User:Contraexemplo/Outreachy/Daily notes/January 2018

Changing phases
We're finally reaching the initial outreach phase. Even though it was highly antecipated by me, it is still quite unsettling. As we approach the moment to put to practice everything I have learned and thought about, I begin to notice the weight of my responsability as an Outreachy intern and I am quite nervous about it. One of the questions going through my mind now is: how much room for failure do I have? Even better: how can I actually measure success or failure?

Anyway, let's talk about strategies.

Punctual, immediate, but effective: Translathon and Translation Rally
One month ago, as I asked about good initiatives made towards translation efforts and Benoît mentioned Translation marathons. Here are some tasks about them on Phabricator: T91108, T132468. Related pages on translatewiki: translatewiki:Project:VisualEditor/2015 Translathon.

The number of people that worked on them is remarkable and the progress they made, impressive.

Since one of the ways to promote values and good initiatives in Wikimedia projects is publishing a blog post, I decided to take a look into what was written about translations in the last seven years or so. One post caught my attention: A translation rally invites volunteers to localize technical messages for MediaWiki software. According to it, they had a financial incentive: they divided 450 EUR between those translators who met the goal, with a 50 EUR bonus for the person with more translations. As translatewiki:Project:Rally-2015-05 states, 27 people participated and the bounty was 21.74 EUR per person.

Of course, this is not a long-term fix to the translation problem. But it is a fine solution to accomplish short-term goals and brings the community together. For now, I am considering planning one, but this needs to be discussed with Johan and Benoît first.

Common reason
I began to interview some FLOSS translators and noticed their motives to contribute are more or less the same:
 * 1) They want to improve the translation. They spotted some mistakes and wanted to make it better.
 * 2) They believe knowledge and technology should be more accessible.

Motive #2 is especially good for Wikimedia Foundation since one of its core values is open knowledge. And here is how things need to be framed so people relate the benefit of translated user guides with open knowledge: when more people are able to understand the tools they are using, more people are able to contribute.

Call for translators
I mentioned yesterday I am interviewing translators but I did not state why and how. My bad.

I am trying to calibrate my expectations and plans for this phase with experiences from other people. I am making a call for volunteer translators on Twitter and on Mastodon to ask them about their motives, why they volunteered (or are still volunteering) and what they think are some of the greatest barriers for newcomers. After reading logs. documentation and knowing more about the history of Wikimedia Foundation and its projects, I, of course, have some hypotheses. But it's a good general practice to speak with others and see how closer I am to the truth.

I didn't make this last month because a lot of people were inactive due the holidays and I thought it was better to have my own opinions before asking for external insight. Therefore, I wanted to avoid being influenced, as Benoît warned me some people tend to be quite passionate about their point of view.

I considered making a survey (and I am still open to this option) but for now, it's been quite effective to have conversations with translators directly. People who work with translations are really diverse and talking to them is giving me the opportunity to understand some nuances. I also thought about using the Translators mailing list to make the same call since I noticed people work on other projects but I am not sure if it's a good idea.

First interview
Respondent: EN-NO translator.

Background: Had a small translation business. Today, translates FLOSS projects as a hobby.


 * Started translating some years ago. Their first contributions were made on a project that isn't open-source. Over time, as a FLOSS user, ended up contributing with other projects.
 * Encouragement for first steps: "So many open source projects have bad translations. I wanted to fix that."
 * Motivation: "Making FLOSS accessible to a wider spectrum of users."

Second interview
Respondent: EN-PT-BR translator.

Background: FOSS user first, started contributing translating softwares they use.


 * Encouragement for first steps: Again, fixing bad translations. "Because of this I am used to using everything in English, but I know it's a privilege. It's inaccessible for a lot of people [to use softwares in English] and their access gets compromised [because of bad translations] (I mean, when there are translations, right?). When I noticed I could contribute as a translator, I didn't hesitate".
 * Barriers for newcomers: They said using GitHub directly is complicated and praised solutions involving web-based applications.
 * Attribution and recognition is an important aspect for them.

Third interview
Respondent: Professional translator and reviewer.

Background: Voluntarily translated an article for an advisor one time but never thought about doing it again under other circumstances.


 * Why? "I think I thought it wouldn't make a difference for people".
 * This is one of my concerns. People need a reason that resonates with their values. I've been thinking about this for quite a while — why should people worry about translating user guides? Why people look for them in first place? Who uses them?
 * They were keen to contribute with Wikipedia but never actually did. I asked if they thought it was a hostile environment and if this played a role in never effectively contributing. They said no, what really affected them was their insecurities. They were afraid of writing something wrong and ending up being a disturbance.
 * This reminded me of Benoît's presentation and my own anxiety as I marked commons:Commons:Structured data/About for translation in my training. I feel like the fact that anyone is capable of editing wikis is often framed as downside when it can be a benefit. "It is a wiki". Errors can be fixed, bad content can be improved. There are not only two options (success or failure) and maybe we need to make a better work reassuring people about this — especially newcomers.
 * "I remember that, when I tried to understand how to begin contributing, I found the environment a bit confusing. It wasn't a intuitive plaftform".
 * This isn't new. When I did a preliminary survey last year as I applying for Outreachy, some respondents told me the same thing. This is also something both my mentors are aware since I mentioned it a couple of times in past meetings.
 * I asked: "What can be done to welcome better those who want to help?". They answered: "Creating tutorials, moreover with videos, showing step by step [of how to contribute]. (...) It's really tiring to read extensive documentation. We usually think it's going to be easier and more practical — get there, log in and just translate things or contribute with content in our mother tongue already."
 * Here is a really interesting question: are we producing user guides the right way — the way users want?

Fourth interview
Respondent: Senior lecturer.

Background: Volunteer translations for UN and NGOs (punctual contributions).


 * Involvement with translation: Was a kind of liaison for UN at a university in New York, met a person who assigned them to do a gig as a volunteer interpreter in an event. This person put them in contact with NGOs, for whom they provided translations for a while.
 * First motivations for doing this: Meeting new people, networking, having the opportunity to test their skills with foreign languages.
 * Later discovered UN has a site for volunteer translations and signed up. Worked in some punctual requests. Later, helped a student strike in Canada and now is assisting a educational project in Montreal.
 * Motivation now: "I think I do this for my ideals rather than networking" since they don't work professionally with translations.
 * Do you think that making this type of work had a positive impact in your professional life? "I think so. Not much for my resumé or for the perception of possible employers (I don't think they care in my case) but I think this experience changed the way I see the institutions I worked (...) it's also good to have experience in a field a little different from mine." If needed, they said, they can prove they have experience as a translator.
 * UN online volunteering has a system in which you sign up with a basic profile. You were rated and you can rated your experience as well. Their platform also issued certificates.
 * "The accessibility aspect [of translation] needs to be brought to light. I think this is a good argument to motivate people." Having the opportunity to make something important accessible in other language is important to them.

Analysing data from pageviews
Benoît showed me Pageview Analysis today when I asked him about data concerning user guides. I am positive this is going to help me answer some questions:
 * 1) What are the most popular user guides?
 * 2) What do they have in common?
 * 3) What are the least popular ones?

How could this information be helpful, you may ask. Here are my answers:
 * 1) Pointing out which pages need more priority based on their popularity.
 * 2) Helping me identify who usually looks for information on user guides (editors, admins?).

Thoughts on promotion
It might be a good idea to...
 * 1) ... talk about open knowledge and how Wikimedia projects help this happen. (Though it is ideology heavy, may not be the best for a wider approach)
 * 2) ... explain what MediaWiki is and why it's important.
 * 3) ... speak about the importance of user guides.
 * 4) ... cite projects of impact to help people understand who they are helping?

Other important ideas:
 * 1) The contribution process is easy once you get used to it. And it's fun!
 * 2) "It is a wiki", people don't need to be afraid of contributing or making mistakes. Nothing is permanent.
 * 3) If you have a good understand of English and is interested in contributing to FOSS, it's a great and accessible way to begin doing so. (Programming related contributions usually cause more distress on newcomers)

Fifth interview
Respondent: Professional translator.

Background: Began with general translation from 2011 to 2013; works with audiovisual content since then. As a volunteer, works on subtitles for YouTube channels.


 * What makes you dedicate time to volunteer translation since you already work with it professionally? "The importance of the content those channels create, especially to the Brazilian public. (...) The more people with access to this kind of content, the better. It's good to feel I can play a role to make it happen."
 * "I didn't encountered any barriers to do volunteer work, but I think this need is not well publicized."
 * "I think projects and products need to make people aware of their needs. Another possibility [for promotion] is engaging with translators communities, but I understand this kind of spaces and groups end up hidden in the internet."
 * Mentioned Abrates (Brazilian Association of Translators).

Sixth interview
Respondent: EN-HI translator.

Background: Active contributor in FOSS projects since last year.


 * Motivation: "I want my country to receive equal opportunity to online content, that's why." (+ Attribution/recognition)
 * Contributed with coding as well.
 * Contributing using git was also said to be difficult, especially when you are a newcomer.
 * Believes small projects are a better opportunity to newcomers than big ones. Reason: better support, fast response, approval of changes are quickier.
 * An active and supportive community is considered to be important.

Revisiting "What motivates Wikipedians?"
I decided to read again all the articles and texts I gathered about volunteering and contributing to FOSS projects. And once again, one of the most relevant reads was "What motivates Wikipedians?". It was really interesting to re-read this after speding a month working with Wikimedia Foundation.

Here is something I've forgotten and it's really relevant (I even forgot to mention this on my project proposal, I can't believe it!):

"Fun motivation is a case where there is both high ranking of the motivation and a strong, significant correlation between motivation and contribution levels, and therefore it would make sense for organizers of user-generated content outlets to focus marketing, recruitment, and retention efforts by highlighting the fun aspects of contributing."

This leads me towards organizing a Translathon. I suspect the fact it was a fun activity made people get more involved and produce such great results.

Another interesting thing:

"One area to explore is women’s contribution to Wikipedia. Women represent only 7.3% of the survey respondents, and therefore most of the analysis of the differences between men and women responses is not statistically significant. Some differences, however, seem to be apparent: women are relatively newer to Wikipedia contribution (1.77 vs. 2.34 years of contribution, on average) and spend more time contributing (11.46 vs. 8.02 hours a week, on average). The latter difference cannot be explained by the former, as no correlation was found between experience and contribution. This may suggest that as more women become Wikipedia contributors, average contribution levels increases."

I was talking with an intern from Debian about this and she suggested taking this route and looking for groups for minorities in technology to help us. That's actually one of the reasons I chose to interview translators rather than survey: I am connecting with people. I am listening to their stories. I am aware a small number of people can make a difference. As we ended our conversations, a lot of them offered their help. This is, in my opinion, way more precious than lots of data and no human interaction.

Help:Contents Pageviews
Maybe I am having more fun than I imagined messing around with pageviews stats. I admit I made some mistakes which led me to waste some time asking myself (and my mentors) what was going on but I guess it's all part of the process of learning.

I know this is not new because it's the reason I'm here but the data on pageviews is actually really reassuring to me because it shows how much attention those pages need. Of course, Help:Contents in English gets visited way more than those in other languages, there's a massive difference between those statistics. We are talking about 100+ times more.

Frankly, having such a great difference between them actually works in our favor. It makes it more clear that we need help.

Seventh interview
Respondent: PT-BR translator.

Background: Debian translator.


 * Began to contribute because they were a user for some years and wanted to thank the community somehow.
 * Barriers:
 * 1) Finding out where/how to contribute.
 * 2) Knowing the project's workflow.
 * Never had formal training. Watched some talks made by people from the translation team and voiced their doubts through their mailing list.
 * What makes they stay: Debian has a clear purpose. The community behind the project. The satisfaction when you contribute to the project's improvement.
 * What things FOSS projects need to improve to recruit more contributors? "I believe most [FOSS] projects doesn't make it explicit the ways you can contribute to them, even those roles that involve programming. In Debian, a lot of people begin to contribute through translations because the workflow is simplier [and] doesn't require much dedicated time. I see in other projects that yes, translation is often the gateway [for new contributors]."

Eighth interview
Respondent: PT-BR translator.

Background: Translation in a bunch of projects, most known are GNU.org, GNOME and Translation Project.

Personal experience

 * Began contributing with software packaging. Noticed one of the softwares they packaged, PCSX2, didn't have a PT-BR translation. Ended up working on its translation and got involved with other projects like GNOME, GNU.org and Translation Project.
 * "What most encouraged me to translate those softwares was [the fact that] they were softwares I used (or, at least, I had interest in their cause) and a translation wasn't available or incomplete. As I saw that translations was something with I could contribute, I began to get more involved to improve that situation."
 * "I encountered multiple difficulties [at first]. The most simple of them was finding the best translation to each technical term in [their] specific context - this gets easier as soon you get more experienced. The lack of active people in the communities was also something that hampared [my progress] at certain point, because it was difficult to know what was the best form to act in accordance to the team's [work] culture, it makes it difficult to know whether I am following the right procedures to contribute to the project."
 * "Another problem that I consider to be a impacting factor was incomplete documentation or without the proper focus. I dealt with a lot of doubts other translation also had and this would be easily solved with the documentation of frequently asked questions'. I am also not very good at documenting things so this is something I can't help with."
 * Didn't have formal training. "I got my knowledge from experience (trial and error), following mailing lists, searching in the web for past e-mails (for instance, LPD-BR had really interesting discussions about standardization) and occasionaly talking to other people."
 * Contributing to FOSS projects have a positive impact in their professional life. "... the practice of writing bug reports taught me, in work, to describe problems with [more information] and more proper details, more clearly and objectively, as well as suggesting a solution." They also told me about how this type of contribution helped them understand better other softwares and its functionalities.
 * "[Translation] might be the most accessible way to contribute, but it depends of some things. If the person doesn't have the ability to/interest in coding, look for bugs or contributing as a designer, yes, it's a good way. Even if they don't know English, they can help looking for grammatical errors and bringing attention to them."

How to welcome newcomers

 * "I believe that a potential contributor meets a community looking for information that directs them to the best and correct way to contribute according to the community terms and, for that, this contributor needs to understand what are the procedures, URLs, terminologies, translation principles, etc." So, to welcome a newcomer, you need: (1) proper documentation and/or (2) a welcoming and active community (ideally both).
 * "Short instructive videos, coupled with written documentation, would be a great way to reach more potential contributors."
 * "Having active and welcoming members of the community willing to answer questions [from newcomers], in my opinion, is the best way to welcome new contributors."

Biggest challenges in FOSS translation

 * 1) Finding a good contribution system. "The more difficult and 'geek' to the translator to participate, the bigger the filter of contribution." In other words, the dropout rate increases as the difficulty for contribution increases.
 * 2) Incomplete or outdated documentation. According to them, people tend to look for information before asking for help so they aren't seen as a "help vampire". Outdated documentation leaves the impression of abandoned work. If documentation doesn't address the most important subjects or is superficial, you may end up with more questions than answers.
 * 3) Lack of coordenation of the translation efforts. Efforts in less important parts of the project or that makes people translate the same things over and over again end up disturbing those translation efforts. "Especially if a translation is made incorrectly" (whether the term is translated wrong or the translation doesn't properly express the idea), "without review or proper direction".
 * 4) Bad internationalization (or lack of).