[Foundation-l] Promoting non-en Wikipedias (was In defence of Google)

[Birgitte SB]

--- GerardM <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com> wrote:

> I have had the privilege to learn first hand how
> this can be done in a pilot
> project. In this project Wikimedians were in charge
> of a translation project
> where English featured articles were translated in
> Persian. The list of
> articles that were to be translated was presented
> before the work started to
> prevent the notion that an American POV was pushed
> out. Several articles
> were removed as a result. We have learned a lot from
> this project and, are
> now able to do a similar project where a mix of
> translation and original
> articles can be written.
> 
> Important is that the articles selected are the ones
> that will have
> relevance. This is why a theme of "background
> articles to the news" was
> extremely valid. It is these articles that are found
> to be most read; the
> Gerald Ford article was read a lot after his death.
> By consistently focusing
> on the background information to the news, you
> create the relevance that
> will attract other people to enrich the project with
> other content. Things
> that are in the news have a tendency to get back
> into the news... :)
> 
> Having a mix of translations and new articles is
> better also because the
> English featured articles are overdeveloped. It is
> much better for the
> creation of a community to create a tapestry of
> linked articles that provide
> a start. Many people have a fear of starting
> articles. There are with some
> regularity opportunities for projects like this. Of
> importance is that they
> are managed well and that the core values of our
> projects are respected this
> can be ensured by having established Wikimedians
> play a role in this.

I have wondered that it would be better to encourage
translations to purposely "stubify" articles rather
than focus on full Featured Article translations. 
This would give the less developed langages something
where they see a need to "edit", eliminate most
cultural bias without a detailed study, and make the
limited translation reasources go farther to creating
a interlinked web of articles.  This idea was brought
up in BOF at Wikimania but I do not know if anything
was ever done in this line of thinking.


BirgitteSB



 
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