#3 Promoting Translation in Utopian.io - Growing Performance in the First Group of Translation teams
Github Repository: https://github.com/utopian-io/utopian.io
In this Utopian Translation Category, my mission is to ensure high quality translation services to Utopian-DaVinci platforms. In the past few weeks, we have been actively forming new language teams and gauging the teams performances of their translation work.
In this blog post, I want to promote the Translation category in Utopian.io by highlighting these two areas:
A. The desired performances to aim for in the translation teams.
B. The actual performing results of the first group of translation teams explaining:
- the selection of the first 5 languages
- how language moderators were selected
- how the translators were selected
- the setting up of the 5 language teams
- the total performance from June 17 to July 6, 2018
A. Performance Level - From High to Peak
As a community manager for both the Utopian and Davinci platforms, I aspire to bring the translation category in Utopian.io from high level of performance to peak level.
High Level of Performance
For anyone to succeed in his field, one must give the best of his ability. This is the only way to reach to high level of performance.
High level of peformance does not mean that the quality of the work is at the highest standard. It just means that our skills have reached to the threshold of what our abilities allow at the moment in time. There is still lots of room for improvement. Each time, we move higher up in the graph of performance.
When a person is eager and excited, he is pushed to perform at high level. He drives himself to the limit and gains satisfaction at the resulting performance. With clarity of goal, he stays focused and disciplined. If you have been there, you know exactly what I mean. Not only the performance of the work is excellent, the person is present, vibrant and strong. This is what I am able to see so far in our first group of language moderators and translators.
Peak Level of Performance
At the same time, we need to be motivated to do our best, not just in the initial bursts of enthusiasm but to move towards the 'peak' level.
This requires us to move on to uncharted territories where risks and bolder actions bring us to the peak. Here, creativity comes into play and things are no longer measured with black and white rules. This is what professionals call 'getting into the flow'. It's like playing piano. You can play all the musical notes correctly without hitting a wrong note, but that piece of music is dead. No one wants to listen to it. You end up with no audience in your performance. Your music doesn't flow. The sounds are all mechanical. There is no life. It is like listening the music through a computer midi machine.
When you get to the peak level, you have moved away from the static state of performance to a heightened level of productivity. The secret? Be courageous in taking criticisms. Crticisms are harsh and hurtful at times. Be creative! Turn weaknesses into strength when your work is criticized. Your courage in this area will help you get ahead because when others quit in the risk of not accepting criticism, you march on. Be willing to be changed. Being defensive only limits your performance. When you "flow to the peak" your level of performance becomes limitless.
Image by @pab.ink
Let me tell you: your teams get ahead faster with further clarity and courage when positive changes take place after criticisms. Your team becomes more efficient and prolific. Your team produces much more in that energy level than the sum of mediocre low performance teams who punish themselves by listening only to their internal voice. This is the path I am taking the new translation teams so that the moderators and translators can perform at their peak levels in their time.
B. Performance of Our Language Teams
1. Assembling the First Group of Language Teams
The Utopian-Davinci collaboration made the first announcement in this post - Translations are coming back to Utopian. Get involved today! It states that the following 5 languages will be the forerunners to contribute translations:
| Languages | |
|---|---|
| 1. | Spanish |
| 2. | German |
| 3. | Chinese |
| 4. | Italian |
| 5. | Greek |
Applications came in for 23 Languages
We opened a window of recruitment to start selecting suitable moderators and translators. All candidates were asked to send in their applications via a Steemit post. Although it was stated initially that these 5 languages were the first group to move forward, applicants of other languages also came in.
| Recruitment Date | Language | Number of Applicants |
|---|---|---|
| June 4-7 | 23 | 133 |
| Spanish | 29 | |
| Filipino | 19 | |
| Nigerian (Yoruba, Pidgin, Hausa) | 16 | |
| Urdu | 10 | |
| Italian | 10 | |
| Indonesian | 10 | |
| Greek | 6 | |
| Arabic | 5 | |
| Turkish | 4 | |
| Polish | 4 | |
| Chinese | 4 | |
| Portuguese | 3 | |
| Bengali | 3 | |
| Vietnamese | 1 | |
| Ukranian | 1 | |
| Thai | 1 | |
| Slovenian | 1 | |
| Russian | 1 | |
| Mayalam | 1 | |
| Hindi | 1 | |
| German | 1 | |
| Dutch | 1 | |
| Cebuano | 1 |
We received applications for 23 languages. Such enthusiasm poured in unexpectedly.
We discussed this in the Friday's Utopian managers meeting whether we should also move forward with other languages that seemed ready. The advice was to keep to the initial 5 languages to go forward first. This is a smart move as want to ensure 'quality' of translation teams before quantity.
2. Selecting Language Modertors
Candidates applying for the language moderator role are required to explain why they are suitable for the moderating role. You can read about the requirements in this post.
Selecting the right moderator for each language is our first priority as quality of translation hinges on his/her assessment & scoring of translators' contributions.
Results of the Candidates for the 5 Languages
| Language | Moderators Candidates | Translators Candidates |
|---|---|---|
| Spanish | 3 | 26 |
| Greek | 1 | 5 |
| Italian | 2 | 8 |
| Chinese | 3 | 2 |
| German | 1 | 0 |
- For each of the 5 languages, there was at least 1 candidate for the moderator role.
- Our task was to choose the best moderator for that particular language.
- The moderator who got chosen demonstrated professionalism in English and native language, as well as equipped with leadership and management skills to lead teams.
3. Selecting Translators
The translators' responsibilities are not as high as that of the moderators, therefore the ultimate criteria for them is proficiency in English and in their native language. Working under a professional moderator, they can also grow in their translation skills.
For the Spanish group, 5 translators were selected out of 26 candidates. That was an awesome task.
For the Greek group, all 5 translators proved to be qualitifed so they were all chosen.
For the Italian group, only 2 translators proved ready to be accepted in this first assessment.
For the Chinese group, the 2 who applied for translators also applied for the moderator role. Since they did not get the moderator role, they got the translator role.
For the German group, this was a unique guy as he was the only German who applied. He proved himself fully qualified for the role of moderator.
4. Setting Up 5 Translating Teams
In setting the translation category in Utopian.io on fire, it is the teams who make this category awesome. We are proud to present to you the people behind these 5 Translating teams.
| Languages | Moderator | Translators |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Spanish | @marugy99 | @elpoliglota, @samuellmiller, @acrywhif, @michaelizer, @isabella394 |
| 2. Greek | @ruth-girl | @trumpman, @katerinaramm, @lordneroo, @rorogr, @dimitrisp |
| 3. Italian | @mcassani | @filippocrypto, @imcesca, @viki.veg |
| 4. Chinese | @sunray | @aafeng, @susanli3769 |
| 5. German | @egotheist | No suitable translators yet |
| Total | 5 Moderators | 15 Translators |
These 5 language teams are the forerunners spear heading the Translation Category in Utopian.io.
- Only Spanish and Greek have full teams.
- Italian & Chinese teams have 3 and 2 translators respectively.
- As for the German team, the moderator is a commander with no troops in this first round.
5. Performance - June 17 to July 6, 2018
The 15 translators started translating their favorite FOSS projects with Crowdin and submitting them to Utopian.io for potential reward on June 17th. You can read this report written by @davinci.witness.
It has been about 3 weeks for these 5 languages actively going forward. The Crowdin platform was once again vibrant with passionate translators contributing value to FOSS projects via Crowdin.
A total of 69 translation contributions came in and they were greatly rewarded for their work by @Utopian-io.
| Date | Languages | Number of Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| June 17-23 | Greek | 3 |
| Spanish | 6 | |
| Italian | 4 | |
| Chinese | 3 | |
| German | 0 | |
| Total | 16 | |
| June 24-30 | Greek | 6 |
| Spanish | 5 | |
| Italian | 8 | |
| Chinese | 5 | |
| German | 0 | |
| Total | 24 | |
| July 1- 6 | Greek | 6 |
| Spanish | 8 | |
| Italian | 11 | |
| Chinese | 4 | |
| German | 0 | |
| Total | 29 |
5 Language Moderators + 15 Translators proved themselves worthy of the rewards generously given by Utopian.io. As you can see, the number of contributions increases by the week. The performance level of each group is steadily moving forward from 16 to 24 to 29 contributions / week. The scoring of the translators contributions also moved steadily upward as quality also increased in their work. Since all translators are just beginning their work, it has not reached to the high level yet. The moderators are working fearlessly to correct the mistakes and inaccuracies of the translation. Both quality and quantity are growing in a slow but steady pace.
C. Conclusion - Growing More Translation Teams
Image by @pab.ink
This has been an exciting month in the Davinci Discord Channel where more than 100 members exchange ideas everyday. Everyone is so active there. Never a boring moment. Even for the languages that have not been selected yet, the candidates are chatting away with each other in their language rooms.
Are you a professional translator? We are calling out for more translators to join us. Let's continue to promote Open Source translation via the Utopian-DaVinci collaboration.
Get in touch with me @rosatravels or in the DaVinci Discord server.
D. Blog Series:
#1 Promoting Translation in Utopian.io - Fully alive and Stronger
#2 Promoting Translation in Utopian.io - Growing Translation Teams in Quality
Thank you for your attention,
Rosa
@rosatravels
My Github profile: https://github.com/rosatravels
Thank you for reading this post!
谢谢你的阅读！希望你喜欢。