Dear Leila,

thank you for elaborating how this mailing came about.

I would like to address the ethical aspect of your project.

In saying

> "For the purposes of this research, we are
> taking the following approach: we take a
> more global approach to identify missing
> content, rank them by their importance,
> and recommend them to editors. The
> editor should make the final call
> whether the recommendation they
> receive should go to the destination
> language."

you certainly leave it to the editor whether or not to take action and actually translate an article you have suggested.

However, I think a threshold is crossed here with the Wikimedia Foundation interfering into the editors' business. It has generally been accepted that the Foundation will not care about content creation, except for handling DMCA takedown requests as office actions.

It still has to be addressed whether the Foundation may solicit the creation of content, and if so, in which manner? I gather from the discussion on German Wikipedia that most experienced editors think no. This is a volunteering project, and everyone taking part in it decides for himself what he would like to do. We have never had suggestions like this. Indeed, I think this is a delicate matter concerning the relation between the Community and the Foundation that should be dealt with in the first place. Which roles do we play? Or, which roles do you change, or rather play with? when sending out such a suggestion?

And, of course, an opt-in for such experiments would be fine. I think a lot of people would even be inclined to subscribe to such a list because after all we are interested in what you are doing, aren't we? ;)

Best regards,
Jürgen.