global voices lingua project
DESCRIPTION
A presentation about Global Voices, with focus on Lingua, for the OT12 MOOC, a Massive Open Online Course on Open Translation tools and practices at Open University. November 2012.TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to
http://globalvoicesonline.org
For OT12 MOOC - November 2012
Global Voices is…
A bridge between
places and cultures
A global community
A set of websites
An educationaltool
THE real Tower of Babel
A news resource
A bunch ofactivists
Global Voices is…
A bridge between
places and cultures
A global community
A set of websites
An educationaltool
THE real Tower of Babel
A news resource
A bunch ofactivists
Founded at Harvard’s University Berkman Center for Internet and Society (2005) We aggregate, curate, amplify and translate global conversations online. Spotlight on places and people often ignored by media Nearly 1,000 active members: authors, translators, editors; present in virtually every country Multicultural and multilingual: daily translations into 30 languages; many more are spoken/understood in the community Volunteer driven, passion motivated, open to everyone and all
Back in 2006, Global Voices was just another Wordpress blog.
Dezember 2012
Why do we need Global Voices?
Digital divide
Online censors
hip
Language barrier
Because there are blocks to the online conversation
Blocks to the online conversation:digital divide
“Wall of the People” Maputo, Mozambique
“The idea of the Wall was to create a permanent and offline space for readers to read (simple) and to comment (simple). In a sense, an offline Facebook wall.”
Photo: @giantpandinha(also a GVer!)
Global Voices post: http://globalvoicesonline.org/2012/03/13/mozambique-the-peoples-wall-of-maputo/
Blocks to the online conversation:digital divide
“Wall of the People” Maputo, Mozambique
“The idea of the Wall was to create a permanent and offline space for readers to read (simple) and to comment (simple). In a sense, an offline Facebook wall.”
Photo: @giantpandinha(also a GVer!)
Global Voices post: http://globalvoicesonline.org/2012/03/13/mozambique-the-peoples-wall-of-maputo/
Blocks to the online conversation:censorship
Most countries that are connected to the internet conduct some level of internet censorship.
Some of the most commonly censored contents include Pornography, Social Networks, Wikipedia, Wikileaks, Political Blogs, Religious Websites and Video Streaming.
The governments have developed a subtle and sophisticated system to establish borders of control within the international cyberspace.
Source: http://open.youyuxi.com/ with info from OpenNet Initiative's Research
Blocks to the online conversation:censorship
Most countries that are connected to the internet conduct some level of internet censorship.
Some of the most commonly censored contents include Pornography, Social Networks, Wikipedia, Wikileaks, Political Blogs, Religious Websites and Video Streaming.
The governments have developed a subtle and sophisticated system to establish borders of control within the international cyberspace.
Source: http://open.youyuxi.com/ with info from OpenNet Initiative's Research
Blocks to the online conversation:language barrier
There are 6,909 known living languages (46 of whom have just a single speaker).
This means that there is one language for every 862,000 people on Earth.
Europe alone accounts for only 234 of them, whereas in Asia 2,322 languages are spoken on a daily basis.
In addition to real languages, there are also 200 auxlangs, like Solresol and Esperanto.
Sources: Ethnologue, Wikipedia; Image: Mitch Bolton (http://drbl.in/eXjA)
Blocks to the online conversation:language barrier
There are 6,909 known living languages (46 of whom have just a single speaker).
This means that there is one language for every 862,000 people on Earth.
Europe alone accounts for only 234 of them, whereas in Asia 2,322 languages are spoken on a daily basis.
In addition to real languages, there are also 200 auxlangs, like Solresol and Esperanto.
Sources: Ethnologue, Wikipedia; Image: Unkown
Global Voices in Amharic - the newest Lingua site, starting in September 2012
Global Voices in Myanmar/Burmese
Global Voices in Malagasy
It all started when a guy in Taiwan decided to translate Global Voices posts in Chinese!
How translations appear on our sites
All translations are listed on the post pages
Lingua started in 2006 with six language; doubled by end of 2007. In 2012, we have Global Voices in 36 languages From January to October, over 500 volunteers have translated 15,661 posts, which makes an average of 1,424 posts a month. To date: 70,838 translations! We have all the top 10 largest languages in the world, but also smaller languages such as Catalan, lingua franca tongues like Swahili, and endangered languages, such as Aymara Volunteers are free to choose what they want to translate, and how much or how little they want to contribute Lingua teams have autonomy to decide how to manage themselves
Global Voices in Portuguese collaboration chart
Initial process: from blogs to Lingua
Before 2010, we only translated from English. It was quite simple.
Now… it is complicated!
Starting in 2010, not only Lingua translates, but produces original content too, making Global Voices truly global Original content in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Arabic, Catalan, Bengali regularly We have also had posts in Chinese, Japanese, Greek, Italian, Russian, German, Swahili, and Amharic* Since 2010, we have written 1,586 posts. We have people translating from Bengali and Chinese into French! All posts are translated into English for the sake of global conversation; new teams of Lingua into English translators have started
Starting in 2010, not only Lingua translates, but produces original content too, making Global Voices truly global Original content in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Arabic, Catalan, Bengali regularly We have also had posts in Chinese, Japanese, Greek, Italian, Russian, German, Swahili, and Amharic* As of Dec 2012, we have written 1,586 original non-English posts. We have people translating from Bengali and Chinese into French! All posts are translated into English for the sake of global conversation; new teams of Lingua into English translators have started
Multilingual newsroom
Lingua challenges
No translation tools
Too large to manage?
Multilingual newsroom turns GV upside down
No translation tools for Wordpress
Translations of translations of translations!
No translation tools
Overstretched volunteer
editors
Videos still baffle us!
Motivation, retention, quality
Who supports Global Voices?
YOU!