Published by Peggy on 11 Nov 2009 at 05:45 am
Help make WiserEarth Multilingual
Photo by DigitalART2 |
Over 60% of the people using WiserEarth are coming from outside the US. They are from 231 countries and speak 172 languages! But the majority of our members are still English speakers. People have been asking us for WiserEarth in their own language. Can you volunteer or chip in some funding to help us do this? |
Note: We have reached our goal of $10,000 for the WiserTongues effort! Many thanks for your generous contributions.
Our WiserTongues campaign has been extended to December 31! Your donation matters. Can you give just $40, $25 or $10 to help us meet our goal to internationalize WiserEarth? Please note ‘WiserTongues’ on your contribution. Thank you for your generosity!
It’s great news that WiserEarth has become such a global resource for the non-profit environment and social justice community. But we need to help the billions of non-English speakers join the community for their nonprofit sustainability work. Speaking just English isn’t good enough! Can you help us by volunteering or chipping in?
Volunteer on a translation team
There are currently 4 translations teams with a total of 40 volunteers. As you are reading this, the site is being translated into French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. We are hoping to translate WiserEarth into at least five other languages including Hindi, Chinese, Arabic and Indonesian as well as one indigenous language over the next 12 months. Love to translate? 2 hours per week of your time will make a big difference: contact camilla [at] wiserearth.org if you are interested.
Chip in to fund local community managers
We currently have three local community coordinators in France, Mexico and Brazil (see their quotes below). More people are approaching to expand in other languages. Help us raise the funds needed to provide support or the local community coordinators and their teams of volunteers. Be a part of our global fundraising for this crucial part of WiserEarth! We have set a goal of $10,000 before December 15, 2009.
Help us make WiserEarth a true global community! Please pass on this appeal to your friends.
Best,
Peggy Duvette
WiserEarth Director
 Juan Carlos, WiserEarth Mexico/Spanish Regional Coordinator
“As the world grows smaller, the challenge of effective and multicultural communication, becomes more and more relevant to ensure a safe pathway towards a society living under the principles of cooperation, respect and justice; WiserEarth is key to meeting this challenge.” |
 Theresa Williamson, WiserEarth Brazil/Portuguese Regional Coordinator
“The tools WiserEarth has developed for sharing content across civil society worldwide are powerful and in constant evolution. We are translating them with the specific aim of supporting Brazilian and Portuguese-language-civil society generally.” |
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8 Responses to “Help make WiserEarth Multilingual”
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[...] WiserTongues Campaign – We just launched a campaign to raise $10K before the end of the year, please spread the [...]
In case it might help, I wanted to make you aware of NiceTranslator.com, a free website that auto-detects your input language and translates as you type into multiple languages at once. You choose from over 40 languages.
You can also download a NiceTranslator widget to create a mini-translator right on your own website http://nicetranslator.com/blog/tools/get-the-nicetranslator-web-widget-on-your-site
And Firefox browser users can download an official Firefox NiceTranslator add-on that enables you to translate right on a foreign language website with a simple right click of your https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/11458
No computer translator can ever equal human translation, so this won’t replace your search for human translators. But NiceTranslator.com has been used for millions of translations in almost 200 countries and territories worldwide (Denmark is its #1 user country). NiceTranslator.com is very useful for conversation because the translations appear as you type; there is no need to input, then click and wait for the translation.
@Anne: We’ll definitely look into this translation widget as we internationalize. Thanks for the suggestion. Best, Angus
It’s great to see that the wealth of WiserEarth’s information — including the largest database of environmental and social justice nonprofits in the world — is being translated into so many languages.
I’m amazed by the large number of volunteer translators that are already working on this, and I’m sure more translators will soon join in the fun!
I know that people all over the world will be inspired by the translatioins to collaborate across borders, develop new organizations, and lead change.
Many thanks WiserEarth & volunteer translators!
[...] Despite incredible advancement, barriers of access and language still prevail on much of the internet. Many tools available in much of the world, are not known or used. The difference between technologies available and how they are adopted in different cultures is fascinating and apparent –I think about this divide often since leaving San Francisco, CA, one of the epicenters of the technology innovation, three months ago. Now, coordinating Adapting to Scarcity, a community media project on water scarcity, in Guadalajara, Mexico technology skills and uses are very different. One major obstacle we face in teaching video and social media tools is the internet is too slow in most of Mexico to watch videos easily, especially in the Cyber Cafe’s located in most communities where they access the internet. Another large barrier present here is language: it still prevents many forms of global solution sharing and grassroots networking, however international online networks, such as Wiserearth, are currently working on changing this reality . [...]
[...] “Since our group is in Spanish,” Ronald notes, “a handicap has been not having WiserEarth in Spanish. Participants are confused about how to use and post things on the site. We are looking forward to WiserEarth in Spanish.” [...]
[...] subscribers on the WiserEarth blog. * Exceeded goals for our fundraising campaigns: OpenWiser and WiserTongues both surpassed their $10,000 targets * Witnessed the growth of the WiserEarth Community Newsletter [...]