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Multilingual Support - Victoria Online Research #RS-16

November 2001

1. Executive Summary

Multimedia Victoria sought to test the feasibility of the proposed model for multilingual support on the Victorian Online Gateway (the portal).

1.1 Recommended Model

Existing research, and consultation with the Whole of Government Expert Group, indicates that adjustments to the proposed model are required and that a feasible model for multilingual support on the Victorian Online Gateway is:

1.1.1 Entry Point

Home page to have an image (gif), presenting 'welcome' in up to ten languages, as determined by current research within Victorian Government. When a user clicks on that image it will take them to a page in that language.

1.1.2 Level One Language Other Than English (LOTE) Page

Level 1 pages will include:

• a short translated welcome message;
• translated categories and descriptions; (links to Level 2 LOTE pages)
• links to:
  • database of offline government publications (Victorian Government Publications - maintained by State Library of Victoria);
  • directory of intermediary services (most likely to be the directory maintained by Victorian Multicultural Commission);
  • providers of ESL courses that are subsidised by Government.

1.1.3 Level Two LOTE Page

(containing no new or original translated content)

Category pages that include the following:

• Links to category-relevant online government services in the language;
• Link to equivalent category page on English language version of portal.

May also include:

• Category navigation

And:

• Link to database of offline government publications
• Link to directory of Intermediary services
• Links to providers of ESL courses that are subsidised by Government

1.2. Risks

• The major risks and mitigation strategies associated with this model are:

1.2.1 Resources

Languages are expensive to support on a website due primarily to the need to employ external contractors to translate and manage the content.

1.2.1.1 Mitigation Strategy

The portal will produce and maintain minimal content (navigation pages only) and will concentrate on aggregating links to existing translated resources. The decision to invest in translating information or preparing online resources for CALD communities will lie with departments and agencies - who will be more familiar with the subject matter and target audiences. High level advice and monitoring of strategy will be the focus of portal-related resources.

1.2.2 Quality Assurance, Maintenance and Extension of the Model

The absence of a business owner for the multilingual support material is the major risk for the provision of multilingual support on the VOG. Key issues associated with quality assurance, maintenance and extension of the model will be on going. The portal will undertake the initial design and build of multilingual support. However, tasks such as checking links, trawling for new links, liaising with communities regarding priorities and service levels, participating in other programs like Open Road and addressing extensions of the model need to be considered in light of expert advice. At present leading bodies such as VOMA are not in a position to resource these tasks. Therefore, further discussion regarding ongoing resourcing and business ownership of multilingual support needs to be undertaken.

1.2.3 Aggregating Links

Finding the links to aggregate on the portal poses a potential resource issue for the portal. In addition, gaps in content will be revealed.

1.2.3.1 Mitigation strategy

The Online Requirements Review conducted by MMV and due for completion in mid-December will audit every website with a vic.gov.au domain name. This audit will identify sites that support LOTE. This will provide an excellent basis for the aggregation process. In addition, users will be able to seamlessly switch between links to multilingual resources and links to English language resources, so those bi-lingual users (such as intermediaries) can access the full range of online resources.

1.2.4 Selection of Languages

With over twenty community languages spoken in Victoria, it is a challenge to restrict the number of languages the portal can support.

1.2.4.1 Mitigation strategy

The portal will use objective and measurable criteria of LOTE population and volume of online resources to select the languages that it will support. It is likely that departments and agencies will consider "need" and "suitability for the web", when making decisions about production of multilingual online resources.

1.2.5 Maintenance vs Useability

The introduction of Level 2 LOTE pages for 10 languages, across, say, 20 categories will result in 200 LOTE pages. This presents an issue for the build and maintenance phases of the portal development.

1.2.5.1 Mitigation strategy

If each LOTE link is flagged by language as well as relevance to one or more categories on the portal, then the Level 2 pages should be able to be dynamically generated.

In this way, the Level 2 pages do not increase the amount of original content the portal has to develop and maintain.

The process for including new links under each category should be automated.

1.3 Implications for Specification

The matters to be decided during the specification phase include:

1. The ten languages to be supported
2. The protocols for linking to external tools such as the Victorian Multicultural Commission directory of intermediaries and the Victorian Government Publications database

1.4 Implications for Development

The major areas of development work for multilingual support include:

1. Creating welcome images
2. Creating translated Level1 pages
3. Creating images for non Roman character sets
4. User testing
5. Checking and categorising links identified in Online Requirements review.

1.5 Implications for Launch

The communications strategy accompanying the launch of the portal should include communications aimed at intermediaries in CALD communities.

1.6 Implications for Maintenance

The maintenance of the multilingual model may involve:

1. Checking links;
2. Trawling for new links;
3. Liasing with communities regarding priorities and service levels; and
4. Participating in other programs like Open Road.

1.7 Benefits

The benefits of providing multilingual support on the first release of the portal, centre around:

• Providing increased access and useability to existing multilingual online resources;
• Contributing to the leadership position of the Victorian Government;
• Supporting a more open government; and
• Opportunity to learn and improve by making a start.

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Reports

It is the intention of the Victorian Online Gateway project team to make available individual report findings and recommendations for appropriate use by other government organisations. Materials may be downloaded and printed with applicable copyright and other notices included. Any other use including copying, modifying, displaying or transmitting of the content of these reports requires the prior written permission of the Executive Director of Multimedia Victoria.

The Multilingual Support report is available in word97 format (7.5mb)

The Multilingual Support presentation to the Expert Group on 30 November 2001 is available in powerpoint 97 format (456kb)

Last updated: 28 February 2006

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