When I create a new Web application I usually try to implement translation right from the start. For example as the Swiss blogosphere has four significant languages, I translated both the blog list and the Swiss weblog statistics. The list is available in English, German and French (thanks to Jérôme for the French translation!) and the Stats are available in German and English so far. I’d like both applications to be translated into more languages. And potentially other future applications as well.
So I’m proposing a simple small “project”: a contact point for translators. I want to collect some addresses of people who are willing to provide translations for free - for free applications of course. This would be used only for projects in the Swiss blogosphere (blogug.ch for example or swissblogs.com once that rock starts rolling again).
If you are willing and able to provide translations between German, English, Italian or French (pick two or more ;-) please contact me with a list of your languages and I’ll note you. I’ll just keep you in my personal address book, so your name and address won’t be made public. And I won’t spam you, honest!
If you need a translation, also contact me and I will forward your project to everyone who has announced willingness to translate between the required languages.
There is no commitment for the translators. So they can decide every time if they have time for that translation or not.
That’s basically a braindump of an idea I just had. So what do you think? Is the idea sensible or complete rubbish?