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Re: [ox-en] open translation?

Hi Joel, hi list,

--On 25. august 2003 11:00 -0400 jrs295 nyu.edu wrote:

Since the topic of translation of the German documents comes up every so
often on the list, I've been wondering how to apply the ideas of free
software organization and peer-to-peer directly to the problem of
translation.

For example, would it be possible to have a system (such as a site
specializing in translation where different projects could post, or a way
of cataloguing material on different websites) where people who had texts
they needed to translate could give information on what subject matter
the texts are in, which language it's being translated from and to, which
items have higher priority, and so on; so that somebody interested in
translating could search through many different projects and find one on
a subject that is interesting to them?
Applying principles from Free Software development to translation (which, yes, is desperately needed and not only for [ox]), I would draw different conclusions. I don't think linking projects together through a system of any kind (a website, a translation CVS, or whatever) will result in more and better translations.
The importance of *intrinsic* motivation ranks high in every survey on free software development. Meaning: The fun of programming meets the desire to produce something useful. Thus, I would suggest that free-translation projects most likely thrive when there is a sufficient number of contributors who have a lot of fun translating texts. And I would not know where to search for this kind of people. Translation as hobby? A community of translation hobbyists? Difficult. A second problem might be that though the result (the translation) is of course useful, it is not useful for the translator. S/he is per definition able to 'use' the original text.
I am afraid that when these two cornerstones of FS motivation are lacking, every kind of organisational/technical support does not harm, but is not likely to help much either.
A few weeks ago, German media covered the case of a translation project for the most recent Harry Potter novel, which is (was?) not yet available in German translation. This seemed to work quite well. Indeed, here we have lots of intrinsic motivation (high interest in every single sentence of a Harry Potter book). Moreover, only contributors had access to other contributions. Appearently this - eventually being able to read the whole story in German translation - provided another important share of the motivation - which is unfortunately not exactly compatible with the principles of Free Software as it creates artificial scarcity. 

But I would love seeing my scepticism to be proven wrong...

Thomas
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