Have you forgotten that these are WIKIS we are talking about? It's not just a matter of translation: the technology isn't there to do it automatically and we don't have the manpower do it manually. Even if the technology were there, it's a WIKI. Unlike your friend's translations, our content can drastically deteriorate and become useless overnight if nobody's watching it.
CM Odi profanum vulgus et arceo. > Date: Sun, 30 Nov 2008 23:58:54 +0100 > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To: foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] 80% of our projects are failing > > Hoi, > EMC2 is a company who sells storage solutions to big companies. I was at a > presentation of their documentation manager. He informed his audience that > the people who buy their products invariably state that they prefer the > English documentation. They always get the translations as well. The benefit > to EMC2 is that they sell more products. The translation of their > documentation adds pennies to the pound in costs, costs that are easily > offset by the increased sales. > > The point is that people understand things better when they are addressed in > their own language EVEN when they can read the language that is foreign to > them. > Thanks, > GerardM > > 2008/11/30 geni <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > 2008/11/30 effe iets anders <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > > Because bear in mind, especially in those languages, a complemented work > > of > > > human knowledge really adds something. In the large languages, we already > > > had encyclopediae and dictionaries of good quality. Wikipedia is better > > > sure, and has improved our lives. But now just imagine that you are > > living > > > in Botswana, and on school (if you're lucky) there is very little > > material > > > available... and now there is an encyclopedia... In YOUR language! > > > > English is an official language of Botswana. Quite a lot of African > > countries move to English or French for education above a certain > > level. > > > > >Even if > > > it only contains 1000 articles, > > > > ~102 articles currently. > > > > > you can already learn a lot from it. You can > > > improve your knowledge, and increase the odds in competition with the > > > western world. > > > > What is Tswana for mass spectrometry (looking at the translations for > > that term across European languages is mildly amusing) ? There are > > large areas where if you don't speak english you can't operate in that > > area. There is nothing wikimedia can do about this. Highly > > questionable if we would even want to. > > > > This doesn't mean we should give up on many languages but it does mean > > that we have to accept that the educated people from those countries > > may not want to use them and there is a significant risk of them > > becoming POV forks. > > > > > > > > -- > > geni > > > > _______________________________________________ > > 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 _________________________________________________________________ BigSnapSearch.com - 24 prizes a day, every day - Search Now! http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/117442309/direct/01/ _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l