Hello everybody,
Last Saturday, during our meeting in Hong Kong, we agreed to hold our first joint project:
the Wikipedia Cultural Exchange program, where we would translate each other's
articles into our own languages. While I was on the plane, I started drafting the
guidelines under which the project will work. Take a look:
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1. Each country shall come up with a list of twenty articles that shall be translated into
the languages of all other participant countries, whether as new articles or expansions of
existing ones. This list shall be representative of that country's tangible
(landmarks, monuments, landforms, etc.) and intangible (culture, customs, traditions,
etc.) heritage.
Countries which have Wikipedias in more than one language (currently Greater China, India,
Indonesia, Israel, Nepal and the Philippines, unless there are some that I left out) may
choose to create separate lists of five articles per Wikipedia, which shall be
representative of that area's tangible and intangible heritage. Those regional lists
will be compiled to form a national list from the participating country.
2. All articles shall first be translated into English, and editors from all participant
countries are invited to translate their respective articles into English. Editors need
not be fluent English speakers in order to translate articles from their national lists.
English Wikipedia editors who are fluent in English shall copy-edit and proofread
participating articles before they are translated into other languages.
3. Participating articles shall be tagged with a talk page box indicating that this
article is part of a national list created for the Wikimedia Asia Wikipedia Cultural
Exchange program.
4. Articles participating in the Exchange should at least be of a sufficient quality to
meet the English Wikipedia's "Did you know?" guidelines in order to ensure
maximum visibility of participating articles.
5. A central coordination page shall be set up on the English Wikipedia, where lists will
be maintained and article status updated on a regular basis. Local language progress shall
be monitored using coordination pages set up on those Wikipedias.
6. Participation is optional, and countries may choose not to participate. However, once a
country chooses to participate, that country is expected to participate until the end of
the program.
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I hope these guidelines seem reasonable, and from here we can start coordinating which
countries will participate, what articles will each country submit, and actually get this
project off the ground. Comments are always welcome, and let's make this work. Also,
I hope to see all of you again soon at the next Wikimania, or at any other meeting should
we have one. :)
Regards from Manila,
Josh
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
jamesjoshualim(a)yahoo.com | +63 (917) 841-5235
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