Hi,
The use of jargon, acronyms and other abbreviations throughout the Wikimedia movement is a major source of communication issues, and barriers to comprehension and involvement.
The recent thread on this list about "What is Product?" is an example of this, as are initialisms that have long been known to be a barrier for Wikipedia newcomers.
A way to bridge people and communities with different vocabularies is to write and maintain a glossary that explains jargon in plain English terms. We've been lacking a good and up-to-date glossary for Wikimedia "stuff" (Foundation, chapter, movement, technology, etc.).
Therefore, I've started to clean up and expand the outdated Glossary on meta, but it's a lot of work, and I don't have all the answers myself either. I'll continue to work on it, but I'd love to get some help on this and to make it a collaborative effort.
If you have a few minutes to spare, please consider helping your (current and future) fellow Wikimedians by writing a few definitions if there are terms that you can explain in plain English. Additions of new terms are much welcome as well:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Glossary
Some caveats: * As part of my work, I'm mostly interested in a glossary from a technical perspective, so the list currently has a technical bias. I'm hoping that by sending this message to a wider audience, people from the whole movement will contribute to the glossary and balance it out. * Also, I've started to clean up the glossary, but it still contains dated terms and definitions from a few years ago (like the FundCom), so boldly edit/remove obsolete content.
Thank you,
On Wed, Nov 21, 2012 at 4:55 AM, Guillaume Paumier gpaumier@wikimedia.org wrote:
- Also, I've started to clean up the glossary, but it still contains
dated terms and definitions from a few years ago (like the FundCom), so boldly edit/remove obsolete content.
I don't believe these ever become onsolete, The wording still exists and will be helpful to whomever vists older historical pages and wants to look up the terms.
If something must be done with them, Mark them as obsolete but defiantly don't remove them.
On Tue, Nov 20, 2012 at 8:23 PM, K. Peachey p858snake@gmail.com wrote:
On Wed, Nov 21, 2012 at 4:55 AM, Guillaume Paumier gpaumier@wikimedia.org wrote:
- Also, I've started to clean up the glossary, but it still contains
dated terms and definitions from a few years ago (like the FundCom), so boldly edit/remove obsolete content.
I don't believe these ever become onsolete, The wording still exists and will be helpful to whomever vists older historical pages and wants to look up the terms.
If something must be done with them, Mark them as obsolete but defiantly don't remove them.
Yes, when I said "remove obsolete content", I meant "remove obsolete definitions", not "remove historical terms".
For instance, "Officers" links to https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Official_positions , which aren't used any more. So, "Officers" should still be there, and it should still link to that page, but it should be clear that such positions aren't held any more.
Sorry if I wasn't clear before.
I support this effort to create a common glossary/vocabulary.
And I add, since I tried to translate some of these words/expressions into French some time ago, and since it’s quite hard to obtain great and intuitive translations for many of these expressions, it would be great if new expressions could be thought with an internationalisation spirit as far as possible.
As an example, in the Wikimedia Highlights of September, it’s hard to translate "Curation Toolbar" since "curation" don’t have a direct equivalent in French for this exact meaning (of "tacking care" of articles, "curation" is usually translated by "conservation" but quite different of this meaning). This is just an example but it illustrates a common difficulty for translators, probably for many languages.
Thanks, Seb35
Le Tue, 20 Nov 2012 19:55:04 +0100, Guillaume Paumier gpaumier@wikimedia.org a écrit:
Hi,
The use of jargon, acronyms and other abbreviations throughout the Wikimedia movement is a major source of communication issues, and barriers to comprehension and involvement.
The recent thread on this list about "What is Product?" is an example of this, as are initialisms that have long been known to be a barrier for Wikipedia newcomers.
A way to bridge people and communities with different vocabularies is to write and maintain a glossary that explains jargon in plain English terms. We've been lacking a good and up-to-date glossary for Wikimedia "stuff" (Foundation, chapter, movement, technology, etc.).
Therefore, I've started to clean up and expand the outdated Glossary on meta, but it's a lot of work, and I don't have all the answers myself either. I'll continue to work on it, but I'd love to get some help on this and to make it a collaborative effort.
If you have a few minutes to spare, please consider helping your (current and future) fellow Wikimedians by writing a few definitions if there are terms that you can explain in plain English. Additions of new terms are much welcome as well:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Glossary
Some caveats:
- As part of my work, I'm mostly interested in a glossary from a
technical perspective, so the list currently has a technical bias. I'm hoping that by sending this message to a wider audience, people from the whole movement will contribute to the glossary and balance it out.
- Also, I've started to clean up the glossary, but it still contains
dated terms and definitions from a few years ago (like the FundCom), so boldly edit/remove obsolete content.
Thank you,
wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org