[Foundation-l] Supporting languages is supporting people

[Dovi Jacobs]

I happen to agree with Gerard that the Wikimedia Foundation does indeed support languages through the very act of supporting Wikipedias. I also agree that the foundation should be more proud of this fact and announce it happily. If we are doing something so positive, why not let people know about it, and why not even include it as one of our goals? It may not be our primary goal, but it certainly plays a supporting role towards reaching that goal ("the sum of all knowledge"). It is yet another gem in the WMF's crown.

That being said, I don't really understand what, specifically, Gerard is asking for. In what specific ways does the foundation need to "adapt" in order to meet the needs of smaller languages? "Resources" and "investments" usually imply money, but in what specific ways does Gerard think money can be used to support smaller languages? Please elaborate.

Finally, Mark Williamson's comment:

>> I imagine it would be easier if those people would be allowed to get Wikipedias instead of having to wait for years.

This is as opposed to Gerard: "we insist on a good user experience so a localised user interface is a must."

Experience proves that Mark is right: Many of today's successful Wikipedia's began without much of a local interface at all. Instead, people just got to work, and the interface got translated bit-by-bit along the way by admins, in exactly the same way a Wikipedia gets built as a whole by editors.

Not allowing people to simply "get to work" on a Wikipedia, and requiring that there be "several hoops to jump through before a new language gets its own project" actually works against smaller languages.

Instead, just let people get started! If the project fails, simply freeze it until speakers of the language come along who want to try to build it again.

To conclude, if there are positive ways that money could be used to support smaller languages, then the foundation should consider doing so. But regardless of monetary issues, people should be allowed to get to work on smaller wikipedias without too many hurdles.

Dovi

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