On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 3:20 PM, Osmar Valdebenito osmar@wikimediachile.cl wrote:
If increasing global reach and participation is part of our strategy, then it is important to communicate in the principal languages and engage with new people. Certainly, communities can help to translate. But the Foundation can leave that work only to the communities. What if nobody in the Chinese, Spanish or Arabic communities of speakers is able to do a decent work translating? Well, we leave billions of people outside and our expansion in developing countries will be affected. Also, it is important to have a coherent message across the world, without misspellings or uncomplete translations that can hurt it. Volunteers do a great job, but not the professional one we expect from the WMF. Every respected international organization publishes in different languages... when will the Wikimedia Foundation start doing it?
For what it's worth, translating Wikimedia stuff is _not easy_, especially for a professional translator who has (at least at the beginning) no experience whatsoever with the Wikimedia world. My take would be that a joint effort of volunteers and paid translators would be an idea to explore, as my experience with both all volunteer and all paid translation on things Wikimedia is pretty... well, let's say interesting (and just for the record, I hate doing translations and I am really bad at them, but proofreading something already translated is, at least for me, much easier).
On another note, the same way that Wikimedia Deutschland has started the Wikimedia Woche (a "Wikimedia international highlights" of sorts), I think chapters should help with this, by trying to find good resources (both paid and volunteers) to help translate the important things.
On yet another note, I don't think that _everyone_ is looking for _exactly_ the same information, and as a person involved in many different parts of the movement across the world, I think it might also be worth brainstorming about what exactly needs to be translated and how. The Wikimedia Woche in that regard is interesting in that it does not translate stuff from A to Z, but rather tries to give pointers to things that might interest the German community.
Don't get me wrong, I would love to see more stuff translated (from the foundation as well as from anyone else, chapters, community reports, the Signpost, the Kurier, etc.), but I don't think it's all a black and white thing, starting of course with the difficult answer to the question "which are the major languages?" ;) (yeah, I know, Spanish is top of the list :P).
Best,
Delphine