[Foundation-l] Proposal for multilingual coordination on foundation website

[Sj]

Wow, you're talking about a lot of things here, Ryo.  :-)
I'll try to summarize some of them; new thoughts indicated by "+".
(At the end : a suggestion for better-audited translations, for sensitive pages)

[I.] Separate language-independent content : layout, images, data (...)
 * Templates are useful for this.
 + All this can have its own talk: page

[II.] Identify key languages which are accessible to most translators
as source languages
 * distinguish "original content" from "source" for translation;
original may not be in a key language
 + distinguish source for translation from "target content in key
language";  sources for translation should be simple and free of
idiom.  A simplified english source for translation may not be the
idiomatic english translation of the original.
 + sources will some day need to be available in multiple key languages

[III.] For simple pages, have a lazy top-down translation process
 * Page P comes from a group writing in one language.
 * Discussion of content takes place on Talk:P
 + P is translated into key languages, then into target languages.  
 + Version control is handled by checking the last timestamp on P (or
the simplifies source used) and on the target translation.
 ++  At some point, work on the original can be frozen to let others catch up.

[IV.] For complex pages, break them into simple pages
 * Complex page Q gets content from people writing in a few languages.
 * Separate Q into single-language subparts; treat each part as in
III., using templates.

====
[III.] and [IV.] are good ways to start.  We will eventually need
better version-control for pages whose timeliness and synchronization
is most important; see [V.] below.
====


<-- slightly gory details follow -->

[V.] Unlazy Translation, originals in many languages, single source
for translation
 (Especially for pages where content is being added to the same
sections in many languages, in which case the above method won't work)

==LINKAGE==
 + Identify pages whose content is linked together. Let's call the set
of mutually intertranslated pages on a given topic a cluster of pages.
 ++ Decide on a single source page for a cluster.  It could contain
content in multiple languages -- each paragraph listed once in each
key language -- or just content in (simplified) english.

==PROPAGATION==
 + Provide a way to flag a change as 'needing translation'. (like
major/minor edits)
 + Changes to each content page are translated to the source page. 
Changes to the source page are propagated to each content page.

==VERSION Control== 
 + Track version numbers for each page.  (Autoincluded somewhere on
each revision)
 ++ Provide a way to say "Updated from page S, revision XX" when
translating S into a page T  (or more generally, when synchronising S
with T).  This could be done in tandem with a new translation
interface, which shows S and T versions together while one is updating
T.
 + Create a db-generated overview for each cluster, showing for each page
 + ~ When it was last synched with the source (version #s of both;
changes made to it since then should be propagated to the source; this
will usually be the current version)
 + ~  When the source was last synched with it (version #s of both;
changes to the source since then should be propagated to it)

The overview will let you can see exactly how far a particular change
has propagated.  (bg v.49 was synched with source v.112, but only ja:
has been updated from the source since then...)

Note that "when page P was last synched with me" is a transitive
property (if the source is synched with page A, which is then synched
with page B, the source is now synched with both A and B); so while
many pages will be directly synched with other pages in the cluster
rather than the source, this overview can still be kept current.

You can modify this process to allow for multiple sources for
translation (a kernel of sources, in a sense), rather than just one.

-- 
+sj+