The Earl wrote:I had misunderstood.
Tom is talking about an open community translation project, specifically to help with disseminating community information (like this forum) to multiple languages. The translations in question would be open to the world at large, and the world at large would be eligible to assist with the translation.
You seem to be wanting a private service, with well-vetted individuals (called by their leadership) to translate. You also want this to be church wide, so that you can benefit from the spanish speakers in my stake, and we can benefit from those in your ward that speak german. This service would mostly work on local documents, like letters from stake presidents, sacrament meeting talks, etc. It may or may not include doctrinal, or sensitive material.
Yes, you're correct. For some reason people keep confusing the
"Calling all Spanish Speakers" thread, with this one. While I can see the underlying software being similar, the purposes and needed controls would be quite different.
The advantage with THIS idea is that the software could be optimized and sensitivity and operational aspects fixed before a version made for the broader purpose.
As for your suggestion "It may or may not include doctrinal, or sensitive material" I hadn't envisioned this being used for sensitive material. In bilingual wards and stakes, the problem is simply getting the word out to members about events and things they need to know.
We just need a way to get the announcement of the Christmas Party or the Primary Activity or the letter from the Stake President into everyone's hands.
The way I envision it, the Stake President and those leaders he designates would control what documents could be posted for translation. The same people could determine who is allowed to see the translations and help translate them.
Doesn't it make sense that these things are the bulk of the needs in bilingual units?
The Earl wrote:I this this is a GREAT idea, and probably a much lower red-tape barrier than an open community project. As you stated, the software could be similar, so both projects would benefit from the development effort.
It sounds like TomW has at least a proof-of-concept application built, and certainly the Mormon-translation wiki is proof-of-concept.
Well, both of these are certainly proof-of-concept, but I should emphasize that
Mormon Translation isn't anywhere near what you would need for what I'm describing or even what TomW is describing -- since its built on Mediawiki, there simply isn't good security built in.
The Earl wrote:One question:
What sorts of local docs do you need translation help with? Would this include doctrine, like talks, High Council messages etc? Would it include sensitive information like church court documents?
Again, the problem is the mundane, everyday documents -- programs, announcements, flyers, posters, etc. I suppose talks and doctrinal materials would likely be included. But I never thought that sensitive documents would be included - mainly because senstive documents and collaborative translation don't mix, IMO.
As I envisioned, the Stake President would have control over who had access and what documents would be made available for translation.
The Earl wrote:The next question is where to put this, as it would have to be accessible worldwide, but probably not public facing. In a corporate environment, this type of thing would usually be put behind the firewall, and require VPN access.
So it could be only on church computers, and require connecting to the church's sytems to function (like MLS).
It could also be in an authenticated part of the church's web site, like LUWS or similar.
I like this idea!
The Earl
I think this depends a lot on what kind of documents you make available. If you caution those in charge locally not to add sensitive documents and to be careful with doctrinal materials, and if you provide enough support so that doctrine can easily be translated well, I think that this will be a very useful tool.
Kent
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