2024:Program/Using Freelance Translators to Improve Healthcare Content

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Session title: Using Freelance Translators to Improve Healthcare Content

Session type: Lecture

Track: Partnerships

Language: en

A non-technical talk exploring the successes and frustrations of using freelance translators to spread healthcare content from English Wikipedia to numerous target languages - includes a demo of the workflow. Session recording available on today’s Youtube stream; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNMNjKSIGc8&t=1386

Description

Join the Wiki Project Med Foundation to discuss the triumphs and challenges faced in our recent translation efforts. We will explore strategies for effectively recruiting and retaining freelance translators, collaborating with commercial translation firms like Translators Without Borders and ProZ, and contemplate valid metrics for measuring success. Additional topics such as applying Wikidata QIDs to healthcare topics and language-specific editing restrictions might arise. Your insights and suggestions are invaluable and we hope for an interactive dialogue rather than a lecture. Witness a demonstration of our workflow and translation dashboard to understand our current practices better.

Session recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNMNjKSIGc8&list=PLhV3K_DS5YfL7A2HXrpt8ZgnWlGjp0vIP&index=9&t=1387s

How does your session relate to the event theme, Collaboration of the Open?

The overarching mission is quality, open-access healthcare information worldwide. These translation efforts are collaborations between experienced Wikipedians, freelance translators with no Wiki experience, and businesses with limited resources (pro-bono offerings). The Wikimedia Foundation is also involved in helping this cause.

What is the experience level needed for the audience for your session?

Average knowledge about Wikimedia projects or activities

Resources

• https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1iaNVzjQqNpjnJrTybo03b_dIX5vp5U8oxQG8t9-OObM/edit?usp=sharing
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNMNjKSIGc8&t=1393

Speakers

• Lucas Rosnau

I am a Canadian high school teacher living, working and playing around British Columbia, Canada. As an educator, there are many opportunities to inform high school and university students about the workings of Wiki. Although it is a widely used tool, it is often maligned, misunderstood, and not exploited to its full potential. I want to help change that. Currently, I am working with the Wiki Project Med Foundation on their translation efforts: providing free, high-quality healthcare information in peoples' language of choice.

• James Heilman

James Heilman is a cofounder of Wiki Project Med Foundation.