WordPress Global Translation Day

In the light of the increased demand for translations of both WordPress and of plugins and themes, we started to think about ways to increase our contributor base. We’ve been talking about translation sprints for a long time and have been discussing a global translation day in the past three weeks during our weekly chats. It’s time to make it happen.

The Idea

Organise a 24-hour translation sprint that starts from the East and ends and the most Western parts of the world with three main goals:

• Show people who are interested in translating WordPress in their language how to get involved
• Translate and validate the waiting stringsString A string is a translatable part of the software. A translation consists of a multitude of localized strings. for current projects under the supervision of the current General translation editorsTranslation Editor Translation editors can approve translations for projects. The GTE (General Translation Editor) and LM (Locale Manager) roles can add new users with the "Project Translation Editor" role that can approve translations for specific projects. There are two different Translation Editor roles: General Translation Editor and Project Translation Editor
• Add more general translation editors to different translation teams

The main questions:

What are we doing?

• Small groups of contributors gather at different locations and work face to face
• Current translation teams dedicate time and get involved remotely to do orientation for their potential contributors or work with their current translation teams on translating as many strings as they can

When are we doing it?

After discussing potential time frames and time needed to organise the meetups at different locations, we’re aiming at the last weekend of March (26th or 27th) of the third weekend of April. (April 16th, 17th). If you’d like to propose any other dates, please feel free.

How are we going to organise it?

• Define local organisers: raise your hand if you’d like to either organise something on the ground or get involved remotely. If you’re running a translation team, it’s highly recommended that you get involved in either way possible. Please comment below this post if you’d like to participate.
• Ask localeLocale Locale = language version, often a combination of a language code and a region code, for instance es_MX denotes Spanish as it’s used in Mexico. A list of all locales supported by WordPress in https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/teams/ communities if they will participate. We created a survey asking people some general questions about getting involved. Local translation team leads should send the survey to their local community. If there’s a local meetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. where you are, send them a note. So far we have people from 19 countries willing to take part in the Global Translation Day (read about some of the results here). We’re going to ask the community team for their support with communication and send note to local meetup organisers.
• Post on the local RosettaRosetta The code name of the theme for the local WordPress sites (eg. bg.wordpress.org is a “Rosetta” site). All locale specific WordPress sites are referred to as “Rosetta sites.” The name was inspired from the ancient Rosetta Stone, which contained more or less the same text in three different languages. sites about it and set up a sign-up form to get an idea about how many people would participate.
• Prepare the general and localised documentation. Prepare a simple page with instructions for new contributors and an onboarding video about using Translate.WordPress.orgtranslate.wordpress.org The platform for contributing to the translation of WordPress core, themes and plugins.. Make sure as many localesLocale Locale = language version, often a combination of a language code and a region code, for instance es_MX denotes Spanish as it’s used in Mexico. A list of all locales supported by WordPress in https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/teams/ as possible have a general glossary started and some getting started with translations docs in their language.
• Define the communication channels for the day. Use the local SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channels some teams already have. If a team doesn’t have one, we can help them create one or we can use IRC channels for just that one day, each dedicated to a single locale.

To Do

• Petya to pingPing The act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” the community team and discuss joining efforts. If there are other people here who are also active on the community team, they can do that as well – help welcome

• The survey will stay open for another two weeks to gather more feedback

• Create a post and ping representatives from different locations to send the survey to more people.

• Nao to send the survey to some people in the Japanese community and other communities that she has a reach of

• Identify local organisers

• Identify places where we can organise people on the ground

• Create a communication campaign around WP media and have people post about this in advance.

• Work on local glossaries and documentation in the time leading to the event to ensure resources are available for more contributors.

To do this, we’ll need the help of the whole team. You can get involved by both organising locally and helping to spread the word globally. Please comment with your questions and let’s make this happen 🙂

Cheers!

Petya

#gwtd