[WSIS CS-Plenary] Translation

[karen banks]

dear all

and particularly _secretariat general <anut_togo at yahoo.fr>_ (i'm sorry, but 
you haven't signed your message with your name)

We all know that translation is a huge barrier to effective communication 
and information sharing, but we simply can't translate every message.

When i say 'we' i am talking about 'us'. Most of us are working voluntarily 
on WSIS work, there are no resources for translation, and we rely on the 
good will and efforts of those amongst us who generously offer their time 
and effort.

So, as we can't translate every message, we need to agree what messages we 
should try to translate.  Being realistic, i think that we can only attempt 
to translate messages which are of benefit to the maximum number of 
participants on this list.

A priority is to translate general information messages which participants 
need to facilitate their participation in the WSIS process. This could 
include important messages from the Civil Society Division, the civil 
society bureau, and the content and themes concencus documents.

If people feel a message they have sent to the list is of general 
interest/importance to many on the list, they should request translation 
and we can send it to the translation team. At this point, i don't think we 
can ask for more of the volunteers.

In addition, we could all try to ensure that messages we send to this list, 
are written in plain, user friendly, english, do not include 'jargon', 
'colloqial' terms, accronyms, do not include long 'reply-quote' sections etc.

Also, we might want to come up with some general guidelines as to what 
information we do share on this list, and what information might be more 
appropriately shared in other spaces.

Any other suggestions or ideas welcome.

I will ask the translation team to translate this message. I will also see 
if we can find more french volunteer translators, as we have few.

karen