[Foundation-l] Localisation of MediaWiki

[Brian McNeil]

Here's my 2 cents, plus Zimbabwean inflation...

I think this is a great idea. Localisation is interlinked with the setting
up of a Wiktionary project; a cultural identity is Wikipediaesque; where the
community is geographically focused there will be an element of Wikinews for
some local events; preservation of the language requires books in it;
spreading it further by teaching is a Wikiversity principle which ties all
these things together - learn the language, contribute to the dictionary
entries, document (and celebrate) the culture.

So, yes, if someone says we need a "Wikicompedium" version for smaller
languages, I'm all for it. As separate projects they might never get the
momentum to take off. As a mish-mash of all the projects where one day you
can be a reporter, the next define the less-well known words you just used
in a dictionary, sounds good to me.


Brian McNeil
-----Original Message-----
From: foundation-l-bounces at lists.wikimedia.org
[mailto:foundation-l-bounces at lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Yaroslav M.
Blanter
Sent: 17 January 2008 13:08
To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Localisation of MediaWiki

I very much support this. We have discussed the issue some time ago in
Russian WP (we have a support project for minor FSU languages). For really
minor languages, say, several hundred or several thousand native speakers,
for instance, Chukchi or Evenki, Wikipedia is not realistic. It is just
improbable that more than one enthusiastic editor comes along to create
encyclopedic articles (remember, all speakers of these languages are at
least bilingual). On the other hand, there is virtually nothing in these
languages to be found online. If a group of people gets interested in
saving the language from extinction, they must start not from a Wikipedia,
but from smth with contains a dictionary (like in Wiktionary), some may be
language manuals (like in Wikibooks), some texts (like in a Wikisource)
provided the copyright issues are sorted out etc. And smth like a
Wikicompendium for such languages would be the only way to develop their
projects within the WMF. (I must say though that the requirement of full
localization may just scare these people off - in the languages I
mentioned, the projects could very well start from the Russian interface
as default, and the participants could  be asked for some other way to
prove their interest, for instance, writing 200 articles before getting
out of the incubator, or smth else). Also, some of the existing Wikipedias
which are not dead but also do not exactly flourish could be re-classify
to Wikicompendia.

Cheers,
Yaroslav

> On Jan 16, 2008 6:03 PM, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 16/01/2008, Andrew Whitworth <wknight8111 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > One idea that still kicks around in my head is the idea that a
>> > language's first project should not be a "wikipedia" or a "wikibooks",
>> > but instead an undifferentiated, general-purpose wiki that can be used
>> > to encompass all the various projects. For instance, you start out
>> > with a project on which you can write articles/books/quotes/news/etc.
>> > Once you reach certain goals, you will be allowed to differentiate
>> > certain projects: A wikipedia, then a wikinews, a wikibooks,
>> > wiktionary, etc. In this way, speakers of a foreign language have the
>> > capability to write books/articles/news/quotes/dictionaries/etc all at
>> > once. Think of it like an incubator for a single language.
>>
>>
>> Indeed. Wikibooks, Wikiquote, Wiktionary and Wikisource were created
>> because the English Wikipedia community at the time decided those
>> things didn't go in "an encyclopedia." Another community may well
>> decide otherwise.
>
> I'm thinking more along the lines of a community that wants to write a
> dictionary, and then decides that the articles that are springing up
> are not "dictionaryish" enough for wiktionary. We shouldn't make the
> assumption that every new language wants to start with a wikipedia, or
> that the members of one language will be all interested in doing the
> same thing at first.
>
> --Andrew Whitworth
>
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