Translation guide
Hello volunteer translator! Thanks for your interest in making our work more linguistically accessible. Before you get started we wanted to take this opportunity to tell you more about Action Without Borders and the Language Project, and how you, as a volunteer translator, will play a key role in expanding our vision. Please read through the whole guide carefully before getting started, as it contains information that is essential to creating a great translation. If you have any questions, please email translations@idealist.org.
Action Without Borders: A brief introduction
Action Without Borders is a nonprofit organization registered in the United States that was founded in 1995 with the idea to make it easier for people and organizations to work together face to face in neighborhoods and villages around the world. Then the web took off, and we realized that with a tiny staff and very little money, we could have a bigger impact online than working in any single community, so we launched Idealist.org.
There are now over 300,000 individuals registered on Idealist.org, and opportunity and resource listings that come from more than 65,000 nonprofit and community organizations from around the world. We also offer a Spanish version of the site, Idealistas.org, and a French version, Idealiste.org.
For more information about Action Without Borders, please visit our About Us page.
With the recent launch of the new version of our website, we hope to create more opportunities for connections, online and face to face, among people who want to get involved in their communities.
The Language Project
The Language Project is the project of Action Without Borders dedicated to translation, research, web development, and support for new web pages in languages other than English, French, and Spanish. The goal of the Language Project is to build Idealist.org in many new languages; so far, our volunteers and staff have started to work on translation and research in Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Dutch, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Ukrainian.
In this first stage of the project, we are focusing on translating certain key web pages that describe Action Without Borders' mission and vision. To make our reach truly global, we'd like these key web pages to be available in many languages. The more languages we can offer, the more people will be able to read it and get involved. We also want people to get involved in the translation process itself. We currently depend on dedicated, enthusiastic volunteer translators from around the world.
Translation teams
In November 2005, we put out a call for volunteers in New York City (one of our main offices) to help. Soon afterwards, we opened up the volunteer opportunity to let people all over the world participate in the translation process. Several translation teams were formed and some started meeting in cafes and on campuses in New York City, while others have been collaborating primarily online using tools like Yahoo Groups and Skype. The team members usually edit and translate documents separately, then come together to discuss and collaborate on a final, "master" copy.
Action Without Borders provides support for these translation teams, sets deadlines for translations, and uploads finished translations onto the website. Teams are mostly autonomous, but volunteers are strongly encouraged to keep in touch with us through the whole process.
The documents
We're asking groups to translate four documents in this first stage of the translation process.
- First, an "About Us" page will need to be translated; and it will also help you learn more about our organization.
- The next document we'd like translated is "Imagine," a description of Action Without Borders' vision.
- Then, the "Common Questions" page needs to be translated.
- Finally, your translation of "All forms" will get your work ready for the website.
Please read these Translation tips before getting started.
