Translation Committee

  • Recruiting for Fanlore, Abuse, and Translation

    By Claudia Rebaza on Monday, 28 October 2013 - 4:19pm
    Message type:
    Volunteering
    Tags:
    Abuse Committee, Translation Committee, Wiki Committee

    Banner by Erin of a close-up of Rosie the Riveter's arm with an OTW logo on it and the words 'OTW Recruitment'

    Today, we're excited to announce the opening of applications for:

    • Abuse Committee Staff

    • Wiki Committee Staff
    • Wiki Committee Design Specialist
    • Translation volunteers

    We have included more information on each role below. Open roles and applications will always be available at the volunteering page. If you don't see a role that fits with your skills and interests now, keep an eye on the listings. We plan to put up new applications every few weeks, and we will also publicize new roles as they become available.

    All applications generate a confirmation page and an auto-reply to your e-mail address. We encourage you to read the confirmation page and to whitelist volunteers -(at)- transformativeworks -(dot)- org in your e-mail client. If you do not receive the auto-reply within 24 hours, please check your spam filters and then contact us.

    If you have questions regarding volunteering for the OTW, check out our Volunteering FAQ.

    Abuse Committee Staff
    The Abuse Committee is dedicated to helping users deal with the various situations that may arise. We also handle any complaints that come in about content uploaded to the Archive of Our Own. The team determines if complaints are about legitimate violations of the Terms of Service, and what to do about them if they are; our major goals are to adhere to the TOS, to make our reasoning and processes as clear and transparent as possible, and to keep every individual case completely confidential. We work closely with other AO3 related committees such as Support and Content.

    We are seeking people who can keep in close contact, be patient in rephrasing explanations, translate from fan-speak to English, make and document decisions, cooperate within and outside of their team, and ask for help when it's needed. Staffers need to be able to handle complex and sometimes-disturbing content, and must be able to commit a sufficient amount of time to the team on a regular basis.

    Applications are due 4th of November 2013.

    Wiki Committee Staff
    The Wiki Committee supervises Fanlore: we provide direction, write policies and help documents, promote the wiki, organise and support Gardeners, communicate with users, and keep the site running. We handle requests for support and complaints from users and do our best to help the Fanlore community grow.

    If you like Fanlore and are interested in helping the site improve, you could consider joining the Wiki committee.

    Applications are due 4th of November 2013.

    Wiki Committee Design Specialist
    The current design and skin for the fannish wiki Fanlore is partly a byproduct of other processes and considerations and we'd like to improve it. Our main concerns are usability and accessibility, but ideally it should be pretty, too. If you have experience with front-end web development and Web design and are interested in Fanlore, we'd be happy to have your help with this project.

    Applications are due 4th of November 2013.

    Translation volunteers
    Translators and translation betas help make the OTW and its projects accessible to a wider international audience. We work on translating all sorts of content throughout the OTW and its projects: site pages, news posts, Archive FAQs, AO3 Support tickets, and any inquiry that reaches a committee or volunteer group in languages they can’t translate themselves. Most of our work consists of translations from English to another language, though we also need to do the reverse on some occasions.

    If you are proficient in one language (or more!) other than English, if you enjoy working collaboratively, if you like having flexible deadlines that you set yourself, if you’re passionate about the OTW and its projects, and want to help it reach more fans all around the world, working with Translation might be for you!

    Applications are due 4th of November 2013.

    Read more

  • Spotlight on Translation Volunteers

    By Claudia Rebaza on Sunday, 20 November 2011 - 12:33am
    Message type:
    Spotlight
    Tags:
    Translation Committee

    After the spotlight on the Translation committee, it's now time for our volunteer translators to shine.

    Translators need to be highly inventive because many English fannish terms don't have a handy equivalent in their language (and that's not even counting the brand-new usages that were invented for the Archive of Our Own). Here are some examples of how OTW translators deal with this challenge:

    Spanish: Inventing new words

    When it comes to non-existing equivalents, the very adjective fannish is a case in point. Instead of rephrasing sentences, like the German team did, the Spanish team adopted a brand-new word coined in a section of Spanish fandom: fandomero. Neat! Here's a usage example: Lo que creemos [Spanish].

    German: Incorporating feedback

    When it came to translating the unique concept of “orphaning”, the German team took the feedback on the English term into account. Some Archive users had expressed their unease with the negative connotation of the word “orphan”, and because of the flexibility of German verbs compared to English ones, we could pick a less negative compound verb. Instead of our initial favourite, the vivid verb “auswildern” (“release into the wilds”) we ultimately agreed on the more positive “freisetzen” (literally: “set free”).

    The word “orphan” sits amid a jumble of German words in different colours and sizes, of which “auswildern” and “freisetzen” are the most prominent

    [alt text: Colourful word art on white background: The word “orphan” sits amid a jumble of German words in different colours and sizes, of which “auswildern” and “freisetzen” are the most prominent.]

    Finnish: Staying grammatical

    Even for established fannish concepts, there's frequently no existing translation.

    While German and Spanish often solve this by borrowing English terms like “vidding” wholesale, Finnish grammar does not allow for this degree of integration. Because of the way Finnish words are inflected, our translators created the fresh composite “fanivideo” for “vidding”. (Here's an example: Fanivideoprojektit [Finnish].)

    These are just a few examples of the kind of linguistic creativity our translators need. If this sort of language nerdery appeals you, drop us a note! We would love to have you on our team. In our experience, it's low-level, but relatively steady work. You don't need to be a professional translator, either – a native grasp of the language is enough, and we use a beta system to help smooth things out.

    Our Swedish, Danish, Finnish, and Japanese teams are recruiting in particular, but we’re looking for more translators or beta readers for all our teams. We'll also gladly help you pioneer a language not mentioned!

    Simplified Chinese
    Czech
    Danish
    Dutch
    Finnish
    French
    German
    Italian
    Japanese
    Korean
    Polish
    Russian
    Spanish
    Swedish

    Read more

  • Spotlight on Translation

    By .Helka Lantto on Friday, 12 August 2011 - 10:42pm
    Message type:
    Spotlight
    Tags:
    Translation Committee

    Today we'd like to shine the spotlight on the Translation committee. While you have probably seen the fruits of the translator teams' work on the OTW website (and coming soon, the Archive of Our Own!), the Translation committee is the one pulling the strings in the background. Its three members hele, Tonje and Julia are responsible for organising and aiding the translator teams.

    "Language nerdery" is part of the committee's everyday operations. The committee members help translator teams solve language puzzles (quick, what’s the equivalent of a “3rd District Court of Appeals” in Finnish? Wikipedia to the rescue!) and liaise with other OTW committees, such as asking Legal to clarify US-American concepts or discussing the intricacies of our multilingual website with Webmasters. We'll expand on the creative aspect of actual translation work in an upcoming spotlight — although all committee members share a fascination with language, actual translating is not part of their job description. Rather, the priority for the committee is keeping the teams up to date and organised.

    The committee calls their project management style "creative improvisation". From the start they've had to fit processes and tools to a unique project that's ever-growing in both scale and scope (eleven languages on our website, and the committee has bigger plans yet). It’s definitely exciting, but it comes with a certain amount of trial and error, which the translator teams have been graciously putting up with.

    At the top, circles of collaboration with other committees - Web committee is independent with information and work coming from Translation committee; International Outreach committee is overlapping with Translation, also with an arrow of information and work coming from Translation committee. At the center, a large circle representing the Translation committee, with explanatory text stating 'liaises with language teams'. The circle holds the three committee staff and their multi-volunteer teams. At the bottom of the graphic is the flow of the creation of documentation, represented with an arrow from the Translation committee to screenshots of the OTW's online translation tools.
    A simplified graphic of the committee's modus operandi. Please note: this figure doesn’t accurately represent number or size of teams, committee relationships, etc.

    If this work sounds interesting to you — in short, if you are interested in language-related project management — the committee is looking for a few additional members. Please contact either the Volunteers and Recruiting committee, or, for additional information, the Translation committee.

    Read more

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