Mattis Manzel wrote:
Ray Saintonge schrieb:
Mattis Manzel wrote:
I'd like to propose a new Wikipedia: "the multilingual wikipedia"
Some ideas about how to do that are on http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Multilingual_communication
I would be very interested in getting the multilingual features of oddmuse (the colored background, the language filters) ported to Mediawiki and then start working on two things:
A) Elaborate the engine to make it work for multilingual pages: language filters also in the edit mode, inclusion of automatic pretranslation in a new translate-mode, etc. B) Start making the "multilingual wikipedia". Kinda getting people into the fun of translation.
Hopefully this wouldn't require a fork of Mediawiki. Unfortunately I have a vage feeling that it does. In that case I propose as a name for the multilingual Mediawiki engine: MMediawiki ;)
But who knows? Maybe things are easier than I think?
Or more difficult. I think the idea is full of naïve optimism about translation in general, and machine translation in particular. Begin with an English text and translate it into another language. Have someone else, who cannot see the original, translate it back into English. Compare the two English versions. The difference can be amazing.
On another level, articles on the same subject are often separately developed in each language. This can often result in having stable NPOVs in each language that are different, frequently in the wake of careful negotiation over the exact meaning of a word. Reconciling these could be extremely difficult. I can easily imagine that attitudes toward US foreign policy might not be as conflicted when written in many languages other than English. Ec
So, is it multiple worlds or do we live in one world? Do the elections in the US concen us here in Europe or do they not? Does it makes sense to effecivate wiki by making it a global thing instead of the thing of a signle langage pool like English or German or not? When we can (try) so?
So does NPOV existt at all or is it but a crusaders dream? Multiple point of view. MPOV, Coexistance and collaboration. ;) In short: terms wiki.
The NPOV principle remains. Our Muslim Wikipedians would never support a crusader's dream. ;-) . There may be an ideal of one overall NPOV but there are a lot of social and cultural bridges to cross before we get there. When we have terms like "German language" and "Germanic language" it is relatively easy to identify, define and fix the problem. It is quite a different thing when values are involved. In the past we have had ongoing debates about what to name the rivers on the boundary between Germany and Poland. Those who participate on the German and Polish Wikipedias can rapidly reach their own respective though different NPOV consensus. When a third language must be thrown into the mix the result there is not so clear.
Of course US elections are of concern to Europe. But Americans might well respond, "It's our elections, so mind your own business?" Those Americans, however, who would argue in favour of the divine right of their President George III may find themselves at a disadvantage when they must do so in a peasant language. There is much to be reconciled there, but doing so will require much more than a software solution.
Ec