Comments on: What Happens When a Crowd Translates the Bible?

By: How to Accelerate Scripture Distribution - The Seed Company Blog | The Seed Company Blog

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 14:55:44 +0000

[...] available. But which channels we choose can make a big difference. Today’s post is part 2 of What Happens When a Crowd Translates the Bible? published on December 15, [...]

By: Ed Lauber

Ed Lauber — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:57:34 +0000

A recent article by a professional, non-biblical translator notes that people competent in both the source and target languages have a 70% failure rate when they try to do professional translation. http://thebigwave.it/what-clients-want/why-we-still-need-more-good-translators/

He goes on to identify other kinds of knowledge that are needed to succeed at translation. Crowdsourcing appears to be a way to bring to bear those other kinds of knowledge.

Also, many professional, non-biblical translators use Internet forums where they can post issues to other same-pair translators, and/or they use software that can show them how a word or phrase has been translated in the past. Crowdsourcing appears to be another way to accomplish the same need for a translator, or a small team of translators, to get wider input on options.

Another point to note is that many modern translations into major languages are done with very large teams, as was the KJV. The large teams often include people who specialize in one aspect of the translation such as proofreading or (English) style. They work alongside the Hebrew and Greek scholars. Having a team of 50 or 80 working on every minority language translation is not feasible. It appears that crowdsourcing may be a way of extending the team so that minority languages can benefit from the multiplicity of skills used in modern major-language translations. (Or it might even give the major-language translations a new tool.)

So, for me, crowdsourcing is new as a technique, but the idea of using many types of skills in translation, including Bible translation, is not new. Rather, it is part of a long tradition.

By: Why Were the Least the Last Until Now? | The Seed Company Blog

Why Were the Least the Last Until Now? | The Seed Company Blog — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 11:30:02 +0000

[...] Book of the Bible Do You Translate First? What Happens When a Crowd Translates the Bible? On Social Transformation and Unreached Peoples: Revisiting the Winter-Escobar Debate Free Download: [...]

By: Discovering Spiritual Impact in Mission | The Seed Company Blog

Discovering Spiritual Impact in Mission | The Seed Company Blog — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 15:33:19 +0000

[...] needs these days, including as many people as possible in the project has a lot of benefits. A previous blog topic covered that, but for now this means they bring incredibly rich feedback on every stage of the translation [...]

By: Gilles

Gilles — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 23:40:55 +0000

Karl, you do understand this correctly, People who know how to reference the original languages to confirm accuracy indeed need to be part of the crowd. The idea behind crowdsourcing is “increasing” the types of skills, wisdom, insights, etc., that ideally can produce a better translation. This was not possible in former times, but now that so many people, even in poor and remote places, have access to the Web, it is possible.

Gilles Gravelle

By: Karl Dahlfred

Karl Dahlfred — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 23:09:08 +0000

I’d never heard of that before. Good way to get more input but I’d be nervous if qualified Bible translators didn’t have final say. But still, wouldn’t those who know Greek & Hebrew need to do initial work & present it to people? Only small number of people could translate from the original, although this would be a good way to get more feedback and thus produce a better translation. In some ways though, crowdsourcing seems like the same as old way but there are just more people giving feedback on the initial draft

By: Crowd-Sourcing for Bible Translation… | Jon Riding

Crowd-Sourcing for Bible Translation… | Jon Riding — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:07:57 +0000

[...] question has been posed on a Seed Company blog reporting on the progress they have made experimenting with crowd-sourced translation. The idea [...]

By: Gilles

Gilles — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:37:07 +0000

Pat, your description is correct. As I mentioned before, ideally, people skilled in exegesis are also part of the community crowd during the process. They guide and inform the crowd as they work together, learning and ever improving. However, with this experiment, we wanted to see how the community participants would shape things first, so the consultant review comes last.

By: Pat Tiller

Pat Tiller — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 02:55:11 +0000

OK. I think I made some wrong assumptions. So now I’m guessing that the “crowd” includes people who are familiar with the source language, whatever that might be, as well as the target language, so that they can work together to come up with their own draft. The “expert” review comes later. Is that closer to what you are trying to do?

By: Gilles

Gilles — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 19:11:43 +0000

Pat, regarding your questions, we intentionally did not begin by instituting too much structure and formal guidance, since, according to crowdsourcing strategies, that usually inhibits wider community participation from the start. The idea is to see how the community builds and grows, and what sorts of expertice is added. Also, we didn’t want to assume certain Western practices were the default way to work. Instead, it’s important to allow the community to determine how they prefer to work together. Ideally, consultants would be part of the community crowd from the start, and that may be the case in subsequent test projects, but the goal is to see community members develop as consultants through this learning process, too. Crowdsourcing is a more interative than linear process.

Thanks for your comments.