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Translation team coordinator responsibilities

Every Ubuntu translation team has a coordinator who acts as the owner or administrator of the respective team in Launchpad. The coordinator of a local team is one of the key parts in translating such a big project as Ubuntu, so we define some basic requirements for them.

Remember that if some of the responsibilities below are not followed, the Ubuntu Translations Coordinators may have to appoint another coordinator.

Note: this document was adapted from the excellent Team Coordinator Responsibilities page on the GNOME Translation Project

Having a stable and contactable e-mail address

Our basic contact method is email, so having a stable and contactable email address is the "basic thing". We don't recommend a coordinator use some temporary email service because with a good configuration, there won't be junk mails flooding you. And we don't suggest to use your work mail unless you want to work there for a long time. Anytime when the contact email address changes, make sure you have informed it to all your team members, and please also send an email to ubuntu-translators mailing list to let people around know about it.

Subscribing to the ubuntu-translators mailing list

Everyone involved in Ubuntu translation is encouraged to subscribe to the ubuntu-translators mailing list, but for team coordinators we make it a requirement.

We can't imagine they key contact of a translation team is not aware of the latest topics in Ubuntu translation. Please at least receive the list digest to make sure you know what is happening. Of course further participation is encouraged and very welcome .

When you are creating a new team, doing some important decisions, having some good ideas or facing any problems, please don't hesitate to send mails to the list. We encourage the communication among translators, developers, teams and anyone else involved. Sending yours and receiving from others, the communication has just been taking place.

Being responsive to contributors

A very important part of being a coordinator is being responsive to other contributors in the team, and also being responsive to new contributors wanting to join the team. If new contributors are feeling welcome, they are likely to stay contributing for a long time. On the other hand, if they feel that they get little or no response from the coordinator, they are likely to move on to do other things. If this happens, it is a tremendous waste of contribution resources.

Being responsive means that the coordinator should respond timely to email. If the coordinator goes on vacation without possibility to read email for more than a week, then he or she should temporarily hand over the coordination duty to another member of the team and announce that to the team.

Being responsive to the Ubuntu Translations Coordinators and other teams

The team's coordinator is the point-of-contact for the Ubuntu Translations Coordinators and all other contributors about any issues with the affected language or its translations. Because of this, it is extremely important that the coordinator is responsive when contacted by email about such issues.

Having common knowledge on the i18n/l10n process

Launchpad Translations has made translating free software much more easier than ever before, but it isn't, and can never be perfect. Translators need to know some basic guidelines when dealing with technical situations they may meet during the work.

As a coordinator, you need to be clear about most of the common situations and solutions. What's more, having knowledge about working with .po files will be a great asset.

If you or your team have any problems, please ask on the Ubuntu translators mailing list, and people will tell you their experience, even if it's just to point to what you need to know.

Maintaining the team in a well organized state

Coordination and organization is critical when team work takes place. Launchpad has set team to be the basic unit when contributing, so a well organized state is very important to ensure the work can be done in a best way with best results. A coordinator may need to grant access to new members when they need it and have the ability to make good use, and of course you need to recycle the access when facing with abuse.

Some languages may have a very big translation community, and such situation can introduce problems (quality assurance, member relations) sometimes. We encourage coordinators do a cleanup when the team is too big to keep it well managemed. You also you need to find some ways of making these people participate in a better way (making suggestions, contributing to upstream projects), so we won't waste such contribution resources.

Resign when it is time

For every contributor, there comes a time when he or she wants, or has to, move on to do other things in life. This is also the case for language team coordination. When the coordinator, or others, feel that the coordinator cannot meet the responsibilities and do the job properly anymore, the coordinator should resign.

In order not to leave the team in an undefined "black hole" kind of situation, it is very important that the resigning coordinator also informs the project mailing list of the resignation. If the resigning coordinator has suggestions for a new coordinator, please also let the mailing list know at the same time.

Other Resources

• If the coordinator has been non-responsive for some time, asking him or her to step down is perhaps the best choice to make the team run better. For such a situation, please follow the Role Reassignment Policy.

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