WikiConference India 2016/Submissions/TranslatingBlindButNotQuite

Hashtag: #WCI2016

WCI Submissions

Please make sure to log in to Wikimedia Meta before creating your Proposal. If your submission is selected, we will contact your Wikipedia account so make sure your Username is correct.

Title of the submission

Translating 'Blind'... But Not Quite

Your Username (For the submission author)

Fredericknoronha (Link)

Type of presentation

Discussion

Abstract (in about 300 words)

India today is seeing a spurt in multilingual skills, and this can viably be tapped for the growth of the Wikipedia. These skills have been around for quite some time, but now become more apparent and obvious, both nationally and beyond. The importance of literary translations within India has long been emphasised, though critical mass is yet to be achieved. Online too, translation within and among Indian (and South Asian) languages is important, but the vision need not be restricted to this arena alone. This discussion aims to look, in particular, at how Indian talent can contribute to Wikipedia translation projects, with special focus on the presenter's experiences with Portuguese-to-English translations. Significantly and of special relevance here, the presenter is not fluent in Portuguese (hence the reference to 'blind'), though in many cases he is informed about the context being discussed. Being aware also of the wealth of resources in that language which is relevant to some aspects of South Asian history, he has been using tools such as the Wikipedia Translation tool (which has a lot of potential) and Google Translate to create bridges across linguistic diversity. In real world situations too, he has attempted to use 'distributed' models at collaborative publishing. We need to ask ourselves whether technology will make such possibilities more prevalent, what more we can do to take these forward, what suggestions we could offer to Wikipedia Content Translation [1], and how we can further unleash a process of collaborative translations in a strongly multi-lingual region like South Asia.

Result

Accepted

Review comments

Please note that there is a Content Translation Workshop where the new language translation tools (which you can turn on in the edit preferences on Wikipedia and try for yourself) are being showcased. You may like to alter the talk contents in the light of these new tools. We have allocated some time (ideally a lightning talk of 10 mins but more with the permission of the workshop organizers) for you to talk before the translation workshop.

Thanks for this, I'd definitely like to learn more from the Content Translation Workshop. Being more a content person than a techie, my knowledge in the latter is limited. Fredericknoronha (talk) 00:04, 30 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Also, a 10 minute lightening talk would be fine. Don't need much time, just to stress on some bullet points. Fredericknoronha (talk) 00:08, 30 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Interested attendees and comments

I am using Content translation so want to know more. Sumita Roy Dutta (talk) 06:17, 28 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

You're welcome, Sumita Roy Dutta. Which language pairs do you work on? Bengali and English? Any other Indian languages? How do you manage script issues? I'm not a tech expert, but have been dabbling with the written word, and hence my interest in this subject. I find the Wikipedia Translation Tool very convenient and helpful. Even if we don't have enough Google Translate-type tools for many smaller Indian languages. Fredericknoronha (talk) 00:07, 30 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Very true. Presently myself and my husband Goutam both are using English to Bengali(, may be after that we will use for Hindi(both of us comfortable in three languages) too. Next is from foreign languages to English as well as Bengali regarding mountains specially Himalaya, since both are more comfortable in that subject. Though I am from a software background but my husband is not.So Automatic inter wiki link addition, Category if available, table etc without writing code is very helpful for him. It is very helpful to new editors too if they slightly trained and mentored by experienced editors. We have plan to do so. Regards. Sumita Roy Dutta (talk) 07:57, 30 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]