Talk:Wikimedia Fellowships/Project Ideas/Using your languages across the Wikipedias

What tools would increase this behavior?

Why do editors not already contribute in multiple languages? What barriers do you see existing which prevent this, and what tools or resources could be made to encourage it? Blue Rasberry (talk) 14:31, 16 January 2012 (UTC)

Some do: many who could, don't. There are barriers both on and off wiki.

The barriers on the site are the fact that each Wikipedia has its own rules and its own way of working. This is good, in general, but it makes it difficult to start seriously editing on a second Wikipedia. The templates will be all different and used in different ways. The rules for what is a stub and what is too short to survive will be different. It's like going to live in a new culture!

Off the site, one basic reason is that even bilingual people may find writing, and typing, in a second language, difficult and different if they don't do it often.

A second reason is that people often direct their activities -- especially computer-based activities -- into one language even if they are bilingual. Fine, if that's what they want to do. My idea, though, is that many could be persuaded that it's worthwhile to use another language too. Worthwhile for themselves and for other speakers of that language.

Finally, it's not mainly a matter of tools. Wouldn't it be easy if tools solved everything! It's a matter of outreach, publicity, and knowing where to direct it. Between the wikipedias, though, it would be really good to develop an environment in which those who cross to another wiki are welcomed and helped, and in which those who could cross the bridge are encouraged to try it.

Sorry I didn't see your message till now. I don't often visit meta! Andrew Dalby 14:04, 20 January 2012 (UTC)

I did not understand this at first, but now I see what you are saying. I have heard of problems which multilingual people have with different rule sets on different Wikipedia projects. I would be interested in learning more about standardizing some basic rules across wikis, like as you say, what constitutes a stub. This project should be considered further.

I suppose this would mean a broad discussion of what new rules should be fundamental and then when great consensus is gathered, then a translation of those rules into every language. This sounds like a big project, and you are right - the publicity and outreach is an even bigger project. Still, this has to happen eventually and the sooner it happens the better. Blue Rasberry (talk) 15:05, 20 January 2012 (UTC)

This is an issue I'm interested in, and I think it's well worth while considering how to encourage more contribution by multilingual people in smaller wikis (part of which is making it easier to move between wikis, part of which is just encouraging people to make the effort). But as it stands this idea is very vague; I'd like to see more detail, and an attempt to address the project submission criteria. Rd232 (talk) 23:16, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

More focus needed

I feel similarly to Rd232 about this idea, in that I appreciate the overall idea in theory, but it feels a bit grand in scope at this point to imagine how it would practically work. The Fellowships program is going to pass over it at this point, but we would like to see the idea refined over time if the proposer or others are interested in having it be considered in future open calls for fellowships. Some thoughts you might consider:

• are there a few specific languages or locations that a pilot would focus on?
• where/how would you outreach and encourage?
• we often hear good reasons that some people prefer to edit in a global language over a home language, such as because of font/keyboard setup, or being motivated by the thought of contributing to a project with very wide readership or a larger editing community to interact with...are there some sets of languages to which this applies more or less? what motivations would you hope to encourage or make use of for editors recruited in this project?
• is there a combination of different skills or perspectives that it would be best to have on a project team like this (I would wonder about potential to pair fellows up for something like this, perhaps, if several languages were to be covered in the initial phases)

Siko Bouterse (WMF) (talk) 23:02, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

• One point: there are certainly technical means that can help users engage more with smaller, less active wikis. Bugzilla 28026 (email notifications for watched pages) is an obvious one. Rd232 (talk) 07:55, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

Prospective fellows section

I'm updating project idea pages with a separate section for the idea submitter and prospective fellows. In this case I added the proposer as both, but feel free to make any changes needed to reflect current interests and reality! Siko Bouterse (WMF) (talk) 05:48, 7 August 2012 (UTC)