Survey on pro bono / voluntary translations Thread poster: Attila Piróth
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Attila Piróth 
France
Local time: 07:42
Member
English to Hungarian
+ ...
Dear colleagues,
Pro bono work has been a very important question for me for a long time. I presented some of my ideas on the topic in several ProZ conferences and webinars, and am now preparing a presentation for the upcoming ATA conference: "Translations that can change people's lives".
To understand how others think about these questions, I prepared a questionnaire. It... See more Dear colleagues,
Pro bono work has been a very important question for me for a long time. I presented some of my ideas on the topic in several ProZ conferences and webinars, and am now preparing a presentation for the upcoming ATA conference: "Translations that can change people's lives".
To understand how others think about these questions, I prepared a questionnaire. It is now published on SurveyMonkey; the link is https://fr.surveymonkey.com/s/AttilaPiroth-ProBono-ProZ . It contains 28 question and can be completed in 20 to 30 minutes.
Similar surveys in the past allowed me to get a deep insight into translators' experience with the publishing industry and with machine translation. I plan to publish some of the results of the present survey, too.
Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey. Feel free to pass on the information to any colleague who might be interested.
Kind regards,
Attila ▲ Collapse
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 07:42
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
| Define humanitarian | Oct 8, 2012 |
Attila Piróth wrote: To understand how others think about these questions, I prepared a questionnaire. It is now published on SurveyMonkey; the link is https://fr.surveymonkey.com/s/AttilaPiroth-ProBono-ProZ . It contains 28 question and can be completed in 20 to 30 minutes.
It seems very important to the survey what the distinction is between humanitarian and non-humanitarian work. I have always considered "humanitarian" to be simply a euphemism or vogue word for "non-profit", so perhaps you should explain what you mean by "humanitarian" and "non-humanitarian".
Added: Do I understand correctly that "humanitarian" simply means emergency relief (e.g. during or after a war or natural disaster)?
Samuel
[Edited at 2012-10-08 08:49 GMT]
| | | | Attila Piróth
France
Local time: 07:42
Member
English to Hungarian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Humanitarian vs non-profit | Oct 8, 2012 |
Hi Samuel,
I think the definition given here is a good starting point:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanitarian_organization . It lists a number of organiozations that fall well within the humanitarian category.
On the other hand, Linux and FOSS in general is usually developed in a non-profit framework - but it is not considered as humanitarian. Dit... See more Hi Samuel,
I think the definition given here is a good starting point:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanitarian_organization . It lists a number of organiozations that fall well within the humanitarian category.
On the other hand, Linux and FOSS in general is usually developed in a non-profit framework - but it is not considered as humanitarian. Ditto for Wikis.
Best
Attila ▲ Collapse
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 07:42
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
| So, disaster relief and poverty reduction | Oct 8, 2012 |
Aah, so you include short-term disaster relief and hunger relief as well as medium-term poverty relief in your definition of "humanitarian", but not quality-of-life uplifment work among the non-poor, non-hungry or non-destitute. Sorry if it seems like I'm splitting hairs.
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esperantisto
Local time: 08:42
Member (2006)
English to Russian
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SITE LOCALIZER | Organizations? | Oct 8, 2012 |
You seem to be kinda obsessed with organizations. At least, 3 of 7 questions contain the word. However, this view is way too limited. For example, free software projects (a good and large playground for volunteer translation) do not involve any organization except for some rare and particular cases.
| | | | dikran d (X)
Türkiye
Local time: 08:42
French to Turkish
+ ...
| Humanitarian translation must be a joke | Oct 8, 2012 |
Hi,
Relief organizations especially western ones get huge sums to help people around the world and it turns out that these funds have been mismanaged and most of these funds are paid as salaries to employees of these organizations now why should we sacrify ourselves in such a context.
I consider translation for "humanitarian purposes" a joke.
To me it is simple: some companies are trying this way to build databases of translations just like google to leave us unemployed ... See more Hi,
Relief organizations especially western ones get huge sums to help people around the world and it turns out that these funds have been mismanaged and most of these funds are paid as salaries to employees of these organizations now why should we sacrify ourselves in such a context.
I consider translation for "humanitarian purposes" a joke.
To me it is simple: some companies are trying this way to build databases of translations just like google to leave us unemployed later. Please do NOT participate to such projects. Do you want to help the hungry ? Fine, give a few bucks to organizations doing it on your behalf. It will be more beneficial and you will not destroy your own business in the long run.
It is all up to you. We live in a tough world and we need to be a little bit clever if we want to survive.
[Edited at 2012-10-08 10:24 GMT]
[Edited at 2012-10-08 13:40 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Hi Attlia,
Suvey completed - some questions were tricky as I translatepro-bono for NGOs only via Translators Without Borders - as is probably the case for a large number of colleagues - but doable nonetheless.
Good luck with the survey and the presentation, I'm curious about the results!
Cheers,
Anne
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Attila Piróth wrote:
"Translations that can change people's lives".
I think you are concentrating to much on "humanitarian organisations" in your survey. When I do some pro bono translation for a patient who requires to have surgery in Germany e.g. there might be no "humanitarian organisation involved. This also applies when we do some work for small outfits in remote locations such as this one:
http://marokko-avec-brahim.com/index.php?cat=photos
This is also pro bono work, because we like "Brahim" and just want to support him.
All this kind of pro bono work is not caught by your questionnaire, and in my opinion you are missing a huge segment here.
"Translations can change people's lives, even if the translation was just done for another human being and not a humanitarian organisation"
[Edited at 2012-10-08 17:28 GMT]
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| Grass root organizations | Oct 9, 2012 |
Hello,
survey done and I agree with some of the previous comments. I do not work pro bono for most of the humanitarian organizations as they do have funding and professional staff. However, there is a whole world of grass root organizations which really need and relay on pro bono work for every single one of their activities and lack professional (meaning paid) staff.
In short: if they can pay staff members, they can pay translation/interpretation services too.
... See more Hello,
survey done and I agree with some of the previous comments. I do not work pro bono for most of the humanitarian organizations as they do have funding and professional staff. However, there is a whole world of grass root organizations which really need and relay on pro bono work for every single one of their activities and lack professional (meaning paid) staff.
In short: if they can pay staff members, they can pay translation/interpretation services too.
That is the kind of situations I do provide pro-bono work and I believe some of the survey´s question lack pointing it out.
Regards,
Jairo
[Edited at 2012-10-09 15:06 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Attila Piróth
France
Local time: 07:42
Member
English to Hungarian
+ ...
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