Better language identification +4
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.
Comments (1 - 5 of 5)
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Flag comment for removal bvatant about 1 month ago
Why not use the ISO codes internally? FYI I maintain a resource about identification and naming of languages for the Semantic Web. See http://www.lingvoj.org
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An excellent idea, and as we develop more ways to take advantage of the information tucked into our database, language is certainly one of the more useful options to filter by.
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Sounds like we should add the language dropdown for Groups - following Arash's input below.
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All of the entity creation pages, with the exception of Groups, have a 'Language' dropdown with a list of the most common languages. We don't currently use this to drive any functionality on the site, but the idea is to provide translations for all of the user interface elements on the site, like field labels, section headings, etc..., and then allow people to browse the site in their preferred language. Once we have translations, we'll put a 'Preferred Language' field on the user profile or get the user's language from their browser so that we can display things in their preferred language.
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While the 'I speak' is quite cute as an open field - it's true that it doesn't give users the ability to search people based on their language skills. So I think we should really make that a dropdown menu as well as the resources and groups. The same goes for the 'We speak' field on the org profile as well i.e. it should be a dropdown too. |
