Japan: Spread the message, translate it · Global Voices
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A video interview [en] of Kyo Kageura, head of the project Minna no Honyaku (みんなの翻訳, Translation for all) [ja], a new translation platform that helps NGOs and NPOs to spread their messages thanks to volunteer translators.
Global Voices Japan asked him about the challenge of Minna no Honyaku [en], the difficulties and the new frontiers of volunteer translation.
The project Minna no Honyaku or Translation for all is the brainchild of Language Translation Group of the National Institute of Information and Communication Technology and Library and Information Science Laboratory of the University of Tokyo, in cooperation with publishing company Sanseido.
Thought as a part of the Shiitake Project, the realization of a platform to stimulate the growth of online translation has a precise purpose:
This system will ultimately enable individual translators to form a network, without any additional or conscious effort, in which translators working on similar or related domains can collectively accumulate translation data and share information relevant to their translations. This, we believe, will enhance the activity of translators and encourage potential translators to join in. As such, the Shiitake project is ultimately a social project.
Lastly, with the aim to make translation an easy process also to inexperienced translators, Professor Kageura's team created Minna no Honyaku, convinced that:
The translation of news and reports by volunteers plays a vital role in this alternative information flow.