Language Operations Group - LOG
Summary:
Translation leverages the value of our content. We already have great content producers and translation will expand their audience and make INDEX and its index information more accessible. Translation will also involve more of the INDEX community and, being an activity that might engage the community who are not already involved, resources won’t be taken away from other projects.
Developing the translation process and scope is low risk because it should not impact current plans or ongoing processes, nor should it take anyone away from their current work to any significant degree. There are very few, if any, upfront costs and expenditure can be managed step-by-step.
Proposal:
The team and its work might logically sit under the GWG (Growth Working Group) operations.
Content to be reviewed qualitatively through peer review and quantitatively through analytics, though the effects of the work may take some time to be seen. A three month operations review might be suitable.
Monitor success using:
Google Analytics site data,
Number of token holders,
Social media activity and language.
First stage - establish a team and a workflow by working on key texts - identified by analytics and GWG consensus.
Later - expand translation beyond key texts, product intros, how-tos, etc. and work on:
indexcoop site
Gitbook
View from the nest blog
email marketing
external blog content sharing/reposting
Region biased channels such as WeChat.
To give some opportunity context: the INDEX Coop has members active in the languages below, as far as I can tell. And, as a very rough guide of audience size currently being missed, here are the Google estimated audiences - google accounts that searched ‘crypto’ in their own language, taken from Google Analytics Jan 19, 2021.
The languages taken together represent an audience similar to that of the US. Considering Google is less prevalent in some areas, especially China, the audience is likely quite a bit larger than this estimate.
Risks:
Many people know English and may not require information in their native language.
The value of different language markets may differ due to regional income and legal differences.
Starting to translate and then stopping could negatively affect the INDEX brand image.
Automated translation is a useful tool but for main content it can easily be detected by readers, can be confusing, and may be seen as cheap/unprofessional.
Next steps:
Find community members who will engage in translation.
Set a budget - this will partially determine the pace of work.
I feel this work could naturally fit under the work of the GWG but may not fit its pace of work.
I think the inclusiveness promoted by having multiple languages fits with the ethos to the coop, My question is what level of support is there for such work - is now the right time? (I think yes, before the task becomes even bigger.)
What kind of reward should there be for translations - I saw 39 INDEX for previous work. Though not all will be so long, and others may be shorter.
I am ready to make this into a proposal if we see value in it and the timing is right.
