The Benefits and Drawbacks of Crowdsourcing Translation

Introduction

Internet and social media have brought people closer to each other, laying the groundwork for new ways of collaborating. One of these is crowdsourcing translation, a practice of engagement that gathers talents from all walks of life for a common purpose. This type of crowdsourcing is usually web-based, allowing members to post, edit, and share potential translations in the most convenient way possible. As a student translator, it is always exciting to learn about new technology and teamwork in the field of translation studies. Instead of working independently, people are now sharing the workloads and have managed to provide some incredible translations that are simple, quick, and cost-effective.

The Origins of Crowdsourcing Translation

The term ‘crowdsourcing’ was coined in May 2006 when a journalist named Jeff Howe wrote an article titled “The Rise of Crowdsourcing” for Wired Magazine (Howe, 2006). Crowdsourcing is the act of “taking a job traditionally performed by a designated employee and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call,” using the internet (Howe, 2006). From this definition, we know that a crowd could come together to accomplish complex projects in a way that was never possible in larger corporations. Translation has traditionally been kept in a silo, where only professional translators would perform the work. Crowdsourcing opens up this silo, allowing everyone, whether they are hobbyists, volunteers, students, or anyone who has a vast interest in translation but never had an opportunity to do so, to be involved in a translation project. A prime example of this is TED, an industry that invites volunteers to translate original transcripts. During the translation process, volunteers are free to consult online materials as well as the knowledge of peers in the hope of providing “a diverse patchwork of quality, adequacy,” and usability. A special team consisting of more experienced volunteers is assembled to review, edit, and modify the final translation before it is published. With our growing connectivity, it is easier than ever for individuals to collectively contribute, whether with ideas or expertise. In addition, crowdsourced translation initiatives also serve as “training environments” for beginners to improve their techniques.

The Role of Social Media in Crowdsourcing Translation

The popular use of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and blogs allows users to register, create profiles, and share their daily activities “from practical campaigns to last night’s dinner.” Although English was considered a dominant language on the internet, nowadays it only accounts for 53.2% of its content (Internet World Stats, 2023). In 2008, Facebook launched its first open translation project to the public. The company realized that to achieve internationalization, they must expand outside America. Up until that point, Facebook was only available in English. However, translating a site and localizing it can be an extremely expensive and time-consuming process. With this in mind, Facebook encouraged all users, including my brother and his friends, to participate in this massive project. At the time, there were about 2,400 phrases that needed to be translated to make Facebook available in different languages. To make the translation process easier for users, the company built a translation app on top of the Facebook platform. Once the app is installed and activated, every word that needs to be translated gets highlighted. People can click on a word and vote on the translation that others have already submitted beforehand. The company applies crowdsource translation to empower users, giving them the ability to translate the site at an incredible speed from having only English to many languages. In my opinion, crowdsourcing is about leveraging the “wisdom of crowds,” a distributed problem-solving and production model that can be handy for certain projects. Decisions of an aggregated group of people are often better than what any of them could come up with individually.

Challenges and Criticisms of Crowdsourcing Translation

Although crowdsourced translation has many benefits, its potential drawbacks are hard to ignore. Searching through the internet, I realized that crowdsourcing provides good quality online translations, but not the best. Crowdsourced projects are usually done on a voluntary basis. Most volunteers do not have much experience in the industry, and what draws them to the project is often pure interest. Wikipedia is one of the earliest examples of crowdsourcing, and its accuracy often comes into question. Apparently, in a translated version of Wikipedia, David Beckham was a Chinese goalkeeper in the 18th century. There is no guarantee that the outcomes from crowdsourcing are credible or accurate. In 2012, Julie McDonough Dolmaya’s ‘Wikipedia Survey’ showed that out of 73 Wikipedians, 86% of respondents received no formal training in translation, 30% of respondents had formal training in translation, and only 9% of respondents received additional assistance from professional translators (Dolmaya, 2012). The low percentages might suggest that the translating skills among Wikipedians are imbalanced; therefore, it is always difficult to “achieve the same level of consistency and quality” when compared to professionals.

The Future of Crowdsourcing Translation

In 2017, Jiménez-Crespo stated that crowdsourcing enables “better solutions to existing problems,” suggesting that crowdsourcing has changed the way we hire, work, think, and create (Jiménez-Crespo, 2017). With the internet, people can collaborate together and self-organize into productive units, which normally take managers or corporations to establish. What we see in successful crowdsourcing projects such as TED and Facebook is that they were formed by people who were formerly known as customers, audiences, and users. In fact, most content on our social media is translated by users with social media literacy rather than professional translators. As O’Hagan stated: “Translation on the basis of their knowledge of the given language as well as that of particular media content or genre, spurred by their substantial interest in the topic” (O’Hagan, 2009). Crowdsourcing does not eradicate businesses, but changes their format, pushing companies to approach their users as potential partners. However, crowdsourcing can also be a high-risk option due to its inconsistent and sometimes inaccurate outcome. Hence, it might not be a suitable approach for every type of organization, project, or content. Future industries would need to apply stricter review and editing approaches if they wish to overcome this hurdle.

References

Dolmaya, J. M. (2012). ‘Wikipedia Survey’. Retrieved from [source URL]

Howe, J. (2006). The Rise of Crowdsourcing. Wired Magazine. Retrieved from [source URL]

Internet World Stats. (2023). Internet World Users by Language. Retrieved from [source URL]

Jiménez-Crespo, M. A. (2017). Crowdsourcing and Online Collaborative Translations: Expanding the Limits of Translation Studies. Retrieved from [source URL]

O’Hagan, M. (2009). Evolution of User-generated Translation: Fansubs, Translation Hacking and Crowdsourcing. Journal of Internationalization and Localization. Retrieved from [source URL]