On this episode of Spark: Facebook privacy, video game localization, and universal translators. Click below to listen to the whole show, or download the MP3 (runs 54:00).
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You can also listen to individual stories below.
Facebook and privacy
Recently, the popular social networking website Facebook changed its privacy policy. That has some people worried that once private information may now be public. Others ask, “What’s the big deal?” This week, Spark looks at Facebook and privacy from several perspectives.
First, Nora talked to Philip Moscovitch and Andrew Jones from the Spark community for their views on Facebook and privacy. (Runs 7:50)
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Next, Nora interviewed David Wasieleski about this business ethics of social networking sites like Facebook. (Runs 7:01)
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Finally, cyborg anthropologist Amber Case explains why Facebook is “sticky” and how its design decisions encourage participation. (Runs 8:10)
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We contacted Facebook to participate in this episode. A representative was not available to talk to us this week, but Facebook has agreed to an interview on next week’s show. We look forward to bringing you that interview next week.
Grammie’s cell phone
Cyrus Farivar considers himself typical of the Millenial Generation. He has profiles up in all the most popular social networking places, and on his own blog. And if you catch him in a vulnerable moment, he may even confess to you that he keeps his cell phone near the bed while sleeping. Cyrus loves his connected lifestyle. So much so, that he wants to share it with his 88-year-old grandmother. (Runs 6:46)
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Dude, where’s my universal translator?
The universal translator has long been a science fiction staple. You see it in Star Trek, and The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The universal translator is one of those magical gadgets that can let you understand anyone, no matter what language they’re speaking.
But why does it remain science fiction? We already have all the pieces we’d need to build one. We have computers that can turn human speech into text. We have software that can translate text from one language to another (think of Google Translate or Babelfish). And we have computers with voices that can talk back to us. So in theory, shouldn’t we be able to glue all these technologies together? (Runs 15:07)
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- Grant Shirk works at Microsoft on the Tellme platform
- Robert Fortner wrote Rest in Peas: The Unrecognized Death of Speech Recognition
- Ethan Zuckerman explains machine translation (full interview)
- Stephan Vogel researches machine translation at the Language Technologies Institute, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University
- Ann Syrdal researches text-to-speech at AT&T Labs
- Speech-to-speech translation software Sakhr and Jibbigo
Video game localization
Video games, of course, are a global business. But the content of video games (the storylines, the dialog, the jokes) don’t always travel so well. That’s where Diana Díaz Montón comes in. She’s a video game localization specialist. (Runs 4:51)
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Episode Details
Music and sound effects used in this episode:
- “Countdown” by Corsica_S
- “Carioca” by Neurowaxx
- “Tickle” and “Crying on the In” by flako
- “Going Forward Looking Back” by Chad Crouch
- “Anima Instrumental” by St. Paul
- “Ring Telephone, Ring” (1940) by Glenn Miller & His Orchestra
- “Dances and Dames” by Kevin MacLeod
- “pling” by jaspertine
- “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by Do Kashiteru
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[Original images by altemark, TenThirtyNine, chrisdlugosz]
Ah, localization. It is surprising to see it listed here on Spark.
Localizing games has always been something that I found interesting. Back when I played Nintendo games a lot, it was often a pet peeve. If there was a game I was looking forward to playing, I would often collect information on it from its already-released Japanese form before it came out in English. Encountering changed details always put me off guard and I wished they didn't do it, but I now more or less understand why and I am very supportive of localization wherever it works best. In fact, a good localization with great writing and quality voice-overs can really be a big benefit to the experience of playing a game.
Of course, there is always much rage when a company (such as Nintendo) holds the intellectual property to something which they refuse to localize (such as MOTHER3). They can effectively hold a good game worth playing hostage, often for rather petty reasons. Thank goodness for hackers and fan translators, or else we'd simply never anything good at all.
Breaking up the stories into individual audio files is a good idea; it makes it a lot easier to share an individual story with a friend.
If AT&T labs, google translate and A.L.I.C.E. (AI softwarehttp://alicebot.blogspot.com/ ) get together. Now you have a all the phonyms, translation and the software that can ask questions. Thrown in a version of symmetric input verification using human powered computation
(http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8246463980976635143#) and you have a mashup of technology that can very well begin to solve to problem translation on a massive scale.
It has been proven that 100 guys at microsoft or a few geniuses working on DVD encryption for 8 hours a day are able to stump the general public for upto a few months. The power of all the technical hackers out there (millions) working against them 24/7 and collaborating over the internet can defeat them every time.
"Any mystery devised by mortal mind can be solved therewith."
Open to the world all the technology that has been created or patented and see where it takes us. Let us work together and actually create solutions.
anywho, that is just my 2 cents. I hope that the world can one day see past their individual selves and work for the benefit of the planet.
Hi Nora and Spark Crew,
You handled the issue of facebook privacy pros and concerns deftly and with balance.
Thanks.
I'm a summer camp director wanting to create both a Facebook profile and a fan page for my camp.
The biggest obstacle in my way is the tug-of-war between wanting to have an online community that campers and staff can share their camp experiences on and protecting the privacy of campers and staff.
Facebook is making it very difficult for me to go ahead with my plans. Every time I’m about to create the profile/fan page the security/privacy settings are changed. Each time this happens I am forced to wait until I am able to re-document the "How To Facebook" manual (required from my General Manager). This is time and energy that could be better spent on other venues.
Social Networking is an invaluable tool in my industry to keep campers connected to camp throughout the year. Why is Facebook making it so frustrating and difficult to use their website?
All I want is:
•SIMPLE privacy controls
•The knowledge that once my privacy settings are set Facebook won’t go and change the rules
•The ability to provide my campers and staff with a SAFE place to meet online that they will actually use (My campers and staff already use Facebook… I don’t want to go to a different Social Networking site. It’s like the person Nora interviewed on Saturday said, there is a ‘stickiness’ to Facebook.)
I've often heard people say “never offer criticism without having a solution”… so, here is my solution:
Slide Bars.
That's it. Simple to understand, simple to use. On one side umber-strict security and on the other, very open (non-) security. In between there can be varying degrees of accessibility. (Example already in-use: Internet Explorer. Tools –> Internet Options –> Security).
If you haven’t run across Translation Party yet, it’s worth a few minutes. It eloquently highlights how pattern-matched translations work and where they run into problems.
http://translationparty.com/
The short story is that it’s a game that translates an English phrase into Japanese, then back into English. It repeats the re-translations until equilibrium is found. The result is often rather Zen.
Nora,
I have removed myself from Facebook. The risks, in my estimation, far outweigh the rewards.
Paul
I enjoyed the "Grammie's cell phone" piece very much. I, too, find it interesting how many of my older relatives keep in touch with email, where the younger generation (35 and under) are on Facebook.
I've found that an interesting way to let those who aren't motivated to use Facebook/Flickr/Twitter keep in touch is using a customized iGoogle homepage that takes an RSS feed from these places and puts right on their start page. I made one for my parents, for example, that has an RSS of my Flickr and Twitter, as well as the Twitter account my sister used while travelling Kenya. They didn't want to be bothered to get a Twitter account, but with this they could get all our latest updates in one place in an interface they understand– plus the weather forecast. They enjoy quite a bit, and are able to keep up with us, even when we aren't in contact via phone.
The Italian translation of the english text "you look nice today" used in the audio file was actually wrong.
It should have said "hai un aspetto piacevole oggi" and not "di oggi".
-David
Indeed. Nora even pointed that out!
there are so many intellectual property and copyright violations these days;~’
I have you bookmarked. I will return. Thanks