Comments on: Is “cognitive surplus” behind social translation? http://mcdonough-dolmaya.ca/2010/07/23/is-cognitive-surplus-behind-social-translation/ Blogging about translation and localization Sat, 01 Oct 2011 22:48:14 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 hourly 1 By: Julie McDonough Dolmaya http://mcdonough-dolmaya.ca/2010/07/23/is-cognitive-surplus-behind-social-translation/comment-page-1/#comment-368 Julie McDonough Dolmaya Sat, 14 Aug 2010 16:44:32 +0000 http://mcdonough-dolmaya.ca/?p=596#comment-368 Thanks for your comment, Zachary. You make an interesting point about advertising tied to fansubbed videos, but I wonder how often the subtitlers themselves receive a share of the advertising revenue a site like Tudou receives. If I spoke Chinese, this is something I'd be really interested in researching. I just read your <a href="http://blog.csoftintl.com/riding-technological-waves/" rel="nofollow">interview with Tex Texin</a> and I think he made a very good point about the nature of expertise when he noted that a community of gamers may be just as qualified as a translator to translate the neologisms created for a fictional video game world. I'll be writing more about expertise and community translation in the future, so thanks a lot for that link. Thanks for your comment, Zachary. You make an interesting point about advertising tied to fansubbed videos, but I wonder how often the subtitlers themselves receive a share of the advertising revenue a site like Tudou receives. If I spoke Chinese, this is something I’d be really interested in researching.
I just read your interview with Tex Texin and I think he made a very good point about the nature of expertise when he noted that a community of gamers may be just as qualified as a translator to translate the neologisms created for a fictional video game world. I’ll be writing more about expertise and community translation in the future, so thanks a lot for that link.

]]> By: Zachary Overline http://mcdonough-dolmaya.ca/2010/07/23/is-cognitive-surplus-behind-social-translation/comment-page-1/#comment-353 Zachary Overline Tue, 10 Aug 2010 02:55:12 +0000 http://mcdonough-dolmaya.ca/?p=596#comment-353 The system of rewards behind any crowdsourcing work, especially when it comes to translation, is absolutely fundamental to the success of the project. For things like Facebook and Wikipedia, I think the obvious reward lies in either the prestige of having participated or the mental stimulation born of proactively using ones "cognitive surplus," as Shirky puts it. In other contexts (like anime or TV show subtitling, etc.), there actually can be more palpable benefits than communal or civic value for the translators involved. Here in China, there are a handful of really talented translation groups that take the time to subtitle American TV shows (releasing them sometimes mere days after being aired in America). They do it for free, but you better believe that they make a ton of money from advertising when, say, a deluge of traffic floods to their site every time a new episode of Desperate Housewives comes out :) Anywho, good post. I recently did an interview with Tex Texin about this very topic. If you're interested, I can send you a link. The system of rewards behind any crowdsourcing work, especially when it comes to translation, is absolutely fundamental to the success of the project. For things like Facebook and Wikipedia, I think the obvious reward lies in either the prestige of having participated or the mental stimulation born of proactively using ones “cognitive surplus,” as Shirky puts it.

In other contexts (like anime or TV show subtitling, etc.), there actually can be more palpable benefits than communal or civic value for the translators involved. Here in China, there are a handful of really talented translation groups that take the time to subtitle American TV shows (releasing them sometimes mere days after being aired in America). They do it for free, but you better believe that they make a ton of money from advertising when, say, a deluge of traffic floods to their site every time a new episode of Desperate Housewives comes out :)

Anywho, good post. I recently did an interview with Tex Texin about this very topic. If you’re interested, I can send you a link.

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