Earlier this month, the TED Conference announced its Open Translation Project, which aims to translate, subtitle, and add transcriptions to its popular series of TED Talks:
Every talk on TED.com will now have English subtitles, which can be toggled on or off by the user. The number of additional languages varies from talk to talk, based on the number of volunteers who elected to translate it. Along with subtitles, every talk on TED.com now features a time-coded, interactive transcript, which allows users to select any phrase and have the video play from that point.
The Open Translation Project is powered by volunteer translators, an idea that Ethan Zuckerman calls social translation — “translation of online information by users around the world, motivated more by community recognition and appreciation than by money.” Ethan’s own Global Voices site uses social translation to filter, translate, and contextualize blogs posts and other citizen media.
As part of an upcoming story about online translation and the multilingual web, Nora talked to Ethan about Global Voices, TED, and the relative merits of machine translation and social translation. A shorter version of this interview will air on the June 3 and 6 episode of Spark, but you can hear the full, uncut interview below, or download the MP3.
Play audio:
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Wow, what an interesting interview.
I had never heard about global voices before, but I think it's a great concept.
Since the amount of content on the internet is exploding and machine translation is far from being able to provide an acceptable all-round solution, I can even imagine that native speakers who actually care about the topic can do a really good job at translating.
Of course, as you said in the interview, there are tasks where professionals are essential. But taking into account what you said about giving people credit for their work – I can imagine that it's also a good opportunity for freelance translators who are new in the business to build a reputation and get some practical experience, right?
This interview gave me the much-needed push to register as a TED translator. For years, I have never really imagined that my fluent spoken Cantonese and Mandarin, ability to read traditional and simplified Chinese, and Chinese typing skills could be the perfect combination as a translator for such beautiful project. Also thanks to knowledge openness and social collaboration, there is much less resistance for contributing to such projects than just few years ago. I am very grateful for just opportunity and timing.
That's fantastic, Calvin! It is a fantastic project.
Calvin, I appreciate your comments. Language is part of our being, which we should be all proud of, like you. Wish you the best. Visit our web site, and let me know what you think, would like to have some elements translated by a person like you. Regards Joe Bonnevie BONNEVIE@democrat.ca, http://www.democrat.ca
Thank you for your comment. Now that I have translated/reviewed a few TED talks, it is a surprisingly educational and enjoyable experience to me. Rather than watching the talks casually, now I have to analyze the speech line by line, understanding the tone and information, giving me a whole new perspective to what the speaker wanted to communicate to the audience. Also, knowing that my work will benefit many people all around the world, the feeling is just great.
Quote from Philippe Starck,
"Nobody is obliged to be a genius, but everybody is obliged to participate."
(http://www.ted.com/talks/philippe_starck_thinks_d…
Joe: Unfortunately, I already have enough work at the moment, so I'm sorry to say that I cannot take further translation jobs. Hope you understand. However, I wish from sharing my story, more people will be inspired and be able to help you.
Heard the interview on CBC, just wonderful, looking forward to having our social collaboration regarding our democracy be made available to Canadians in the many languages used in Canada. Please visit our web site at http://www.democrat.ca, the name of the new federal party is THE DEMOCRACY PARTY OF CANADA. This will bring our democracy up to a higher level and give it a better name. Regards BONNEVIE@democrat.ca
One of the biggest mistakes that can be made during the marketing process is not being properly familiar with the culture of the country that is desired for expansion. For instance, something seen as cool and even stylish in the home country of the company might actually be perceived as rude or vulgar in another country. It can be difficult to be sure, especially if you aren’t a native or haven’t spent large amounts of time there. That is why language translation services are crucial to this process.
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This interview gave me the much-needed push to register as a TED translator. For years, I have never really imagined that my fluent spoken Cantonese and Mandarin, ability to read traditional and simplified Chinese, and Chinese typing skills..<a title=" Learn " href="http://www.hamaratutor.com "> Learn
I have subscribed to Spark’s enhanced podcast via I tunes , i still wait the next interviews.
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Hey i feel its really a great concept of TED as i have never ever heard about such global voices. keep it up!! thanks for the blog post.
Excellent and decent post. I found this much informative, as to what I was exactly searching for. Thanks for such post and keep it up.
Very Enjoyable! I hope you write more on this subject!
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