Phone translations policy proposal

[Fòram na Gàidhlig]

>     It should also be possible for volunteers to give Canonical a shout so
>     they can apply to register with the translation agency/agencies if
>     they want to. Why should others earn the money rather than those
>     people who have dedicated tons of their free time over the years. It
>     would also serve translation consistency.
> 
> 
> I agree on the consistency with guidelines, but my personal suggestion
> is to keep things simple and for Ubuntu Translators to focus on
> translating the regular Ubuntu as usual. As I said, these projects if
> and when they come up are generally the minority, and have generally
> critical deadlines, thus it's more efficient to outsource them. They are
> also usually based on a list of target languages, meaning manufacturers
> are only interested in a subset of languages to be complete, which could
> open the door to those language teams outside that list feeling
> discriminated. In Ubuntu/Canonical we're in a unique position to have a
> fine balance between volunteer contributions and business, which is
> often challenging, but it's been proven to work over the years, and in
> this particular one, and to answer the question, that would be what I
> would personally recommend.

I don't expect to personally get any work out of this - I am translating
into a minority language, and I am not holding my breath for
manufacturers requiring 100% translations for it. I am still thinking
about how we might get more benefit for those translators who might get
a chance at some money here. For freelancers, they might pick the Ubuntu
job over another job to make the deadline work ;)

As I said, I work as a professional localizer and I do volunteer work as
time allows. Others might be in a similar situations, and it might be of
benefit to them to know which agency or agencies to send a CV to. If the
CV is accepted then depends on the agency anyway and will be out of
Canonical's hands.

How about disclosing the list of agencies Ubuntu is working with, so
translators can approach them and apply with them? We wouldn't
necessarily need to publish the languages with this information, since
the required languages can change at any time anways at the whim of the
manufacturers.