Spreading Ideas Worth Spreading
Open Translation Project, sponsored by Nokia, and housed by TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a project in which volunteer translators help translate educational talks into a variety of languages so that ideas can be spread around the globe.
The goal of TED is to “foster the spread of great ideas.” The project “aims to provide a platform for the world’s smartest thinkers, greatest visionaries and most inspiring teachers, so that millions of people can gain a better understanding of the biggest issues faced by the world, and a desire to help create a better future.” They further explain that “core to this goal is a belief that there is no greater force for changing the world than a powerful idea.”
TED is owned by The Sapling Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides global conferences aimed at bringing together great minds and challenges them to give the greatest speeches of their lives. These speeches are published free of charge on the TED.com website in the hopes that these ideas will be spread around the globe and better the lives of humanity as a whole.
Speech topics include areas such as Technology, Entertainment, Design, Business, Science and Global Issues. The best speakers earn a chance to receive a TEDPrize, a grant aimed at transforming their extraordinary ideas into reality. Past speakers include Bill Clinton, Jane Goodall and Bono among hundreds of other brilliant minds.
The purpose of the Open Translation Project is to translate these talks into as many languages as possible so that the information can reach people all over the world. For example, in his talk on Endangered Cultures, National Geographic Explorer Wade Davis discusses the amazing diversity of cultures that may be disappearing from the world. This speech is translated in 23 languages ranging from Arabic to Vietnamese and everything in between.
Just for fun, I calculated the number of people that can potentially be reached by simply translating this one speech into 23 languages. The result “very” roughly amounts to over 3 billion people worldwide. That’s an incredible amount of people that could make a huge impact in the social, economic and environmental improvement of our world.
How it works is that users can select one of hundreds of talks from the TED website. The spoken language of the speech is English. There is an option to view subtitles of the speech in a variety of translated languages. In addition, and even better, there’s an option to view a written transcript of that speech in various languages. A drop down list offers a choice of languages that the user can choose from, as long as they have been translated before. Users can also click on any phrase in the interactive transcript and the speaker in the video will repeat that particular phrase in English. So cool!
To date, 630 TED talks have been translated into 50 languages, with the help of 243 translators (and counting!). There are currently 1681 translations in progress into 72 languages with the help of 1085 translators. Translators can volunteer by registering at http://www.ted.com/pages/view/id/293. Although there is no monetary compensation, translators are heavily credited for their work and can be seen in the member profile section with a list of their translations. Most of all, translators have the satisfaction of knowing that they are contributing to a project aimed at creating a better world.
Visit the http://www.ted.com website, translate a talk, sponsor a cause, SPREAD AN IDEA!
Related posts: