'ambitious' or not?
I think it depends on the resource we have and when we want to achieve
that. The initial email by Josh has indicated only what we want to
achieve.
* In Thailand, we have a number of volunteers capable of translation
from EN->TH but relatively smaller number on TH->EN.
* In English speaking countries, it is much easier. Perhaps, they
could help other non-English speaking countries on translation into
English?
We agreed in Hong Kong that English Wikipedia editors who are certainly more fluent in English than the rest of us will help clean up our translations and copy-edit participating articles. If, let's say, someone from Thailand were to translate a participating article from Thai to English, he/she shouldn't have to worry about how poor his/her English is, as there is a guarantee someone else will clean it up for him/her.
The number of articles shouldn't be an issue here: we don't have to go through all 20 of them (or more, should countries make longer lists) in three months. The point is that we have a reasonable timeframe upon which we complete the lists, and add onto them if need be should we decide to expand upon this project in the future.
In principle, this project should be warmly welcome by readers in many
countries. In Thailand, the AEC - "Asian Economic Community" is
discussed everywhere. Also, there was a big announcement about
"Australia in the Asian Century" - http://asiancentury.dpmc.gov.au I
can see high demand from the reader side. However, many of our
contributors still do not take it into account.
Exactly why we are doing this now (and why we should do this now): we talk about the integration of the continent on so many levels, and we both know that the creation of the ASEAN economic community come 2015 is a big thing in Southeast Asia. However, I agree with you that many contributors in Asia are still looking at Wikipedia from a national point of view, and the integrationist rhetoric that we hear here in Asia has largely bypassed the Wikimedia projects. While not bad, it neglects the fact that there is a community outside of the country in question, and perhaps this project will help connect the continent together in some form.
JAMES JOSHUA G. LIM
Block I1, AB Political Science
Major in Global Politics, Minor in Chinese Studies
Class of 2013, Ateneo de Manila University
Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines
Secretary (2013-2014), Wikimedia Philippines
Member, Ateneo Debate Society
Member, The Assembly