Re: [ox-en] open translation?
- From: Thomas Berker <thomas.berker hf.ntnu.no>
- Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 13:20:26 +0200
Hi Graham,
Perhaps your counter-examples contain another lesson.
--On 25. august 2003 13:40 -0400 graham seul.org wrote:
That's a nice, clear argument. But I think there is a counter-proof by
example: the distributed proofreaders site for Project Gutenberg,
http://www.pgdp.net/c/default.php
To me proof-reading seems even drier than translating, but it's a
successful site.
Proof-reading can be practised as close reading, which then offers
additional benefits to the reader. Of course it depends on the
proof-reader's accuracy: it may be drier than translating, but it is also
much less intricate.
Another example might be marxists.org: this is based on people scanning
and proof-reading texts voluntarily; if you can scan a text, I guess that
means you have access to it already, so it would seem there's no
personal motivation (except perhaps in being able to search the text
electronically) but it's still successful.
Here we have another case based on an additional motivation. Believing that
Marx' word should be propagated _and_ the benefits of a close reading.
This is of course only conjectures about motivations, something which is
always guesswork. Still, there is something, which could help a free
translation project: It could address a defined group of aficionados when
it comes to the content of the texts that need translation. Too broad a
scope in terms of content then might be harmfull.
My guess would be that if a generic translation site was set up AND
publicised enough in the 'right' way (whatever that is!) it would be
successful, and that problems might be more with controlling the quality
of the output: what do you do about people translating into a language
that's not their first language, or language students using it to
practise? Who can say whether a translation is 'good enough' or 'accurate
enough'?
Yes, there is not the proof of 'running code' when it comes to natural
language. Still, in the example I mentioned in my last email several weeks
ago, pieces of the Harry Potter novel were translated concurrently by
several contributors and the whole thing then was edited by a maintainer.
Thus, with a large enough number of contributors this might turn out not to
be a serious problem.
Finally, I sometimes translate texts for personal pleasure. Does that
make me weird? ;-)
:-) We all do weird things once in a while.
Thomas
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