On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 11:54, Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com wrote:
I don't think it's particularly controversial. The logistical problems involved with trying to promote a project in a language you don't speak are enough to make it an unwise venture.
As WMUK, we can enable people to do so, and we can be aware of multi-lingual outreach. There's no reason WMUK should equal English, and no reason it should equal English, Welsh, Scots/Gaelic. Our mission is promoting free knowledge and the mission of the Wikimedia movement in whatever way is practical in the UK.
Say we had access to a library in Britain that had substantial material on Latin American history primarily in the languages of those nations (Spanish and Portugese). Say we then had the opportunity to go and help them learn how to edit Wikipedia and add texts to Wikisource and images to Commons: it may end up that they are going to primarily edit ptwiki or eswiki or ptwikisource, but that's fine. If it seems like a good opportunity to further the mission of the Wikimedia movement and it is practical to do it with our funding and whatever.
Anyway, that's my opinion.