Re: Helping Non-English Speaking Developers Contribute to the HTMLWG

Hi Kobi,

Local communities are essential to the work of W3C. It helps to get  
appropriate feedback on issues that could have been missed.

Le 16 juin 2008 à 03:43, Kobi Haddad a écrit :
> Briefly, I think that developers here in Israel can help and give an  
> insight on the development in a few ways.:
> 1. Because Hebrew, like Arab are languages which are written right  
> to left instead of left to right, there are issues which are not  
> totally resolved when working on websites in these languages  
> (<label> for example).

We have tight cooperation with arabic and hebrew speakers through  
Internationalization (I18N) liaisons.

For all things related to I18N, I would recommend the following W3C  
blog.

Internationalization Activity.
http://www.w3.org/International/

Richard Ishida is very active and has built a lot of materials around  
Web technologies. For example, around bi-directionality of texts

Bidi Topic
http://www.w3.org/International/resource-index?topic=bidi

> 2. There is a growing web dev community in Israel. I execute web  
> development conventions in Israel, and I know of developers which  
> would like to contribute to the project.

There are not many translations of W3C Specifications in Hebrew
http://www.w3.org/2005/11/Translations/Lists/ListLang-he.html

for example compared to French
http://www.w3.org/2005/11/Translations/Lists/ListLang-fr.html

That's an area clearly where this is a need, except if the Hebrew  
speaking community is fluent in English.


There is also a W3C Israel Office and I think that would be worth to  
contact them and start to discuss about possible local actions. Maybe  
at a point, you would like to set up a monthly informal seminar and  
discuss if people of the W3C Israel office want to participate
http://www.w3c.org.il/



> 3. Israeli internet is starting to gather Standards, though the way  
> to accomplishing the mission is long. I think that by building a  
> delegation of the project here in Israel, the contribution and the  
> will to write HTML better will grow.

  More than "building a delegation", it would be easier to look at the  
specification and works on specific issues with regards to it. I can  
think of translations so more Web developers from Israel can read, and  
then give an opinion.
Implementing some parts of the specification. For example there is a  
parsing algorithm which has ruby and python opensource implementation.  
That would be to have other languages.


> I think that the next step should be a website, which will be the  
> delegation of the project in Israel. From that website, we can call  
> developers to sign, and try to see where it takes us.

One way to gather your local communities is to use a Web site like  
barcamp. It will give you a few tools, and kick start your community.  
It takes time.

BarCamp
http://barcamp.org/

Depending on the area and the topics of interests, there are also  
plenty of mailing lists at W3C. But sometimes it will be hardcore, it  
really depends on the list and the community
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/

We have also a blog where we are happy to answer some of your  
questions and engage with the community.
W3C Questions and Answers blog
http://www.w3.org/QA/

>


I hope this helps you to start where to look at.
I'll be happy to know about your progress and difficulties when  
starting the community locally in Israel.

Best Regards.


-- 
Karl Dubost - W3C
http://www.w3.org/QA/
Be Strict To Be Cool

Received on Monday, 16 June 2008 09:55:37 UTC