 2007 5:28 AM
Subject: [Commons-l] Translations of Free Cultural Works Definition
To: Wikimedia Commons Discussion List <commons-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>,
Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List <foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
The Definition of Free Cultural Works is in the process of being
translated into 20 languages -- it is the basis of the Wikimedia
Foundation's licensing policy.
http://freedomdefined.org/Definitionhttp://freedomdefined.org/Translations
Translations in Czech, Greek, Finish, German, and Swedish need final
review from an independent reader; other languages are in progress.
Please help to translate this key document into as many languages as
possible. :-)
Thanks,
Erik
_______________________________________________
Commons-l mailing list
Commons-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/commons-l
--
Casey Brown
Cbrown1023
---
Note: This e-mail address is used for mailing lists. Personal emails sent to
this address will probably get lost.
Well, I added the Persian translations (although I'm not sure how useful
they will be in act). I'll complete them as soon as I can. If there are
things I'm missing there, I'd be grateful to be notified.
Hojjat (aka Huji)
On 11/30/07, translators-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org <
translators-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
>
> Send Translators-l mailing list submissions to
> translators-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
> http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/translators-l
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
> translators-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>
> You can reach the person managing the list at
> translators-l-owner(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of Translators-l digest..."
>
>
> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Re: Commons Picture of the Year competition - translation
> requests (Tom Ka Chun Chiu)
> 2. Re: Commons Picture of the Year competition - translation
> requests (Brianna Laugher)
> 3. Re: Commons Picture of the Year competition - translation
> requests (Tom Ka Chun Chiu)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:24:22 +0800
> From: "Tom Ka Chun Chiu" <tomchiukc(a)gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Translators-l] Commons Picture of the Year competition -
> translation requests
> To: "Wikimedia Translators" <translators-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Message-ID:
> <ac166d6c0711290824m52545da7lc023ea04e9f50fd6(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> You have got Chinese and Japanese swapped:
> * ?? (Chinese)
> * ??? (Japanese)
>
> Tom
>
> 2007/11/29, Brianna Laugher <brianna.laugher(a)gmail.com>:
> >
> > Hello,
> >
> > I'm writing to request help translating info for the Wikimedia Commons
> > Picture of the Year competition for 2007. We consider this
> > competition is for the whole Wikimedia community so providing
> > translations is important to us.
> >
> > Translation strings and info is all here:
> >
> >
> http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Picture_of_the_Year/2007/Translat…
> >
> > Round 1 starts on 10 January so we still have a few more weeks, but we
> > don't want to leave everything to the last minute.
> >
> > German, French and Spanish are almost complete or complete. We
> > especially want these languages:
> >
> > Polski
> > Italiano
> > ??? [Chinese]
> > ???????
> > ?? [Japanese]
> > Svenska
> > Portugu?s
> > Norsk (bokm?l)
> > Suomi
> >
> > Other languages besides these are ALSO WELCOME.
> >
> > For voting we are using custom software on the toolserver, you can
> > test it out here:
> >
> http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Picture_of_the_Year/2007/Voting
> >
> > If there are any questions please just ask me.
> >
> > thanks,
> > Brianna
> > user:pfctdayelise
> >
> >
> > --
> > They've just been waiting in a mountain for the right moment:
> > http://modernthings.org/
> > _______________________________________________
> > Translators-l mailing list
> > Translators-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> > http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/translators-l
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Best Regards
> Tom Chiu
> mailto:tomchiukc@gmail.com
> http://www.mimosapudica.org
>