[FM Discuss] FM translation zone established!

[adam hyde]

hi,

As many will know the strategy for FM is to make language communities.
We are hesitant in doing 'translations' as translations need to be
maintained. Also, 'translation' always implies a source language, and
its preferable to generate manuals as original source in a language
where possible. 

So...we have FM Farsi, and FM English now. These languages have managers
(en=me, fa=Ali).

On the way we have French, managed by Elisa, and Bengali, managed by
Anwarul. We do have a Dutch site but it is in search of a
manager...(hands up anyone?)

In this process we are learning as we go.

On the road to establishing languages we now have a translation zone.
This is actually a temporary holding zone for manuals. This means that
if u wish to translate a manual into a language other than one of the
established FM languages (en, fa and soon bn + fr) then there is a place
to do this. The idea is that translations can be done here and then when
any language has established a certain amount of content we can set up a
new FM community in that language. This enables us to build up a
language over time rather than try and do everything from zero.

OK...so..the translation zone is here:
http://translate.flossmanuals.net/

It has just read and write. NOTE : the read section as yet has no
published manuals. I put the Inkscape links there as place holders.

We actually have a very nice system for transferring manuals. It is
called Xchange you can read about it here:
http://en.flossmanuals.net/FLOSSManuals/XchangeIntro
http://en.flossmanuals.net/FLOSSManuals/XchangeBasics

This feeds into a translation workflow called XchangeTranslate, you can
read about it here:
http://en.flossmanuals.net/FLOSSManuals/XchangeTranslate

For the technically inclined : we use RSS for exchanging manuals and
chapters. Essentially we 'publish' manuals from one TWiki install to
another. This means we can transfer files across http...so we can
xchange content through the FM 'network' even if they reside on
different servers. This process is managed by Xchange which is a plugin
master programmer Aco built for FM.

Xchange places all manuals into a translation workflow (managed by
XchangeTranslate) and gives the ability for the translator to see the
original content side by side with the translation window. It is also
possible to see newer and older versions of the original source
material. The original material (source) is actually pulled in live from
that server and placed in the translation window through some ajax
trickery.  

One known issue - at the moment Xchange doesn't copy the copyright
notices properly - it gives the copyright to the person using Xchange.
We will fix this - in the meantime I will do it manually which takes a
bit of time, but it will be done. If you see all manuals (c) Adam Hyde
don't be alarmed ;) 

ok...we are testing this system out with Inkscape. There has already
been some work on the German, and Portuguese manuals in this zone. There
is also a place ready for the Sugar and OLPC manuals in preparation for
the forthcoming Book Sprint in Texas.

In a few days, after it has some use, I will link the FM Translation
Zone from all FM sites.

adam
 








-- 
Adam Hyde
FLOSS Manuals

http://www.flossmanuals.net
+ 31 6 2808 7108
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