Freethought Literature Translation Project

[lpetrich]

Over in IIDB, I had posted a proposal to translate II's Library into different languages (http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.php?t=86828). However, II's Board of Directors would prefer to run their own translation project, and I have proposed a translation project completely independent of them.

This translation project would have to work independently of II's BoD, and would have to use literature with publication rights independent of II's Library.

I'm posting here because I'm wondering who else might be interested in such a project.

I don't have any Web programming experience; I only know how to construct static HTML pages. A database with a dynamic-page server module would be useful for constructing a searchable site whose pages could be listed by a variety of criteria: author, subject, language, etc.

I do have some webspace, but I doubt that one can run such a server on them. In particular, I can create a shared folder at http://homepage.mac.com and give write privileges to whoever would be doing the translating.

I've even thought of a name for the project:

Mithridates (after King Mithridates VI, who was reputed to know 25 languages)
Rosetta (as in the Rosetta Stone, with Greek and Egyptian writing on it)

I don't know who might like "Tower of Babel".

[viscousmemories]

I'm not sure I get why you want to do this. As I understand that thread, your original idea was to assist in organizing the translation of the materials in the IIDB library. Over time, the BoD came to agree that they wanted all of their materials translated, but with the caveat that it should be done by fluent speakers of English and the language of translation, and that a professional editor also fluent in both languages should review it before publication. Do you think those are unreasonable standards or something?

And if your original intention of translating the IIDB library is no longer the objective, it seems like a weird chicken/egg thing to proceed with a translation project prior to establishing what it is you want to translate. Or maybe I'm just not getting what it is you're looking to do...

[JoeP]

Well, we are learning PHP programming in a couple of threads in The Sciences forum, and php + mySQL would be perfectly to building a site like that. Though there would be quite a lot of programming to do. If you're going to manage multiple contributors and multiple versions, it sounds rather like a wiki project and there (I think) a number of software packages that support wiki sites. Even the one used at www.wikipedia.org may be available, but I don't think it's free.

Count me out for the translation. I make no promises about building a site either, but it could be interesting ... provided that you answer vm's question. Do you have a real need? (Gotta be crazy ... gotta have ...)

[lpetrich]

I can't say that I myself have a real need, but I got the idea after noticing that fundie sites are sometimes multilingual -- why not have some of our favorite documents translated into other languages? One should not assume that everyone on the Internet is fluent in English, despite its status as a de facto international language.

I don't insist on being The Leader, and if there is not enough interest in pursuing such a project, I won't push the matter.

[JoeP]

I think the lesson of wikis, open source, etc is that websites and organisation must come after there is a groundswell of people wanting to do - and already doing - the work in question. "Build it and they will come" is not the model.

So, you need to put out feelers for all the people interested in doing translations - as you have just done - and not bother about the site name or the html building yet. That's my free thought.