From Wikibabel

Contents 1 General questions 1.1 Why do you produce lessons as OGG files and not MP3? 1.2 What languages are available? 1.3 Is it really free? (as in beer or speech?) 1.4 Will it remain free in the future? 1.5 How do I get in touch with you? 1.6 Why is the site called Wikibabel and the address is Wiki-babel? 2 Using the lessons 2.1 How can I listen to the lesson OGG files? 2.2 Is the interface only available in English? 3 Contributing 3.1 I'd like to help! What can I do? 3.2 I'd like to help, but I'm crap with computers... 3.3 I would like to help with writing lessons, but I have no idea how to start! 3.4 How can I add a lesson in a language not listed? 3.5 What software do I need to edit a lesson?

[edit] General questions

[edit] Why do you produce lessons as OGG files and not MP3?

Short answer: Patents, freedom, money!

Longer answer: This is a patent related issue. The MP3 format, despite its wide use, is actually protected by a lot of patents. We would potentially face problems if we were producing and distributing lessons in MP3 format (unless we paid all the necessary royalties, but then this website could not be free anymore).

Laws on this specific topic seem to vary from country to country, which doesn't help in understanding the problem. But basically, if you really must, you shouldn't have any problems if you convert those .ogg files into .mp3 yourself.

Oh, and did we mention that Ogg files also have slightly better quality than equivalent mp3 files?

[edit] What languages are available?

Any language can theoretically be available on Wikibabel (except visual languages like sign languages, but we may eventually come to work on video lessons to support that).

So far, the list of language is fairly limited, but we're extending it everyday. See the list of lessons to get an idea of what is available.

[edit] Is it really free? (as in beer or speech?)

Yes!

Downloading, listening and contributing lessons is entirely free. You won't have to pay anything for that. This is free as in free beer.

Free as in speech means that we're trying to produce a service that is entirely patent-free.

[edit] Will it remain free in the future?

We hope so!

Right now, the only expenses we have are for hosting the website, and are still reasonable (and entirely funded by myself). But when the site grows, we hope to rely on contributions to help fund the project. We'd like to remain ad-free as far as possible.

[edit] How do I get in touch with you?

Send us an email. Another option is to use the feedback page. Click the link, and fill in the form. Your message will appear publicly, and the admin of the site will be alerted by email. If you'd like to get a reply back, it's probably better to create an account on the wiki (this is free and your email won't be used for anything else than sending you a password and messages from the site. We do not use them for any commercial purpose). From your registered account, send a private message to Laurent.

[edit] Why is the site called Wikibabel and the address is Wiki-babel?

Money!

Someone bought the domain wikibabel.org and asked for $5000 (yes! Five thousand US dollars) to sell it to me.

Guess what? I said no!

[edit] Using the lessons

[edit] How can I listen to the lesson OGG files?

See this page for a detailed answer.

[edit] Is the interface only available in English?

At the moment, it is. But we're working on making it available in more languages. If you're interested in translating the site into another language, please get in touch with us!

[edit] Contributing

[edit] I'd like to help! What can I do?

Lots! Read this page for more.

[edit] I'd like to help, but I'm crap with computers...

Well, if you've managed to come to this point, you definitely know enough to give a hand!

Editing lessons doesn't take more than being able to type on a keyboard, or read out the text written by others in your microphone.

[edit] I would like to help with writing lessons, but I have no idea how to start!

Any real life situation will make an interesting lesson if you think it may be encountered by others. Write down the dialogue you're thinking of, and then go through it, making the listener answer questions, repeat the words and sentences you're introducing, etc...

Another source of inspiration can be any language textbook (obviously, you can't simply copy copyrighted material here!). They usually cover a broad range of topics, that you can use as guidelines.

Other ideas could be to explain the lyrics of your favourite song, or an excerpt from a film dialogue (check that this is legal first!), or you could write a lesson about play on words in your language, tongue twisters or use a poem as base text... Another great idea could be to tell a joke which relies on some cultural aspect of your language/country and explain the whole thing.

Anything can be a good idea, as long as you're teaching something!

To start a new lesson, click Add a lesson in the navigation bar.

Obviously, a good starting point is also to take an existing lesson from another language, and translate it to yours. To do that, just open any lesson page, click the 'translate' link at the top and follow the instructions there.

[edit] How can I add a lesson in a language not listed?

If you'd like to contribute a lesson in a language that is not listed yet, contact us to let us know, and we'll add it to the database.

[edit] What software do I need to edit a lesson?

To edit a lesson, you need a browser with javascript enabled. Any reasonably recent browser will do. It should work with Internet Explorer 6 and above, Firefox 1.5 and up, as well as Opera and Safari.

You also need to have Adobe Flash installed to record sound. Oh, and a microphone will help :)