Open Translation Tools 2009

Image: DerrickT, CC by

Via Open Education News:

Open Translation Tools 2009 will be held from 22 to 24 June, in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The event will be followed by an Open Translation “Book Sprint” which will produce a first-of-its-kind volume on tools and best practices in the field of Open Translation. Both events are being co-organized in partnership with FLOSSManuals.net, and generously supported by the Open Society Institute.

Visit Open Education News for a full rundown on the event, which has been given weight and urgency by Berkman Fellow Ethan Zuckerman, who notes that over the last few years, the Global Voices community has discovered that translation is a huge part of their work -- a "necessary component," Ethan writes, "of any project that tries to spark international dialog online." Indeed, Ethan has argued that distributed human translation is likely the next major wave in cooperative movements, like F/OSS and Wikimedia.

Ethan's rich and compelling essay on "the polyglot Internet" can be found on his blog (October 31, 2008) and as a Publius essay (January 23, 2009), which Ethan framed in a subsequent post, My Publius essay on the polyglot internet.