[Foundation-l] Preservation of cultural diversity and minority languages

Tue Feb 12 19:48:14 UTC 2008

Also, I recognize this is off-topic, but if you are using
localisations from all comers, it is important to realize that not all
people are what they claim. Jose77, in particular, has become a sysop
at many Wikipedias and added localizations. What are the chances that
he is fluent in not only Hawai'ian, but also Uyghur, Tongan, Samoan,
as well as tens of hundreds of other languages?

When pressed, Joseph claims that he got these translations "from
native speakers", but in the case of some of them, there have been
complaints on-wiki about the translations. He also likes to push his
religious agenda across many Wikis (if the main page of a Wikipedia is
in a "directory" format, he will replace the different religions in
the "Religion" category with topics related to Christianity; also, he
has posted untranslated materials or poorly translated materials in
many Wikis about his religion, the true Jesus Church).

He also has dozens of sockpuppets, for confirmation you may ask
User:Kahuroa, a sysop at mi.wp, who has dealt with many of them trying
to exert influence there.

In summary, I think it is important to check translations with a third
party, and also to beware of people seeking to submit translations for
more than about 3 languages (quadrilingualism is certainly possible,
but in the case that somebody is doing this, their translations should
be checked to confirm that they do in fact possess the skills they
claim).

On 12/02/2008, Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hoi,
> A lot of work has been done on the localisation of African languages.
> Amharic, Swahili and Northern Sotho are the first African languages that
> have 100% of the most relevant messages translated. Other languages like
> Wolof are also being worked on.
>
> When you suggest that we consider the work done on the projects a total
> waste, you are completely wrong. Recently the localisation of the Zulu
> Wikipedia has been imported into Betawiki and the numbers for Zulu are
> 24.49% 13.48% 0.97% 0.26%. Localisation in projects is not effective. When
> language localisation is done in one project, it still needs to be done for
> all other projects while the work done in Betawiki provides a perfect start
> for any needed project localisation.
>
> It is only recently that the Amharic localisation for the most relevant
> messages was completed in Betawiki. The localisation for Swahili has been
> done by someone who has also standardised the terminology used. This means
> that messages in the Swahili wikipedia need to be deleted in order to get a
> uniform terminology used.
>
> We do need more people to work on the localisation of so many more
> languages.. The numbers prove how far off we are from  where we can honestly
> say that we support over 250 languages in Wikipedia.
>
> http://translatewiki.net/wiki/Translating:Group_statistics
>
> Please help !!
>
> Thanks,
>      GerardM
>
> On Feb 12, 2008 3:36 PM, Mark Williamson <node.ue at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > system messages on am.wp have been translated for a while now. I know
> > you don't see a lot of value in project-level localizations, but
> > please don't pretend the translations haven't been around in several
> > African languages, including Amharic, Swahili. and I believe Zulu.
> >
> > On 10/02/2008, Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > Hoi,
> > > The Wikimedia Foundation does not spend anything on the support of
> > languages
> > > per se. What it supports is projects in many languages. It is people
> > that
> > > invest in their language and culture.
> > >
> > > In the last two Wikimanias it has been said that we, the Wikimedia
> > > Foundation, want to promote Wikipedia particularly in Africa. It is only
> > in
> > > 2008 that the first three exclusively African languages have the most
> > > relevant messages in MediaWiki localised. If the WMF has invested in
> > African
> > > languages, there has not been much that can be observed that has a
> > practical
> > > value. We are not talking about minority languages when we are talking
> > about
> > > Swahili, Amharic, Igbo, Yoruba.....
> > >
> > > The WMF is not investing in languages; it supports projects. These
> > projects
> > > can be in whatever language. The WMF supports what comes along and has
> > > sufficient relevance. It is the board that decides what languages the
> > WMF
> > > supports and as a consequence is given this relevance, the most the
> > language
> > > committee does is recommend to allow for a particular project.
> > >
> > > So in conclusion, it is *people *that invest in languages. It is the
> > > Wikimedia Foundation that provides them with a platform to make this
> > happen.
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > >     GerardM
> > >
> > > On Feb 10, 2008 12:45 PM, Jesse Martin (Pathoschild) <
> > pathoschild at gmail.com>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > All these comments are very informative, but we're straying from the
> > > > topic. The question is not whether we should deliberately exclude
> > > > minority languages or cultures, but whether we should consider the
> > > > preservation of cultures and languages part of the Foundation mission.
> > > > If we don't consider something a goal, that does not mean we work
> > > > *against* it. For example, our goal is not to promote human rights or
> > > > prevent child soldiery, even though our work benefits those causes.
> > > >
> > > > Should the Foundation be willing to allocate donated funds and
> > > > resources to that purpose? What is the mission of the Wikimedia
> > > > Foundation itself (not of the individual users, who have their own
> > > > causes and motives)?
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > Yours cordially,
> > > > Jesse Martin (Pathoschild)
> > > >
> > > > _______________________________________________
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> >
> > --
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