Language subcommittee

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Language Subcommittee

Shortcut: langcom This page provides information about the subcommittee on languages.

The Wikimedia Foundation language subcommittee is in charge of developing a clear policy and documentation for new language projects and their proposal, processing those requests, and supporting and coordinating new projects to optimize their success.

Historically, it was founded as a subcommittee of the Special Projects Committee. With that committee now defunct, it reports directly to the Board of Trustees.

Contents 1 Subcommittee 1.1 charter 1.1.1 Scope 1.1.2 Goals 1.1.3 Transparency 1.2 Members 1.3 Timeline 1.3.1 Development 1.3.2 Requests

[edit] Subcommittee

[edit] charter

This is a proofread version of the original charter with a later amendment authorizing request approval.

[edit] Scope

The subcommittee is tasked as follows.

1. The development and maintenance of:
   1. a clear step-by-step policy (based on quantitative indicators) for evaluating the feasibility of new language wikis, with an automated procedure for project development;
   2. support and policy development for script and localization related problems;
   3. documentation to support new language communities towards a stable growth rate;
   4. support and coordination for cross-language projects, helping smaller communities share resources and maximize their results;
   5. support and coordination to maintain compatibility among the different MediaWiki installations, in order to reduce the amount of development needed to upgrade the program base as far as localization is concerned.
2. The processing of requests for new language subdomains of existing Wikimedia projects, providing it give the Board of Trustees four days advance notice before approving a request.

[edit] Goals

The goals of the subcommittee are to:

1. minimize the political aspects connected to the release of new projects, moving the focus towards purely quantitative decision criteria;
2. minimize the need of localization-related funding and development by providing a common shared policy (in this field the Special Projects Committee acts in conjunction with…from which it receives detailed technical targets);
3. maximize the reuse of proven marketing techniques among different editions;
4. maximize the co-operation level among different language communities by providing common fields of activity;
5. achieve the widest possible localization level for MediaWiki at the lowest cost, in order to maintain and improve its leading role as an open-source content management system.

[edit] Transparency

• The whole set of activities of the Language Subcommittee is public, and any advice from the community is welcome.
• The subcommittee values the fact that projects are a property of the single editors who make it and considers users' necessities as the primary source for policy.
• The subcommittee is especially interested in hearing those who proposed a new wiki in the past and got either refused or approved.

[edit] Members

• Aksi great
• Arria Belli
• Ascánder
• Bèrto 'd Sèra
• GerardM
• Jon Harald Søby
• Karen
• Pathoschild
• Sabine Cretella (chair)
• Shanel
• Tangotango

[edit] Timeline

This is an unofficial log of the subcommittee's progress. For a log of request closures, see requests for new languages.

[edit] Development

Date	Event	Update
2006-06-06	policy	SabineCretella draft proposed.
2006-07-03	subcom	Subcommittee initially proposed, but the proposal is never received.
2006-09-16	subcom	Subcommittee is proposed again, and accepted.
2006-11-11	policy	Pathoschild draft unofficially proposed.
2006-11-21	policy	Pathoschild draft implemented through the community without subcommittee approval.
2006-12-04	subcom	Karen joins.
2006-12-10	subcom	Pathoschild joins.
2007-01-02	policy	GerardM draft proposed.
2007-01-14	policy	GerardM-Pathoschild policy draft proposed.
2007-02-06	policy	GerardM-Pathoschild policy draft selected; discussion begins on adjustments needed before the final version.
2007-02-20	policy	GerardM-Pathoschild policy draft finalized and forwarded to the Special projects committee for comment.
2007-02-26	policy	GerardM-Pathoschild draft implemented.
2007-04-28	policy	subcommittee authorized to approve without board approval, given the board receives five days advance notice.
2007-04-30	subcom	Pathoschild resigned.
2007-05	subcom	Shanel, Arria Belli, Aksi great, and Tangotango join.
2007-10	subcom	Pathoschild rejoins.

[edit] Requests

See Requests for new languages#log.