Far from the Maddening Crowd: Integrating Collaborative Translation Technologies into Healthcare Services in the Developing World

摘要

Crowdsourced and collaborative translation technologies have been at the centre of a heated debate in the translation industry in recent years, as questions have been raised regarding labour practices, the widespread integration of machine translation (MT) as well as concerns regarding quality and professional practices. However, despite the criticism of this emergent technology, the union of collaborative translation platforms and mobile communication technology has bridged a knowledge, resource and communication gap in the developing world, allowing healthcare and medical services to be re-imagined to reach a previously unimaginable community – often instantaneously. The rich data network supplied by mobile phones, when combined with automated data integration, can now be merged with translation services to contribute to initiatives, such as slowing the spread of malaria or stopping stock-outs of life-saving drugs at local clinics. We will take a closer look of the role of translation (machine translation, human translation and controlled language) in some of the leading crowdsourced translation applications, how translators bridge the gap between algorithm and on-the-ground communication and the implications for the development of “lite”, mobile-ready versions of CAT tools and TMs.