• More on the l10n server

    January 12th, 2007 by seth bindernagel with 3 comments »

    Recently, the community program proposed, and members of Mozilla’s senior staff agreed that we should provide a server to the l10n community, to be housed in the new colo facility that was recently set up in Amsterdam. Here are some suggested ideas of use:

    1) It’s voluntary and for those who need or want to use it. To help provide support, we will create an “l10n-server-admin” alias that will be administered by a Mozilla volunteer contributor. This will help with any server issues, requests, and ongoing management for the initial list of participants. To get an account on the server, please file a bug on bugzilla, assign a request to Reed Loden, and list Axel Hecht, Chris Hofmann, and Seth Bindernagel on the CC list.

    2) File storage and sharing — this server can become a central place for contributors to store files. If something were to happen to a contributor’s work (system crash, a volunteer leaves the project, etc.), the files will be backed up on the server. In a way, this server will create institutional knowledge for the project. The community server might also allow contributors to access universal tools that will help localizers.

    3) Repository for in-process translation work — The server can be used as a sandbox for work that is not ready for “prime time”, but might be ready for review and sharing. Mozilla Development Center or wikimo should still be the service use for development of planning and process documentation.

    What else?? — this is a server for the community, so if new uses or tools can be provided with this server, then it is for the community to suggest and for Mozilla to help implement. Perhaps we can have l10n-labs stuff happening on this new server. Projects that involve bandwidth and some limited computing power can be evaluated here. If you want to offer a web service to other members of the l10n community, this could be the place to see how it works.

    This offer of course does not affect any servers or services localization teams may already be providing. Resource intensive content will need to be evaluated on a case by case basis. Hosting user comments like forums will generally be avoided due to liability problems for Mozilla.

  • Support Update, v.4

    January 8th, 2007 by seth bindernagel with no comments »

    On January 5, we had another meeting to evaluate requests for support by this program. It was a very interesting meeting because we looked at and decided to support ideas that spanned from individuals to bigger programs and institutions.

    Specifically, we decided to upgrade the hardware for two long time contributors to Firefox. We also are going to sponsor some travel for contributors who need assistance to attend the 2007 FOSDEM conference. Finally, we decided to support the Open Source Lab at Oregon State. Over the next few weeks, we’ll finalize a grant to the OSL for ongoing operations.

    This meeting was instrumental because it helped expand the vision for this program. By supporting individuals, we are helping those volunteers who are contributing directly to the Mozilla project. However, with larger grants like the one to OSL, we are finding ways to support ideas and institutions that represent the next layer of community outside of individual contributors. Later this month, I will be giving a 6 month review and description of the vision going forward for this program. Part of that discussion will focus on how we specifically support the layers of individuals, projects, and initiatives that all make up some part of our community.