Cover not available

Article published In: InContext
Vol. 2:1 (2022) ► pp.32–56

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

Quo Vadis, crowdsourcing and online collaborative translation?

 | Rutgers University, United States
Open Access logo
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 28 April 2022
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.54754/incontext.v2i1.13
Abstract
Online collaborative translation experienced a meteoric rise in the first decade of the 20th century thanks to the affordances provided by the Web 2.0. Two distinct models emerged, solicited and unsolicited models. In the first one, a company or institutions request the help of volunteer or participants with translation tasks. In unsolicited models, fans, activists or different collectives self-organize to start a translation initiative. These practices quickly attracted the attention of the Language Industry after large corporations implemented crowdsourcing models (Google, Facebook or Twitter). Translation providers and tech companies explored collaborative initiatives in a context of exciting possibilities for growth, while it quickly became a serious cause for concern for professional translators and professional associations such as the International Federation of Translators (FIT) or the American Translators’ Association (ATA). As a rapidly growing phenomenon, Translation Studies scholars were quickly drawn to research this emerging set of phenomena. Initially, the main issues that appeared on Translation Studies literature were related to motivation, epistemological/conceptual research, ethics, translator visibility, or the description of existing initiatives. The second decade of the 20th century saw the consolidation of these activities through technological developments and innovative workflows and the expansion to non-profit ventures, while new technology-driven models based on collaborative micro-task approaches emerged, such as “paid crowdsourcing”. By 2020, the number of providers offering translations crowdsourcing has been dramatically reduced. Many start-ups have been absorbed or have disappeared, while non-for-profit models of translation collaboration, such as educational, NGO or activist initiatives continue to grow. This paper offers a critical analysis of the evolution of translation collaboration on the web and potential future directions, as well as a review of existing research trends within Translation Studies. The paper ends with an exploration of potential future research trends and directions in this ever-changing area driven by technological innovation.
논문초록
온라인 협동번역은 웹 2.0 덕분에 2000년대에 급격하게 부상하게 되었는데, 의뢰번역과 비의뢰번역이라는 두가지 유형으로 나뉘어 발전해왔다. 전자의 경우 기업 이나 기관이 번역 수행 자원자나 참여자를 모집하고, 후자에서는 팬, 활동가, 다양한 자 체조직 집단이 번역 프로젝트를 수행한다. 구글, 페이스북, 트위터와 같은 대기업이 크 라우드소싱 방식을 도입하면서 언어산업계도 이러한 번역 방식에 관심을 가지게 되었 다. 번역 에이전시와 IT기업은 특히 높은 성장 가능성에 주목한 반면, 전문번역사와 세 계번역가연맹(FIT), 미국번역가협회(ATA)를 비롯한 전문번역사 기구들에게는 요주의 대상으로 등장했다. 번역학자들은 급부상하는 온라인 협동번역을 연구대상으로 포함시 켰는데, 초기 연구는 동기, 인식론적/개념적 연구, 윤리, 번역사 가시성, 현존 번역 프로 젝트 분석에 집중되었다. 2010년대부터 기술 발전, 번역작업흐름 혁신, 비영리사업으로 의 확장을 통해 이들 활동이 강화되기 시작한 한편, ‘유료 크라우드소싱’ 등과 같이 협동 성 마이크로 작업 방식에 기반한 첨단기술 모델이 등장하게 되었다. 2020년에 이르면서 번역 크라우드소싱을 제공하는 기관 수가 극적으로 줄어들었다. 교육, 비정부기관, 활 동가 등으로 대표되는 비영리 협동번역 모델은 계속해서 부상하고 있는 반면 대부분의 스타트업은 통합되거나 사라졌다. 본 논문에서는 번역학 분야의 기존 연구 동향을 검토 하는 한편 웹 협동번역의 발전 양상을 비판적으로 분석한다. 결론에서는 기술 혁신으로 인해 변화를 계속해나가게 될 이 분야에 대한 향후 연구 방향을 제시한다.
References (82)
References
Alonayq, Abdulmohsen. (2021a). Narrating Arabic translation online: Another perspective on the motivations behind volunteerism in the translation sector. In Renée Desjardins, Claire Larsonneur & Philippe Lacour (Eds.), When Translation Goes Digital (pp. 91–119). Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2021b). Narrating motivation: A new perspective on Arabic volunteer translators’ motivations to participate in crowdsourced translation projects [Doctoral dissertation]. Lancaster University.
Baker, Mona. (2016). The prefigurative politics of translation in place-based movements of protest: Subtitling in the Egyptian Revolution. The Translator, 22(1), 1–21. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Basalamah, Salah. (2020). Ethics of volunteering in translation and interpreting. In Kaisa Koskinen & Nike K. Pokorn (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Ethics (pp. 227–244). Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beseghi, Micòl. (2021). Bridging the gap between non-professional subtitling and translator training: a collaborative approach. The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, 15(1), 102–117. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Borodo, Michał. (2020). Non-professional translators in the context of globalization. In Esperança Bielsa & Dionysios Kapsaskis (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Globalization (pp. 190–201). Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brabham, Darren C. (2013). Crowdsourcing. MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bruns, Axel. (2009, September 3–4). From prosumer to produser: Understanding user-led content creation. Transforming Audiences 2009, London. [URL]
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
Capellini, Thomas. (2021). Crowdsourced translation in indie game localization. Case study: The community translation of Finding Paradise [MA thesis]. University of Geneva.
Chang, Pin-ling. (2020). Civil resistance through online activist translation in Taiwan’s Sunflower Student Movement. In Rebecca R. Gould & Kayvan Tahmasebian (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Activism (pp. 499–514). Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chesterman, Andrew. (2001). Proposal for a Hieronymic oath. The Translator, 7(2), 139–154. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Christensen, Tina P. (2011). Studies on the mental processes in translation memory-assisted translation — The state of the art. Trans-kom, 4(2), 137–160.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cordingley, Anthony and Céline Frigau Manning (Eds.). (2016). Collaborative Translation: From the Renaissance to the Digital Age. Bloomsbury. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Désilets, Alain. (2007, November 29–30). Translation wikified: How will massive online collaboration impact the world of translation? Proceedings of Translation and the Computer 29, London, UK. [URL]
Desjardins, Renée. (2021). Are citizen science ‘socials’ multilingual? Lessons in (non) translation from zooniverse. In Renée Desjardins, Claire Larsonneur & Philippe Lacour (Eds.), When Translation Goes Digital (pp. 121–152). Palgrave Macmillan. 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
Dombek, Magdalena. (2013). A study into the motivations of Internet users contributing to translation crowdsourcing: The case of Polish Facebook user-translators [Doctoral dissertation]. Dublin City University.
Eagle, Nathan. (2009). txteagle: Mobile crowdsourcing. Proceedings of the International Conference on Internationalization Design and Global Development, 56231, 447–456. [URL]
European Commission. (2011). Crowdsourcing translation. Studies on multilingualism and translation. Directorate General of Translation. [URL]
Fan, Linjuan. (2020). Collaborative translation and AVT. In Łukasz Bogucki & Mikołaj Deckert (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Audiovisual Translation and Media Accessibility (pp. 339–356). Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fırat, Gökhan. (2021). Uberization of translation: Impacts on working conditions. The Journal of Internationalization and Localization, 8(1), 48–75. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
FIT. (2015). FIT Position Statement on Crowdsourcing of Translation, Interpreting and Terminology Services. [URL]
Flanagan, Marian. (2016). Cause for concern? Attitudes towards translation crowdsourcing in professional translators’ blogs. The Journal of Specialised Translation, 251, 149–173.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Frey, Bruno. (1997). Not Just for the Money: An Economic Theory of Personal Motivation. Edward Elgar Publishing. [URL]
García, Ignacio. (2015). Cloud marketplaces: Procurement of translators in the age of social media. The Journal of Specialised Translation, 231, 18–38.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hebenstreit, Gernot. (2019). Coming to terms with social translation: A terminological approach. Translation Studies, 12(2), 139–155. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heinisch, Barbara. (2021). The role of translation in citizen science to foster social innovation. Frontiers in Sociology, 61(629720). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hunt, Matthew, Sharon O’Brien, Patrick Cadwell and Dónal P. O’Mathúna. (2019). Ethics at the intersection of crisis translation and humanitarian innovation. Journal of Humanitarian Affairs, 1(3), 23–32. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2019). Technology and non-professional translation. In Minako O’Hagan (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Technology (pp. 239–254). Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2018). Crowdsourcing and translation quality: Novel approaches in the language industry and Translation Studies. In Joss Moorkens (Ed.), Translation Quality Assessment: From Principle to Practice (pp. 69–93). Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2016). Testing explicitation in translation: Triangulating corpus and experimental studies. Across Languages and Cultures, 16(2), 257–283. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jiménez-Crespo, Miguel A. and Laura Ramírez-Polo. (2021). Translation and the world wide web. In Esperança Bielsa (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Media (pp. 352–368). Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kang, Ji-Hae and Jung-Wook Hong. (2020). Volunteer translators as ‘committed individuals’ or ‘providers of free labor’? The discursive construction of ‘volunteer translators’ in a commercial online learning platform translation controversy. Meta, 65(1), 51–72. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kelly, Nataly, Rebecca Ray and Donald A. DePalma. (2011). From crawling to sprinting: Community translation goes mainstream. Linguistica Antverpiensia, 101, 45–76. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kozinets, Robert V. (2010). Netnography: Doing Ethnographic Research Online. SAGE Publications.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Krimat, Noureddine. (2021). The challenge of quality management in crowdsourced translation: The case of the NGO Translators without Borders. QScience Connect, 2021(3), 4. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lee, Hye-Kyung. (2011). Cultural consumer and copyright: A case study of anime fansubbing. Creative Industries Journal, 3(3), 237–252. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Malaczkov, Szilvia. (2020). Subtitle revision in translator training: A case study of revisional modifications in TED translation crowdsourcing. Bridge: Trends and Traditions in Translation and Interpreting Studies, 1(1), 3–22.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, 18(2), 167–191. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McDonough Dolmaya, Julie and María del Mar Sánchez Ramos. (2019). Characterizing online social translation. Translation Studies, 12(2), 129–138. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morera-Mesa, Aram, John J. Collins and David Filip. (2013). Selected Crowdsourced Translation Practices. Proceedings of ASLIB Translating and the Computer 35, London. [URL]
Munro, Robert. (2010). Crowdsourced translation for emergency response in Haiti: The global collaboration of local knowledge. AMTA Workshop on Collaborative Crowdsourcing for Translation, Denver. [URL]
O’Brien, Sharon. (2011). Collaborative translation. In Carmen Millán-Varela & Francesca Bartrina (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Translation Studies (Vol. 21, pp. 17–20). Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
O’Hagan, Minako. (2016). Massively open translation: Unpacking the relationship between technology and translation in the 21st century. International Journal of Communication, 10(2016), 929–946.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2011). 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
O’Hagan, Minako and Carmen Mangiron. (2013). Game Localization: Translating for the Global Digital Entertainment Industry. John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Olohan, Maeve. (2014). Why do you translate? Motivation to volunteer and TED translation. Translation Studies, 7(1), 17–33.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Orrego-Carmona, David. (2012, May 17–19). Internal structures and workflows in collaborative subtitling. Non-professional Interpreting and Translation in the Media, Università di Bologna.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Parra Escartín, Carla and Helena Moniz. (2020). Ethical considerations on the use of machine translation and crowdsourcing in cascading crises. In Federico M. Federici & Sharon O’Brien (Eds.), Translation in Cascading Crises (pp. 132–151). Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Piróth, Attila and Mona Baker. (2020). The ethics of volunteerism in translation: Translators Without Borders and the platform economy. Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Translation Studies, 5(3), 1–30.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Probirskaja, Svetlana. (2020). Linguistic first aid. In Kaisa Koskinen & Nike K. Pokorn (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Translation and Ethics (pp. 431–440). Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pym, Anthony. (2012). On Translator Ethics: Principles for Mediation Between Cultures. John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2011). Translation research terms: A tentative glossary for moments of perplexity and dispute. In Anthony Pym (Ed.), Translation Research Projects 3 (pp. 75–99). Intercultural Studies Group.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, 1–22.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Risku, Hanna and Florian Windhager. (2013). Extended translation: A sociocognitive research agenda. Target, 25(1), 33–45. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sakamoto, Akiko. (2018). Disruption in translator-client matching: Paid crowdsourcing platforms vs human project managers. Tradumàtica: tecnologies de la traducció, 161, 85–94. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Saldanha, Gabriela and Sharon O’Brien. (2014). Research Methodologies in Translation Studies. Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sánchez Ramos, María del Mar. (2021). Integrating collaborative localization into professional translator training. Translation & Interpreting, 13(1), 38–50. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sarıgül, Semih and Jonathan Maurice Ross. (2020). Volunteer vs. professional community translation in video game localization: The case of the Steam translation server in Turkish. transLogos Translation Studies Journal, 3(2), 1–22. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Senn, Angelika. (2021). How did participants experience volunteering for a translation crowdsourcing project? [MA thesis]. University of Geneva.
Shimohata, Sayori, Mihoko Kitamura, Tatsuya Sukehiro and Toshiki Murata. (2001). Collaborative translation environment on the web. Proceedings from Machine MT Summit 8, Santiago de Compostela. [URL]
Sosoni, Vilelmini, Katia Lida Kermanidis, Maria Stasimioti, Thanasis Naskos, Eirini Takoulidou, Menno Van Zaanen, Sheila Castilho, Panayota Georgakopoulou, Valia Kordoni and Markus Egg. (2018). Translation crowdsourcing: creating a multilingual corpus of online educational content. Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC 2018), Miyazaki. [URL]
Svobodová, Růžena. (2018). Crowdsourcing and machine translation in subtitling from English to Czech [MA thesis]. Masaryk University.
Tapo, Allahsera A. (2020). Machine-assisted Translation by Human-in-the-loop Crowdsourcing for Bambara [MA thesis]. Rochester Institute of Technology. [URL]
Toffler, Alvin. (1980). The Third Wave. Pan Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wang, Dingkun. (2017). Fansubbing in China — With reference to the fansubbing group YYeTs. The Journal of Specialised Translation, 281, 165–188.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wertheimer, Alan. (1999). Exploitation. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wolf, Michaela and Alexandra Fukari (Eds.). (2007). Constructing a Sociology of Translation. John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yu, Chuan. (2019). Negotiating identity roles during the process of online collaborative translation: An ethnographic approach. Translation Studies, 12(2), 231–252. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zeyrek, Deniz, Amália Mendes, Yulia Grishina, Murathan Kurfalı, Samuel Gibbon and Maciej Ogrodniczuk. (2020). TED Multilingual Discourse Bank (TED-MDB): A parallel corpus annotated in the PDTB style. Language Resources and Evaluation, 54(2), 587–613. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zwischenberger, Cornelia. (2021). Online collaborative translation: Its ethical, social, and conceptual conditions and consequences. Perspectives, 30(1), 1–18. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue