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Currently, edX has no engineering team or product owner around the internationalization (i18n) and localization (l10n) of the edX platform, edx.org website, and associate products (Drupal, insights, etc). This document is a first pass at the outstanding questions around i18n and l10n we have, primarily from a product perspective, that a full or part time globalization team would need to answer to help us become secure and stable in our translations support. These questions, and their eventual answers, will form the backbone of our globalization strategy.
Nothing about how we do translations of anything (even the platform) is at all easy. Even if we are handed a set of translated strings, if they are for a language we don't support yet, there is significant effort to ramp, execute and maintain a new language. If we are going to move toward deeper language support (e.g. translate the Web site and documentation), and/or more languages (for key markets or partners), and/or content translations (even if we act only as a broker), then we need a business plan for approaching the Global market, we need to shore up what we have (e.g. our Hindi platform translation percentage is below 50% -- that's a language we already "support"), and we'll need more technical and process infrastructure to make significant progress.
Before we move forward with additional support for languages - whether that is releasing new languages on edx.org or building new features that allow further localization - we need to define what "supporting" a language is, what our and our partner's commitments to translation are, and what are target markets are. We need to figure out a long-term strategy plan that will enable sustainable, productive support of a small number of language groups. In addition to the commitment of a full or part time product owner in this area, we will need a dedicated engineering resource as well as input from our marketing and business teams to help us identify target markets and ensure we have a budget that will help us meet our globalization needs.
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In September 2015, Sarina drew up a product plan for localization. This plan represents a potential way forward, but is dependent upon significant resources, particularly a localization engineering team, a product owner for the localization product, and a budget to pay translators. Currently, this product plan is unfunded and unimplemented.