{"id":276,"date":"2008-08-08T08:40:59","date_gmt":"2008-08-08T06:40:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/?p=276"},"modified":"2008-08-08T08:40:59","modified_gmt":"2008-08-08T06:40:59","slug":"real-time-online-translation-breakthrough-technology-for-social-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/real-time-online-translation-breakthrough-technology-for-social-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Real-time online translation: Breakthrough technology for social change?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article is my regular monthly column in Industrial Worker<\/a>, the newspaper of the Industrial Workers of the World.<\/em>
\nAs anyone who has done any kind of global solidarity work will tell you, the number one problem we face is the problem of language. It’s not a problem companies face. When McDonald’s wants to summon all its managers from around the world to attend a meeting, the company decides what language everyone will speak \u2013 English.
\nUnions can’t do that. We believe in cultural and linguistic diversity and equality. So instead, international union meetings are incredibly expensive events due in large part to the need for simultaneous translation. And being expensive, they are held infrequently.<\/p>\n


\nThe Internet has long promised to help solve the problem and for more than a decade we’ve had online translators that promise much such as Google Translate, AltaVista’s Babelfish and Babylon.
\nSome of these tools are based on commercially available software and when you buy the software, you get the chance to tweak the dictionaries and improve the translation \u2013 for yourself. At least one global union federation that I know of invested a considerable amount of money, time and effort to customize one such translation tool in order to have it better serve trade union purposes. But all the work they did could only be used within the organisation. No one outside could benefit.
\nNow imagine if we could have an online translation tool that instead of relying on a fixed dictionary was actually being continually updated by those who use it. And now imagine that those using it numbered in the millions.
\nAt the moment, even the best of these online translators usually gets it wrong. For example, Google Translate<\/a> (which is actually very good) takes the French phrase \u201cLa Cor\u00e9e du Sud doit respecter les droits fondamentaux syndicaux\u201d and translates it as \u201cThe South Korea must respect fundamental rights union\u201d. A human would have made the obvious corrections, most importantly knowing the phrase \u201cfundamental union rights\u201d. A phrase like that is used all the time.
\nGoogle itself knows that these translations are often very poor and it does invite you to suggest improvements. But I wonder how many people actually do this.
\nI’ve recently learned about another service, this one offering real-time translation of online chat. It’s called MeGlobe<\/a> and it promises to translate from and to 15 different languages, among them some of the key Asian languages.
\nThis sounds like something that is bound to work poorly, and I was initially dismissive, but was intrigued to read this about their service:
\n\u201cEvery time you send a instant message on MeGlobe’s network you have the opportunity to make our translations better. When you notice that a translation on MeGlobe is a little off, let us know by ‘editing’ the translation. Your buddy will immediately see the corrected translation and at the same time you are contributing to our knowledge base.
\n\u201cThese contributions are used to teach MeGlobe to become a better translator. Every correction from the community brings us closer to our goal of erasing the borders of language.\u201d
\nIn other words, this service aims to make use of the \u201cwisdom of crowds\u201d to constantly improve its translations.
\nAt the moment, to use MeGlobe you need to sign up and it’s free. It would be much better for this kind of tool to be embedded in existing instant messagers that people already use \u2013 including Skype, MSN, AIM, and ICQ.
\nI know that some trade unionists have already begun trialling MeGlobe. I hope it works. The key to it working is a massive number of people using it \u2013 and responsive software.
\nThat second part is crucial as well. I’ve now told Google how to properly translate the French phrase I gave before, and it’s still coming out as \u201cThe South Korea must respect fundamental rights union\u201d.
\nLet’s hope that MeGlobe listens better and produces better translations.
\n-30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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