Submissions/Wikimedia Translation Sprint

This is an Open submission for Wikimania 2017 that has not yet been reviewed by a member of the Programme Committee.

Submission no. 3071 - C8, TU

Title of the submission: Wikimedia_Translation_Sprint

Type of submission: Workshop

Author of the submission: Siebrand Mazeland

Language of presentation

E-mail address: siebrandkitano.nl

Username: mw:User:Siebrand

Country of origin: The Netherlands

Affiliation, if any (organisation, company etc.): translatewiki.net, Wikimedia Foundation

Personal homepage or blog: Kind of profile page, translatewiki.net

Abstract (up to 300 words to describe your proposal)

This session is a medium length workshop targeted at people that have a good proficiency in a language other than English. You are expected to have a portable computer, capable of connecting to a wireless network with a modern graphical web browser installed on it, to maximise the effectiveness of this session.

During this workshop you will get a quick introduction to using the Translate extension on Wikimedia wikis and translatewiki.net. This will enable you to start contributing to translations for the project of your choice and to make a difference to open source software users and fellow Wikimedians that speak the same language as you do.

Wikimedia uses many pieces of software and has a lot of documentation and notifications that can be translated, so that every user may able to use that software and consume documentation and notifications in their native language. It is proven that using software in one's native language increases understanding and productivity considerably. Software is ever changing and evolving. It almost goes without saying, that there is also a continuous flow of new and updated user documentation, policy and notifications about the former. There is a continuous need for translators. In the Wikimedia movement, this is done mostly by volunteers.

The MediaWiki extension Translate enhances MediaWiki with essential features needed to do translation work. It can be used to translate the content of pages, the interface of a wiki and other software products. Wiki markup and user interface strings of those products become messages that volunteers can translate. The Translate extension helps those volunteers not only to provide translations for those messages in English but, also tracks and synchronises changes between the source and the translations. This makes is very easy to keep translations up to date, as minor changes are being made to the source text all the time.

What will attendees take away from this session?

Attendees will be familiarized with the translation interface of that is used in Wikimedia projects and for software used by Wikimedia. They will be (re)familiarised with the importance of continuity of making translations for keeping localised documentation and software usable.

Theme of presentation

Technology, Interface & Infrastructure

For workshops and discussions, what level is the intended audience?

Being a native speaker of (or have a good proficiency in) another language than English and moderate proficiency in reading the English language is best to be able to make high quality contributions.

Length of session (if other than 30 minutes, specify how long)

One hour. 30 minutes for a workshop isn't enough. There's a 10 minute introduction and people need enough time to get going and be able to ask their questions and have them answered.

Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?

Most probably.

Slides or further information (optional)

Slides of a previous session
This session has been scheduled at Wikimania before in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015.

Special requests

Need video projector for visual support.
If a computer lab is present, that would be great to get people to participate that do not have a portable computer with them.
A working internet connection is required to make this workshop successful.

Interested attendees

If you are interested in attending this session, please sign with your username below. This will help reviewers to decide which sessions are of high interest. Sign with a hash and four tildes. (# ~~~~).

I'll be very happy to assist the participants. Amir É. Aharoni (talk) 06:10, 9 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]