Thank you for the informative message. If it is possible, may I be made an observer on the langcom list? Do I need to apply for such a position?
Thanks 2011/5/17 Milos Rancic <mill...@gmail.com> > As you should know, thanks to Wikimedia Germany, Language committee had > its first real-life meeting from May 13th to May 15th during the > Hackathon in Berlin [1]. > > The meeting was very successful. We've made numerous conclusions. They > need to be verified by LangCom members who didn't participate, but I > don't expect substantial changes. > > LangCom members who participated are: Amir E. Aharoni, Antony D. Green, > Gerard Meijssen, Michael Everson, Miloš Rančić, Oliver Stegen (via > Skype), Robin Pepermans, Santhosh Thottingal. > > Below is the short report from the meeting. Many of the items inside of > the list below require longer description or even creation of documents. > You will be informed after the creation of every document. > > A number of the conclusions below assumes that Language proposal policy > [2] will be changed. (I'll make the proposal to LangCom, then LangCom > will discuss and decide, then it will be sent to the Board for approval.) > > The report is by order of importance for the community. (Or at least as > I see what is the most important.) All of the issues below are general. > We've discussed about some particular issues and you can see them at the > page [1]. > > == Incubator extension and redirects == > > We will soon have implemented Incubator extension on Incubator. The > extensions is written by Robin Pepermans (a LangCom member and Incubator > admin) and it will make Incubator more useful for those who create new > projects. > > In relation to this issue, Incubator projects will get their own virtual > codes. For example, http://xyz.wikisource.org/ will be a redirect to > http://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ws/Xyz. > > If technically possible (I'll send the list of the codes to Mark and he > will discuss with other admins is it possible to implement without > problems), all ISO 639-3 codes will get such redirect to the Incubator > page which would have the text similar to "Wikipedia in this language > doesn't exist. If you speak this language, feel free to start it!" > > This will be implemented in a couple of steps. I'll write the proposal > at Meta, inform you here and after fixing issues if any, that will be > implemented step by step. > > The final product will be Incubator with all small projects, but with > virtually all infrastructure needed to see that project as normal > Wikimedia project. > > The main goal of that is to allow many languages to have their own > projects, although they don't have enough manpower to keep the whole > project in function (many of their technical needs would be covered by > Incubator admins). > > I've got a number of the same questions in relation to this issue: If > they have virtually everything, why would they create new articles to > become independent project? I answered with the question: Why you create > new articles on your own projects? > > The point is that it is not likely to expect that a language with less > than 100,000 speakers will every have sufficient number of people > interested in Wikipedia projects to become a separate one. At the other > side, of course, we still have many possible projects which could be > separate at some point of time. > > == Observers == > > Language committee has introduced observers. Anyone who wants to see > what Language committee members are discussing on their list are able to > be ask LangCom for that. It is not likely that any member of this list > wouldn't get such access. > > Sj is our first observer. > > == Monthly reports == > > Robin Pepermans said that he will write monthly reports of LangCom's > work to inform Wikimedia community. > > == Macrolanguages == > > There are a couple of cases in which macrolanguages need to get their > own project. It could be about very small population which wants to have > common Wikisource, let's say; or it could be about a kind of unified > orthography used by a couple of closely related languages. > > In all cases communities have to want that. All cases will be handled on > case by case basis. > > In other words: While it changes Language proposal policy, this is not a > general rule, but making a field to cover some specific cases in which > macrolanguage project is the most sensible solution. > > == Simple projects == > > While some Simple English projects have no reason to exist (Wikiquote, > for example), LPP will be changed to allow other simple language > projects to exist if necessary requirements exist. > > We haven't finished this discussion, but at least the rules are: > * Language should be the world language. > * There is a reliable published specification of "simple" (or > equivalent) language. > > Under present rules, counting that both languages have reliable > published specification, French would get simple project, while German > wouldn't because French is used as world language. However, we haven't > finished this discussion yet and I think that we should cover regional > lingua francas (or cultural, technical etc. languages used not just by > native speakers) as well (if so, German and Swahili would qualify). > > However, the second rule won't be discussed. Proposers of simple > projects have to present reliable and published specification of > "simple" or equivalent language, as English has. > > == Proposals for closing projects == > > Robin has made Proposal for closing projects [3]. We discussed briefly > and in general we agreed about the next: > > * Anyone can propose project closure. > * A member of Language committee who wants to deal with it (we'll mark > it inside of the "Task" column of the members table at Language > committee page on Meta [4]) brings that on discussion to Language > committee. > * Language committee won't vote about it. Recommendation to the Board > will be sent by the LangCom member which is interested in that issue. > * Board will make final decision; likely the same as recommendation > would be. > > Before implementing the full Incubator extension and redirects it is not > likely that we would react in the cases of inactive projects. After > that, it is likely that we would send back all of inactive projects to > Incubator. > > == Change of Board decisions == > > Board approval will move from the "approval" point to the "eligibility" > point. That has two important consequences: > > * If Board really doesn't want some language on Wikimedia servers > because of political reasons, it could block it at the right time, not > after contributors made significant efforts to create the project. > * All projects with previously approved project[s] will be [almost] > automatically approved. ("Almost" in the sense that, for example, Old > Church Slavonic won't get Wikinews, as well as Belorussian will get just > one Wikisource, after communities of two existing Wikipedias agree to > work together.) > > == Asking LangCom for opinion == > > Board will be able to get formal *private* answer from LangCom if > necessary. As LangCom's opinion is likely to have significant influence > on Board, LangCom doesn't want to be publicly responsible for random > decisions. > > Community is able to ask members of LangCom for anything relevant on > "Talk:Language committee" page [5], as it always was. > > == Membership in LangCom == > > Some kind of yearly confirmations should be introduced; actually, yearly > verification that members are willing to continue to stay for another > year on board. However, we didn't discuss it enough, as we didn't have > time for that. It will continue on list. > > The other issue is that we (or at least I) will ask two to four times > per year for new members. However, you should note that we don't need > any new member, but new members which are able to have substantial > contribution to LangCom. > > == Renaming wikis == > > There are a number of wikis to be renamed, as they don't have proper > codes. They should be renamed with some exceptions. For example: > > * Alemannisch Wikipedia, with the code "als" should be renamed to "gsw" > (or split into single languages, as Alemannic German is a > macrolanguage). If moved, it will keep "als" for a couple of years and > then the code will be virtually transferred to Albanian Wikipedia, as > "als" is ISO 639-3 code for Tosk Albanian, which is the standard > Albanian, also. > * Min Nan Chinese presently has code "zh-min-nan". Its ISO 639-3 code is > "nan". As "zh-min-nan" is not used by any Wikimedia project, Min Nan > Wikimedia projects will be able to keep virtual code "zh-min-nan" forever. > > == Languages support issues == > > * Thanks to Santhosh, Gerard and others, we have webfonts in MediaWiki. > That basically means that if someone wants to read some page, usually in > a language which doesn't have proper support on contemporary operating > systems, MediaWiki would be able to give needed font to the browser. > Thanks to Siebrand, this will be implemented on Translatewiki [6] soon > as a step to prepare it for WMF servers deployment. > * Amir should make report on two issues: > ** problems in RTL/LTR support; and > ** problems with sorting in Hebrew, Arabic and Myanmar. > > == Other issues == > > There are a couple of other issues discussed during the meeting about > which I would like not to talk before they happen. All of them are about > improving language related issues on Wikimedia projects. > > == Your input == > > Feel free to suggest anything relevant here or at our talk page [5]. > While some things need time to be changed, good ideas are always welcome. > > Other members of LangCom and others who participated in our discussions > can add here what they think that is relevant and I forgot to say. > > [1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Language_committee/May_2011_meeting > [2] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Language_proposal_policy > [3] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposals_for_closing_projects > [4] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Language_committee > [5] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Language_committee > [6] http://translatewiki.net/ > > _______________________________________________ > foundation-l mailing list > foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l > _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
