[Localization] [SLOBS] [SLOB] meeting reminder

[Adam Holt]

On Thu, Mar 31, 2016 at 3:52 PM, Lionel Laské <lionel at olpc-france.org>
wrote:

>
> Hi all,
>
> Just to share some thought before the meeting regarding the l18n. Sure
> that it could feed the debate tomorrow :-)
>
> I'm pretty sure that it's super important for Sugar to be available in
> multiple languages.
> Plus I know the huge works done by all translators (including some guys
> from OLPC France) on this, mostly as volunteers (i.e. unpaid).
>
> As everyone know SugarLabs funds are limited so I think that before
> launching a paid mission of translation.
>

Impact needs to be articulated for sure.  But I'm not sure the above story
about very limited translation funds is correct.  In fact the records seem
to show the opposite:

The TripAdvisor grant specifically allocated "$60,000" for translation, and
especially indigenous languages, as it was explained to me by Walter Bender
in the summer of 2013, when the initial grant was awarded.  This should
come as no surprise given the nature of the donor (TripAdvisor) wanting to
honor endangered languages, relating to its global travel business.

While it is possible to redirect funds away from their intended purpose
(according to SFC, as discussed in February and March) things could also
get very complicated very fast if Sugar Labs chooses to go on record
defying the intent of a major donor.


PS I do not know if the "final" installment ($40,000 of $120,000 total
TripAdvisor grant) is forthcoming or not, as was expected to be received in
October 2015, but hopefully Walter can clarify.  I am trying to clarify our
current balance with SFC, but this takes time apparently.

Finally, if worst case the final TripAdvisor installment is not
forthcoming, then the translation budget would fall from "$60,000" to
"$40,000" (minus 10% of course, paid to SFC for accounting and legal
services).


I think we need to ask a stupid question: What's the need to translate
> Sugar into language X ?
>
> Shortly: if we translate Sugar into X, how many new Sugar users could we
> expect ? Is there guys on the field that actively waiting for this
> translation to deploy Sugar ?
> Because SugarLabs resources are limited, I think we can't invest in a
> language if we can't expect direct benefit.
> So my - very pragmatic - point of view is to have a sort of algorithm: for
> example if the number of potential users is lower than N then we could stay
> in a volunteer mode to handle X translation. Else we could invest money to
> pay a translation mission of X.
> I've got a similar experience regarding our Malagasy deployment. At first
> we heavily explored ways to translate Sugar in Malagasy. We even started
> Malagasy localization in volunteer mode. I guess we reached about 30% of
> localization like this. But finally we understood that Sugar in Malagasy
> will not help us to deploy more and that we have no money to pay for it.
> Worse: most of people locally tell us that is better to use Sugar in French
> on the field because French is important for the curriculum… So we
> definitively stopped the Malagasy localization.
>
> Just my two cents.
>
> Best regards from France.
>
>         Lionel.
>
> 2016-03-30 13:31 GMT+02:00 Walter Bender <walter.bender at gmail.com>:
>
>> The next meeting of the Sugar Labs oversight board will be Friday, 1
>> April at 19:00 UTC. Please join us at irc.freenode.net #sugar-meeting
>> (you can access our IRC channel through the web interface provided at
>> http://chat.sugarlabs.org).
>>
>> Agenda:
>> 1. Google Summer of Code status
>> 2. Wiki Cleanup Party planning
>> 3. Request from Edgar Quispe to attend Traducción e interpretación en las
>> lenguas originarias del Perú meeting in Lima
>> 4. I18n manager discussion
>> 5. Proposal from Samson Goddy re i18n in Nigeria
>> 6. YOUR TOPIC HERE
>>
>> Looking forward to seeing everyone on Friday.
>>
>> regards.
>>
>> -walter
>> --
>> Walter Bender
>> Sugar Labs
>> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>> <http://www.sugarlabs.org>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> SLOBs mailing list
>> SLOBs at lists.sugarlabs.org
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/slobs
>>
>>
>
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