The status of the "new" new-portal (renamed to just "portal") is in development. We'er getting closer, but we need some more time to get it ready.
portal will work with dotlrn eventually, but since we'er cleaning up the APIs to make it easier to create portlets, there will be some integration work to be done.
i ask that you hold off doing the I18N work until portal is tested and ready to be used.
