[Wikimediaindia-l] Updates on Google translation project in Tamil Wikipedia

[Ravishankar]

Hi,

Some updates on the Google translation project in Tamil Wikipedia.

( Refer http://bit.ly/adRtak for some background info )

The project started around August 2009 and went on continuously till August
2010 and added 1000+ articles.

During May 2010 - August 2010, we reduced adding new articles and asked the
translators to rework on their existing articles.

We did a quality review of these articles and found that only around 50% of
them has an acceptable minimum quality regarding translation ( We just rated
the style of the language and accuracy in translation. We did not do a full
review on the merit of the article).

Following this, the Tamil Wiki community arrived at the following consensus
with Google:

* The translators should be rated and only the select few should be allowed
to continue ( done now )

* Only the list of topics given by the community should be translated.
Earlier Google gave a list based on most searched queries from which we
chose. ( To begin with we have now given a list of 25 featured articles from
English Wikipedia )

* New articles will be added in user namespace and will only be moved to
article namespace when it reaches acceptable quality.

* Earlier articles should be reworked again simultaneously to improve their
quality.

Google and Tamil Wikipedia collaborated intensively in order to arrive at a
process that can be followed in other Wikipedias too. We feel that we have
reached a stage where we have good pointers like above that other Wiki
communities can follow.

Since the project may be unmanageable if it grows too much, we will urge all
Indic language communities having Google translated articles to start
talking to Google without further delay.

* The Wiki communities should start a dialogue / process / agreement to
rework existing articles.
* *New articles should only be added in a rate which is suitable for the
size and activity of the community. Once all the issues are solved, then the
scale of the operation may be increased gradually.*

We still some have issues in this project and there is no final consensus
yet regarding the future of the project. But, we hope that this update
helps.

Ravi
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