[Foundation-l] WMF 2015 strategic plan and multilingualism

[Gerard Meijssen]

Hoi,
The notion that everyone working on Wikipedia and MediaWiki is a volunteer
is a fallacy.

The one thing I have been advocating is that the different languages and
scripts are performing technically on a level playing field. This is not the
case and there is a lot that can be achieved with modest investments. At
this stage we do not want to invest in specific languages to create content.
If a language is viable and can operate on a level playing field the
communities will do their thing in the way that fits for them.
Thanks,
       GerardM


On 5 March 2011 22:27, Casey Brown <lists at caseybrown.org> wrote:

> On Sat, Mar 5, 2011 at 4:00 PM, M. Williamson <node.ue at gmail.com> wrote:
> > It is my hope that these decisions are data-driven -
> > http://www.ethnologue.com/ethno_docs/distribution.asp?by=size and the
> > size of Wikimedia communities speaking a language as well as the
> > (in)frequency of bilingualism in those communities are a good place to
> > start.
>
> Exactly.  As far as I understand it, the language priority list *was*
> created based on these metrics.  However, it hadn't been updated for
> years, and /that's/ why it was marked obsolete.  That particular list
> was obsolete; no one was rejecting multilingualism or anything like
> that.  It's actually the opposite:  we didn't try to figure out how we
> should prioritize languages because we looked at them all as equal.
>
> All translation work is done by volunteers, and who were we to say
> "your language isn't as important, we'd rather you translate into X",
> especially if we hadn't really researched how to make those priority
> lists?  If you translate something into Hopi, Kunama, Irish, or
> Pirahã, it'll get published just as quickly as if you translate
> something into French, Spanish, German, or Chinese.
>
> --
> Casey Brown
> Cbrown1023
>
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