Language committee
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- Language committee
- Globalization subcommittee
- For requesting users
- For members
- Information
- Closing projects (voluntarily)
The Wikimedia Foundation language committee 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 |
[edit] Latest activities report
This is the language committee report for January 2012 (and also December 2011).
[edit] 2011 report
MF-Warburg wrote a relevant report for the year 2011, see incubator:Incubator:News/2011 report.
[edit] Approvals
- The Wikipedia in Veps (a Uralic language spoken by about 6,000 people) has been created.
- The Wiktionary in Punjabi (in Shahmukhi script) has been created.
- The Wikisource in Marathi has been created. There is a bit of content on the OldWikisource (that still needs to be transferred). However, the Maharashtra Government has promised to provide free content for the Marathi Wikisource.
- The Wikipedia in Lezgian (a Northeast Caucasian language spoken by about 784,000 people) is approved by the committee.
[edit] Requests
- Some discussion about the Belarusian Wikisource request. It is very active, but the issue is that it be in both the official and Taraskevica orthography.
- There is a request for a Wikiquote in Oriya/Odia, however there is concern about the language/orthography used on Oriya projects.
[edit] Charter
This is a proofread version of the original charter with a later amendment authorizing request approval.
[edit] Scope
The committee is tasked as follows.
- The development and maintenance of:
- 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;
- support and policy development for script and localization related problems;
- documentation to support new language communities towards a stable growth rate;
- support and coordination for cross-language projects, helping smaller communities share resources and maximize their results;
- 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.
- 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 committee are to:
- minimize the political aspects connected to the release of new projects, moving the focus towards purely quantitative decision criteria;
- 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);
- maximize the reuse of proven marketing techniques among different editions;
- maximize the co-operation level among different language communities by providing common fields of activity;
- 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 committee is public, and any advice from the community is welcome.
- The committee 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 committee is especially interested in hearing those who proposed a new wiki in the past and got either refused or approved.
[edit] Members
[edit] Current
| Member | Languages | Region | Tasks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amir E. Aharoni (Amire80) | he, ru, en-4, ca-3, eo-2, es-2, fr-2, it-2, ar-1 | Middle East, Israel, Jerusalem Europe, Russia, Moscow (until 1991) |
|
| Antony D. Green | en, de-4, fr-2, ga-1, cy-1 | Europe, Germany, Berlin North America, United States, Texas (formerly) |
|
| Bèrto 'd Sèra | pms, it-3, ru-3, en-2, ca-1, es-1, fr-1, oc-1, ro-1, sr-1, uk-1 | Europe, Ukraine, Kiev | |
| Gerard Meijssen (GerardM) | nl, en-3, de-1 | Europe, Netherlands, Flevoland | |
| Huib Laurens (Abigor) | nl, en-2, de-2, nds-1 | Europe, Netherlands, Utrecht | Archiving - Closing Projects |
| Jon Harald Søby | nb, en-3, nn-3, sv-3, da-2, de-2, eo-1, es-1, ro-1, sw-1 | Africa, Tanzania, Dar es Salaam from Europe, Norway, Trondheim |
|
| Maria Fanucchi (Arria Belli) | en, es, fr-4, ca-2, it-2, pt-1, ru-1 | Europe, France, Burgundy South America, French Guiana, Cayenne (formerly) |
|
| Michael Everson (Evertype) | en, da-3, de-3, es-3, ga-3, fr-2, et-1, it-1, nl-1, nn-1, no-1, pt-1, ro-1, ru-1, sv-1, tlh-1, yi-1 |
Europe, Ireland, County Mayo North America, United States, Pennsylvania (formerly) |
|
| Milos Rancic (Millosh) | bs, hr, sh, sr, en-3, bg-2, cu-2, mk-2, ru-2, sl-2, be-1, cs-1, dsb-1, grc-1, hsb-1, la-1, pl-1, ry-1, sk-1, uk-1 |
Europe, Serbia, Belgrade | Closing projects |
| Oliver Stegen (Baba Tabita) | de, en-4, sw-3 nl-1, fr-1 | Africa, Kenya, Nairobi from Europe, Germany |
|
| Robin Pepermans (SPQRobin) | nl, en-3, fr-2, af-1, de-1 | Europe, Belgium, Flemish Brabant | Closing projects |
| Santhosh Thottingal (santhosh.thottingal) | ml, hi-3, en-3, ta-2, | Asia, India, Chennai (Madras) | |
| Shanel Kalicharan (Shanel) | en, fr-2 | North America, Canada, Ontario | |
| Zacharias Diakonikolaou (ZaDiak) | el, en-4, de-2, grc-2 | Europe, Greece, Rhodes | Wikiversity advice |
| — (Karen) | North America, United States, California |
[edit] Former
| Member | Period |
|---|---|
| Akash Shah (Aksi great) | 2007–2008 |
| Ascánder | 2006–2008 |
| Jesse Plamondon-Willard (Pathoschild) | 2006–2011 |
| Sabine Cretella (SabineCretella) | 2006–2009 |
| Tangotango | 2007–2008 |
| Michal Zlatkovský (Timichal) | 2006–2008 |
[edit] Timeline
[edit] Observers
Observers are Wikimedians who receive copies of e-mails sent to the internal language committee mailing list, but who cannot browse the archives or reply to the e-mails directly. If you want to become an observer, you should ask one of the committee members. If there are no objections within the committee after seven days, you will be subscribed as an observer.
| User | Since |
|---|---|
| Avicennasis | 2011-06-18 |
| Casey Brown (Cbrown1023) | 2011-06-26 |
| Étienne Beaulé (Ebe123, Ebe123(b)) | 2011-08-14 |
| Fajro | 2011-06-10 |
| Jesse Plamondon-Willard (Pathoschild) | 2011-07-03 |
| Nickanc | 2012-02-12 |
| Mark Williamson (Node ue) | 2011-06-02 |
| Keegan Peterzell (Keegan) | 2011-09-06 |
| MF-Warburg | 2011-06-15 |
| Samuel Klein (Sj) | 2011-06-02 |
| とある白い猫 | 2011-09-06 |
[edit] Timeline
This is an unofficial log of the committee's progress. For a log of requests and closures, see requests for new languages.
-
Date Event Update 2006-06-06 policy SabineCretella draft proposed. 2006-07-03 langcom Subcommittee initially proposed, but the proposal is never received. 2006-09-16 langcom 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. 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. 2009-01-20 langcom The Wikimedia Foundation board decided that the Subcommittee becomes a Committee. 2011-05-13 langcom The committee holds its first-ever real-life meeting in Berlin.
