[Foundation-l] Priorities

[GerardM]

Hoi,
OmegaWiki .. right .. you ask for it; it does allow for linking all kinds of
information together and provided we have the translation in "your" language
we can show it to you. When we do not we show it in English or in what we
have. We have localisations of the user interface in an increasing number of
language so in reality we do justice to the values that we share with the
Wikimedia Foundation. We do it using the MediaWiki software and the effort
people put in have an effect for everyone who has an interest in that
language that subject.

Having said that .. :) how do you define a language as "significant" ?? When
a language is significant (your definition) what do you mean "our
educational materials" does that include there being a Wikipedia in that
language ??

The argument that I made is that investments made in supporting other
languages reap bigger rewards then investments in the English language
functionality. The investments needed for many languages are relative small
but the impact is huge. To get a great ROI these investments outclass what
you can do for English easily. Everything has already been done for the
English language. Then again why value other languages then your own.. maybe
C, C++, PHP and Python as well ??

There are many really relevant reasons why you want to preserve culture and
languages. There are many people who feel second class because they are
treated as second class people. Their language, the language they speak, the
language they grew up with is considered to be of no value. With it their
culture is deemed to be of no value. So they need to drive a SUV, eat
hamburgers and speak English, we call that education. We call that progress.
We call that the Wikimedia Foundation fulfilling its purpose....

Somehow I do not think so.

Thanks,
     GerardM

On 10/24/07, Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 10/24/07, Dmcdevit <dmcdevit at cox.net> wrote:
> > Gregory Maxwell wrote:
> > > But if we reach a point where language preservation is being
> > > advocated as a core part of the foundation's mission and when some
> > > people are advocating that funding be diverted from the true
> > > educational mission we will need to put a stop to that.
> >
> > Languages are part of the mission of education, not just the vehicle for
> > it. Have you heard, we have a project with the lofty mission of
> > encompassing all words in all languages? ;-)
>
> Go go Wiktionary advocacy. Oh well it's better than hearing Omegawiki
> propaganda. ;)
>
> Certainly every significant language, including long dead ones, should
> be well covered in our educational materials. But this is a complete
> tangent.
>
> The argument being made is that we must somehow prop up the
> construction of Wikipedia in dying languages even at an extreme cost
> in order to preserve them.
>
> I reject this notion because educating people is our mission, not
> improving the viability of dying languages.
>
> I don't think that people understand the immense cost involved. The
> Wikipedias in dying langauges are tiny because the labor needed to
> make them comprehensive does not exist in volunteer form. ... which
> should not be shocking, since if *a language is dying people will not
> be excited about writing in it*.
>
> In a month's time a million people will edit English Wikipedia at
> least once. There are 20,000 'frequent contributors' by reasonable
> metrics.  None of them are on the foundation payroll.
>
> There are more people who effectively work full time on our largest
> projects than *speak* some of the dying languages we have projects in.
>
> There is an enormous manpower cost in creating a usable and
> comprehensive Wikipedia. Due to the volunteer nature of the project we
> do not see this cost but it still exists.
>
> When we talk about using Wikimedia funding to preserve dying
> languages, which don't have the volunteer pools needed to build
> Wikipedia naturally, we are talking about bringing that huge cost on
> to the foundation.   It just can't work... and it is not desirable.
>
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