This post is about a proposal to provide language support to The Graph ecosystem.
Abstract
We propose creation of language specific communities in the Graph AdvocatesDAO discord server, in which ecosystem participants can cooperate to establish, enlarge or invigorate language specific communities inside and outside the Graph AdvocatesDAO discord server.
Motivation
This proposal aims to make The Graph ecosystem more inclusive by providing language support to non-English speakers. Roughly 5% of earth’s population are native English speakers, and ~19% of earth’s population speak English to some degree. Looking at these statistics, and considering the increasing demand for language support by current Graph advocates, we believe it is time to start providing language support.
Within the advocates program and AdvocatesDAO, we have a great number of bilingual members. A few members have expressed their willingness to oversee language specific communities, and help bridge the existing language barrier. By working together with these members, and other ecosystem participants, we will provide a framework for evolving into a multilingual ecosystem.
Proposal
We propose the language support team will start cooperating with AdvocatesDAO members, Graph Advocates, and other ecosystem participants, to create a language support system within the Graph ecosystem. To make sure the language support system is of utmost quality, we propose a 4-staged framework.
Stage 1: Discovery
In the discovery stage, the language support team will identify the need of language support for a specific language. The language support team will then establish communication with AdvocatesDAO members and Graph advocates that are fluent in this specific language, to create a working group.
Once the members of this working group include at least one active AdvocatesDAO member fluent in that language and committed to supporting that language, a language specific channel will be created in Discord. This channel will only be visible to members of the Advocates program, and the language spoken in this channel will be English. In this channel, the working group will start building a framework for language support. They will do so by doing groundwork.
To advance to the groundwork stage, the AdvocatesDAO member(s), and Graph Advocate(s) will both have to speak English in this stage, while it is not necessary for them to speak the specific language.
Stage 2: Groundwork
In the groundwork stage, the working group will increase their capacity to provide language support by recruiting new members. They can do so by recruiting AdvocatesDAO members and/or Graph Advocates, or by encouraging other ecosystem participants to apply to the Advocates program.
Once this working group has a total of at least 5 active members consisting of at least one (or more) actively supporting AdvocatesDAO member(s) and Graph Advocate(s), a second, public language channel will be created in discord. In this channel, the working group will provide partial language support to the broader ecosystem. In this channel, the language spoken does not have to be English.
To advance to the Partial Language Support stage, the AdvocatesDAO member(s), and Graph Advocates will have to speak both English and the specific language.
Stage 3: Partial Language Support
In this stage the working group will:
- Increase capacity
- Encourage language specific contributions
- Answer questions about the Graph ecosystem
- Coordinate translations of blogposts, educational material, documents & questionnaires
To advance to the Full Language Support stage the working group must have:
- A total of at least 25 members consisting of AdvocatesDAO members and Graph Advocates, including at least 10 AdvocatesDAO members.
- Completed, and approved, translation of advocates program documents, questionnaires & workflows.
- Full support of the text translation team
- Detailed proposal on the forum, containing: Description of the need for full language support in this language, motivational letter, showcase of “stage 3” activities, and list of actively supporting AdvocatesDAO members and graph advocates.
- One forum poll with majority approval, voted on by the community, for full language support of this language.
- One forum poll with majority approval, voted on by the AdvocatesDAO members, for financial support of this language community.
Stage 4: Full Language Support
In this stage the working group will:
- Continuously translate text.
- Create, merge, or strengthen language specific communities across most favorable platforms.
- Process non-English advocate program applications by doing initial reviews.
- Conduct non-English advocate interviews or assign interpreters to non-English interviews.
We propose, by looking at demand and capacity, to start building a framework for language support in the following languages:
Stage 2: Groundwork - Spanish, Chinese & Dutch
Stage 1: Discovery - Russian & Ukrainian
Please let us know your thoughts on this proposal! As this proposal is fairly complex, any suggestions would be highly appreciated!
Kind regards,
The language support team | Julianna, Lorena & Colson