|| On Thu, 5 Jan 2006 09:29:09 -0500 || Thomas Schwinge tschwinge@gnu.org wrote:
ts> What is the `web volunteers's' job? Putting your (and others's) ts> translated articles online?
Yes, that was the setup.
Essentially the original setup was like this:
1. [ETA - 4 weeks]
I write the column in German and send it to bravegw-trans-de@gnu.org
2. [ETA - 3.5 weeks]
I translate the column to English and send it bravegw-trans-en@gnu.org
3. [ETA - 1 week]
Other translators pick up the column from one of the two and translate it to their language, running the versions through the bravegw-trans-XX@gnu.org lists for proofreading
4. [ETA - 2 days]
The web volunteers prepare the translations for relase, putting it online, but not yet making the links
5. [ETA]
Links are made, I create the announcement and mail it out.
ts> Doesn't the GNU project / the FSF have people who would like to ts> contribute to the effort bringing in their ts> not-directly-coding-related skills?
Yes, there are people at the GNU Project.
About 6-8 of them got in touch with me, offering help. I told them the drill, gave them access and gave them the material, but nothing ever happened.
A major problem is that the site grew "organically" from a very small project, and so all links are hand-maintained. This is a lot of work.
So some people asked whether they could redo it in some kind of CMS: I told them to go ahead as long as it was all based entirely on Free Software, but nothing ever came out of this, either.
This is essentially still the situation.
I am however very happy to see all the interest that people have shown on this list and in private mail after I explained the situation. Thanks a lot for that!
As the process has broken down entirely (except for step 1, which I still do), it might make sense to actually rethink the technological integration from the ground up in order to make it more resilient.
I have found myself thinking that a CMS (Drupal? Typo3?) or maybe a Blogging Software (Wordpress?) with review and workgroup management and authorisation capabilites, as well as the possibility to add modules like automatically emailing certain language versions to people who subscribed to them might be a good idea.
Regards, Georg