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Proposal: Research into Translational Imbalances
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Description

Profile Information

Name: PATIENCE IRABOR
Time Zone: UTC +1
Zulip: Patience Irabor
Phabricator: Isi_Irabor
Location: Abuja, Nigeria
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patience-irabor-7b7019162/
Email: patienceirabor63@gmail.com
Working Hours: 3pm - 1am UTC +1/I am flexible based on further communication with mentors

Meeting With Mentors
I am available and can be contacted through email, slack or even, google meet depending on the preference of the mentors.

Synopsis
Wikipedia is a free, multilingual, multicultural, online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system called MediaWiki. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read reference work in history. Initially available only in English, versions in other languages were quickly developed. In 2006, Time magazine stated that the policy of allowing anyone to edit had made Wikipedia the "biggest (and perhaps best) encyclopedia in the world".
By comparing the number of translations made between pairs of languages, it is observed that articles from languages with a larger presence on Wiki are being translated into languages with a smaller presence at very high rates. English, specifically, is the source language for a majority of the translations on wikipedia, about 70% of all published translations.This project will focus on researching these imbalances and understanding the reasons behind the same.

Possible mentors
@Simulo @awight

Project

My Contributions
We had several open microtasks that were free for any participant to make a contribution to, based on where your strength lies. I am a UI/UX designer and have some experience with user research and so I made contributions to the user research focused tasks.

Micro Task 1: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T331199

Description:
In this task, I read and reviewed; Graham, Straumann, Hogan. 2015. “Digital Divisions of Labor and Informational Magnetism: Mapping Participation in Wikipedia.” https://doi.org/10.1080/00045608.2015.1072791 (preprint pdf), and write a brief summary in my own words, making informed guesses and hypotheses based on what I read.

Link to my contribution for task 1: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nGi4hwoACZePUBkadYcSeN0XReupkOJzwt8Ccuu1pUU/edit

Micro Task 2: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T331200

Description:
In this task, I found several articles related to translation on google scholar and made a summary in my own words with links to the articles.

Link to my contribution for task 2:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eKuoN2V6_3Mv_pUF2ZJ5TLX9dohwD7-PWEUZjs2QI58/edit#heading=h.ovbcjkz76ijn

Micro Task 3: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T331207

Description:
In this task, I created a survey to try to determine why certain choices are made by translators, such as what language to use for the translation.

Link to my contribution for task 3:
https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/hjFVz4RHT38qJM-mvuLo

Timeline

April 4th -May 4th
•Get more familiar with Wikipedia and the translational imbalances.

May 5th-May 28th
• Community bonding and getting to know the fellow interns and mentors.
• Study how to conduct user research with Wikimedia

May 29th-June 11th (Week 1 & 2)
• Post self-introductory blog
• Gather information about individuals and users to be interviewed.
• Conduct user research and draft a questionnaire for the interview
• Discuss Software experiment with Wikimedia Language Engineering team

June 12th - June 25th (Week 3 & 4)
• "Everybody struggles" blog post
•Prepare questionnaire that will be used for interviewing
• Discuss Software experiment with Wikimedia Language Engineering team

June 26th - July 2nd (Week 5)
• "Think about your audience" blog post
• Find appropriate interview candidates to participate in the research
•Determine if the interviews will be online or in-person
•Set appropriate date and time for the interview to happen according to the comfort level of the candidates

July 3rd - July 16th (Week 6&7)
• "Mid-point project progress blog post
•Conduct interviews
•Record and organise findings from the interviews

July 17th - July 23th (Week 8)
•Get feedback from the Mentors
•Keep up with ongoing research
• Discuss Software experiment with Wikimedia Language Engineering team

July 24th - August 6th (Week 9 & 10)
• "Career opportunities" blog post
• Review the Hypothesis summarised in the microtasks
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T331199
•Test each Hypothesis
•Analyse the Survey responses from the Candidates interviewed.

August 7th - August 13th (Week 11)
• Draft Resume
•Obtain inferences from the user interviews
• Record inferences and important insights from the user interviews
• Discuss Software experiment with Wikimedia Language Engineering team

August 14th - August 25th (Week 12 & 13)
• Conduct follow-up interviews if necessary and record new insights, if they are available
• Conclude research work.
• Final project progress blog post
• Join the Wikimedia's Community and make more contributions

My Deliverables

Weekly Blog posts on my internship progress/experience.
Blog posts about my experience with the open source community and the Wikimedia Foundation.
Regular communication with my mentors and other members at the Wikimedia Community.

About Me

I am a junior UI/UX Designer living in Nigeria. I am trying to get more work experience to get jobs and become financially independent. I have been a UI/UX designer for a year and I learnt user research as part of my training and internship last year and I intend to apply those skills to this project, if I get the chance. I have heard of open source but i have never participated before this project. I do not have any other serious commitments, this will be my main commitment because I am not a student or employed..

Event Timeline

@Simulo @awight Please kindly help go through my proposal for final feedback and review before my final appliaction. Thank you

Hi, thank you for the proposal!

I didn't explain this well in the project overviews but the Wikimedia Language Engineering team is actively working on Content Translation and I would want them to have the final decision about whether to send out a survey, since it affects their users and reflects on their work... For the scope of this internship I think it's very reasonable to do user interviews of course, and we could design a survey which might go out, or some of the questions might be incorporated into a future survey, that sort of thing.

We do have some very preliminary agreement to do a small software experiment, in case you want to fit that into your timeline. Both seem well-suited to your skillsets!

Note also there is some blogging requested by the program, please see https://www.outreachy.org/docs/internship/#blog

Thank you so much for your feedback. I really appreciate it. I will make the necessary edits to the proposal. I would also love to have the opportunity to partake in the experiment, if i do get picked.

  1. Have you ever conducted a software experiment with a team like Wikimedia Language Engineering? a) Yes b) No 2.

    What was the primary goal of the experiment? a) To improve software performance b) To improve software usability c) To introduce a new feature d) Other (please specify) 3.

    What was the duration of the experiment? a) Less than a week b) 1-2 weeks c) 2-4 weeks d) More than 4 weeks 4.

    Which software development methodology did you use for the experiment? a) Waterfall b) Agile c) Hybrid d) Other (please specify) 5.

    How did you collaborate with the Wikimedia Language Engineering team during the experiment? a) Regular meetings and check-ins b) Email communication c) Project management software d) Other (please specify) 6.

    What were some of the challenges you faced during the experiment? a) Technical difficulties b) Communication issues c) Time constraints d) Other (please specify) 7.

    What metrics did you use to measure the success of the experiment? a) User engagement b) User satisfaction c) Performance metrics (e.g. load time, response time) d) Other (please specify) 8.

    Did the experiment lead to any changes or improvements in the Wikimedia Language Engineering team's software development process? a) Yes b) No 9.

    Looking back on the experiment, is there anything you would have done differently? a) Yes b) No 10.

    In your opinion, what are some key considerations to keep in mind when conducting software experiments with a team like Wikimedia Language Engineering? a) Clear goals and objectives b) Effective communication c) Comprehensive testing d) Other (please specify) 11.

    What role do you see software experimentation playing in the future of software development and engineering? a) A crucial role b) A minor role c) No role 12.

    Would you be willing to conduct another software experiment with the Wikimedia Language Engineering team in the future? a) Yes b) No

Feel free to modify or add more questions as needed.

Aklapper added a subscriber: Keepandie.

@Keepandie: This task is a proposal by Isi_Irabor. Your comment is in the incorrect place. (If you have general questions, please bring them up in Zulip.)

Outreachy results are out! Declining this task as the proposal was not selected. You could consider finishing up any pending pull requests or tasks remaining from the contribution period. Your ideas and contributions to Wikimedia projects are still welcome. If you would still be eligible for the next round of Outreachy, we look forward to your participation!