[Foundation-l] Movement Roles: my suggestion of "Language Contact Persons"

[Yaroslav M. Blanter]

On Tue, 16 Aug 2011 22:05:37 +0200, Ziko van Dijk
<zvandijk at googlemail.com>
wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> The name is not so important, of course, but I think that the old
> "Ambassador" is a little bit a big word.
> 
> Why do the "ambassadors" not work? Because they don't feel
> responsible, if they can simply put themselves on a list and then
> forget about. It is important that they feel an obligation to fulfill
> some well defined tasks.
> 
> Yes, one can go to the village pumps and ask people to do something.
> And that is a lot of work, and that's why we need those Language
> Contact Persons. It is always better when they can post in their own
> language. Reports about the language version (monthly, yearly) are
> only written when there is a person who knows that that his exactly
> *his task*.
> 
> Kind regards
> Ziko
> 

I have some experience (and continue to be involved) in some Wikipedias in
languages spoken in Russia. These projects are typically run by a small
number of users, one to five., doing an excellent job. They would typically
only speak Russian, though the would be able to understand an English
message. I guess if there is understanding they may get some help from
someone as a consequence of posting reports, they would post reports,
otherwise this is just an extra hassle. 

In contrast, I also have some experience with Russian Wikipedia, and I
just can not imagine there would be such an ambassador - for instance, my
reports would be drastically different from the reports of some other
users, and any reports would be taken extremely negatively by the
community, which would feel that somebody is doing smth behing their backs.
To continue, imagine such an ambassador representing English Wikipedia.

Cheers
Yaroslav