[theforum] internationalizsation

[ekm at seastorm.com]

re: languages.  I think, let's move forward on planning for
internationalization, at least until we get stuck somewhere.  Such as, how
can drupal handle this kind of effort.

I learned a lot at my little panel discussion.  Trying to get the panel
coordinator to cowrite an article w/ me... I believe the current jargon is
"localization."

The idea is a lot like progressive enhancement.  Concept of starting with
a "base site" (*not* an "English" or "American" site.)  Then your subsites
are localized.  This is how it was presented from a biz standpoint and IMO
makes more sense than turning evolt.org into a tower of babel.

A few things are immediately obvious:

1. languange != culture
2. language != nationality
3. we have to start somewhere and move out

It would be retarded (do you use that term in the UK?) to translate
evolt.org into Dutch first thing.

Smarter would be the languages that have greater numbers / more rapid
penetration rates:

- Chinese
- Spanish
- Arabic

off the top... there are stats for this out there somewhere...

Spanish, for example, is its own can of worms.  Castillian? Mexican?
Argentinian?  But these are challenges that if we can face at evolt, will
put us ahead of the game in professional life (well, I'm thinking of
myself here.)

I'm very intrigued by (I forgot his name... he had the girlfriend he was
doing business with... in China) and have thoughts of trying to recruit
him into admin.

Erika

PS I asked the author of the recent article about writing in Dutch; he
wanted to write in English.  He did great... yet I spent the better part
of a Saturday editing his piece for flow.