Translation Crowdsourcing – Ensuring Quantity and Quality

Translation crowdsourcing, a growing trend in the localization industry, can be an efficient way to accomplish large translation projects in a short amount of time. There are many factors at play in determining whether this is the right course of action as opposed to the traditional route of hiring an LSP. However, this has proven successful for large companies such as Facebook or Google, as well as non-profit organizations such as Translators without Borders.

Crowdsourcing allows organizations to utilize the collective skills and knowledge a community of users, which has been made even more accessible thanks to the world wide web. However, it takes effort to manage a project of this magnitude. The following best-practices will help project managers to cover the two most important factors: recruiting a sufficient volunteer community, which we will refer as quantity, as well as ensuring quality end-translations.

Let’s start with quantity:

  1. THE MORE THE MERRIER. The sheer volume of translators for a project can lead to work being done quickly and efficiently. Imagine splitting the work among thousands of people at the same time! Although the majority of your users are likely not professional translators, that is not necessarily an issue. Often times, users of a product are able to produce higher quality translations than professional translators due to their first-hand experience and engagement with the product. Though you don’t necessarily have to take everyone as a participant in the translation process, being open to a wider range of skills and experience is a wise option.
  2. SEAMLESS PROCESS. Remember that those involved in crowdsourcing are often contributing their time and effort free of charge. For this reason, it is important to ensure a user-friendly experience for the translators. If the translators have to jump through extra hoops, deal with frustrating interfaces, or have a grueling experience in any way, they are most likely not going to stick around. The translation platform you set up must be simple to understand and tailored to ease of use. Think of it like going to a restaurant; if you enjoy your experience, you are more likely to go back. Give your translators the best customer service possible!
  3. GAMIFICATION. Let’s face it, adults are really just big kids. We all love to be entertained. Gamification is a technique used by all sorts of companies to keep people motivated. These include features like point systems, badges, leaderboards, etc. Integrating this type of system into your translation platform will not only keep people motivated, but can also help to identify the more (and less) valuable participants.
  4. INCENTIVIZING. Similar to gamification, incentivizing your community can help to motivate them to contribute further. Believe it or not, monetary incentives are often the least effective. This is due to the fact that your community of volunteers are often contributing for more personal reasons, such as belief in your company/product, self-enrichment, processional development, or simply for the fun of it. Although monetary incentives are not off the table, consider alternatives such as crediting your users once the project is finished or allowing your users to take a more active role in the company’s ongoings.

Ok, now that you’ve prepared for a large pool of translators, the next step is to create a system that optimizes quality:

We’ll split this section into three categories: before translation, during translation, and after translation.

BEFORE:

Depending on your project, you will either benefit from opening your project to all members of the community or opting for a more narrow range of criteria for your participating translators. If it is the latter, you can implement a vetting process in order to choose those who would be the best fit for your project. This process can be as simple as a survey to acquire demographic information, such as age, country of origin, native language, or can go as far as a translation test if you wish for only the most skilled translators.

Next, you will want to separate your content into small chunks so that your translators do not feel burned out after each translation. In other words: microtasking. As users are likely not professional translators, having a short word or phrase to translate will ensure that they are able to handle the translations with ease.

Finally, when setting up your translation platform, make sure users have access to all of the necessary resources, such as any translation memories, termbases, or contexts for the translations at hand.

DURING:

With thousands of users and translations constantly coming in, it would be very costly and impractical to bring in a professional to judge each and every translation you receive. Therefore, utlizing a system in which the community judges its own translations can really automate the process. How would this look? Once users submit a translation, it goes up for review. Your platform can be configured so that other users can vote or rate the translation. Finally, the highest rated translations will stick around and the lowest rated ones will be discarded.

Lastly, there will always be trolls. It’s like Michael Caine said in the Dark Knight, “Some men just want to watch the world burn.” In order to protect your translations from sabotage, you’ll want to set up some sort of filter system in order to prohibit certain entries. This can be done via a ‘blacklist’ of words and phrases, such as profanity in the target language.

AFTER:

Alright, you’ve got your highest-rated translations by the community, now what? The next step in ensuring high quality is a final-review stage. This can be done either by professional translators ($) or by your top rated users if you decide to implement a leaderboard as mentioned previously in the section about gamification.

Well there you have it, we’re all set right? Not quite. Although these steps are labeled before, during, and after, each one can actually support the next in a continuous cycle. For example, let’s say that there is a high number of top-rated translations by a specific user. In this case, your user would move up the leaderboard and become a high-ranking translator. The opinions of your high-ranking translators would likely be more valuable than those of a lower-ranking translator. Therefore, implementing a weighted voting system would allow the votes of the high-ranking translators to be more determinant in deciding the best translations.

Similarly, the quality of the translations can ultimately shed light on the efficacy of the translation platform as a whole. Tweaks can periodically be made along the way in order to improve the overall process.

All in all, if implemented properly, these best practices can allow the translation crowdsourcing process to run smoothly and with quality results. Happy translating!