a wiki as a resource for not-for-profit translation
TRANSCRIPT
Universidad Europea de Madrid
Facultad de Artes y Comunicación
Departamento de Periodismo y Comunicación Intercultural
Design and Implementation of a Wiki as a Resource for Not-for-Profit Translation
Tutor: Dra. Celia Rico
Final projectLisandro Raúl Caravaca Bayo
Year 2011 - 2012
Universidad Europea de Madrid
Facultad de Artes y Comunicación
Departamento de Periodismo y Comunicación Intercultural
Design and Implementation of a Wiki as a Resource for Not-for-Profit Translation
Tutor: Dra. Celia Rico
Final projectLisandro Raúl Caravaca Bayo
Year 2011 - 2012
I would like to thank my family for their help, love, support and advice.
I thank my tutor for her confidence and willingness.
Considera siempre qué es lo principal y qué es lo accesorio
(Emilio Caravaca) y trabaja siempre de lo general a lo
específico (Celia Rico).
Always consider what is principal and what is accessory
(Emilio Caravaca, my father) and always work from the
most general to the most specific concept (Celia Rico, my
tutor).
INDEX
1. Introduction. Rationale and Project’s Objectives …………… page 8
2. A Brief History of Translation Technology ………………… page 10
2.1 The Origins
2.2 The Development of Online Translation
2.3 Web Applications
2.4 The Future
3. Translation 2.0. Trick or Treat? …………………………… … page 13
3.1 Collaborative Environments. Crowdsourcing. Web 2.0.
3.2 Human Translators vs Machine Translation
3.3 Professional Translators (experts) vs Amateur Translators (crowd)
4. Translation. Resources. Immigration ………………………. page 18
4.1 What Kind of Resources Do Translators Need?
4.2 Translation. Immigration and Public Services in Spain.
4.3 Do We Use Translation Resources in the Context of Immigration?
4.4 Collaborative Translation Frameworks. Overview and Good Practices.
5. Description of the Wiki ………………………………………. page 27
5.1 What Is a Wiki and How it Is Used in a Translation Context.
5.2 Development of my Wiki.
5.3 Content of the Wiki.
6. Conclusion ……………………………………………………. page 36
7. Bibliography ………………………………………….. .. page 38
Lisandro Caravaca
22 KEYWORDS OF THE PROJECT
Machine Translation technology wiki wikispaces tools immigration
Public Services Computer-Aided Translation Spain translation
crowdsourcing resources collaborative Grupo Inmigra Intercultural
mediator Web 2.0 innovation volunteer translation memory
Community translation terminology database Information Technology
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1. Introduction. Rationale and Project’s Objectives
The aim of my project is the design and implementation of a wiki as a way to explore
the participation and content sharing in an online free collaborative translation
environment. This platform has been created to enhance translation tasks for professionals
in the field of immigration. Therefore, I have created a wiki as a resource for not-for-profit
purposes1. This project is accomplished within the frame of a research group called
Inmigra2007-CM2. Inmigra2007-CM is implemented in the Comunidad de Madrid
(Spain). The main objective of the Inmigra research is the multidisciplinary study of the
immigrant community in the Comunidad de Madrid. The study encloses an research about
linguistics, translation, applied linguistics, etc. Inmigra2007-CM includes specific goals
which contain a rich display of resources and activities. It embraces, among others, the
following purposes:
To implement linguistic studies related to the immigrant population and society.
To find information about language and immigration.
To develop resources for linguistic purposes; for instance, a multilingual corpora
on immigration, a terminological database (Inmigra-TERM) and a collaborative
translation environment (a wiki).
To understand the linguistic, sociolinguistic and communicative reality of the
immigrant community.
To facilitate an integration process for immigrants in the Comunidad de Madrid.
To organize seminars and events: such as for example a Seminar regarding
Collaborative Translation for Not-for-Profit Organizations on 14 th November 2011
at Universidad Europea de Madrid).
The Inmigra2007-CM project emerges in a complex scenario. It is a difficult context
for translators in the field of immigration: lack of resources, lack of specific tools, mostly
volunteer work and specific text typology. Thus, there is still a big gap to be filled in terms
of research and development basically.
1 You will find more details in point 5. You can check my wiki here: http://www.inmigra2007cm.wikispaces.com2 Please, find more information (written in Spanish) in this link: http://www.grupoinmigra-imasd.es/home
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The project is led by three universities: Universidad Europea de Madrid (Dr. Celia
Rico Pérez and Dr. Luis Guerra Salas), Universidad de Alcalá (Florentino Paredes García)
and Universidad Nebrija (Marta Baralo Ottonello). This research has a length of four years
(2008 – 2011).
My assigned work, as I have already mentioned, includes the creation of an online
resource for not-for-profit collaborative translation purposes in the field of immigration. In
addition, I have investigated about translation and technology; I have looked for the
different resources available for translators and I have learnt about the use of specific
tools. Moreover, I invite you to discover in the next pages what I have produced.
2. A Brief History of Translation Technology
2.1 The Origins10
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The history of translation technology probably dates back to the XVII century, when
philosophers (such as Leibniz and Descartes) proposed a series of codes which would
connect words between languages in order to create a universal language. In the times
when computers were not discovered yet, all of these ideas were not put into practice.
The first trace of "translating machines" came up in the 1930s. One proposal, by the
French-Armenian Georges Artsrouni was the creation of an automatic bilingual dictionary
using paper tape or punched tape, an old method of data recording (see Picture 1). The
other proposal, by the Russian Peter Troyanskii, was more specific: it included both the
bilingual dictionary and a method for coding grammatical roles between languages based
on Esperanto. Troyanskii’s system had three stages: in the first stage a native-speaking
editor structured the words in a syntactic and logic manner in the source language; in the
second stage the machine "translated" these forms into the target language; on the third
stage, a native-speaking editor normalized this output in the target language.
Picture 1: Punched tape or paper tape
Nevertheless, research into translation technology started in for real in 1954 with the
IBM - Georgetown Experiment. The project was developed in New York by an
association between the University of Georgetown and IBM who provided a model 701 to
serve as the “brain” for the translation. This experiment completed the translation of more
than sixty Russian sentences into English (in the years of the Cold War), and it was proved
to be a huge success within the American scientific community. It is also important to bear
in mind that this experiment took place at a time when computers were just being
introduced to the world, so the results were incredible and sometimes frightening. The
success led to more funding from the US government.
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The publication of the ALPAC (Automatic Language Processing Advisory
Committee) Report in 1966 was only a dream. Experts accepted that human translations
were still more accurate, quicker and cheaper than MT (Machine Translation). Even
though, the ALPAC Report suggested that tools such as automatic dictionaries should be
developed in order to help humans.
The 1970s decade was slow for the progression of translation technologies.
Universities began researching into the concept of TM (translation memory).
In the 1980s, there were important advances of the translation software. The
development of computing technology led to many companies in Japan (Fujitsu, Toshiba
and Mitsubishi to name a few) to begin investing in translation programs.
In the 1990s, the evolution continued as the low-cost and powerful PC revolution
enabled translation technologies to reach the crowd. Internet arrived and made possible the
creation of free translation websites such as Google Language Tools and Alta Vista’s
Babel Fish.
2.2 The Development of Online Translation
In the first decade of the XXI century, the boom of Internet increased the
possibilities of online translation companies. This rise of opportunities made easier to
connect networks of freelance translators in order to meet the need of their clients. Since
that time, crowdsourcing projects and collaborative platforms have become very
important. In the field of translation, it is remarkable to mention that social networks such
as Facebook and Twitter have been turned multilingual by their own users. In section 4.4
there are some examples of on-going translation projects for not-for-profit purposes.
2.3 Web Applications
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In this section, I shall focus in the emerging technology of mobile media. The mobile
revolution on the Internet, which is increasingly important, has provided interesting
opportunities for leading companies to produce innovative translation technologies.
Google, for example, has launched an application for Android which translates almost at
the same time as you speak. Another free mobile application, MediBabble, allows hospital
staff to ask recorded medical questions in different languages.
2.4 The Future
It is becoming a requirement for society to cope with the explosion of content which is
appearing due to an increased globalization. Technology evolves very quickly and it is our
duty to take advantage of it as well as we can. In this respect, I would like to include in
this learning process some assertions and predictions about the future of translation.
Raymond Kurzweil (quoted from Kelly, N: 2011), a world-renowned inventor, author,
and futurist believes that by 2029, machines will reach human levels of translation.
However, he states that even major technological advances in translation will not replace
the need for language learning. Kurzweil points out that very few people can actually
dominate more than a handful of languages, and that ultimately, we will expand our
intelligence through technologies that enable us to learn other languages more quickly.
Nevertheless, Kurzweil (op. cit.) does not believe that translation technologies will replace
human translators and interpreters: "These technologies don't replace whole fields; in
general, what they do is replace a certain way of applying them." While some people
predict that the future of human translation seems to be... proofreading computer output
(Champollion, Y. 2001), I certainly agree with those who believe that humans are and will
always be essential for translation purposes.
Human translation is not perfect and will never be due to the many cultural
concepts and parts of language which are "untranslatable." However, if
databases are expanded, shared and used, the quality should
continue to increase over time. Raymond Kurzweil
3. Translation 2.0. Trick or Treat?
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In this new section I am going to introduce the reader to the world of collaborative
environments. I am going to distinguish between translators and machines that are used to
substitute humans and we will see the different means of collaboration in order to
understand how translators cope with new technologies as well. I will focus on translation
as it is the field I am interested in, but notice that IT is not the only industry affected by the
Internet revolution (also music, literature and business to name a few).
In this situation, I will try to explain and define a few concepts before we approach
more complex issues. First, I find very important to establish a difference between
Machine Translation programs, Online Collaborative Translation platforms, and Computer
Assisted Translation tools:
Machine Translation programs such as Deja Vu or Trados, are a kind of
software designed to translate, “facilitate” and sometimes substitute human’s work.
Online Collaborative Translation platforms such as TraduWiki for instance, are
websites in which users (professional and amateur) can participate and translate
documents all together.
Computer-Assisted Translation tools (CAT tools) is a wide term which covers a
variety of tools such as terminology databases, dictionaries, terminology managers,
translation memory tools and alignment software.
3.1 Collaborative environments. Crowdsourcing. Web 2.0
Whilst translation technologies evolved, translators were already using printed tools
and computers. Translators used (and still do) glossaries, dictionaries, translation
memories, etc. Translators asked their doubts via telephone call or by fax. However, one
day, Internet appeared, and things changed. We moved from the usage of closed
commercial systems in the 1980s to the development of collaborative environments (in
which we create wikis, blogs, discussion groups, social networking and many other
interactive interfaces) in the XXI century. Everything has turned into an open source
innovation process and many important terms have appeared:
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Crowdsourcing is “the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a
designated employee and outsourcing it to undefined, generally large groups of
people in the form of an open call” by Jeff Howe (2006).
Web 2.0 describes the “number of services which enable today's Internet users
to interact and share information efficiently” coined by Tim O'Reilly (2005).
This concept also comprises the development of ideas and the fact of putting
them into practice in a collaborative environment.
Commons-based peer production is a phenomenon made possible by Web
2.0. It is a term coined by Professor Yochai Benkler (2006) from the Harvard
Law School. Benkler defines it as “a socio-economic system of production that
is emerging in the digitally networked environment”. In this situation, roles are
generally not hierarchically assigned, and users can volunteer according to their
availability and their level of expertise (Perrino, S: n.d.).
Internet has turned into a complex tool which modifies the work and life structures of
its users. Therefore, in the field of translation, it seems that there is less amount of work
available to professional translators on the Internet. At the moment, web developments are
frequently linked to crowdsourcing, (as we have mentioned, those tasks that were
previously done by professionals and which are now performed by unpaid volunteers).
Translation is one of the typical areas in which the crowd is replacing the professional
worker. As there is a shortage of professional work available, translators are affected by
two different and strategic facts: massive collaboration and machine translation. In
accordance with the previous ideas, in my opinion, human translators are in trouble. They
have to deal with machines and with other humans. This matter is reflected in the
following epigraph.
3.2 Human Translators vs Machine Translation
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Translation and other subjects are being modified by technological advances. In this
evolution, some people are for and others against the use of MT. In the following
paragraphs I shall introduce both points of view. I have already explained what “machine
translation” is so let us go straight to the idea:
It is very complicated for me (and I believe for experts too) to determine whether
machines are simply useful tools or indispensable processes. On one hand, technology,
translation and society follow the same path in terms of evolution. We are very connected
now and people need to communicate, perform tasks and solve problems very quickly. On
the other hand, users must not take for granted or underestimate the importance of
translation. Translation is an essential component in the information process and must be
considered as one of the main factors influencing the outcome of the research process
(Rico, C. 2003).
There is uncertainty with MT when the output may or may not need to be modified.
When it is decided that no post-edition is required, MT often substitutes human’s work
whereas if post-edition is required, it transforms translators into proofreaders. At the same
time, researchers still find trouble to solve problems such as structural ambiguity,
anaphora resolution or quantifier scope, calling for some kind of reasoning (Rico, C: op.
cit.).
Besides, Ignacio García (2010) states that “MT results will not be elegant, but may
help users who do not share a common language, or poor bilinguals, to communicate, if
users are prepared to put in the extra effort often required to repair poor grammar
structures and wrong word choice”.
In my opinion, we should concentrate on how we can take advantage of new
discoveries rather than thinking how can we replace people by using technology and
machines. Do not forget that humans have the power to decide what to do in this field.
Some researchers such as Désilets (2007) believe that “MT systems may know quite a lot
about language, but they know absolutely nothing about the world we talk about through
language”. I do agree with this and it has been proved that there have been many try outs
to teach machines facts about the world. The most disappointing sample is the CYC
project initiated by Doug Lenat in 1984 which aims at developing a system that would
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exhibit human level common sense and understanding (Yuret, D: 1996). The project
started more than twenty years ago and has not guaranteed the results they expected.
As a conclusion of this idea, I would like to include a quote from Celia Rico (2003):
“Computers do not have sense of right, judgment or will. In other words, they do not think
nor feel; they do not have the ability to create or manage abstract ideas expressed with
words or to adapt to different situations”. Remember, machines are simply very useful
tools but, above all, machines.
3.3 Professional Translators (Experts) vs Amateur Translators (Crowd)
Non-professional collaborative translation environments and crowdsourcing practices
appeared in the XXI century and have led to a progressive underestimation of language
service providers and professional translators.
Massive online collaboration is revolutionizing the way in which content is being
produced and consumed worldwide (Désilets, op. cit.). Internet has enabled the
development of human cooperation and interaction in businesses but also in public and
free-access platforms such as Wikipedia. Désilets (op. cit.) points out that this new way of
connecting people is a new strategy for quality assurance, based not on the opinion of the
expert, but on votes, on the judgment of people.
“A central difference between the old world and this new massive online collaboration
environment is that, in the new world, content is not mandated, it just happens,
contributors are volunteers” (Forte and Bruckman: 2005). Content is divided into small
chunks and deadlines are more flexible but the quality control is difficult to keep.
In spite of the fact that online content is growing quickly, it seems that there is no place
for paid professional translation. Furthermore translators blame today’s economic crisis
and a bunch of unstoppable technological advances. Professional translators might have
objections about the quality of non-professional performance but that will do nothing to
reverse the process.
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“Community translation is a process that, overall, may well be good for
society, if not for the profession” (Ignacio García, University of Western
Sidney, 2010).
Translation as a skill is becoming more popular. It is a reinvestment of translation
technology by humans (Cronin, M: 2010). “Sooner rather than later, the professional
sector will collide with non-professionals taking their jobs or with seeing those jobs
disappear due to the evolution of machine translation software” (García, I: 2010).
However, we can also do a positive balance. Massive online collaboration does not
only introduce new challenges and problems. It may also enable new and better solutions
to old problems. (Désilets, op. cit.). In particular, community translation is helping to the
improvement of terminology databases (TD) and translation memories (TM), for example.
In my opinion, this new phenomenon has created a problem of content credibility (high
quality versus poor quality) for professional translators but not for the rest of the people
who are taking part in the process. Furthermore, one of the most criticized aspects of
today's Internet is the impossibility of verifying the effective authorship of online content.
Communities which are based on anonymity should (at least for these purposes) shift their
mode to pseudo-anonymous accounts, as in many platforms, where you have an identity
behind an invented nickname. Meanwhile, some action is being taken by international
communities in order to protect authorship and content.
In conclusion, the advent of online collaboration has quickly developed different new
situations that we (professional translators) do not know how to deal with. The consumer
has turned into an active producer or prosumer (Cronin, M. 2010). The new process
reveals that even if top quality is not top priority, crowdsourcing projects still work out.
Globalization has enabled the participation of community members and the rules of the
game have changed.
I take advantage of this technological chapter to introduce a new concept: “cloud
computing”. I believe it is very interesting for translators. It is a virtual interface used to
save content online. Users do not need to know the physical location of the information
they have saved or they are looking for. Information is accessible through a web browser
and more applications are still under research. I am using DropBox at the moment.
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4. Translation. Resources. Immigration
“Our technology has just given us access to the smaller building
blocks of language, and it would be a shame not to use those”.
Zetzsche, J. 2011 – “Building Blocks” Translation Journal
4.1 What Kind of Resources Do Translators Need?
Above and beyond all other considerations, I truly believe it is important to make a
distinction between a resource and a tool. In my opinion, a translation resource is
something generic (a terminological database, for example) and a translation tool, from
my point of view, is something more specific (TermStar or SDL Multiterm are tools used
to create databases). Furthermore, another good example is the following one: localization
is a resource in which we adapt translations for a specific country of region and we use
tools such as Catalyst or Passolo.
In the last two decades or so - even before localization and modern tools appeared -
translators have changed their way of working. They still make good use of traditional
resources (printed) but they combine these with new strategies of reaching and classifying
content: online resources and cloud-computing software. Translators are now considered
IT (Information Technology) professionals. In this context, it is assumed that they know
how to solve translation doubts effectively and they should also know how to take
advantage of new technologies in order to work much faster, be more efficient and, what
seems to be more important, comply with the deadlines. Translators must investigate and
choose cost-effective professional programs to work with. Therefore, computers have
become one of the most important tools for translators (apart from their personal skills). In
their computer, translators must set up a range of basic tools such as: a word processor
(featuring a good grammar and spell checker); a word counter (Anycount, for instance), a
PDF reader, creator, converter and editor; a file compressor (Win Zip, Win Rar); a
proofreading tool (such as Highlight Tool, Foxit Reader Pro); an image editor and others.
Once the user reaches Internet, everything turns slightly more complicated but it is still
feasible to anybody. At some time, users will need to choose a web browser (Mozilla,
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Internet Explorer, Google Chrome…) and a search engine (Google, of course), which is a
free server that make things easier when looking for information on the Internet. If
someone wants to communicate with another person via Internet, they will certainly need
an e-mail account (Gmail is working quite well at the moment, Hotmail or Yahoo).
If the computer user (and the reader of this work) happens to be a translator, he or she
might find useful the resources I am going to mention in the following paragraphs:
Professional translators use a range of resources known as CAT tools (Computer
Aided Translation) which include glossaries, thesaurus, dictionaries and encyclopedias
(could be monolingual, bilingual, specialized), translation memories, corpora, terminology
databases and the controversial tool of machine translation. I take this opportunity to make
a distinction between CAT and MT (both are translation tools). “On one hand, when
using Machine Translation, the computer controls the translating process and the human
translator is a source of information required from the computer. On the other hand,
Computer Assisted Translation means software that is used to assist the translator, who is
in control of the translation process”3.
In the table below (Table 1) there are some examples of the resources mentioned:
Resources Tools
Corpora Translational English Corpus; IMS Open Corpus Workbench
Databases Multi Term; Term Star; IATE; UNTERM; Termium
Glossaries, dictionaries
& encyclopedias
Online or printed / Monolingual or bilingual / Specialized or
not specialized. The most famous: Wikipedia.
Translation memories Trados; Déjà Vu; Transit; Wordfast
Thesaurus Historial Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary; Eurovoc.
Table 1: Examples of resources and tools
3 Crosson, Furmanek and Wray (2001). Careers in languages. [online resource] http://lrc.wfu.edu/careersinlanguages/main/translator.htm
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Furthermore, translators sometimes require the help of other translators in order to
solve their translation difficulties. This is when they use and look for comments and
conversations on different platforms, wikis, forums, chats, blogs, videoconferences and
online co-working private groups.
I am going to repeat the same process as I did before. In the table below (Table 2) there
are some examples of translation resources which are developed through platforms on the
Internet:
Resources Tools
Wikis Wikipedia; Wikispaces; PBWiki; MediaWiki,
WetPaint
Forum/ discussion groups ProZ; Translator’s Café; LinkedIn groups;
Wordreference
Videoconferences Skype, Elluminate, Yugma.
Team and project management TeamBox, Zyncro, DropBox.
Table 2. Examples of resources and tools useful for groups and crowdsourcing platforms.
It is important to notice that, even if translators help each other in order to solve any
doubt through forums, translators still do their own text; whereas in “community
translation”, users contribute all together to the translation of the same text. I have already
explained the former idea and in section 4.4, I will give more details about the latter.
In conclusion, I have tried to establish a difference between basic resources for
computer users and those resources created for translation purposes. Furthermore I have
classified several examples of resources and tools. In the following epigraphs I shall
review how translation is conceived in public services and what type of resources fit for
this matter. In addition I will give a brief overview of community translation and some
good examples.
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4.2 Translation, Immigration and Public Services in Spain
4.2.1 Introduction
It is assumed that we live in a multicultural society with different religions, languages
and customs. The massive movement of population in the XX and XXI centuries has
developed the need of a profession in which someone enables the communication between
foreigners and local communities at police stations, immigration offices, courts, healthcare
centers, social care centers, schools and others. Therefore, organizations and authorities
should be working in order to guarantee an integration of immigrants and a better
coexistence with local communities. However, the truth is that, in numerous times,
linguistic and cultural barriers between newcomers and local citizens and authorities have
led to misunderstanding situations.
Although there is an increasing necessity of fully-qualified professional mediators, the
limits and the name of this new ocuppation have not been established. Is it called an
interpreter or a cultural mediator? This need is still underestimated in many countries. It
also depends on the political organization, the time in History, the quality of the public
administration, etc. Moreover, in Europe, the attitude of public administrations is different.
In some countries of Eastern Europe, authorities reject the need of translation and
interpreting in public services. Spain and Italy provide ad hoc services. Countries such as
Australia, Sweden and United Kingdom have included official training programs and a
national title.
.
4.2.2 The Role and Profile of the Professional Mediator
Translation and intercultural mediation (also known as “community interpreting” and
“liaison interpreting”) are the first steps for integration. The intercultural mediator does
not only transmit a message, but also takes an active role in monitoring the action carried
by that message which concerns the immigrant (this action might be hosting, job
searching, counselling, etc.). Sometimes they deal with complex situations in which a
simple understanding of a language is not enough.
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From my point of view, and considering all the activities they carry out everyday, I
believe that intercultural mediators are a combination of a psychologist, an interpreter and
a social worker (paraphrasing Hassan Saharaui, interpreter-in-chief at the Court in
Madrid).
The lack of mediators has negative consequences: outlander’s disorientation
unjustified decision, failure of justice – to name a few. Subsequently, there is a relevant
importance of the interpreter or translator (or intercultural mediator). In conclusion, the
professional profile of the person in charge of the mediation between service providers and
service users must be someone with full knowledge of: the languages involved in the
process, the terminology and jargon of the sector, the cultures involved, some
communicational and analytical skills which might be brought to the proof in difficult
situations.
4.2.3 Who Is the User of these Services?
Those who are going to be in need of an intercultural mediator are not only immigrants
but also tourists, international students, refugees, etc. There are three main areas where
mediation is required: education, health and the legal environment. Incomers might
understand and speak the foreign language but it will be difficult for them to understand
what a medical diagnosis or a judge’s decision means. This is why authorities must
guarantee equal opportunities and security, and must promote social inclusion and
coexistence for everyone.
4.2.4 What Is Going on in Spain?
Spain has not taken action as it was expected. Public administrations often fall back on
private companies in order to “get the job done”. However, there are groups dedicated to
research and development (R&D) which are collecting and sharing data. Some of the
groups in Spain are Red Comunica4, Grupo Inmigra, Grupo FITISPOS5, Grupo GRETI6,
4 Red Comunica. [online resource] http://www2.uah.es/traduccion/red_comunica.html5 Grupo FITISPOS [online resource] http://www2.uah.es/traduccion/grupo_fitispos.html6 Grupo GRETI [online resource] http://www.ugr.es/~greti/
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Grupo CRIT7 and Grupo MIRAS8. A few universities have included seminars and
academic degrees oriented towards translation and public services.
In my opinion, translators need to take advantage of the resources and tools available
in order to accomplish their translation performance in this field. However, I certainly
agree with those who believe that prior to the discussion of whether tools are important or
necessary, there is something that must change and that is the lack of information,
formation and consensus between countries and organizations. In the second decade of the
XXI century, hospitals are a good example to bear in mind. Some healthcare centers are
adopting new systems of data storage, communication networks and translation programs.
I believe that it is necessary to gather information about migration in dictionaries,
glossaries, corpora, translation memories, forums and wikis and share it with the
translators and interpreters who are working in this field. Technology enables the
evolution of data storage and consequently translation. I think it is important for us to
develop the profession of translation in the context of immigration and to increase the
commitment with society. This is another reason why I have created this wiki.
4.3 Do We Use Translation Resources in the Context of Migration?
I have probably answered this question in the paragraph above. In my opinion,
translators need more resources and tools when dealing with translations related to
immigration. It is important to share all the information and knowledge available. Apart
from all the resources abovementioned in section 4.1 and section 4.2.4, other possible
features that I consider resources for translators are events (conferences and congresses),
presentations of other speakers, journals and magazines (Translation Journal), seminars
and courses. Furthermore, in-house experience (working experience) in not-for-profit
organizations, hospitals and courts is also important. In Spain, there is a very specific
program to take into account which is conducted by FITISPos Group and it is called in
Spanish “Programa de Formación en Traducción e Interpretación en los Servicios Públicos
de la Universidad de Alcalá de Henares”. The FITISPos Group is the creator and
coordinator of Red Comunica, which is composed by research groups from Spain and who
aim at helping to the development of translation and interpreting in Social Services.
7 Grupo CRIT [online resource] http://www.crit.uji.es/8 Grupo MIRAS [online resource] http://grupsderecerca.uab.cat/miras/es/content/grupo-miras
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4.4 Collaborative Translation Frameworks. Overview and good
practices.
4.4.1 Overview
Collaboration has become very important for crowd. This process enables people to
generate ideas and to build scientific discovery and research. Wikipedia has gathered in 9
years the content that would have taken 100 years. That is the power of the crowd. In my
opinion, the power of people should be used to strengthen not-for-profit organizations
rather than big companies which only look for their own benefit. Facebook is the example
of massive crowdsourcing projects for the company’s profit. According to Alain Désilets
(Seminar about Collaborative Translation in Madrid, 2011) collaborative translation
practices include: technical documentation, video transcript, humanitarian aid content,
software user interface and data gathering for MT and research. At the seminar, Désilets,
Research Officer at the National Research Council of Canada, mentioned several types of
collaboration:
Collaborative Terminology Resources: Wikipedia-like platforms, Wiktionary,
ProZ, Urban Dictionary, Reverso, TermWiki, TikiWiki.
Translation Memory Sharing: Even if it is not explicitly collaborative, people
add their content online for others to use too. Examples: Google Translator
Toolkit, WeBiText, TAUS Data Association.
Online marketplaces for translators: open call sourcing. Examples: ProZ,
Translator’s Café, Translated.net.
Agile translation teamware: there is not a product that supports this; it is an idea
of a large team of translators working together (I suggested the idea of an intranet
and he approved it). It is based on agile rather than sequential working methods.
Furthermore, before we zoom in on the best practices in collaborative translation, it is
important to understand why members of a community might contribute to a collaborative
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translation initiative (I also took the following idea from Désilets at the Collaborative
Translation Seminar 14th November, Madrid):
Collaborative translation purposes are often attached to emotional bonds with the
content (who does not want to take part in TedTalks or Facebook translation process?);
prestige of the content (translation practices at UNICEF for instance); pride in one’s native
language; some people translate in order to improve their second language skills; others
try to make a go at professional translation career (kiva.org) and last but not least, others
look for monetary benefits.
4.4.2 Best practices
Celia Rico (2011) shares some information about the best examples of how to develop
translation practices in the field of immigration:
The Rosetta Foundation9 “supports the not-for-profit activities of the
localization and translation communities. It works, internationally, with those who
want to provide equal access to information across languages, independent of
economic or market considerations, including localization and translation
companies, technology developers, not-for-profit and non-governmental
organizations”. For this purpose, The Rosetta Foundation is working towards the
development of a platform that helps automate the translation processes (creation,
translation, review, storage and management of global content), in an open source
environment using Globalsight and Crowdsight backbone.
Translators Without Borders’10 goal is to create “a worldwide, web-based
platform where volunteer translators interact directly with the humanitarian
organizations who need their help. This self-managing community will connect
through a simple technology platform that will allow them to work in a crowd-
sourced environment, no matter where in the world they live, or what language
they speak”.
9 The Rosetta Foundation. [online resource] http://www.therosettafoundation.org/ [last consulted] 21/11/11
10Translators Without Borders. [online resource] http://translatorswithoutborders.com/ [last consulted] 21/11/11
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In addition, I believe that translation specialists in the field of migration need to get
together and create a global net in which they share their opinion, knowledge and content.
Moreover, social networks and new technologies enable a fast development of content
sharing and an increasing availability of resources and communication between
researchers and organizations. For this purpose, three universities in Madrid have
developed a network called Inmigra2007-CM and my duty in this project is to create a
collaborative resource for translators.
5. Description of the Wiki
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5.1 What Is a Wiki and How it Is Used in a Translation Context?
A wiki is a website where users can add, edit and remove content related to a specific
field. It is a very common practice for people to surf the net and modify content. Wikis are
known as one of the tools of choice for large, multiple-participant projects. Wikipedia is
the world’s most popular community-edited wiki.
“Wiki” means “quick” in Hawaiian. The first platform, known as WikiWikiWeb, was
created by Ward Cunningham in 1995 as an accessory to the Portland Pattern Repository.
Cunningham is a computer programmer and he defines the word “wiki” as “the simplest
online database that could possibly work”.
Numerous collaboration resources have preceded wikis and most of them are still in
use: discussion forums, online chats, newsgroups...
Wikis are classified under the spectacular buzzword Web 2.0. That is precisely why I
would like to establish the differences (from my point of view) between the diverse
resources and tools which are considered part of this umbrella term. Each of these
resources, at the beginning, was designed for a purpose: collaborate, share content, give
advice and recommendation, etc. Blogs are more personal in a way, and are not considered
as a genuine multi-participant tool; users can share their opinion but they are not allowed
to modify content. Wikis are public and anyone can take part and be the author; in
general, there is not an editorial surveillance so anyone can delete content and rewrite it,
user-generated content is very fast and constant. Moreover, the point of view tends to be
reflexive rather than impulsive. Social networks are tools designed to update
relationships. Social networks are normally used for a wide range of purposes: Facebook
is more personal (despite Facebook pages); LinkedIn is used for business; Tuenti is used
in only used in Spain for amusement and the users are mainly teenagers.
Wikis are used for collaborative learning, academic purposes and collaborative
working. Envirowiki, for instance, is a good choice. According to envirowiki.com/info it is
a “place designed to share theoretical, scientific and practical knowledge about
environmental issues”. Wikis are very extended and common in US: Wikischolars
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Lisandro Caravaca
Columbia is one example of learning and academic procedures. Wikis foster team work.
Wikis are also created in order to develop an enterprise social collaborative strategy
although companies tend to use intranets for this purpose, instead. I have created an online
open source community for translators focused in the field of immigration.
In the field of wikis, there are plenty of different platforms and each platform has
specific options and widgets: users can embed videos, upload files, etc. According to Bey,
Boilet and Kageura (2007), BEYTrans – Better Environment for your Translation – is the
first free online computer-aided translation environment. Moreover, we are interested in
those wikis which have been created in order to help translation tasks such as: Der Mundo
Social Translation Network (formerly known as Worldwide Lexicon), Cucumis,
TraduWiki (Creative Commons), Wiki Translate, TikiWiki and Cross Lingual Wiki
Engine project.
There are other collaborative translation platforms slightly different from wikis such
as: Professional translators’ network (ProZ, Translators Café, LinkedIn groups);
translation, transcription and subtitle platforms (Dot Sub); user-generated dictionaries
(Word Reference).
There are many platforms in order to create wikis: XWiki.com, TWiki (15-day free
trial), PBWorks or MediaWiki. I have chosen Wikispaces (in the next page I explain why).
5.2 Development of the Wiki
Above and beyond all other considerations, I would like to show you the steps I have
followed in order to create this wiki.
Step 1: Define the aim of the wiki. In this particular case, the aim is to create a
collaborative translation tool for translators in the field of immigration. At the moment,
this is a BETA version; however, users will be free to edit, post and access.
Step 2: Choose the platform. I have chosen Wikispaces. I believe it is a very attractive and
good-looking platform. Tutorials are very useful. Content is easy to submit. Changes are
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Lisandro Caravaca
saved effectively and it is very intuitive and fun. In conclusion, the wiki is easy to use and
includes many options and widgets.
Step 3: Sign in and register your personal details: username and password. Once I verify
my registration, I will choose the web address and I will receive the link of the wiki which
is: http://inmigra2007cm.wikispaces.com/
Step 4: Wiki setup and implementation of the different features. For this purpose, once I
have registered my user details I have read carefully the Welcome page (Picture 2) from
Wikispaces and I have watched the tutorials available which are very useful as they give a
detailed description of the process. Find more details here:
http://www.wikispaces.com/content/wiki-tour
Picture 2. Wikispaces. Welcome Page
Step 5: Investigate all the options and settings available. Make sure you “hide changes” if
there is any option to do so.
Step 6: Set the options the way you like. For example: Let Wikispaces know that you do
not want to send notifications to the users every week.
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Lisandro Caravaca
Step 7: Create the pages and resources necessary in order to add some content.
Step 8: Add content. There are no language restrictions but we would like to give priority
to the Spanish and English languages.
Step 9: Invite new contacts and users. Promote and share your wiki.
Tips to Promote A Wiki
There are many useful and interesting ways to promote an interface, a website or a
brand on the Internet. In the oral presentation I will explain to the audience some of these
options. In the following lines I will show and describe a few methods. First of all, it will
be good if users use and write keywords and repeat the most appropiate words so the
search engines will help people to find your wiki much easier. Install RSS feed and let
people know. Create social network profiles and groups. Share your wiki with relevant
associations and people. Open a blog and add the link to the wiki.
5.3 Content of the Wiki
In the following paragraphs, I am going to explain what my project is all about.
Remember that this platform is part of a research led by Inmigra Group. My wiki 11
includes different folders and sections according to the needs that a translator working in
the field of public services might require. The first image of the wiki is the “Home page”
(Picture 3) in which the user can read and follow the instructions to participate. In the
Home Page, the user can edit the information, search on the pages and get to know what is
this project about. In addition, I have created eight pages to wit:
11 This wiki can be found at: http://inmigra2007cm.wikispaces.com/31
Lisandro Caravaca
Picture 3. Home Page. Inmigra2007-CM. Wiki
1. Bilingual glossary: This folder has been created in order to elaborate a
collaborative bilingual glossary of terms related to immigration. The purpose is to
create a wider database on the wiki and then include the most appropriate terms to
the consolidated glossary of the Inmigra Project which is Inmigra-TERM12.
Picture 4. Bilingual Glossary. Inmigra2007-CM. Wiki
12 Inmigra Group. Inmigra TERM. [online resource] http://inmigra.atril.com/TMServer/Client/ [last consulted] 21//11/11
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2. Discussion group: Each folder has a discussion group on the top but I have created
this page to use this forum as the general debating section.
Picture 5. Discussion Group. Inmigra2007-CM. Wiki
3. News: I have created a Google Calendar in which users can find events related to
translation. The only problem is that I have used my Google account which means
that I am the only one who can submit events. This feature would need further
research if the wiki would be made public for a long period of time.
Picture 6. News. Inmigra2007-CM. Wiki
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4. Resources: There are useful resources about associations, organizations and more.
Some of the resources are generic and others are related to immigration. Most of
the resources are Spanish websites. Users are welcome to complete the list and
publish more links.
Picture 7. Resources. Inmigra2007-CM. Wiki
5. Texts: The purpose of this section is to upload documents and compare sentences
and words. Documents must be written in Spanish and English. Documents must
be always related to immigration and public services
Picture 8. Texts. Inmigra2007-CM. Wiki
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6. Translation Tools: We want to understand and learn from other translators so we
invite them to share their tools with us.
Picture 9. Translation Tools. Inmigra2007-CM. Wiki
7. Videos and presentations: Users are free to upload and embed their favorite
videos in the field of collaborative translation and immigration.
Picture 10. Videos and Presentations. Inmigra2007-CM. Wiki
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8. Collaborative Translation: This folder includes texts in English about
immigration which have not been translated before. I have previously requested
permission to the owners of these texts. The aim is to share ideas and create a
translation all together.
Picture 11. Collaborative Translation. Inmigra2007-CM. Wiki
6. CONCLUSION
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Lisandro Caravaca
When I first thought about creating my final project, my idea was the elaboration of an
alternative project. I have always desired to develop something different, something
creative. In this context, I spoke with Celia Rico, my tutor, and she offered me the
possibility to take part in the Inmigra Group. I found this chance as something very
interesting because I had the opportunity to belong to a research group. I accepted the
challenge. In addition to that, in the next paragraph, I would like to summarize what I have
studied and reflected on this project.
In my opinion, I have clearly distinguished the chapters of this project. Furthermore, I
have worked from the most generic ideas to those which are more specific. I have
established the guidelines of a collaborative environment for translators in the field of
immigration. Then, I have given a brief overview of the history of technologies applied to
the field of translation. I have written about translation in the XXI century and the new
ways of content production: machines and crowdsourcing. I have described all the
different resources that translators need and I have shared several examples of translation
tools. Moreover, I have analyzed which resources would those translators dedicated to the
field of immigration need (information and training, collaborative environments,
terminological databases, glossaries, etc.). I have designed and implemented a wiki in
which professional translators might take advantage of tools and content but also, this
platform will never be useful unless users participate and share their knowledge and
experience.
In this time in which I have been studying the purposes of collaboration, translation
and immigration, I have come to the conclusion that more research is needed. Associations
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Lisandro Caravaca
need to get together and discuss the different possibilities of translation and interpreting in
public services. Thus, those in charge of public administrations will appreciate the
importance of professional people and they will take into consideration the need of
specific training programs.
In conclusion, in order to complete this study, it will be necessary to do a case study in
the future in order to test the experience of the users; to see how useful the interface is, and
last but not least, to understand the willingness of the users to participate and share
interesting content. However, this final idea must be the subject of a different study which
goes beyond the point of the objectives of my project.
In the oral presentation, I will expose the main ideas that should be taken into account
in the future and I will certainly explore the ways to promote a collaborative environment
on the Internet.
Information is everywhere and does not always belong only to you. Share it.
Thanks for reading,
Lisandro R. Caravaca Bayo
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Author: Lisandro Caravaca
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported
Creative Commons License
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