Cover not available

Article published In: Babel
Vol. 67:4 (2021) ► pp.395–417

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

The impact of crowdsourcing and online collaboration in professional translation

Charting the future of translation?

 | Rutgers University
Published online: 22 September 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.00230.jim
Abstract
The emergence of crowdsourcing has opened up novel ways to initiate, produce and deliver translations in our digitally connected world. New practices and processes brought up by these phenomena have undeniably impacted different collectives with an interest in translation, such as language service providers (LSPs), professionals, and Translation Studies (TS). It has also been argued that crowdsourcing can impact public perceptions of translation, rising ethical concerns, issues related to the visibility of translation, or whether everyone can potentially translate (McDonough-Dolmaya, Julie. 2012. “Analyzing the Crowdsourcing Model and Its Impact on Public Perceptions of Translation.” The Translator 1821: 167–191. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). This paper analyzes its potential impact on the realm of professional translation, an issue raised several years ago by a European Union Commission publication (2012, 37–38). It critically analyzes whether the much-feared socioeconomic and socio-professional impact on working conditions of professionals is underway or not. It represents an attempt at charting the potential influence of crowdsourcing on the profession through a critical review of existing literature and industry publications.
Résumé
L’émergence du crowdsourcing (ou production participative) a ouvert de nouvelles voies dans la production et le service de traductions dans le monde numérique. Les nouvelles pratiques engendrées par ces phénomènes ont indéniablement eu un impact sur les différentes collectivités intéressées par la traduction, telles que les fournisseurs de services linguistiques (LSP), les professionnels et les chercheurs en traductologie. D’aucun soutiennent également le fait que ces nouvelles pratiques ont eu un impact sur la manière dont le public perçoit la traduction, sur ses préoccupations éthiques, les problèmes liés à sa visibilité et son accès à un vaste public (McDonough-Dolmaya, Julie. 2012. “Analyzing the Crowdsourcing Model and Its Impact on Public Perceptions of Translation.” The Translator 1821: 167–191. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) Cet article étudie principalement l’impact potentiel du crowdsourcing dans le domaine de la traduction professionnelle, problème soulevé il y a plusieurs années par la Commission Européenne (2012, 37–38). L’article porte un regard critique sur ses répercussions redoutées sur les conditions socio-économiques et socioprofessionnelles des professionnels. Plus concrètement on a cherché à savoir si l’impact des pratiques de crowdsourcing se faisait encore ressentir aujourd’hui. L’étude, à travers un examen critique de la littérature existence et des publications de l’industrie, tente d’analyser l’influence potentielle du crowdsourcing sur la profession de traducteur.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • The emergence of crowdsourcing and initial reactions by the industry and the profession
  • Crowdsourcing workflows and the emergence of professional crowdsourcing models
  • Initiatives that consolidate the perception that professionals and non-professionals possess different skills
  • Reframing the notion of quality as a dynamic construct
  • The consolidation of the fitness for purpose models
    • Expanding the responsibility for quality outcomes
    • Workflow – based approaches to translation quality
  • Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
References (62)
References
Antonini, Rachele, Letizia Cirillo, Linda Rossato, and Ira Torresi, eds. 2017. Non-professional Interpreting and Translation. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
American Translators Association. 2009. “Head of the Largest Translators’ Organization Blasts LinkedIn CEO for ‘Thoroughly Unprofessional Practices.’” [URL]
Anastasiou, Dimitra, and Rajat Gupta. 2011. “Comparison of Crowdsourcing Translation with Machine Translation.” Journal of Information Science 37 (6): 637–659. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bowker, Lynn. 2019. “Fit for Purpose Translation.” In Handbook of Translation Technology, edited by Minako O’Hagan, 435–468. New York and London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brabham, Daren. 2013. Crowdsourcing. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brabham, Daren C. 2017. “Crowdsourcing.” In The International Encyclopedia of Organizational Communication. Chichester, West Sussex and Malden, MA: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Camara, Lidia. 2015. “Motivation for Collaboration in TED Open Translation.” International Journal of Web-Based Communication 11 (2): 210–229.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cronin, Michael. 2010. “The Translation Crowd.” Tradumática 81. [URL]
. 2013. Translation in the Digital Age. New York and London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
DePalma, Donald. 2015. “CSOFT Swipes Left for Translation, Right for the Source to Mobilize Translation.” Common Sense Advisory Publications. [URL]
DePalma, Donald, and Nataly Kelly. 2011. “Project Management for Crowdsourced Translation: How User-Translated Content Projects Work in Real Life.” In Translation and Localization Project Management: The Art of the Possible, edited by Keiran Dunne and Elena Dunne, 379–408. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Desilets, Alain, and Jaap van de Meer. 2011. “Co-Creating a Repository of Best-Practices for Collaborative Translation.” Linguistica Antverpiensia 101: 11–27.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Díaz-Cintas, Jorge. 2015. “Technological Strides in Subtitling.” In Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Technology, edited by Sin-Wai Chan, 632–643. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Díaz Cintas, Jorge, and Pablo Muñoz Sánchez. 2006. “Fansubs: Audiovisual Translation in an Amateur Environment.” Journal of Specialised Translation 61: 37–52.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Drugan, Joanna. 2013. Quality in Professional Translation. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
ELIA. 2017. “Expectations and Concerns of the European Language Industry.” EUATC European Union Association of Translation Companies. [URL]
European Commission. 2011. “Crowdsourcing Translation: Studies on Multilingualism and Translation.” Brussels: Directorate General of Translation. [URL]
FIT. 2015. “FIT Position Statement on Crowdsourcing of Translation, Interpreting and Terminology Services.” FIT. [URL]
Flanagan, Marian. 2016. “Cause for Concern? Attitudes Towards Translation Crowdsourcing in Professional Translators’ Blogs.” Journal of Specialised Translation 251: 149–173. [URL]
Gambier, Yves. 2012. “Denial of Translation and Desire to Translate.” Vertimo Studijos 51: 9–29. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
García, Ignacio. 2017. “Translation in the Cloud Age: Online Marketplaces.” Hermes – Journal of Language and Communication in Business 561: 59–70. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015. “Cloud Marketplaces: Procurement of Translators in the Age of Social Media.” Journal of Specialised Translation 231: 18–38. [URL]
Görog, Attila. 2014. “Quantification and Comparative Evaluation of Quality: The TAUS Dynamic Quality Framework.” Tradumatica 121: 443–454. [URL]
Gouadec, Daniel. 2007. Translation as a Profession. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. “Quality in Translation.” In Handbook of Translation Studies, vol. 11, edited by Yves Gambier and Luc van Doorslaer, 270–275. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grbić, Nadja, and Pekka Kujamäki. 2018. “Professional vs. Non-professional: How Boundary Work Shapes Research Agendas in Translation and Interpreting Studies.” In Moving Boundaries in Translation Studies, edited by Helle V. Dam, Matilde N. Brøgter, and Karen K. Zethsen, 113–131. New York and London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
He, Tianxiang. 2017. Copyright and Fan Productivity in China. New York: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Howe, Jeff. 2008. Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business. New York: Crown Publishing Group.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hu, Chang, et al. 2011. “The Value of Monolingual Crowdsourcing in a Real-World Translation Scenario: Simulation Using Haitian Creole Emergency SMS Messages.” In Proceedings of the Sixth Workshop on Statistical Machine Translation. [URL]
2014. “Crowdsourced Monolingual Translation.” ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction 21 (4): 1–35. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jakobsen, Arnt Lykke, and Bartolomé Mesa-Lao. 2017. “Introduction.” In Translation in Transition: Between Cognition, Computing and Technology, edited by Arnt L. Jakobsen and Bartolomé Mesa-Lao, 1–14. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2017b. “How Much Would You Like to Pay? Reframing and Expanding the Notion of Translation Quality Through Crowdsourcing and Volunteer Approaches.” Perspectives 25 (3): 478–491. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2017c. “Mobile Apps and Translation Crowdsourcing: The Next Frontier in the Evolution of Translation.” Tradumática 141: 75–84. [URL]
Katan, David. 2009. “Occupation or Profession: A Survey of the Translators’ World.” Translation and Interpreting Studies 4 (2): 187–209. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kelly, Nataly. 2009. “Freelance Translators Clash with LinkedIn over Crowdsourced Translators.” Common Sense Advisory. [URL]
. 2013. “There Is Big Money in Crowdsourcing – or Is There?” Common Sense Advisory. [URL]
Kelly, Nataly, Rebeca Ray, and Donald DePalma. 2011. “From Crawling to Sprinting: Community Translation Goes Mainstream.” Linguistica Antverpiensia 101: 45–76.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lommel, Arle, et al. 2014. “Multidimensional Quality Metrics MQM: A Framework for Declaring and Describing Translation Quality Metrics.” Tradumatica 121: 455–463. [URL]
Lommel, Arle. 2018. “Metrics for Translation Quality Assessment: A Case for Standardizing Error Typologies.” In Translation Quality Assessment: From Principle to Practice, edited by Joss Moorkens, Sheila Castilho, Federico Gaspari, and Stephen Doherty, 109–128. New York: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Luz Nuno, Silva, and Paulo Novais. 2014. “A Survey of Task-oriented Crowdsourcing.” Artificial Intelligence Review 44 (2): 1–27.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lykourentzou, Ioanna, Vassillis-Javed Khan, Konstantinos Papangelis, and Panos Markopoulos. 2019. “Macro Task Crowdsourcing: An Integrated Definition.” In Macro task Crowdsourcing, edited by Vassillis-Javed Khan et al., 1–13. Cham: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Massida, Serenella. 2015. Audiovisual Translation in the Digital Age: The Italian Fansubbing Phenomenon. London: Palgrave McMillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McDonough-Dolmaya, Julie. 2012. “Analyzing the Crowdsourcing Model and Its Impact on Public Perceptions of Translation.” The Translator 1821: 167–191. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McDonough-Dolmaya, Julia, and Maria Sanchez. 2019. “Characterizing Online Social Translation.” Translation Studies 12 (2):129–138. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moorkens, Joss, Sharon O’Brien, and Joris Vreeke. 2016. “Developing and Testing Kanjingo: A Mobile App for Post-Editing.” Tradumatica 141: 58–65. [URL]
Morera-Mesa, Aran, John J. Collins, and David Filip. 2014. “Selected Crowdsourced Translation Practices.” In Proceedings of ASLIB Translating and the Computer 351. [URL]
O’Brien, Sharon. 2012. “Towards a Dynamic Quality Evaluation Model for Translation.” Journal of Specialised Translation 171: 55–77. [URL]
O’Brien, Sharon, and Reinhard Schäler. 2010. “Next Generation Translation and Localization: Users Are Taking Charge.” In Proceedings from Translating and the Computer Conference, 17–18. [URL]
O’Hagan, Minako. 2011. “Introduction: Community Translation: Translation as a Social Activity and Its Possible Consequences in the Advent of Web 2.0 and Beyond.” Linguistica Antverpiensia 101: 1–10.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Orrego-Carmona, David. 2015. “The Reception of (Non)Professional Subtitling.” PhD Diss., University Rovira I Virgili, Spain.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Persaud, Ajax, and Sharon O’Brien. 2017. “Quality and Acceptance of Crowdsourced Translation of Web Content.” International Journal of Technology and Human Interaction 13 (1): 100–115. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Popović, Maja. 2018. “Error Classification and Analysis for Machine Translation Quality Assessment.” In Translation Quality Assessment, edited by Joss Moorkens et al., 129–158. Cham: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ray, Rebecca, and Natalie Kelly. 2011. Crowdsourced Translation: Best Practices for Implementation. Lowell, MA: Common Sense Advisory.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Raymond, Eric S. 2001. The Cathedral and the Bazaar. Sebastopol: O’Reilly and Associates.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Risku, Hanna, Regina Rogl, and Christina Pein-Weber. 2016. “Mutual Dependencies: Centrality in Translation Networks.” The Journal of Specialised Translation 251: 232–253. [URL]
TAUS. 2014. “Power of the Crowd.” TAUS. [URL]
Valli, Paola. 2015. “Disrupt Me (Not).” Keynotes 2015 A Review of the TAUS October Events, 46–54. [URL]
Way, Andy. 2020. “Machine Translation: Where Are We at Today?” In The Bloomsbury Companion to Language Industry Studies, edited by Erik Angelone et al., 311–332. New York: Bloomsbury. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zaidan, Omar, and Chris Calliston-Burch. 2011. “Crowdsourcing Translation: Professional Quality from Non-Professionals. In Proceedings of the 49th Annual Meeting of the Association of Computational Linguistics, 1120–1129. [URL]
Zwischenberger, Cornelina. 2021. “Online Collaborative Translation: Its Ethical, Social, and Conceptual Conditions and Consequences.” Perspectives. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (6)

Cited by six other publications

Cukur, Leandra
2024. Towards an ethical framework for evaluating paid translation crowdsourcing and its consequences. The Translator 30:1 ► pp. 47 ff. DOI logo
Pan, Qi & Weiqing Xiao
2024. Revisiting risk management in online collaborative literary translation: ethical insights from the Chinese context. The Translator 30:1 ► pp. 96 ff. DOI logo
Xu, Minhui & Tianze Duan
2024. Networking in online collaborative translation. FORUM. Revue internationale d’interprétation et de traduction / International Journal of Interpretation and Translation 22:1 ► pp. 96 ff. DOI logo
Zwischenberger, Cornelia & Leandra Cukur
2024. Translation on and over the web: disentangling conceptual uncertainties and ethical questions – an introduction. The Translator 30:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Jiménez-Crespo, Miguel A.
2023. A Missing Link?. In Translaboration in Analogue and Digital Practice [Transkulturalität – Translation – Transfer, 57], ► pp. 25 ff. DOI logo
Zwischenberger, Cornelia
2023. Online Collaborative Translation. In Translaboration in Analogue and Digital Practice [Transkulturalität – Translation – Transfer, 57], ► pp. 213 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 2 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue