Re: Flaw in Plans for World Domination

[Andrew Oliver <acomaillists yahoo com>]

In my humble and reserved opinion, this is a subset of
a greater problem.  Opensource produces crappy/no
documentation whatsoever and when a developer comes
and says "I'd like to get involved, where can I start"
he rarely if ever receives any response, if he does
its often snide.  I'm sure I will soon get my flames
for stating so though...  (though yes I have mostly
opensource stuff on all my systems)

Ich spreche ein bisschen Deutschspreche and english
too.  Aber ich spreche schlect deutsch.. <smirk>  Und
Ich buchstabieren Englischsprech and Deutschsprech
falsch! (and I spell english and german wrong)


--- Jeff Waugh <jdub aphid net> wrote:
> 
> Morning all,
> 
> I'd like to propose an idea for a GNOME project, and
> to surprise and shock
> the jaded folks out there, actually commit to
> getting off my monkey-butt and
> do something about it.
> 
> 
> Whilst thinking about another problem I'd like to
> tackle within the Free
> Software community (the lack of mentorship), I
> stumbled upon an unfortunate
> communications problem that we should really make an
> effort to help out
> with: some developers simply don't speak English.
> 
> It's quite easy to get involved as someone with an
> English-speaking
> background, or as a dual or multi-linguist (as a
> large majority of Europeans
> are). However, I think we're really missing out on
> some great hackers,
> documenters and contributors - pretty much because
> we can't communicate.
> 
> I've been asking and listening for comments about
> this, and it's pretty
> worrying when you hear about patches and bug-reports
> being passed over
> simply because the language was unfamiliar.
> 
> I've heard some definite cases of code not being
> submitted because the
> authors either didn't know how, or were too
> intimidated by a predominantly
> English-speaking community to try.
> 
> As I place my tongue firmly in cheek, I'll tell you
> there is a flaw in
> GNOME's ambitions for world domination: We're
> ignoring half the planet. :)
> 
> 
> So, I propose an as-yet unnamed project to help
> non-English-speaking
> developers get together and talk, hopefully to
> ensure that we don't miss
> out on contributions that would otherwise fall
> through the cracks.
> 
> This is similar to the goals of the GNOME
> Translation Project, but looking
> more at how developers relate to each other than
> users relate to their
> software. I'm sure the i18n gang will be able to
> help out with this one.
> 
> [Yes, I would like to expand this project into the
> greater Free Software
> community, but GNOME is my first love, and thus
> deserves my time!]
> 
> 
> Stuff to do:
> 
>  * Set up a list of developers and languages, so you
> can easily find
>    people who speak a certain language (or more
> importantly, two!)
> 
>  * Perhaps set up a mailing list to discuss the
> difficulties that
>    non-English speakers come across, and how to
> rectify them
> 
>  * Set up a website to promote both of the above
> (almost definitely use a
>    web-browsable database for the first point)
> 
>  * Work with the i18n group to find contributors,
> and continue making
>    excellent translations (this project would assist
> the GTP, rather than
>    compete with it)
> 
>  * Other stuff, as there's always other stuff
> 
> 
> So - that's my spiel. ;) Let me know if it's a good
> idea, or whether I'm on
> something (I'm subscribed to both lists) and
> definitely send more ideas this
> way - I'd love to hear them.
> 
> - Jeff (who speaks but one language)
> 
> 
> -- jdub aphid net
> -----------------------------------
> http://slug.org.au/ --
> 
>         Ye shall be cursed to fall in love so
> easily, and yet be so
>                      cold of heart as never to
> express it.
> 
> _______________________________________________
> gnome-devel-list mailing list
> gnome-devel-list gnome org
>
http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-devel-list


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