Policy or Guidelines?
> Open question -- would this be a Policy or set of Guidelines? - User:Mackiwg
We could have both. Guidelines would certainly be useful. So, the question becomes "Just Guidelines or Policy too?"
Policy too:[edit]
Pros[edit]
- Signals that WE encourages users to exercise their freedom to translate and localise resources and develop WikiEducator in their own language(s).
- Easier to achieve consistency with multiple language pages and sites which enhances general usability.
- WikiEducator administrators can be more forward in offering help to maintain such consistency.
Cons[edit]
- Extra effort: to formulate policy, set up and maintain multiple language instances of WikiEducator, and to ensure that users are following the policy.
- Although (possibly a pro?): the policy might end up being really simple and minimal:
- If the learners' language is "ln", then place the resource on ln.wikieducator.org
- If the learning resource needs to be multilingual, then use template {{Languages|PageName}} (or equivalent on the various language instances of WikiEducator)
- Categorise pages with categories defined in the language instance of WikiEducator. This does not preclude defining a category which uses a foreign language word (e.g. French language course on German wikipedia might define a Category: français).
- Although (possibly a pro?): the policy might end up being really simple and minimal:
- A "Policy" might seem restrictive to some users.
Guidelines only:[edit]
Pros[edit]
- These would undoubtedly be useful.
Cons[edit]
- Not as strong a statement as backing them up with a policy
- without a policy we may end up with a mess (e.g. proliferation of foreign language pages on a particular language instance of WikiEducator).
Let's have a policy. I think it's important to send a strong message that we support the ability of educators to participate in their own language. I remember when I was at the iSummit in 2007, this came up from non-native speakers over and over again.
I think I'm with Steve in that if the idea is about encouraging localisation and instructing members on how to use it, it should be a policy that includes things like how to get one, and what sort of resources should be localised (for instance, a French teacher starts a resource in English, but wants some documents in French. Maybe the French documents should be in the French localisation?).
