!!!! DRAFT !!!! The development or this group is discussed here: https://blueprints.edge.launchpad.net/rosetta/+spec/launchpad-translators-group

Launchpad Help > Translations > Translators and Translation Teams in Launchpad

Overview

• Link to Launchpad Translators Group in Rosetta

• Link to a list of translation guides for all languages
• Link to a page describing upstream translation projects and how we should work togheter

Goal and Purpose

Describe the goal and purpose of Launchpad Translators group and it's relations with the other translations groups, including Ubuntu, GTP , Mozilla, OpenOffice.org, The Translation Project

We want to build the Launchpad Translators Group as a confederation of translation teams each team working at translating project hosted by Launchpad in it's language.

All members of Launchpad Translators should be experts in translating software and be aware about the work of other teams from Launchpad or not. Launchpad translators will do translations work

Project maintainers should be able to trust Launchpad Translators Group and appoint it to manage translations for their projects.

Working with Launchpad Translators

Project maintainers

• first learn how to use Launchpad Translations to make translation available for your project. For more information check the Launchpad Translations help pages

• chose a translation model and appoint Launchpad Translators Group for doing the translation - Link to HELP
• use the announcemnt list for things that affect all languages (ex. new release, major string changes, string freeze... etc) or each team for things affecting only one language - LINK TO LIST
• TODO: see how we can use Bugs and Answers to interact with project maintainers

Translators

• First learn how to use Launchpad for translating projects/operating systems. For more information check the Launchpad Translations help pages

• Follow the procedure for joining a team for your language. Before joining a team you might be asked to do some translation in order to check your translation skills.
• Follow the rules of your team and communicate and keep in touch with the team.
• When translating downstream always check with the upstream project and commit your changes

Teams

Describe purpose of a Launchpad translation team

Launchpad translations teams are group of translators doing translation for project hosted in Launchpad.

Managing a team

General information about managing a team and a translation team

• Create a webpage / wiki where people could find general information about your team, such as:
  • short and long term team goal
  • new membership acceptance conditions
  • translation guide
  • common terminology (ex a link to a glossary, terminology list, dictionary)
  • how to get in contact with the team (team contact or team members)
• Make sure the team act as a team.
  • Keep the team members up to date with the latest actions
  • keep in contact with team members and try to collect feadback and status

Relation with other translation teams

How each team can work and collaborate with upstream or other translation project for the same language.

How each team can share best practice with the other Launchpad translators team

Quality assurance

How a team can work and communicate in order to assure quality.

Below is a list of ways you can improve the translations quality.

• when you have translated a string, read it again and see if there are any error or the translations sound right in your language. If the translated string does not make sense for you, definelty it is wrong and you should redo/rephrase it.

Common/best practice

Below you will find a set of common practices for running a team

• Don't forget about other translators or translations groups. In many cases you or your are not the only one doing translation in the free software ecosystem. Always keep in touch with that other teams are doing and make sure the translation teams for your language are translating free software using the same "language". Try to create or join a communication channel channel common to all translation teams for your language and use it for talking about important aspect that affect all translations.
• Define a procedure for accepting new team members.

  • The acceptance level may vary according to the percentage of already finished translations. For languages with few translators and translations already done team acceptance could be lower than in the case of a language with many translators, translations made and the presence of GTP, OpenOffice , etc upstream translation projects.

  • Before accepting a member you may ask him/her to provide some translation. If the translations are great you may accept the new member. Otherwise giving feedback about why the translation are not good is a great help. Try to use a forum, mailinglist or IRC channel for giving feedback to potential new members.
• Create a webpage/wikipage for the translations guide. This guide should contain:
  • First rule: "If a translation does not make sense for you / your grandmother, definitely it is wrong!".
  • Second rule: "Make your translation useful and adapt to the context. Don't follow always the original text". Like for example "Tile children" may sound funny in many languages so try "Arrange windows as tile". The original text is not always the correct one.

  • a common terminology or a link to a common terminology dictionary or glossary. Don't forget about open-tran.eu . You can also install the glossary used by Romanian teams (here is the code)

  • information about what should be translated and what not
  • specific rules for translating into your language
  • a list of frequent errors.
  • explaining the plurar form for your language and how to use them
  • how you should translate menu accelerators / shortcuts
  • inform the translators about other translation project and how we should cooperate and work together
• Make sure you have a good communication channel for all members of the team or subteam. Try to reach all communication types: mailinglist, forum, IRC channel.

Creating a team

Launchpad Translators Group will appoint one team for each language. To add more teams for a specific language you will need to add them as a subteam of the initial team.

Thus creating a new Launchpad team for a specific language and asking for it's appointment is only required if there is no team already appointed for the specific language.

To check the current status you can consult the Launchpad Translators Group in Rosetta.

If there is already a team appointed for a language you can still create your own translation team but in order to translate software in your language you will need to become a subteam of the already appointed team for your language.

Steps to follow for creating a team and appointing to a language.

• join the launchpad translators discussions/announcements list - ADD LINK TO THIS LIST
• create a wiki page or a web page explaining how translators should work in your team . you can follow the example from our best practices -ADD LINK - and adapt them to your language/team
• If you translation karma is over 5000 go to step X
• If you are already a coordinator of a translation team, let us know about this, and go to step X

• If there is already a GNOME, KDE, OpenOffice.org, Mozilla, etc. upstream project from your language point us some translation you have made for those projects then go to step X

• If there is no upstream project already set for your language please consider following the required steps in creating one for your language. There is no problem if in the same time you are the coordinator for multiple translation projects.

• Step X create a lp-l10n-CC team and ask launchpad-translation-leaders to appoint a language to this team. We use iso-639 two letters code and if not available we fallback to three letters code.