[Foundation-l] WMF 2015 strategic plan and multilingualism

[David Gerard]

On 5 March 2011 21:48, Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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.


Yes. The advocates of a minimal Foundation are missing the point that
"in their own language" is an extremely good reason to spend money on
the necessary translations and so forth.

The Chapter structure is a brilliant way to get this sort of thing
locally self-organising and not be run from San Francisco. But as Amir
points out, this results in very patchy coverage.

Really. Take the sentence:

"Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in
the sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment."

- and think of how to fund everything that implies, or to fund its
encouragement, or to fund encouraging the funding of its
encouragement. The WMF as it stands is *tiny* for such a goal.


- d.