Degree of trust and quality for Ubuntu Localization Teams

[David Planella]

El dt 14 de 07 de 2009 a les 02:16 +0300, en/na Adi Roiban va escriure:
> În data de Vi, 10-07-2009 la 17:33 +0200, Danilo Šegan a scris:
> > У пет, 10. 07 2009. у 14:35 +0200, Milo Casagrande пише:
> > 
> > > 2009/7/10 David Planella <david.planella at ubuntu.com>:
> > > >
> > > > These were all suggestions, and I'm wondering whether these should be
> > > > rather made requirements for new teams or new team admins/owners:
> > > >
> > > >      * To join the ubuntu-translators mailing list
> > > >      * To have a local translation mailing list, preferably at
> > > >        lists.ubuntu.com
> > > >      * To have a set of translation guidelines
> > > 
> > > I would also suggest that: if there already exists an upstream team
> > > for your language and they already have guidelines, use those. Same
> > > for glossary.
> > 
> > I wouldn't require translation guidelines if there are no existing
> > upstream teams with significant translation done (we can easily see
> > this: are there a lot of imported translations already for the
> > language?).  We should not stop people from starting their translations
> > efforts with Ubuntu and Launchpad, and developing guidelines as they go
> > along.
> > 
> [snip]
> 
> I agree with Danilo, in that we should not have the same requirement for
> the Spanish team and the newly Central Sama team.
> 
> The coordinator(s) should join the ubuntu-translators mailinglist, but
> inside the team they can use IRC, forum, wiki as a communication
> channel. Internal mailinglist should not be a requirement.
> 

Good point. My concern was that there should be a communication channel,
and I don't mind what it is. That said, it is easy enough to request a
list to lists.ubuntu.com, lists.launchpad.net or use an existing
external one, and this has the benefit of having an address where to
contact the whole team in case they e.g. need to have a look at a
particular bug or they are being unresponsive. But that's just a detail,
I basically agree.

> I think we should try to only have a few requirement, and just recommend
> everything else.
> 
> I don't think team should blindly use the upstream guidelines. For ex,
> the Romanian KDE team is deliberating using an outdated orthography in
> their translations (as a protest).
> 
> My vote for requirements is:
>  * assure translation quality according to the current(legal)
> grammar/orthography by using a neutral(formal) language

Although I agree, I'm not sure how we can make this a requirement. We
can ask the prospective new team, but unless you are a speaker of the
language, it will be difficult for either the UTC team or other
translators to verify this. I think this is something that usually goes
in the guidelines.

>  * coordinators be active in ubuntu-translators mailinglist

I agree, although you cannot enforce (or easily measure) people to be
active. I think we should relax this to:

* Subscribe to the ubuntu-translators mailing list
* Announce the creation of the team there

>  * team membership should be moderated/reviewed
> 

I agree.

> All other things should be mentioned as recommendation, together with a
> short reasoning.
> 

El dv 10 de 07 de 2009 a les 17:33 +0200, en/na Danilo Šegan va
escriure:
> Also, I've long suggested we link to such guidelines from Ubuntu
> Translators group, along with guidelines on any specifics for Ubuntu
> translations (i.e. Debian Installer, OpenOffice, Firefox, ...).
> 

Right, now I understand what you mean ;) Yes, I think that now that
we're starting to discuss the creation of a set of guidelines or
policies, it will make sense to include them there.

Also, if we want to work in creating such policies, we should have a
look at what other translation projects do.

I find the GNOME policy on starting a new team quite clear and concise
-> GNOME: http://live.gnome.org/TranslationProject/StartingATeam, and
the KDE project has also such guidelines, although on a more general
basis -> http://l10n.kde.org/teams-list.php and
http://l10n.kde.org/docs/translation-howto//starting-translation.html

Does anyone know other project's policies on starting a new team which
we could use as a basis (the TP, Fedora, etc.)? I know there's plenty,
but I'd like to concentrate on those which could apply to Ubuntu as
well.

In any case, I've summarised the discussion in a wiki page, and I would
encourage you to continue the discussion here and whenever appropriate
extract the relevant information and put it there:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TranslatingUbuntu/PoliciesBrainstorming

Regards,
David.

-- 
David Planella
Ubuntu Translations Coordinator
david(dot)planella(at)ubuntu(dot)com
www.ubuntu.com



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