CZ:Proposals/A new subpage for translations of approved articles

This proposal has not yet been assigned to any decisionmaking group or decisionmaker(s).
The Proposals Manager will do so soon if and when the proposal or issue is "well formed" (including having a driver).
For now, the proposal record can be found in the new proposals queue.

Driver: Jens Mildner 15:18, 27 February 2008 (CST)

Complete explanation

This proposal aims for the CZ community to officially endorse translations of approved articles and to encourage people to start such translations within languages that have reached a critical mass of authors.

Once a positive decision has been made there shall be a new default subpage type "Other languages" for approved articles where links to different translations will be placed. Later on, this subpage could also be used for other information, with quality links coming to mind instantly.

The actual naming convention for a translated article could be Article/Translations/Language.

When the first articles will be translated, a simplified approval process for translations will be subject to another proposal.

Furthermore, an Eduzendium initiative could be started for language scholars to translate long and complex articles as a course project.

Reasoning

I think it is perfectly clear that CZ aims to be a mature and better Wikipedia in the not too far future. This implies CZ projects in other languages than English. As can be read here, internationalisation is far from being without serious problems.

Arguably, one of the biggest problems for the English CZ community may be building up a reliable and trusted base of foreign citizens with good English, who might be able and willing to transfer the spirit and rules of the English CZ to an international project. Having said that, this proposal shall be seen as an easy-to-implement and very convenient preparation for the start of the first international CZ.

Why that?

We can see on our international page that we currently lack the critical mass of foreign authors to transfer the CZ model of creating good and reliable content with expert oversight to another language, even within the English namespace. On the other hand, good non-English content would give us much more coverage by non-English media, would help us climb the ranks of non-English Google sites, would attract much more non-English people, you name it.

So why not make our premium content available in other languages?

Translations don't require subject matter experts to be good and readable. Translations from English to native language are far easier done than the other way round, and, therefore, don't necessarily require real world translators to be done. And the quality of any translation can be easily checked by any native speaker with a little feeling for his first language.

And what's most important: Translations of approved articles are exactly the good non-English content that I mentioned above. So, imagine the start of the first international CZ with hundreds of premium articles ready for consumption and with a bunch of enthusiastic native speakers who breathe the spirit of the English CZ.

Implementation

A practical "to do list" type explanation of how the proposal will be implemented, and who will implement it. If there is no one to implement the proposal (as, for example, with many technical or recruitment proposals), then it is automatically declined.

Discussion

A discussion section, to which anyone may contribute.

Allowing translations seems harmless as long as there's a disclaimer indicating that errors may have been introduced during translation, so why not? However, I don't think we should go so far as to actively encourage this currently. Warren Schudy 12:55, 23 February 2008 (CST)

Permission to translate articles is already granted under terms of the CC-by-sa-3.0. Stephen Ewen 14:12, 23 February 2008 (CST)

Perhaps the name that was chosen to give to this proposal wasn't the best. I think that the subpages system could have another item, "Other languages", where the reader could find a translation of an approved article. --José Leonardo Andrade 09:38, 25 February 2008 (CST)

I see. So this is really about "Add a translation subpage to approved articles". Stephen Ewen 11:37, 25 February 2008 (CST)

Permission to translate articles is granted by the license, but permission to post those translations on CZ is not.

The limitation to "approved" articles seems handy, though I think the translations ought to have an approval process as well, and translations not approved should have the same disclaimer that non-approved articles carry. Anthony Argyriou 13:19, 25 February 2008 (CST)

There are issues associated with translation, namely assuring that those translations have quality. Since we still don't know if it will be possible to replicate Citizendium's structure in other languages, I think that presenting translations of approved articles is a choice to consider because it would allow people whose English is not that good to read and use Citizendium content. I think of this a bit like what I see in some pages from the U.S government, like MyPyramid [1], which offers some of its content in Spanish [2]. There could be recruitment of professional translators who would take a look at the translations done by authors. And of course we still don't know what languages would be chosen.--José Leonardo Andrade 10:03, 26 February 2008 (CST)

José, I thought of people putting their names on our international page. Once a language has reached a critical mass of some 10 or 20 people, that would allow translations to be posted. Jens Mildner 16:03, 26 February 2008 (CST)

Jens: From what I understand that page has another purpose, but it can be helpful to what we are discussing here. I don't know if those people are interested in doing translations. I also want to say that I agree with Anthony's point about some sort of disclaimer. Another idea that comes to my mind is the creation of translation workgroups. --José Leonardo Andrade 04:25, 28 February 2008 (CST)

José, I think that every native speaker has a natural interest in articles in his first language, at least I have. Thus, if there are 20 Spaniards here, Spanish translations will follow. Having said this, I think that CZ:International is sufficient for now, and we don't need to bother people with an extra page to put their names on. This may change, however, when translations are adopted. Then we should gather all available translation information in a central place, including people.

I agree, too, that every non-approved page should have a disclaimer. Translations will be no exceptions, this doesn't collide with my future plans to have a simplified approval process for it.

Could you elaborate on the translation workgroups? Do you mean one group per language, or one per science group, or even one at all? Jens Mildner 15:17, 28 February 2008 (CST)

How does this proposal relate to CZ:Proposals/Internationalisation sandbox? Will we continue to translate articles in, say, French after a French Citizendium is started, or is the goal simply to have something before Citizendia in foreign languages are started? -- Jitse Niesen 08:30, 3 March 2008 (CST)

This could be a good way of developing a basis for future international Citizendiums. If we have e.g. a French translation, when the French CZ kicks off the article could simply be moved there and the old subpage replaced with a redirect. Also, the translation should be checked by at least two other people, preferably native speakers. Of course, translation is a professional skill that requires substantial training as well as awareness of technical vocabulary, style, etc., so if we have amateurs doing it mistakes will inevitably occur. Making sure there are several people working on the translation - and discussing it (in English!) would help. John Stephenson 02:18, 4 March 2008 (CST)

I think that if translation workgroups are to be created there should be one for each language (e.g "Translation Workgroup English-French" or something like that). But of course you need the editors (experts) to have workgroups (I don't know how they would be chosen in this case, if by academic qualifications or by professional experience or both). I also agree with John's point, if one day Citizendium is launch in other languages you can move the translated articles to there. I'd like to add that I think that this proposal should be rewritten, some details are missing here (for example in the "implementation" part). A good idea may be lost because of this --José Leonardo Andrade 09:43, 4 March 2008 (CST)

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