[Ubuntu-l10n-eng] Expanding the scope of the en-GB translation

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

This message was originally sent to the en-GB administrators by myself. I am 
duplicating it here because it embodies the entire purpose for the existence 
of this list.

----------  Forwarded Message  ----------

Subject: Expanding the scope of the en-GB translation
Date: Saturday 29 July 2006 21:06
From: Sridhar Dhanapalan <sridhar at dhanapalan.com>
To: neuro at well.com, ubuntu at sourceguru.net, jriddell at ubuntu.com

Greetings fellow Ubuntu English (United Kingdom) Translators!

Firstly, I should thank you all for allowing me to be an administrator of
 this group. I believe that it is important to preserve the English language,
 and I hope to make my own contributions through Ubuntu.

One element that I am concerned about is the splintering of English into
dialects. IMHO this is entirely unnecessary, especially in these days of fast
and long-distance communication. Written English, particularly within the
Commonwealth, is quite uniform.

Instead of different nationalities making their own English translations, I
propose that they be encouraged to join our en-GB team and use that as a main
trunk. This would effectively eliminate the need for most other English
translations. By pooling our own resources together, we can produce a far
more comprehensive translation in a much shorter time frame. If it is still
deemed necessary for a group to have its own translation, they can use en-GB
as a base, thereby eliminating most of their work.

As you know by now, I have created a mailing list for English translators, to
provide a means for discussing such issues. I am sending this message to the
yourselves (the en-GB administrators) only because I would like to gauge your
opinions on making en-GB an International English group. Numerous members of
other English translation teams have expressed interest in this, and some of
them are already members of en-GB.

Because the variations between the different written forms of English (at
least within the Commonwealth) are minimal, there should not be much impact
upon the en-GB translation. What will change the most is an influx of people
from around the world to help us create the best English translation
possible.

I would like to have some basic guidelines and infrastructure settled before
Edgy Eft is opened for translation. This should involve the following:

* en-GB members should be subscribed to the ubuntu-l10n-eng mailing list
* the content on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/EnglishTranslation should be our
  core set of guidelines
* the content on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/EnglishTranslation/WordSubstitution
  should define how we should translate certain words.

Of course, the wiki pages can be updated, so we can always discuss any
possible changes.

Please let me know what your positions are on this. I strongly believe that
this is an exciting opportunity to improve English language support in
Ubuntu, for a global audience.

Regards,
Sridhar

-------------------------------------------------------

-- 
Sridhar Dhanapalan
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