Re: Translations for schema.org?

Yes thanks for raising this.

There are a few interconnected aspects to this:

*The Schema.org UI*
This could be made multilingual - menu items, labels, home page text, etc.
Could add a language selector

*Documentation*
About page, FAQs, Getting Started, Style Guide, Developers, Extensions
(Hotels, Auto, etc.), etc.
Translated versions could be produced.

*Term Definitions*
As Adolfo noted, language tagged versions of the rdfs:comment value could
provided the translations needed.
Also, although the term labels should remain English as they map to the
term URI value, potentially language specific qualifiers for common terms
could be added.


There a few ways the above could be achieved technically but all require
either development and/or translation efforts.

The UI capability should be achievable, translations of labels a one off
task per language.  Documentation again a one off task per language - I do
share Dan’s concerns about future maintainability.

Language tagged definitions (rdfs:comment) for terms in principle is a
simplest task.  However, we currently have approximately 2.3k terms that
potentially need translations, for each language.  We could start with
‘common terms’ but where do with draw the line between common and uncommon?

I think it would be great if we could move forward on this.  However, even
when the site and the infrastructure behind it has been enabled to
facilitate this, there will be needed significant efforts from those
enthusiastic to see a version of Schema.org documentation in their language
of choice.

One off the wall thought - is something like Google Translate good enough
now to provided ‘acceptable’ translations in the context of Schema.org term
definitions to provided at least a start?

~Richard.


On 8 Nov 2021 at 07:34:53, Arthur Radulescu <chiefra@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> I can also contribute with the Romanian translation if this project gets
> started.
> Please let me know if we can put up some directions on where and how to
> start doing this.
> Thanks,
> Arthur Radulescu
>
> On Sat, Nov 6, 2021 at 10:08 PM Dan Brickley <danbri@google.com> wrote:
>
>> On Sat, 6 Nov 2021 at 16:39, Christopher Walz <
>> christopher@seo-vergleich.de> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I have been visiting the schema.org site many times in the last years
>>> (probably too many times) and sometimes I am still wondering if there
>>> are any plans to offer all the information in different languages as
>>> well. Is there any intention to tackle this issue?
>>>
>>> Some of my colleagues and friends in web dev, who are less comfortable
>>> with the English language, have been mentioning the same thought quite a
>>> few times, since they didn't understand every explanation.
>>>
>>> Couldn't we use GitHub to localize languages by the community, since the
>>> data is already on there?
>>> I'm looking forward to any progress in this direction. Thanks!
>>>
>>
>> Thanks for raising this. It would be great to do a better job for the
>> non-English speaking world here. There are high level documents like the
>> (rather out of date) "quick start guide", the FAQ, the releases page, and
>> blog posts; and then there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of
>> definitions. I am cautious of trying to translate everything, and keep
>> everything up to date, ... but that does not mean we shouldn't try to
>> improve things.
>>
>> Perhaps we can make a start with some of the high level materials, and
>> with definitions for the most important types, e.g. Event, Person, Place,
>> Organization, LocalBusiness, Offer, ...? Even if we just did those and the
>> properties that link them, it could help non English speakers get a better
>> understanding for the approach.
>>
>> Also if there are any particular definitions that your contacts are
>> having trouble with, ... it may be also that English speakers have similar
>> trouble. Definitions could be clarified, and our use of English made more
>> careful and simpler...
>>
>> Dan
>>
>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Christopher Walz
>>> Mail: christopher@seo-vergleich.de
>>> https://www.seo-vergleich.de
>>>
>>>

-- 
Richard Wallis
Founder, Data Liberate
http://dataliberate.com
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/richardwallis
Twitter: @dataliberate @rjw