[wg-e] partial results

[Bill Washburn <bill@realnames.com>]

Dear all--

    Thanks for the replies received thusfar.

 

Question #1 - With respect to the question of, "In which languages should ballots and other 'official materials' appear?"  I have seen suggestions for the following languages:

    Arabic    - official UN language

    Chinese    - official UN language

    English    - official UN language

    French    - official UN language

    Japanese   

    Russian    - official UN language

    Spanish    - official UN language

 

plus ...  "...one of these indigenous African languages: Swahili, hausa, twi, zulu, xosa, yuroba."

 

plus... "...Bahasa Indonesia/Bahasa Melayu."

 

plus ... "...other widely used languages, in particular if they are important at a regional level."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Question #2 - The second question...  how to envision routine translation?

 

    Professionally translate into the "primary" languages.  Coordinate volunteer translation into additional languages.  Involve colleges and universites to get volunteers - utilize the ccTLD administrators to find translators.

 

    An alternative would be the use of EU and/or WIPO to do professional translation.  Both organizations have the additional advantage of having the wherewithall to certify their translations as official.

 

    An important distinction was drawn--it seems to me--between "official documents" that must be officially translated and the other documents which ICANN might be well advised to classify in some other way, such as background material.  Were this concept embraced within the ICANN culture, then it might be more feasible to rely on volunteer, "gist" translations for most documents and require official translation of only a quite limited set of materials.

 

    Also, there is the matter of a headquarters-centric model of operation vis a vis a distributed model of operation--with respect to language translation, at least.  Again an excellent question, I believe.  Indeed, this may be an issue on which Working Group E becomes strongly active, if we believe that the distributed model offers better outreach and awareness development capabilities. 

 

   

 

 

Question #3 -   What to do with the question of legal or official translation requirements   

 

    ICANN must see official translation as a necessarily limited and UN-like requirement.  It will have to be performed by professionals, it must be limited in number, and it will be quite expensive. 

 

    Incorporate (where possible) the concept of translating merely the "gist" of some materials and marketing as such. 

 

 

 

 

 

Other questions that come to mind.  .......

 

cheers, bill

 

 

 

    A.  Would our working group E members recommend that the ICANN web site be done in ALL the same languages in which the membership at large election ballot was made available?