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Wikimedia Foundation/Communications/Organization communications translators group

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This is an archived version of this page, as edited by GVarnum-WMF (talk | contribs) at 06:27, 3 May 2019 (added Category:Translation using HotCat). It may differ significantly from the current version.

The Wikimedia Foundation organization communications translators group is an organized group of translators facilitated by the Wikimedia Foundation to support translation of the organization's organization communications materials.

This translation model is an experiment being coordinated by the Wikimedia Foundation Communications department. This model will be modified based on feedback, and may be replaced in the future with an improved model.

Purpose

The group supports translations efforts coordinated by the Wikimedia Foundation's Communications department, with a specific focus on organization communications developed by the organization.

Organization communications materials include (but not limited to):

  • Wikimedia Foundation website
  • Organization-wide used reports, such as:
    • Transparency report
  • Organization announcements
  • Promotional materials

Organization communications for this group's purpose does not include:

  • Department-specific reports that do not have a multilingual audience
  • Project articles
  • Fundraising materials
  • Newsletters
  • General Wikimedia Blog posts

The translators may be paid (subject to certain legal terms) after providing translations within a set timeline and providing satisfactory quality and accuracy of the translations provided.

Process

Requests made from within the Wikimedia Foundation to the Communications department will be reviewed and considered for dissemination to this group. At this time, the department is only processing content which will be utilized on the Wikimedia Foundation website.

Each request should include:

  • Assessment of volume of content to be translated
  • Anticipated hours required
  • Due date for translated material
  • Cost per language based on hours required (Based on $30 per hour and one hour per half page of document text)

Once the Communications department works out details with the internal team, they will share the request with the group via the group's private mailing list. The request will include:

  1. Information on project
  2. Estimated number of hours required for translation work
  3. Amount being paid per language for translation work
  4. Due date for translated material
  5. Languages requested

The first individual to accept the proposal for their language will be the designated translator for that project in their chosen language(s). The department will continue to accept designated translators until one has been found for each language requested.

Once the work is completed before the due date, the Communications department will process payment (subject to certain legal terms) based on the information shared in the project proposal. If the original estimates were wrong by more than 3 hours (as determined at Wikimedia Foundation's discretion by the average time for all translations), translators may request modifications to the final payment amount.

Example

The Widgets team requests the Communications department support the translation of a report which they are planning to publish on the Wikimedia Foundation website. They would like the report translated into all of the site's core languages (Russian, German, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, and French). The report contains three pages of text.

At one hour per half page, it is estimated to take six hours of translation time. The Foundation pays $30 (USD) per hour of translation services, so the project will pay $180 for each translation. The total translation cost for the project will be $1,080. It will be paid to the translators by the Wikimedia Foundation and covered by the Widgets team.

Membership

Application for membership is open to members of the Wikimedia community with experience in translating content. Contact with the group will be maintained via an email based mailing list. Ideally there will be 3-6 individuals for each target language:

  • Arabic
  • Chinese
  • French
  • German
  • Russian
  • Spanish

Additional target languages will be added as the group develops.

Applying to join

Individuals interested in participating should contact Gregory Varnum (gvarnum(_AT_)wikimedia.org) in the Wikimedia Foundation Communications department and provide:

  1. On-wiki username
  2. Languages which you have high proficiency in and are interested in doing translations for (must include at least one of the target languages)
  3. Examples of past translation activities (can be links to wiki pages you have translated)
  4. A brief statement on how you manage quality when translating
  5. A brief statement sharing why you are interested in participating in this experiment
  6. Acknowledgement that this model is an experiment, subject to change, does not apply to all content produced by the Foundation, and requires translators to assume responsibility for the accuracy and quality of their translations

Membership is subject to approval by the Wikimedia Foundation as well as the applicant agreeing to legal terms and being able and eligible to work as contractor for the Wikimedia Foundation. Additionally, aspects of this model may change based on feedback from applicants and others in the movement as the recruitment process is underway.

History

This group based translation model was developed by the Wikimedia Foundation Communications department based on an affiliates based model which was tested for the soft launch of the Wikimedia Foundation website in 2018. The development of this model is a part of an ongoing effort by the department to promote increased availability of Wikimedia Foundation materials in languages beyond English.

The model was developed in early 2019 and introduced to the community on 2 May 2019.

Future changes and possible future replacements to this model will be determined based on feedback collected throughout the remainder of 2019.