[Foundation-l] 80% of our projects are failing

[Christiano Moreschi]

Only if the information is not a pack of lies. Which on a smaller wiki it probably will be. And, as I pointed out 4 posts ago, it's more valuable for Mr Botswana in English anyway.

CM

Odi profanum vulgus et arceo.



Date: Mon, 1 Dec 2008 00:07:24 +0100
From: gerard.meijssen at gmail.com
To: moreschiwikiman at hotmail.co.uk
Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] 80% of our projects are failing

Hoi,
You did not get my point. The point is that inform ation in a native language is valuable by objective standards.
Thanks,
      Gerard

2008/12/1 Christiano Moreschi <moreschiwikiman at hotmail.co.uk>



Have you forgotten that these are WIKIS we are talking about? It's not just a matter of translation: the technology isn't there to do it automatically and we don't have the manpower do it manually. Even if the technology were there, it's a WIKI. Unlike your friend's translations, our content can drastically deteriorate and become useless overnight if nobody's watching it.




CM



Odi profanum vulgus et arceo.







> Date: Sun, 30 Nov 2008 23:58:54 +0100

> From: gerard.meijssen at gmail.com

> To: foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org

> Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] 80% of our projects are failing

>

> Hoi,

> EMC2 is a company who sells storage solutions to big companies. I was at a

> presentation of their documentation manager. He informed his audience that

> the people who buy their products invariably state that they prefer the

> English documentation. They always get the translations as well. The benefit

> to EMC2 is that they sell more products. The translation of their

> documentation adds pennies to the pound in costs, costs that are easily

> offset by the increased sales.

>

> The point is that people understand things better when they are addressed in

> their own language EVEN when they can read the language that is foreign to

> them.

> Thanks,

>         GerardM

>

> 2008/11/30 geni <geniice at gmail.com>

>

> > 2008/11/30 effe iets anders <effeietsanders at gmail.com>:

> > > Because bear in mind, especially in those languages, a complemented work

> > of

> > > human knowledge really adds something. In the large languages, we already

> > > had encyclopediae and dictionaries of good quality. Wikipedia is better

> > > sure, and has improved our lives. But now just imagine that you are

> > living

> > > in Botswana, and on school (if you're lucky) there is very little

> > material

> > > available... and now there is an encyclopedia... In YOUR language!

> >

> > English is an official language of Botswana. Quite a lot of African

> > countries move to English or French for education above a certain

> > level.

> >

> > >Even if

> > > it only contains 1000 articles,

> >

> > ~102 articles currently.

> >

> > > you can already learn a lot from it. You can

> > > improve your knowledge, and increase the odds in competition with the

> > > western world.

> >

> > What is Tswana for mass spectrometry (looking at the translations for

> > that term across European languages is mildly amusing) ? There are

> > large areas where if you don't speak english you can't operate in that

> > area. There is nothing wikimedia can do about this. Highly

> > questionable if we would even want to.

> >

> > This doesn't mean we should give up on many languages but it does mean

> > that we have to accept that the educated people from those countries

> > may not want to use them and there is a significant risk of them

> > becoming POV forks.

> >

> >

> >

> > --

> > geni

> >

> > _______________________________________________

> > foundation-l mailing list

> > foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org

> > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

> >

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