Translation Guide

OMIMO is a family of open, freedom-respecting modules that belongs to everyone in the world, so it’s great to have it in as many languages as possible. All translations are done by volunteers who contact us and offer their help; people like yourself!

How to volunteer

If you don’t see your favortie module in your language, you canvolunteer to translate it. To do so, open the module (e.g., P3.express), and then click on the + sign at the end of the list of language on the header. That shows you the translation page of that module. That page gives you information about the amount of work, process, etc.

Please don’t start any translation before contacting us at info@omimo.org, because other volunteers might be working in the same translation.

Credit

Volunteers who contribute a translation will be credited on the bottom of their translated pages, unless they prefer not to be named. Each name can be hyperlinked to a public profile of the person, such as their LinkedIn profile.

Translations are only attributed to individuals who have contributed, but not to organizations who might be sponsoring them to do so.

Timing

When a module is released, we publish an announcement to invite everyone to contribute translations. At that time, a deadline will be announced and people who volunteer will be asked to wait until that deadline. After the deadline, work starts, and if there’s more than one volunteer for a language, we’ll ask them to work together in a team.

For languages that don’t have any volunteers until the deadline, they will be available to the first person who volunteers at any time in the future.

Team leadership

We don’t force any team structure or leadership model to the teams of volunteers. After all, all volunteers usualy work in the management of project ecosystems and should be able to decide how to manage their volunteer work.

That being said, the feedback from previous teams suggests that it works best when volunteers elect a person as the team lead as soon as they begin their work.

Conflicts in the team

If the volunteers in a translation team have conflicts they can’t solve, we encourage them to contact us and we’ll try to facilitate the resolution of their conflict.

New volunteers

In the initial translation stage after the release, anyone who volunteers before the deadline has the right to be part of the team. This ensures that everyone has the opportunity to be a contributor.

When there’s a new volunteer for a translation that’s already started (after the initial deadline):

• If it’s been less than 3 months after the deadline, the existing volunteer(s) can decide whether or not they want to have the new volunteer in the team.
• If it’s been more than 3 months after the deadline, we’ll check it with the original volunteer(s) to see whether they can finish the work, and if not, we’ll transfer the responsibility to the new volunteer.

Revisions

If any individual believes that a certain translation can be improved,

• First, it’s best for the individual to contact the original translators and convince them to adjust the translation.
• If the previous option wasn’t possible or didn’t create a satisfactory result, the individual can contact us.

When we’re contacted,

• First, we’ll ask permission to connect the two sides and let them discuss the improvements and make a decision.
• If one party wasn’t able or willing to participate, the opinion of the other party will be accepted.
• If the two parties couldn’t agree, we’ll find a third party to evaluate the idea and make the final decision.

Translation of the core

Besides the modules, there’s also some content at the core of OMIMO, such as its landscape. Normally, the first time a module is translated to a certain language, the volunteers are asked to translate the core content as well. If you’re asked to do so, you can do so using the core translation package.

The core translation package is about 800 words, which is equivalent to nearly 2 pages of standard text.