Open Translation Tools 2007 [0] will convene stakeholders in the field of open content [1] translation to assess the state of software tools that support translation of content that is licensed under free or open content licenses such as Creative Commons [2] or Free Document License [3]. The event will serve to map out what’s available, what’s missing, who’s doing what, and to recommend strategic next steps to address those needs, with a particular focus on delivering value to nonprofit and non-governmental organizations (NPOs and NGOs). Primary focus will be placed on supporting and enabling distributed human translation of content, but the role of machine translation will also be considered. “Open content” will encompass a range of resource types, from books to manuals to documents to blog posts to multimedia.

Nonprofit, non-governmental and civil society organizations are both producing and consuming more open content. But even as the pool of open content grows exponentially, so does the need for corresponding open source tools to support distributed human translation of this content. A number of expensive proprietary tools and services exist for this purposes, but there are substantial gaps in the corresponding software tools licensed under the GPL or other open source licenses. There are currently too few replicable processes and associated tools for getting creative content translated into additional languages, and many content producers simply don’t know how to begin the translation process. And further discussion and education is required to raise awareness about the translation implications of various Creative Commons licenses.

Any organization working internationally in more than one language encounters the need for translation of documents; in the growing Access to Knowledge [4] Movement, translation is increasingly a major challenge for open textbook and other content-focused projects. There are some software tools to support such efforts, but there is no comprehensive mapping of relevant tools for NGO/NPO (nonprofit and non-governmental organization) translation needs. In addition, there is general agreement among translation practitioners that tool coverage is hardly complete, with gaps to be filled both in specific feature sets as well as support for different translation workflows. Add to this the advent of collaborative internet-based translation models such as those employed on cross-cultural blog aggregators and the need for such a toolset becomes even more apparent.

NGOs have unmet content translation needs which would be addressed in part by the availability of better tools, documentation and services. The recent publication of the Wireless Networking in the Developing World [5] book was exciting because of its availability under Creative Commons as both a freely downloadable document as well as a print-on-demand offering. But requests for translations of that text to other languages are going unmet because there is not an openly available web-based infrastructure to support delegating and managing translation work on the document. Tactical Technology Collective [6] would like to see their NGO-in-a-Box [7] program distributed in many more languages, and Aspiration’s own Social Source Commons [8] platform needs support for making software documentation available in other languages.

The range of creative content publishers at the recent iCommons iSummit [9] demonstrated another dimension of the translation problem: as more content is published under open licenses, the demand to make that content available in multiple languages grows accordingly. There are currently few replicable processes and associated tools for getting creative content translated into additional languages, and many content producers simply don’t know how to begin the translation process. And further discussion and education is required to raise awareness about the translation implications of various Creative Commons licenses [10].

Add to this set of scenarios the general information gaps that exist. Many NGOs have a general lack of awareness about the rationale and need for local-language content. The vast majority of open source software developers are largely uninformed about what is missing and how they can contribute to translation and localization tools and efforts. Even those who are motivated to translate and localize content lack access to documents detailing how they should approach localization, what processes to follow, and concrete budgeting parameters. In considering these knowledge gaps, the mandate for convening stakeholders becomes more clear.

Aspiration is friend and ally to stakeholders in the scenarios described above. With the support of the Open Society Institute [11], we hosted the Localisation Developers Sprint [12] in Warsaw in late 2004. To address the set of challenges described above, we are organizing Open Translation Tools 2007 [12], bringing together leading open content translation practitioners with the tool developers, projects and other stakeholders. The event will map out the landscape of open content translation software for NGO needs, work to define gaps and identify solutions, and publish all outcomes in a maintainable, broadly available format that supports ongoing documentation and collaboration efforts, using the Social Source Commons [Array] platform as the central repository for collecting and maintaining the body of knowledge.

Open Translation Tools 2007 [12] will take place in Zagreb, Croatia [13], from 29 November to 1 December 2007, and is being co-organized by Aspiration and Multimedia Institute - (MI2) [14]. Open Translation Tools 2007 is supported by the generosity of the Open Society Institute. [15]

About Aspiration

Aspiration is a global leader in the design and delivery of innovative technology gatherings for nonprofit and nongovernmental audiences. Our event philosophy and facilitation focus on maximizing collaboration and peer sharing, while making sparing use of one-to-many and several-to-many session formats such as presentations and panels. We believe the ultimate potential and power of any convening lie in the collective untapped knowledge and experience of the participants, and we strive to tap that vast store by maximizing dialog, creativity and idea exchange.

Over the past several years, we have convened and co-organized over 45 highly interactive events [16] across the globe. We focus agendas around user-oriented dialog that connects all the stakeholders in software design and development, and model our events to reflect the diverse and network-oriented nature of the communities we convene.

Aspiration is also developing the Social Source Commons [17], a platform for collaboratively mapping and documenting the universe of software tools relevant to nonprofits and non-governmental organizations.

As part of our community building work, Aspiration operates the San Francisco Nonprofit Technology Center [17]. The Center is home to 6 organizations working in nonprofit and social change technology, and offers training and meeting space as well.

For more information about our work and programs, see www.aspirationtech.org.

About Multimedia Institute - [mi2], Zagreb, Croatia

Multimedia Institute [mi2] is a Zagreb-based non-profit organization that sprang up in 1999. [mi2] brought together an emerging generation of local civil activists, media practitioners, independent cultural actors and social theorists who are pursuing five principle tasks:

1. to present digital culture and to pursue new media practices relevant for critical social and cultural action,
2. to promote and develop socially inflected approaches to technologies, particularly free software, free culture and open acces,
3. to protect public space and advocate inclusive urban policies,
4. to present contemporary philosophy, social and media theory,
5. to strengthen independent cultural sector and to advocate progressive cultural policies in order to support progressive tendencies of socio-cultural reformism.

[mi2] is internationally mostly recognized through the activities of its free content publishing label - EGOBOO.bits, its meetspace - net.culture club MAMA and its free software work. It’s in house mi2lab development team is working on four free software projects: most notably, on its own flavor of wiki optimized for heavy handling of multimedia content - TAMTAM, and a set of financial administration tools optimized for NGOs - NGOde. To complement the free software development, the mi2lab had a residency program for free software developers from the Eastern Europe, Central and South Asia.

[mi2] is committed to promote, advocate and educate in the free software, open standards and free content and to reflect on their impact on wider social and cultural context. In 2003 together with Amsterdam based Tactical Tech it organized the SummerSource social software camp. In 2007 together with iCommons it organized iCommons Summit. It is regularly organizing education in free software tools and free publishing. Wishing to enable the local creators to license their creative works under the adequate free content licenses, the [mi2] did the Croatian localization of Creative Commons public licenses.