wikipedia offline https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiwix
On Tue, Feb 27, 2018 at 9:50 AM, mathieu stumpf guntz < psychoslave@culture-libre.org> wrote:
Le 27/02/2018 à 12:42, Vi to a écrit :
I see Amir's points, which are pretty reasonable, but I fear this would suit languages with a significant presence on the web.
Among them I agree with points 1, 3 and 4 while I'm not sure about #2 "creating basic encyclopedic terminology and style in that language", if we want to preserve a language we shouldn't create a thing.
I think that here the term "preserving" is misinterpreted. It's not about stuff it to put it in a nothing-should-move-anymore museum. It's about preserving actual use of diverse language as diachronic phenomena, ie as evolving objects.
On this regard, even largest language communities are seeing their use changing at an increasing pace, as recognize institutions like Académie française (not quite your average neologismophilic neo-punk band).
I think it's also good to recall that there are places where there is not yet a a high bandwith reliable internet (or internet at all), but that computer are accessibles. For example Libraries Without Borders[2] are providing computer boxes, which do include some Wikimedia material if I'm not mistaken. Although I'm not enough informed on their actions, but it would interesting to be in contact with them if it's not already the case. Making encyclopedia shared through travelling USB key would be surely possible for example, but that just a sketched idea.
On the other hand, should we recall that we are losing language diversity at an increasing pace?[3] And of course when a language die, it's whole culture which go with it like a bush medicine engraved in aboriginal vocabulary.[4] So really it's not about bringing knowledge to communities with less geopolitcally influence, it's about giving mankind a chance to loose as few as possible of valuable knowledge by diffusing it omnidirectly.
[1] Parce qu’il doit être tout à la fois le greffier de l’usage, le témoin de l’histoire et celui du changement le Dictionnaire de l’Académie aura donc presque doublé de volume. En consacrant ainsi un très grand nombre de mots nouveaux, l’Académie répond aux exigences du temps mais elle se montre fidèle aussi à sa tradition. http://www.academie-francaise. fr/la-langue-francaise-langue-de-la-modernite-seance-publique-annuelle [2] https://www.librarieswithoutborders.org/ [3] http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/unesco-half-worlds-languages-will- disappear-by-2100-1498154 [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_medicine
By the way I was wondering my concerns about cultural colonization may be
addressed -for wikis which has some contents (let's say at least 1000 articles)- by starting expanding existing articles instead of translating new ones. This would solve the problem of choosing what to translate though would leave problems about the perspective contents are created.
Vito
2018-02-27 12:31 GMT+01:00 Amir E. Aharoni amir.aharoni@mail.huji.ac.il :
2018-02-27 13:00 GMT+02:00 mathieu stumpf guntz <
psychoslave@culture-libre.org>:
Le 24/02/2018 à 18:08, Vi to a écrit :
*finally I think paid translators would hardly turn into stable
Wikipedians.
I think this misses an important point that is, we don't need the
initial
translator to turn into a sustaining editor, we need the article to
evolve
with call to action incentives. And articles which don't exist at all – even as a stub – or don't meet an audience of potential contributors will never catch such an evolving cycle.
This is one of the issues with what I alluded to in my earlier email in this thread: the privilege that the "big" languages have. It's the privilege of already having other encyclopedias, textbooks, public education, etc., in this language. A lot of languages don't have these things. When you speak a language that has had these things before Wikipedia came along, it's hard to perceive the world like a person who speaks a language that doesn't perceives it.
If you define the purpose of paying somebody to translate as "turning the paid translator" into a sustaining editor, then this is indeed likely to fail.
But if you define the purpose differently, it may succeed. For example, you may define the purpose as one or more of the following:
- Demonstrating that it's possible to write an encyclopedia in that
language
- Creating basic encyclopedic terminology and style in that language
- Creating a bunch of basic articles that would appear in interlanguage
links in Wikipedias from bigger languages (English, French, etc.)
- Creating a bunch of basic articles that would appear in search results
from internet search engines
The existence of these things may bring in people who will become volunteer sustaining editors.
-- Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי http://aharoni.wordpress.com “We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
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