Fedora i18n coordination

[Yoshihiro Totaka]

Patrick Barnes wrote:
> Yoshihiro Totaka wrote:
> 
>>Hi,
>>
>>Since this list is not listed in
>>http://fedora.redhat.com/participate/communicate/
> 
> It is now. :-)
> 

Thanx.

>>and fedoraproject.org doesn't support localised web browsers
>>https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=170892
> 
> I don't see how this is specifically related to this matter.
> 

Since the list was listed only in
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate
and I believe front page is the page links to
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate
If someone can not access the front page, then s/he probably will not be 
able find this list.
>>people finding this list is, I believe, slim.
>>http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-i18n-list may be more
>>appropriate.
> 
> This list has a different scope, and serves a slightly different role in
> i18n.  It is more appropriate for coordinating international website
> development.
> 
>>I believe what we really need to focus now is i18nize a way to
>>participate in fedora and let fedora's message reach everyone in this
>>world. To achieve this, we need ambassadors who can be contacted by
>>local community and set up i18ned news.fedoraproject.org. (I believe
>>news.fedoraproject.org really needs to be build with i18n in mind.)
>>English guide of joining fedora is already very confusing, i18nizing
>>this will be hard. We need to make this part of information
>>modularized and separate from each project. I believe this also helps
>>English speaking people find out joining information more easily as well.
> 
> While i18n can be summarized as a single goal across many projects,
> these are smaller projects that must be tackled individually.  While we
> build an international community of Ambassadors, we also need to provide
> consistent material and a uniform message through community websites. 
> That is one of the primary goals in this list.  As we move forward,
> these many important aspects of i18n will be dealt with, but we can't
> get hung up on each one due to the desire to work on the others.
> 

Yes, I agree with you that consistent message is very important.
However we probably need to share the perception that i18n resource is 
unfortunately limited. We will have FC5T1 very soon, but I have to 
wonder how many languages will have proper release notes.
We also have documentation project creating very high quality documents 
such as SELinux FAQ, RPM guide etc etc. Since Fedora embraces many 
poorly documented breeding edge technologies such as SELinux and Xen, 
many other distributions' Linux users are relying on Fedora's 
documentation. We need to  focus our translator's resources on these 
quality documents.

Being said that, what i18n can help fedora project as whole at this 
level is to  keep local talents well informed and help locals involved 
in projects. Involvement of locals will ultimately result in i18n of the 
project.

However fedora's way for seeking people to participate has actually been 
very confusing. Since fedora is a community project and we are looking 
for community participation, keep community well informed and helping 
them to involved is one of the key area fedora needs to focus on. Each 
project writing a guide how to get involved and how we can help on wiki 
or announcing in the list is not really effective. I believe
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/HelpWanted
could be separate web site or expanded. Each fedora project could have 
"human resource manager" to write and update "how to get involved", 
what sort of things they are working on, and what kind of talents or 
tests they are looking for on the page or site.
(This could be part of news.fedoraproject.org as well, since this way 
news and each project will be connected more strongly.)

>>Setting up information of fedora information for local community
>>should be handled by local community web site. There are materials in
>>fedoraproject.org usefull for local community, but not all of them are
>>necessary. Local people know where informations are, and they are much
>>better at building local web sites.
>>
>>-Yoshihior
>>
> 
> We should only compartmentalize as needed.  We need to keep our focus on
> providing everything we can through formal websites, relying on local
> websites to provide only the local information that the formal sites
> cannot.  We must work with the community to present a united front,
> bringing a consistent message and appearance to the best of our
> abilities.  Avoiding duplication and confusion are important, and
> scattering information about needlessly can create problems.  That is
> the point here: coordination and focus.
> 
> 

Yes, I agree that coordination and focus is really required here. If 
i18n of the formal site can be done, I believe that is wonderful thing. 
If fedoraproject.org could be translated automatically by google, I 
think having i18n of formal web site is the right idea. However reality 
is not like that yet, and we do not have many resources to i18n. Keeping 
web site translation up-to-date really requires huge resource. We really 
need to focus our i18n resource here. Could-be-outdated, 
partly-translated formal web site is not what I want. I am willing to 
help build formal web site, but I don't think we have enough resource.

To help fedora ambassadors, I believe we could focus our i18n effort on 
3 areas. (i.e.,  Fedora Doc translation, news, and helpwanted.)
Afterall, what could fedora ambassadors do with broken formal web site?
At least, currect local community site is not broken.

-Yoshihiro