On 10/18/2012 11:13 PM, Cartinus wrote: > On 10/18/2012 09:44 PM, Christian Rogel wrote: >> By the way, could you stand receiving any message in a language you >> cannot understand. that seems to be looking for >> infuriating the non-English speaking users? > > On 10/18/2012 10:30 PM, Eric Marsden wrote: >> - the way in which DWG is undertaking its monitoring+blocking, by >> sending aggressive messages to contributors in a language which they >> can be presumed not to understand > <sarcasm on> > So a requirement for the membership of the DWG should be that you are a > polyglot. Of course all messages about issues in country X should be > send in the official language and those of all known minority languages > of the country. > <sarcasm off> > > > I think it is more reasonable to assume that any contributor to a > multinational open project like openstreetmap knows how to use > <http://translate.google.com> or any other such service. > > The continued use of the argument "the message was not in French" is > just silly. You don't have to like that the lingua franca of the > internet age is English, but if you want to be heard in projects like > OSM, you better accept it. I was looking for examples of cultural imperialism - here is a very nice one, thanks !
Of course, international collaboration requires a common ground and the Internet has made English an obvious choice in such projects. But that does not mean that everyone is fluent - only an elite can reach that linguistic level whereas Openstreetmap need the masses. That is yet another reason for subsidiarity : local communities police themselves better using their own cultural framework and there is a role for ambassadors who will keep the local communities coherent within the whole. So you don't need to be a polyglot : French contributors have offered to take that representative role and keep the communication channels open in tongues that each side understands and accepts. _______________________________________________ talk mailing list talk@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
