Wikivoyage:Spanish Wikivoyage Expedition

The Spanish Wikivoyage Expedition is an expedition to launch a Spanish-language version of Wikivoyage, per the language version policy.

Rationale
Spanish is the native language of about 350 million people worldwide. It is the third most widely spoken language in the world, and countries with Spanish as the official language can be found on four continents. In addition, immigrant Spanish-speaking communities are a significant part of the population in the United States, Canada, Australia, and parts of Europe.

A Spanish-language version of Wikivoyage would serve these travellers with information in their native language. In addition, Spanish speakers could add information on their native and adopted countries, regions, and cities to the es: version of Wikivoyage that could then be translated to other languages. All Wikivoyagers would benefit from local-contributed information.

Goals

 * Assemble a group of interested contributors willing to start a new Spanish-language Wikivoyage version
 * Translate the language interface file to Spanish
 * Choose a go-between who will provide a link between the new Spanish-language version and other Wikivoyage language communities
 * Launch the new language version
 * Translate key documents that are necessary for new users to understand and contribute to the new language version
 * Make Spanish-language Wikivoyage an integral part of the multilingual Wikivoyage community

Contributors
Per the language version policy, we need at least three people to commit to helping to launch this new version. These contributors are expected to help translate the language interface file (see below), translate important interface documents, and otherwise make Spanish-language Wikivoyage ready for use by other editors.

The following people agree to make this level of contribution:


 * Daniel Jurado (WT-en) djurado
 * (WT-en) Guaka 15:39, 15 Dec 2005 (EST)
 * Alvaro (WT-en) daflow
 * Jorge (WT-en) Jorge
 * Guillermo (WT-en) guillermomadrid
 * Antonio Luque (WT-en) WikiLuque
 * Leandro (WT-en) Loco085 - (trying to translate de "Special Pages")

Note: if you want to help, please create a user account and then add your name to the list above.

Go-between
A go-between for a new language version of Wikivoyage acts as an "ambassador" for the new version to the rest of the Wikivoyage community. They communicate information on developments in the new version to the rest of the community in monthly go-between reports, and they communicate developments in other languages to the new version's contributors.

Optimally, a go-between should have the following characteristics:


 * Strong Spanish reading and writing skills (not necessarily native)
 * Strong English reading and writing skills (not necessarily native)
 * Some experience with Wikivoyage in one of its language versions
 * Familiarity with Wikivoyage's goals, style, and policies

Go-betweens for previous language versions have been chosen by voting, or else just by general consensus. It's up to the Spanish-language Wikivoyage contributors listed above to decide how to choose a go-between.

Language file
MediaWiki, the software that runs Wikivoyage, uses a language interface file to make the links and names and prompts and stuff readable in other languages. We need to customize a new version to work for Spanish Wikivoyage.

The language file for Spanish Wikivoyage is Project:LanguageEs.php. It's currently a copy of the LanguageEs.php that is distributed with MediaWiki. It should be customized to a) refer to Wikivoyage, not Wikipedia; b) refer to the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0 license, not the GNU Free Documentation License; c) refer to travel guides, not encyclopediae. There are probably some other adaptations; it may be useful to refer to the Project:Language.php English-language file for help.


 * It seems that this is mostly done! (WT-en) Guaka 18:34, 6 Jan 2006 (EST)