Problem: At the moment there is no field for language on resources or groups, and an open field (I speak / We speak) on the user profile and org profile. I'm worried that without a structured field the data entry for language will result in bad data entry - is it 'Espanol', 'Español' or 'Spanish' - did I spell Spanish wrong by accident e.g. 'Spnish'. etc. So the search results would miss a whole bunch of content. Also we probably want to be able to accurately tally the content by language to feedback to users and WE editors.

Solution:

One field called 'Language or Principle Language' where you can select from a short list of the world's main languages (based on number of speakers and number of internet/cell phone users - see here for a posting). Field would be called 'Language' for Resources and Solutions and 'Principle Language' for People, Groups, Orgs. This would be a required field. In addition to the short list provide an 'Other' option that allows you to select from the ISO standard list of all the world's languages.

Then maintain the 'I/we speak' field but rename it 'I/We also speak' and have it for not only for People and Orgs but also for Groups (where it currently doesn't exist). This would be an optional field.

This allows both a structured searchable field: 'Language (aka Principle Language)' and an unstructured field: 'We also speak' which should provide the flexibility necessary.