New subject: [Foundation-l] University project on Wikipedia

16 Oct 2011

[Cross-posting this to Translators-l, WikiEN-l and Foundation-l, because
there is a considerable amount of overlap, as you'll see. Volunteers from
several Wikipedias may be needed, and the Foundation could eventually be
involved if the project becomes an annual one. I apologize in advance to
those subscribed all three lists.]

Hello everyone,

(Note: For those who don't know me, I am [[User:Arria Belli]]. Former admin
and arbitrator over at fr:wp, and member of the LangCom. I met some of you
at Wikimania 2008 Alexandria, where I did a presentation called "Translation
in Wikimedia Projects" ex-aequo with [[User:Britty]].)

I've just started a master's degree at the ESIT (Ecole supérieure
d'interprètes et de traducteurs) in Paris, in English/French/Spanish
translation. It's quite a good school; a large percentage of the
interpreters and translators working in international organizations are
graduates of the ESIT.

My French-to-English translation professor has asked me to set up a project
for all the students in her class, translating Wikipedia articles. We're a
small group: there are only about 5 or 6 of us. What we'd be doing is taking
articles from fr: and translating them to en:. Students are free to choose
the articles they'll translate.

Since I'm mostly active over at fr:wp, I will need some help from people on
en:. Most notably, I think it would be wise to set up a small group of en:wp
volunteers who could guide the students on a one-on-one basis in case they
have trouble understanding wiki markup, references, etc. I would be
coordinating the project, but I don't think I could field all the students'
questions at once! Any volunteers?

I want to make this as positive an experience as possible for everyone
involved: the students, the professor and the institution. If the project is
successful enough, it might happen again next year or even next semester,
and become a regular thing.

As a very important aside: My professor told me that professors in other
language combinations might also be interested in Wikipedia projects of
their own. Therefore, there could be an English-to-Russian project, or a
French-to-Spanish one, or French-to-Korean, etc. I'll let you know as soon
as I'm told whether this could happen. Even if no other language
combinations are interested, they might be next year if this one is a
success.

Thank you, and happy editing.

Maria Fanucchi
[[User:Arria Belli]]