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Esperanto Wikitravel Expedition

From Wikitravel Shared

Rationale
Goals
Steps
Gathering a team of users
Go-between
Language interface file
Translation
Issues

The Esperanto Wikitravel Expedition is an expedition to create a Esperanto-language version of Wikitravel.

For more information on multilingual Wikitravel policy, please see en:Wikitravel:Language version policy.

[edit] Rationale

Esperanto is an international auxiliary language (IAL) spoken by proponents around the world. There are few "native" speakers, but estimates of second-language speakers range from 1-10 million. These travelers would be well-served by a Wikitravel travel guide in their language. A strong community of Esperanto speakers has made the Esperanto Wikipedia the 15th-largest Wikipedia, and the 26th-largest MediaWiki wiki in the world.

Esperanto's international focus means that Esperanto-speakers are also frequent travelers and would have a lot to contribute on other destinations and topics. There are also international en:hospitality exchange networks, like the Pasporta Servo, that use Esperanto exclusively for interactions between members.

Contributions in Esperanto would help the other Wikitravel language versions. Many Esperanto-speaking areas are major travel destinations; having locals update information in their preferred second language (which could then be translated to other languages) would make for better information in all the Wikitravel guides.

[edit] Goals

This Expedition has the following goals:

To collect a good base of Esperanto-speaking users willing to take this project further.
To choose a go-between who can keep users on the English-language site up-to-date on developments on Esperanto Wikitravel, and vice-versa
To translate the interface files for Wikitravel into Esperanto
To launch the new Esperanto-language Wikitravel.
To translate the pages and create the infrastructure necessary to make Esperanto Wikitravel useful and friendly for new Esperanto-speaking contributors.
To make Esperanto Wikitravel an integrated part of the Wikitravel family.

[edit] Steps

The Language version policy lists the steps necessary to get a Esperanto-language Wikitravel in place.

[edit] Gathering a team of users

To get this project started, we need at least 3 Esperanto-speaking users willing to help start the Esperanto Wikitravel. This means helping to translate the interface files, create content on the new Wikitravel, and to create the necessary infrastructure to make Wikitravel welcoming and useful for the next wave of contributors.

If you're interested, please create a user account on this (English) Wikitravel, and sign the list below. To sign, edit this page and just type ~ 4 times, like "~~~~".

Evan 07:54, 9 September 2006 (EDT)
Bill Alexander 02:36, 22 June 2006 (EDT)
Chuck Smith 08:05, 11 September 2006 (EDT)
Ljosxa 05:25, 13 September 2006 (EDT)
Verdlanco 16:39, 26 September 2006 (EDT)
AussieDingo1983 23:20, 2 October 2006 (EDT)

More than 3 users are welcome to sign up, but we need at least 3 to get started.

[edit] Go-between

The Esperanto version of Wikitravel has a go-between who can keep the Esperanto wt: community up-to-date on activity on the other language versions, and conversely report on developments on the new wiki for everyone else.

Bill Alexander has volunteered to act as a go-between. He is new to Esperanto so please help correct his mistakes.

Bill Alexander povas partopreni kiel "go-between" por la Eo-WikiTravel. Li tamen estas nova esperantisto kaj li ne tute flue skribas Esperanton.

[edit] Language interface file

Although we traditionally require that a language interface file be prepared for the site, it's probably fine to wait and fix it using the MediaWiki namespace.