Norwegian Wikitravel Expedition

The Norwegian Wikitravel Expedition is an expedition to create a Norwegian-language version of Wikitravel. For more information on multilingual Wikitravel policy, please see en:Wikitravel:Language version policy. Rationale Norwegian is a language spoken in Norway. There are 4.6 million native speakers worldwide. These travelers would be well-served by a Wikitravel travel guide in their language. In addition, contributions in Norwegian would help the other Wikitravel language versions. Many areas of Norway are major travel destinations; having locals update information in their native tongue (which could then be translated to other languages) would make for better information in all the Wikitravel guides. Norwegians are also frequent travelers and would have a lot to contribute on other destinations and topics. Goals This Expedition has the following goals: To collect a good base of Norwegian 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 Norwegian Wikitravel, and vice-versa To translate the interface files for Wikitravel into Norwegian (nynorsk, bokmål, or both) To launch the new Norwegian-language Wikitravel. To translate the pages and create the infrastructure necessary to make Norwegian Wikitravel useful and friendly for new Norwegian contributors. To make Norwegian Wikitravel an integrated part of the Wikitravel family. Steps The Language version policy lists the steps necessary to get a Norwegian Wikitravel in place. Gathering a team of users To get this project started, we need at least 3 Norwegian-speaking users willing to help start the Norwegian 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 below, like "~~~~". More than 3 users are welcome to sign up, but we need at least 3 to get started. --Verdlanco 16:47, 8 May 2006 (EDT) Go-between If there are no objections, Verdlanco, the person who started this Expedition, has volunteered to act as go-between for this new language. Language interface file MediaWiki, the software that runs Wikitravel, uses a language interface file to make the links and names and prompts and stuff readable in other languages. We need to customize a new version to work for Norwegian Wikitravel. We can collaboratively do this at en:Wikitravel:LanguageNo.php, or, if necessary, we can have one language interface file for nynorsk (en:Wikitravel:LanguageNn.php) and one for bokmål (en:Wikitravel:LanguageNb.php). It's started off with the Wikipedia language file, and we can use the English en:Wikitravel:Language.php file as a reference for things that need to be changed. It's mostly just changing the name of the site (Wikipedia -> Wikitravel), the name of the license, and the names of some important pages. Issues Resolve whether to translate the interface into Nynorsk, Bokmål, or both. I'd suggest using Bokmål, because it "is used by around 85-90% of the population and is the standard most commonly taught to foreign students of Norwegian." (Wikipedia) -- Andrew Haggard (Sapphire) 06:30, 30 June 2006 (EDT) I suggest letting the person who starts an article decide the language of that article. Magnus That's a simple rule to keep conflict down, but it sure doesn't make for a consistent and readable travel guide! The traveller comes first, and we shouldn't throw away the quality of the guides for that. --Evan 08:57, 13 September 2006 (EDT)