Moving Forward with the Linguistic Team

[Ray (Gman)]

Hi everyone,
I apologize for the delay in getting out all of the information that
you need to really get started here, but we were not warned that
Peter's request email was going to be sent out to the 430,000+ ZM
newsletter membership and, even if we had been, would never have
expected over 2,000 volunteers to show up in less than a week. It
would be an incredible understatement to say that we were not quite
prepared for all of this. lol

I am now going around to all of the language teams to spread some
initial Linguistic Team info on how all of this works. As Jacque
likes to say, "If you don't understand something I say, question it."
But please don't be too quick to jump too far ahead of the topic being
discussed. There are a lot of different aspects to the overall global
LingTeam approach and too many advanced questions will likely confuse
those who need to focus on learning the basics. We will dig into all
of these aspects within the next few weeks, so please be patient with
me as I've never before tried to address over 2,000 people across
nearly 100 email groups before. Any questions you do wish to ask are
very likely to be shared by members of other teams, too. For this
reason, I am asking that you ask them over the Int'l email group (see
below for link) or bring them to the Linguistic Team meetings on
Saturdays, where there will be Q&A sessions following the main event
for that week (again, see below for link). ;)


The first thing I should share is the communication system that has
emerged since the LingTeam was started.

I will further explain any of these in more detail if/as they come up
in replies to this post. For now, I will simply provide you with a
short description and link to the others that you currently have at
your disposal.


1. You are already within one of the main methods we use to
communicate. This email group belongs to you and your teammates here
and is specific to this language team. Hopefully, it will allow all
of you to eventually form a kind of 'kinship' or 'family atmosphere'
where the collaborative nature of the LingTeam can flourish. In time,
you will likely discover that some members are really good at certain
things (punctuation, for example) and will develop into one of the
'team experts' that many others turn to when they are not sure of
something. Developing this kind of internal 'tech support' is
essential to any successful team, regardless of what they are doing
together.

2. Another major source of connection & communication is our
International Linguistic Team meetings, held in a voice chat program
called Teamspeak every Saturday at 19:00 (7 PM) GMT. Each week, I
will take everyone who attends through a different hands-on tutorial
to help you gain access and learn how to use the tools that we have to
help with transcribing, proofreading and translating a wide variety of
Venus Project & Zeitgeist Movement materials. You will find a wiki
tutorial to help you install and set it up at the URL below. The
second link it for a video tutorial that some teams have already
translated. :D

http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/wiki/index.php?title=Teamspeak
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ4c53yadL4

Last week, I covered "Introducing the Linguistic Team to the new
members", by describing the various sub-teams (Transcription Team,
English Proofreading Team, Translation Teams, Translation Proofreading
Teams) and the primary tools that you have here at your disposal
(Pootle, dotSUB, ZMTranscribe, etc.). Since this is information that
all of you should have, here is the link to listen to that meeting.
You should also open up the Text Chat component while you listen so
you can follow along with all that was discussed across both voice and
text. (the second link is to the main 'meetings' page, for reference)

http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/wiki/index.php?title=Linguistic_Team_Meetings/2010-11-20
http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/wiki/index.php?title=Linguistic_Team_Meetings


3. The Int'l Linguistic Team email group
This is the group where most of you arrived. As a result, you may
already be subscribed to it, but rest assured that it does not get the
kind of 'traffic' we've had there recently. Use this for any
questions, issues, suggestions, comments, etc. where the answer is
likely to benefit all language teams. The more we share across the
'borders', the more those borders disappear. :)
http://groups.google.com/group/zm-intl-linguistic-team


4. Some of the tools we use, such as the Linguistic Team forum, wiki,
Pootle, etc. require that you have a valid ZM username/password. If
you are not already a member of the Zeitgeist movement website (not
the same as being on the ZM email list), you can register at the link
below.
http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_user&task=register&Itemid=1905


5. The Linguistic Team Forum
This is where all new projects are announced to the entire Lingteam.
You can then follow &/or contribute to its progression through the
various stages by subscribing to the threads that interest you.
http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_kunena&Itemid=99999&func=showcat&catid=265


6. The LingTeam Wiki
This is a relatively large section of the ZM wiki that's used to
provide members with nearly everything they need to get involved in
almost any aspect of the Linguistic Team. There are somewhere around
200 pages devoted to information about various parts of the global
LingTeam here.
http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/wiki/index.php?title=ZM_Linguistic_Team


Ok, I'll stop there and allow everyone a chance to check out each of
these resources and ask any questions you might have on them before we
move onto the actual programs and translation needs.

Again, I want to stress that if you would like personalized help in
getting yourself set up within the tools, please try to attend the
Teamspeak meeting Saturday at 7PM GMT, since I will be guiding the
entire group through each step needed to become a full Pootle
translation team member. With the exception of just one or two
languages, you will likely have plenty of materials to play with
(translate) by the end of the meeting. :D


Warmest Regards,
Ray (Gman)
Linguistic Team administrator

"The only dumb questions are the ones we fail to ask"