Digital Media and the Right to Language
Crowd-source translation is a new trend in the blogosphere where a group of volunteers translate blog posts into different languages. “Instead of waiting forever the way to go is to open up a platform where volunteers can translate. People need to take the initiatve”, says Elia Varela Serra (Maneno.org) during the DCI’s first panel session on Digital Media and the Right to Language. Panellist Eduardo Avila, Executive Director at Bolivian Voices, argues that the blogosphere needs to become more diverse.
Elia states that “language is not just a tool or instrument for communication, it is an essential component of your culture” and “language is your identity, it is part of who you are”. However, there is still little online content in African indigenious languages.
Challenges in Africa are still Internet literacy, all formal education is in non-African languages (English, French, Portugees), low Internet connectivity, there is an inferiority complex towards indigenious languages (colonisation of the mind), perceived lack of audience/ talking in the dark and a lack of Internet tools/ tech support/ translation or blogging tools.
Critical Mass
“But presence of African languages is slowly but surely reaching critical mass” says Elia. An example is Swahili. The online presence of Swahili, with 150 million speakers, doubled in the last year. You can now Google search and Google translate in Swahili. “A critical mass of content is needed before a language becomes mainstream online, a start is needed somewhere”, Elia continues. “And critical mass starts with something like blogs, it is easy to use and it is an immediate publication”. And once blogs have been established, Wikipedia will follow soon.
Bolivia Case Study
Just as in most African countries Internet access in Bolivia is still concentrated in major urban centres, where people have Internet at home or at work. “This not only leaves out the rural resident and lower social economic sectors but also indigenous groups and women”, says Eduardo Avila, Executive Director of Bolivian Voices. But in addition, Eduardo argues that there has been an online resurgence of indigenous languages in Bolivia.
“We need to make sure the blogosphere becomes more diverse. To give an example, we trained a group of students in the city of El Alto who now have a renewed pride in speaking and writing in Aymara“, says Eduardo. The Bolivian city of El Alto has more than one million mainly rural immigrants who work in the informal sector. The next generation deals with identity struggles, they feel they are part of the city and also their parent’s history. “We noticed this group was not blogging so we organised classes and workshops with a focus on the use of citizen media tools that these underrepresented groups can use”.
Blogging works if there is a community model, people need to support each other. Eduardo: “they become part of the larger Global Voices community who reinforce the importance of writing your own stories, from your own perspective.”
Solutions to online language issues
There are a number of open source projects like collaborate translation projects. “Volunteers adopt this collaborative model to translate in different language versions, this is what Maneno does. Global Voices is also devoted to translating content to different languages including Swahili” says Elia.
So, where and how do we start making a difference? “If people show interest…you can easily use an English platform to blog in your own language and maybe translate as well. You have to reach that critical mass of content that Elia spoke about”, explains Eduardo.
“Language is people and people are language, inequality among language is inequality among people” – Elia Varela Serra – Maneno
-Maneno’s website is www.maneno.org
-You can follow Elia Varela Serra on Twitter at @maneno
- You can find Bolivian Voices online here: http://english.vocesbolivianas.org/
- To download Eduardo Avila’s presentation DCI presentation click here
- To download Elia Varela Serra’s presentation click here
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LIVE TWEETING LIVE TWEETING LIVE TWEETING
maneno 2009/09/05 03:51 PM Elia presenting on the importance of local languages on the internet, based on experiences from maneno.org #dci09
marlonparker 2009/09/05 03:52 PM Your thoughts? Right to Language: Language preferences for HIV/AIDS information by SA Mobile users http://ow.ly/obUg #dci09
maneno 2009/09/05 03:53 PM Bambara language in Mali has received support from the govt since it was translated on the maneno.org platform. Language is identity. #dci09
guyberger 2009/09/05 03:53 PM #dci09: @maneno Good qtn – why use minority languages in comms? Cos language not pure instrument, to do with identity
marlonparker 2009/09/05 03:53 PM Language is not just a tool for communication but its part of culture #dci09
DCIndaba 2009/09/05 03:54 PM #DCI09 Elia talking about the use of other languages on the internet
marlonparker 2009/09/05 03:55 PM Why so little online Content in African Languages? – @maneno #dci09 #ha09
marlonparker 2009/09/05 03:56 PM Swahalili with 150million speaker has doubled its online presence in the last year – @maneno #dci09 #ha09
maneno 2009/09/05 03:57 PM There r 2000 languages in Sub saharan Africa, swahili is now available in Google translate. Content is King in online growth of lang. #dci09
emeka_okafor 2009/09/05 03:57 PM @freedomfone I agree there needs to be equivalent on-the-ground organizing see http://bit.ly/3U2ckl & http://bit.ly/OgrXn fr context #dci09
freedomfone 2009/09/05 03:57 PM Elia frm Maneno @eliaws says “language is not just a tool or an instrument for communication, it’s an essential component of culture” #dci09
marlonparker 2009/09/05 03:57 PM Facebook one of the first websites to adopt collaborate translation for language versions don by volunteers #DCI09 #HA09
marlonparker 2009/09/05 03:58 PM Google tools #gmail and #blogger do not have any African language options #DCI09 #HA09
guyberger 2009/09/05 03:58 PM #dci09 In Gtn, Grocott’s Mail publishes youth SMS-speak, that adults don’t (want to) understand. So you get non-comms.What’s the answer?
maneno 2009/09/05 03:58 PM Facebook has Swahili, Malagasy, Xhosa, Zulu and Somali, code is available for people to translate. Gmail in 53 lang and none African #dci09
freedomfone 2009/09/05 03:58 PM Also from @eliaws “Linguistic diversity is an index of a truly democratic society” #dci09
marlonparker 2009/09/05 03:59 PM The Linguistic Ripple: It can start with blogs, proven with Swahili, then move to Wikipedia, FaceBook etc. #DCI09
marlonparker 2009/09/05 04:00 PM Very interesting talk by @maneno. Well done #DCI09
maneno 2009/09/05 04:00 PM Swahili has proved once the language & content is used online, Wikipedia, Facebook and other platforms will follow in translating. #dci09
marlonparker 2009/09/05 04:01 PM Eduardo Avila of Bolivian Voices: The Online Resurgence of Indigenous Languages in Bolivia #DCI09
CedricMcCay 2009/09/05 04:01 PM RT @maneno: Facebook has Swahili, Malagasy, Xhosa, Zulu, Somali, code is avlble for ppl to translate. Gmail in 53 lang; none African #dci09
highwayafrica09 2009/09/05 04:04 PM Eddie Avila of @vocesbolivianes says that people often think he’s from Libya not Bolivia but everybody knows Evo Morales #dci09
maneno 2009/09/05 04:04 PM Eddie Avila from Bolivia; internet users are male, middle and upperclass, leaving out women n rural poor working informal sectors #dci09
highwayafrica09 2009/09/05 04:04 PM Eddie Avila (@barrioflores) says that since Evo Morales came to power there’s been a big promotion of indigenous languages in Bolivia #dci09
marlonparker 2009/09/05 04:05 PM Bolivian Voices Project: there was only 3 blogs in a country with 1million people #DCI09
highwayafrica09 2009/09/05 04:06 PM There’s been a renewed pride in speaking and writing Aymara in Bolivia recently, says @barrioflores #dci09
guyberger 2009/09/05 04:06 PM #dci09 Eddie Avila from Bolivia working to make blogosphere both more diverse AND more representative
marlonparker 2009/09/05 04:06 PM Bolivian Voices Project sounds similar to the #reconstructed project we have on the Cape Flats #dci09 #ha09
marlonparker 2009/09/05 04:08 PM Bolivia Voices use a community model and make part of the Global Voices Community #DCI09 #HA09
guyberger 2009/09/05 04:10 PM #dci09 Complexities in Bolivia: how deal with bilingualism but also possible silos of mono-lingualism?
freedomfone 2009/09/05 04:10 PM Interesting online resource for alternate keyboard layouts for diff African languages referenced by @eliaws – http://kasahorow.org / #dci09
guyberger 2009/09/05 04:13 PM #dci09 @maneno uses nice phrase: “crowd-sourced translations” – volunteers take initiative and do it
maneno 2009/09/05 04:16 PM Imp qtns; who will read the online content, what abt those not bilingual and the thorny one of tools vs content #dci09
whiteafrican 2009/09/05 04:17 PM RT @maneno: Bambara language in Mali has received support from the govt since it was translated on the maneno.org platform. #dci09
guyberger 2009/09/05 04:19 PM #dci09 Audience points to difference between Africa and Bolivia – many more languages here, less lingua franca
DCIndaba 2009/09/05 04:19 PM #DCI09 participant is emphasising the use of other languages (African) in the digital media
maneno 2009/09/05 04:26 PM If you want your language to be available on the maneno.org platform, its easy, just translate the interface. Be part of the change #dci09
DCIndaba 2009/09/05 04:27 PM #DCI09 Elia and Eduardo answering questions from the audience on the rights to language in digital media
guyberger 2009/09/05 04:28 PM #dci09 @marlonparker asks about young people on Mxit using Chatlanguage in preference to Zulu, Afrikaans, etc.
guyberger 2009/09/05 04:29 PM #dci09 @maneno replies: if you get more single languages in cyberspace, maybe each will develop own youth Chatlanguage
Jason_Scroggins 2009/09/05 04:30 PM RT @freedomfone Also from @eliaws “Linguistic diversity is an index of a truly democratic society” #dci09
– Go to www.twitter.com/dcindaba or search for #DCI09 –
