Hi,
Some updates on the Google translation project in Tamil Wikipedia.
( Refer http://bit.ly/adRtak for some background info )
The project started around August 2009 and went on continuously till August 2010 and added 1000+ articles.
During May 2010 - August 2010, we reduced adding new articles and asked the translators to rework on their existing articles.
We did a quality review of these articles and found that only around 50% of them has an acceptable minimum quality regarding translation ( We just rated the style of the language and accuracy in translation. We did not do a full review on the merit of the article).
Following this, the Tamil Wiki community arrived at the following consensus with Google:
* The translators should be rated and only the select few should be allowed to continue ( done now )
* Only the list of topics given by the community should be translated. Earlier Google gave a list based on most searched queries from which we chose. ( To begin with we have now given a list of 25 featured articles from English Wikipedia )
* New articles will be added in user namespace and will only be moved to article namespace when it reaches acceptable quality.
* Earlier articles should be reworked again simultaneously to improve their quality.
Google and Tamil Wikipedia collaborated intensively in order to arrive at a process that can be followed in other Wikipedias too. We feel that we have reached a stage where we have good pointers like above that other Wiki communities can follow.
Since the project may be unmanageable if it grows too much, we will urge all Indic language communities having Google translated articles to start talking to Google without further delay.
* The Wiki communities should start a dialogue / process / agreement to rework existing articles.
* New articles should only be added in a rate which is suitable for the size and activity of the community. Once all the issues are solved, then the scale of the operation may be increased gradually.
We still some have issues in this project and there is no final consensus yet regarding the future of the project. But, we hope that this update helps.
Ravi