New: 🌐 Localization Squad: Better Community Translation Resources (June-Aug)

[grace (Grace Potma)]

Greetings Community! We want to share that from June to August we are running a focused squad just for Localization improvement in OpenMRS.

About: This squad will run from July to August 2025. We are really lucky that the experts at Localization Lab will help us work through the following things to make our Translation Community & translator experience better over the next 1-2 months.

Goals:

1. Developing Community Governance Process: Build out community governance of translations, including:
   • Contributor engagement recommendations (list of suggestions for how to engage contributors to improve retention, maintenance of a language/glossary, draft a code of conduct, policies around use of automated translation, vetting process, structures for relational support).
   • Contribution assessments: Guidance on how OpenMRS leaders can assess the quality of new and existing translations; (ex: https://support.torproject.org/pt-BR/)
2. Existing Resources Audit:
   • Transifex Audit: Audit of OpenMRS Transifex instance (analysis of source text) to assess health of internationalization practices (review of workspace for translators and reviewers and source text strings to yield core recommendations for streamlining workflows);
   • Onboarding Audit: Audit of Onboarding process and documentation review (when does onboarding happen, who does it, how, where does troubleshooting take place, what kind of follow up/assistance is offered, how are timelines managed, how is review managed, what does ‘finishing’ look like; how is the guide used in all of this);
3. Community Training:
   • Core Glossary Development and community engagement around this.
   • Host live training session walking new and existing contributors through using the glossary and the platform; recorded version will be made available for OpenMRS team use with contributors moving forward;
   • Train the trainer resources to facilitate OpenMRS team leading its own localization sprints

When/Where:

• Async updates/communciation will happen here in this Talk thread
• We meet on Zoom every 2 weeks on Wednesdays until August. Details on om.rs/cal

Thank you to squad members @chidomusodza @adriano @rayya @suubi7 @beryl @wodpachua - and others are welcome to join us anytime too!! (Here online or on our zoom calls.)

[grace (Grace Potma)]

Notes from today’s call re. Where we are so far: (thanks to @chidomusodza for these updates)

• Code of Conduct: Reviewed Talk for any kind of translation Code of Conduct; id’d gaps; came up with Draft specifically for Translators. (Current CoC is broad, general for all members; was missing specific focus and detailed guidelines needed for Translators, e.g. Translation quality and accuracy, pt safety, striving for consistency, understanding context, do-no-harm principle (never jut guess at meaning, seek clarification), and glossary useage. Emphasize clarity and useability for healthcare professionals. Expected behavior, how they should communicate, responsiveness.) Draft text coming.
• Communciation Mechanisms for Translators: Should include how to use Transifex to raise issues/communicate; how to highlight an issue and how to resolve it there.
• Automated Translation Policy: WIP; to share next meeting.
• Technical Audit findings: WIP; to hear from @adriano shortly.

[grace (Grace Potma)]

Call Notes: July 16 2025

Present: @rayya @adriano @chidomusodza @beryl @grace @michaelbontyes @abertnamanya @burke

1. Findings from Internationalization Audit (String-level assessment in Transifex)

• Findings overview: [SHARED] OpenMRS 3 - Internationalization Audit ::: Report - Google Docs
• Detailed findings spreadsheet: [SHARED] OpenMRS 3 - Internationalization Audit ::: String level assessment - Google Sheets
• Most common issues:
  • Pluralization
  • Concatenation
  • Duplicates
  • Lack of context
  • Markup character issues
• 376 strings with issues that should be addressed.
• We need to update our dev guidance beyond just “add a t-function” - turns out more details are needed for them - around handling duplicates, avoiding markup issues with HTML/XML handling, proper pluralization set-up, and more

2. Findings from Documentation Audit

• Issues and inconsistencies found, document with findings and improvement suggestions: [SHARED] OpenMRS 3 - Onboarding Audit ::: Report - Google Docs

3. Templates and Guidance for Community Engagement/Policies

• Use of Automation/AI for Translation Policy Template
  • OpenMRS Automated and AI-Assisted Translation Policy [TO BE SHARED] OpenMRS Automated and AI-Assisted Translation Policy - Google Docs
• Vetting & Onboarding Process for Translation Contributors
  • Recommendations for Vetting Processes [TO BE SHARED] OpenMRS Recommendations for vetting process - Google Docs
• Code of Conduct Template
  • Code of Conduct [TO BE SHARED] Code of Conduct for OpenMRS Translators - Google Docs

4. Plan for Core Glossary Sprint

July 23 Adri recommends an initial 1 hour to look at what’s already there; definitions; then homework.

Summary of Deliverables