[ARIN-consult] Consultation on Offering ARIN Content in Multiple Languages

[Gary Buhrmaster]

On Mon, Feb 13, 2023 at 6:00 PM ARIN <info at arin.net> wrote:
>
> ARIN is seeking feedback from the community on open suggestion ACSP 2022.10 (https://www.arin.net/participate/community/acsp/suggestions/2022/2022-10/) to provide announcements and policy documents, such as the Policy Development Process (PDP) and Number Resource Policy Manual (NRPM), in Spanish and French. The aim of the suggestion is to encourage greater participation and discussion from non-native English speaking members of our community.
>
> ARIN has investigated various options for implementing the suggestion to provide content in Spanish and French, including using translation service products and the necessary website setup and maintenance. We noted that ARIN lacks the ability to verify the accuracy of these products and discovered that there are publicly available tools that allow users to translate content as needed.
>
> In 2022 ARIN conducted a survey with our community on what was most important for ARIN to focus on providing. According to the results of the 2022 Prioritization Survey (https://www.arin.net/participate/community/community_surveys/surveys/2022prioritization/), the suggestion for multi-lingual versions of the PDP and NRPM received the lowest rating among all suggestions ranked.
>
> We are now gathering final input from the community on this specific issue: should ARIN provide multi-lingual support for these documents (recognizing the associated cost and limitations in verification of the translations), or instead direct users to generate their own translations as necessary?

I think it is far more important than the NRPM to be
available in additional languages as to have a RSD
that is able to directly communicate in the (primary)
languages of their member organizations (English,
Spanish, and French would probably be among the
top group) when interactions are necessary.

For better or worse, there is a long history of using
English as the default official or fallback language
of communications in certain technical fields.
Translating technical (or as Mr. Herrin put it, jargon
filled) documents to other languages is extremely
difficult and problematic (there is not always a
good translation into other languages).  It is far
better than the RSD to be able to directly (or
via contractors) be able to provide their services
in the langues the members use.