Welcome to issue 2 of The Babylonian, the WMF translation subcommittee update for March, 2007. Thanks to all who cooperated on the latest translation, including the fundraising campaign, several press releases and Wikimania stuffs.

=== What's up === # Coming events # Requests ongoing # News # Thank yous

=== Coming events === Wikimania 2007 is coming soon, and you will get a bunch of information about it - call for participation, registration and scholarship. Already, some materials have been requested for translation. Your help will be very much appreciated.

Transcom is planning to have a regular open meeting each month. The next open meeting is planned to be on the IRC channel, irc://irc.freenode.com/wikimedia-translation on March 9 (Friday), at 0800 UTC. It is in the morning for Europeans, and the evening for East Asians and Australians.

=== Ongoing requests === ==== Wikimania - Call for participation ====

Original: http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/wiki/Call_for_Participation Requested: From English to any other. More info: [[Wmania:Wikimania:Translation#Call for Participation]] Description: Call for participation in Wikimania 2007 Contact: Hsiang-Tai Chien [[Wmania:Htchien]] http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Htchien

==== Visa information ====

Original: http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/wiki/Visas Requested: From English to any other. More info: [[Wmania:Wikimania:Translation#Visa information]] Description: Visa information to visit Taiwan, related to Wikimania 2007 Contact: Hsiang-Tai Chien [[Wmania:Htchien]] http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Htchien

From [[Wmania:Wikimania:Translation]], you may find other requests; the website is now growing and becoming more informative day by day, creating new translation requests. http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania:Translation

==== Press release: Advisory Board ==== Original: http://wikimaniafoundationwebsite/Press_releases/Advisory_Board Now available in: English, 日本語 Requested in: Français, Español, 中文, Русский, Português... Workplace: [[m:Wikimedia press releases/Advisory Board]] URL: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_press_releases/Advisory_Board Description: Press release about Advisory Board, chosen in January 2007. Further description may be found at http://wikimaniafoundationwebsite/Advisory_Board

You can find other requests, new and old, on http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/TR

=== Translation news === In January, Wikimedia Foundation announced the employment of Sandra Ordonez as Communications Manager. She works at the office in St. Petersburg, Florida, USA. You may communicate with her in English or Spanish. On IRC and meta, she is known as Wiki_Blue. Sandy and Transcom had a meeting on February 26 for two hours on IRC, and all were happy to have a prolific discussion in a cheerful mood.

The Wikimania website needs your help. Please visit [[Wmania:Wikimania:Translation]]. All languages are welcome - currently, French and German translators are strongly needed. http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania:Translation

On meta there are several pages about translation. Even for requests, someone goes to [[m:TR]], another goes to [[m:Translations]]. And some people just get lost. To avoid duplications and make things simpler, we are trying to centralize the requests page, aiming to have the new page ready by the 1st of April. Experiments are going on [[m:User:Aphaia/Sandbox]], and all your comments will be welcome. You can edit it, the same as other pages - that's a wiki, anyway. <grin>

=== Thank yous === The fundraising campaign has successfully ended, and we raised the most money the Foundation has ever made. It was also a big rush of translation requests, new fundraising forms, begging letters, and other tiny elements. I would like to thank all of you, the translators for your help, not only as a coordinator but also as a user of the Wikimedia projects.

As Florence Devouard (Anthere) said in the recent Foundation press statement*, Wikipedia as well as all the other Wikimedia projects has become stronger and more stable, and therefore still needs your help. I daresay "much more than before" rather than "as always", because we are now doing what has never been done before - to have the whole world world able to access this knowledge is an ever-growing challenge.

The press statement mentioned above is now available in ten languages on the official website, thanks to many translators. * URL: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_statements/Wikipedia%2C_Stronger_a...

------------------------------------------ Editor(s): Aphaia Copyeditor(s): Shimgray Special thanks to: Hsiang-Tai Chein

E-mail: translation AT wikimedia DOT org ------------------------------------------

* This is a newsletter of the Translation subcommittee, aiming to help translation efforts related to the Wikimedia Foundation. Its content is released into the public domain. * Editors of this newsletter are subcommittee members, contributing as individual volunteers. This newsletter is not a formal publication of the Wikimedia Foundation. Submissions or notes about related initiatives are welcome on the talk page: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Communications_subcommittees/Trans