I'm not asking for a "fix." This is a feature request or a "wishlist" item. I will be sad if you, Danilo, are the only developer who works on Launchpad Translations and you say that you will never implement this request. It doesn't seem to be in the spirit of open or more to the point--it doesn't seem to be in the spirit of encouraging participation to help distribute the work load involved in translating documents. To dismiss the request because of legacy issues also makes me sad. I want to improve the tools. To say, "I tried once and it's too hard" does not seem like the right approach. I have identified a problem and now I would like to identify a solution. If there is a better place to put this feature request, I would like you to help me find that place so that we can work through the problems and find a solution!

Here is the clearly defined problem that I am trying to solve: In the last 24 hours I have worked (as a volunteer) with two other volunteers who wanted to help with translations.

Here is a real life Problem #1 that I dealt with yesterday for nearly three hours:
- LP holds the "code" (DocBook XML) for the Ubuntu desktop course.
- Volunteer downloads the files (using bzr branch) and translates them on their system using Poedit.
- What does the volunteer do with these translated files? In their mind it is not a separate project, it is a translation of an existing project.
- And further more the XSLT style sheets that the UDC uses are language specific. They do not work with the translation the volunteer has just spent several months (probably without backups) working on.
- Using lp/bzr for the UDC code, there is no way to integrate a team of people --- how do you know that others are working on a translation of the project if there is no "translation" project tied to LP "code"?
- The "code" can't be tied to translations because there is no automated way to pull in the DocBook XML files without first "branching" the content and making it into .pot files to be uploaded as a separate project. At least no way that I could find and my staging account has not been approved so I have no way of testing it.

Problem #2 (dealt with this problem for about 20 minutes last night):
- Volunteer wants to translate Ubuntu screen casts -- they log into #ubuntu-screencasts and want to work on translations TONIGHT. (Awesome!)
- There is no "code" for a screen cast because it's a binary OGG file. Someone has to transcribe the video and then convert this into a .srt (subtitle) file. This file can now be translated.
- But how can these transcript and translation files be stored? They do not currently fit into the "code" model of Launchpad, but they definitely fit into the concept of "translatable files."
- The volunteer who transcribes a video is not necessarily proficient at anything other than typing what they are hearing.
- The volunteer who translates the file is not necessarily proficient at anything other than translating what they are reading/hearing within the context of a video.
- There is no way to facilitate the translation of these files within Launchpad Translations, and I think there should be.

These are common problems. Maybe they need to be broken into several different components. I'm not sure. I know what the problem is, but I need help on the solution. I look forward to your guidance on the best way to solve this so that we can get even more people working on translating Ubuntu support material! :)