Open Translation Tools Book Sprint

This manual was collaboratively designed and written by a community of Open Translation innovators. It is the product of the first-ever Open Translation Tools Book Sprint, and builds on work done at two Open Translation Tools convergences, a pair of live events designed by Aspiration (www.aspirationtech.org). and realized in collaboration with a wonderful set of partner organizations and the support of generous and forward-looking funders.

The Open Translation Tools Book Sprint was held in De Waag, a beautiful historic building located in the center of Amsterdam, kindly provided as a venue by De Waag Society for Old and New Media (www.waag.org).  Many thanks to Lucas Evers and Christine van den Horn for organising the venue and being fantastic hosts.

The first Open Translation Tools Convergence (OTT07) took place in late 2007 in Zagreb, Croatia, co-organized by Aspiration and Multimedia Institute (www.mi2.hr). Supported by the generosity of the Open Society Institute (www.soros.org), with additional support provided by TechSoup Global (www.techsoupglobal.org), this event produced the initial framing paper on Open Translation, www.aspirationtech.org/paper/opentranslationtools .

The second Open Translation Tools event was held in Amsterdam in June 2009, and was co-organised by Aspiration, FLOSS Manuals (www.flossmanuals.net), and Translate.org.za. OTT09 was again supported by the Open Society Institute, with generous additional travel support from the Ford Foundation (www.fordfound.org). OTT09 was held at Theater de Cameleon (www.decameleon.nl), who provided a stunning facility and top-notch hospitality.

Both OTT events ran for three days, and were attended by a total of more than 140 people from over 40 different countries, speaking over 50 different languages.

The OTT agendas were collaboratively developed by participants and event organizers before and during the gatherings, and the proceedings were directed using Aspiration’s collaborative approach to event facilitation (facilitation.aspirationtech.org). Each session was run as a discussion led by one of the participants. All sessions were documented with notes that can be found on the OTT wiki (ott09.aspirationtech.org).

Throughout the OTT09 conference, participants were invited to contribute to the proposed index for the Open Translation Tools book and to learn the FLOSS Manuals tool set so they could contribute remotely.

The Open Translation Tools Book Sprint immediately followed OTT09 at De Waag. Directed by Adam Hyde of FLOSS Manuals, over a dozen participants worked from 10.00 to 22.00 each day on the book, iteratively developing content and grouping chapters while discussing terminology, technology, licensing, and a wealth of other Open Translation topics.

The manual was written in five days but the maintenance of the manual is an ongoing process to which you may wish to contribute.