Awesome resource Alex.<br>Going through the list right now<br>Thanks<br>Carmina<br clear="all">&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*<br>Do you speak Creole?<br>Haiti needs your help!<br>
Can you Help?<br><a href="http://www.raisehaitiup.com">www.raisehaitiup.com</a><br>&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*<br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Feb 4, 2010 at 3:13 PM, Alexander Dupuy <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:alex.dupuy@mac.com">alex.dupuy@mac.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Chris Leonard wrote:<br>
> I believe that all translations are from volunteers. Each language<br>
> group has the opportunity to organize itself and control the process<br>
> as they see fit. For example, Nepali translations have been provided<br>
> by the very organized team from OLE Nepal. A number of the languages<br>
> (pidgins) in Oceania share some of the challenges of Haitian Kreyol in<br>
> that they are not richly described as written languages and they are<br>
> controlled by designees from OLPC Oceania for harmonization of the<br>
> written forms.<br>
><br>
> One of the beauty of open source tools like Pootle is that while they<br>
> are well-designed to accept input from a broad community of<br>
> participants, they still have significant quality control mechanisms<br>
> that can be employed to achieve high quality. Differing levels of<br>
> privileges, review with some automated error checking to identify<br>
> possible problems, contributions to the Pootle server are not<br>
> "published" to the software repo until a language administrator<br>
> "commits" the particular PO file. Of course any individual string<br>
> translation can be reviewed and corrected easily by changing it and<br>
> re-committing the PO file.<br>
<br>
Michel DeGraff writes:<br>
<br>
> Hopefully the current language administrators are certifiably competent<br>
> professional translators who are duly remunerated for their much needed<br>
> expertise and their hard work, on a par with other employees and<br>
> consultants working for OLPC.<br>
<br>
Unfortunately, given the financial structure of OLPC and SugarLabs (the<br>
latter of which actually administers the Pootle translation/localization<br>
system used for the XO software), I would guess that none of the current<br>
language administrators for the SugarLabs Pootle system are remunerated,<br>
and I suspect that this is unlikely to change anytime soon.<br>
<br>
That doesn't mean that there may not be professional translators or OLPC<br>
employees acting as administrators, just that they are unlikely to be<br>
getting paid for doing this. It is more possible that some translations<br>
have been done (for pay) by professional translators (this may be the<br>
case with the Kreyōl translations Guy-Serge Pompilus reports, I don't<br>
know) but I would guess that these would have been delivered to the<br>
administrators in bulk form and incorporated with little if any review<br>
or modification.<br>
<br>
In most cases, the administrator's role in a Pootle<br>
translation/localization system involves coordination between and among<br>
translators and developers, along with some amount of automated<br>
consistency checking to handle technical (non-language-specific) issues<br>
with the translations. As such, IT and software development experience<br>
is probably more relevant than language proficiency although of course<br>
both are helpful.<br>
<br>
As Chris noted, Pootle has a permissions system that can be configured<br>
by an administrator (again - IT experience helpful here) to give<br>
different users different levels of access to the translation:<br>
"suggestion" (noted as a comment on the current translations, for later<br>
review), "submission" (a change to the current translation), "review"<br>
(incorporating and/or deleting suggestions), and "commit" (actually<br>
delivering the set of translations to the software development/build<br>
system). By limiting non-expert translators to suggestions, expert<br>
translators can review any translations before changes are made, or an<br>
administrator performs a commit.<br>
<br>
However, that is the theory, and in practice, most professional<br>
translators are much more skilled in languages than in computer<br>
technology - they probably already use their own preferred set of<br>
translation tools (this may just be Microsoft Word), and are less likely<br>
to be as interested in learning the moderately complex Pootle interface<br>
to review translations. So the ability to effectively utilize<br>
professional translators (even when money is available to pay them) can<br>
be limited, and will often require volunteer administrators familiar<br>
with the Pootle system to "bridge the gap" and provide export and import<br>
to and from the formats the professional translators use.<br>
<br>
That said, I think that professional translators do have something to<br>
contribute to this effort, and what's more, in the specific context of<br>
Haiti there is currently some opportunity to engage them even without<br>
any money to lay on the table. In particular, I would note the<br>
following two blog postings<br>
<a href="http://renatobeninatto.blogspot.com/2010/01/what-translation-industry-can-do-for.html" target="_blank">http://renatobeninatto.blogspot.com/2010/01/what-translation-industry-can-do-for.html</a><br>
and especially<br>
<a href="http://www.milengo.com/what-the-translation-industry-is-doing-for-haiti-relief/" target="_blank">http://www.milengo.com/what-the-translation-industry-is-doing-for-haiti-relief/</a><br>
as providing a lot of information about professional translation<br>
resources being mobilized in support of Haiti. Many of these, I expect,<br>
may have very limited ability to support Kreyōl translation, but there<br>
are at least some. It certainly would make sense for this group to make<br>
contact with some of these others to see what joint efforts and/or<br>
coordination is possible.<br>
<br>
@alex<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
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mailto:<a href="mailto:alex.dupuy@mac.com">alex.dupuy@mac.com</a><br>
<br>
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