Translators for NGOs

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Translators for NGOs

• Attila Piróth
• The Solidarités team of ProZ.com
• www.ProZ.com/team/664
• ProZ.com Regional ConferenceAix-en-Provence,
  November 2007

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Outline

• Motivation
• Workflow
• Pilot Projects
• ProZ.coms Infrastructure
• Future Plans
• Questions and Answers

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Motivation

• Newbies How to get first references?
• Advice Through free work for NGOs
• Using the job as reference, portfolio material
• Free Little competition with established TRs
• NGOs Free work for them is justifiable to
  future clients

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Motivation

• What would be the best framework?
• Working in a team networking is attractive for
  established translators
• Working with experienced colleagues much like
  ProZ.coms mentoring program
• Getting feedback without conflict of interest
  between TR and ED
• Learning new skills
• Having comfortable deadlines

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Motivation

• Few paid jobs meet these criteria
• About 200,000 registered ProZians
• Some voluntary work for networking localization
  of ProZ.com, T4Kids
• Hundreds of thousands of hours of work...
• If this approach can be made attractive

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Workflow

• Preparation of the material
• Translation glossary building
• Editing
• Glossary unification
• Updating translation
• Proof-reading
• After delivery

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Workflow

• Preparation of the material(esp. if team is
  large)
• Selecting glossary entries in source
  doc possibly using term extraction tool
• Should be done before distributing the doc
• Requires (2 or more) terminology managers

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Workflow

• Translation glossary building
• Done by translators getting established
• Encouraged to use CAT tools
• Close one-on-one cooperation with editor
• Forum discussion with other team members

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Workflow

• Editing
• Done by experienced translators ATA exam
  correctors?
• Detailed feedback to translator like in
  mentoring program
• Getting to know the work of several TRs
• facilitating future cooperation

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Workflow

• Glossary unification
• Published glossary good reference
• Networking among contributors
• A lot of communication is needed - TM
  communication and organizational skills -
  ProZ.coms infrastructure (forums, KudoZ)
• Schedule

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Workflow

• Updating translation
• Done by each translator
• Absolutely necessary to ensure consistent
  terminology
• Some participants might ignore it TRs work is
  not finished when sending TR to ED
• Schedule

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Workflow

• Proof-reading
• Necessary to ensure consistent style
• Stylistic, formatting, etc. questions discussed
  during translation - PR communication and
  organizational skills - ProZ.coms
  infrastructure (forums, KudoZ)
• Schedule

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Workflow

• After delivery
• Publishing glossary
• Feedback to participants, references
• - ProZ.coms infrastructure WWA, project
  history
• - PM availability - Reference on NGOs
  website, etc.
• Preparing translation memory from final files

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Workflow

• Complex workflow
• Assures high quality
• Participants can learn
• Requires a lot of communication
• Makes use of ProZ.coms infrastructure
• Can be realized in a pro bono project (only)

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Pilot Projects

• For Solidarités (www.solidarites.org)
• 3 projects, altogether 100,000 words
• 2 Fr-En, 1 En-Fr
• About 50 participants
• 2 glossaries, over 400 entries each
• (See details in my profile)

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Pilot Projects

• En-Fr project
• USAID guidelines for applicants
• Can be used by other NGOs
• Almost 150 pages (45,000 words)
• Could not have been translated otherwise(Solidari
  tés 89,5 of budget used directly in missions)

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ProZ.coms Infrastructure

• Forums, private forums subforums in private
  forums
• KudoZ, private KudoZ
• Recruitment via job posting 100 BrowniZ for
  applying
• Feedback through WWA and project history
• Distributing information
• newsletter, forums

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Future Plans

• Aim offering linguistic aid to other NGOs AND
  help TRs to build their carrier
• Possibility for participants to try all
  phases TR, ED, TM, PR, PM ready to launch your
  own agency
• Pilot projects in multiple languages possibly
  with EN as leading language
• Creating participants database much like
  ProZ.coms directory

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Future Plans

• Creating own site (www.t4ngos.org)
• Setting up dedicated teams for specific NGOs by
  PMs top-down approach
• Establishing priorities for providing aid
  T4NGOs focuses on small humanitarian NGOs
• Improving and publishing best practices
• Working in close collaboration with ProZ.coms
  mentoring program

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• Questions
• and
• Answers