Well, nobody's being hired yet, I was just curious ;) I suspect that translation fees vary a lot depending on source language (English is quite popular, so it isn't likely to cost extra) and country (we could get Wikipedia in 5 african languages in cost of 1 european).
But what order of magnitude of work and money is that ?
I'm not saying that translated English Wikipedia should replace other 'pedias, but these translations could be used
as sources for them.
Paid translation is not an option -- in fact if it wasnt for readily and cheaply available machine tranlation, regardless of how fluent one is in a second language -- it would bee just too much work. So, generally were looking at a (Wiki-wide) project that is perhaps 92% machine translated - at least. After that, it can be left to the normal corrections of fluent Wikipedians...
As far as languages sucking off of the English content -- is this going to be one way or two -way? How can edit conflicts accross languages be resolved?
WP wasnt set up as a cross langa platform -- in fact quite the opposite. It was set up as a series of islands, and each island has a single rowboat. Some of us think it might be nice to have a real, coordinated and more efficient ferry system. There would have to be some centralization -- where the main articles are concerned and in this imagined island chain, the big island is not necessarily the one that should have all the centralized functions. Ie... the English wiki Should not automatically have the last word, -- by the defaults of a one-way process.
-S-
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