Classics that are considered part of the country's own self-definition are not being translated.
Books that don't fit the stereotypical mold, such as non-Magic Realism out of Mexico. Non-Science Fiction from Japan. Books that don't show the worst parts of other country's history.
Polyglit.com wants to change that. Let the countries do their own self definition through their literature.
Learn written languages while working with other people to translate the books you like or read the results.
Crowd-sourcing translation has worked for viki.com for videos, perhaps it could work for print too.
Our pilot project is Hong Gil Dong, 67 pages. It's a Korean Robin Hood and known as a classic for being the first book in Hangeul (Korean Alphabet) ever. Despite being so well-known in Korea that everyone grows up knowing about it, it's virtually unknown in the West and still has not been translated in full.
Features of the first website model:
- Book translator. (With the ability to track what you translated and how /if it was corrected).
- Translator and editor notes.
- Front page with administration.
- Compendium for translators.
- Project thread. (No up or down vote).
- Staff Project thread.
- Project Bible (oxford comma, yes or no, what type of romanization, etc)
- Automatic credits to translator, moderator, Editor.
- Documentation (Help Center)
- About Us Page
- Company Policy
- Twitter
- Website name
- Website colors/branding.
- Tracking of own translations. (Whether they were corrected or not and how).
- Member pages with private messaging.
- Advertising free for book translation members for life.
ETAs:
- Programming will take a month.
- translating, depending on the amount of translators can take a few weeks to a few months.
Risks:
- Crowd Sourcing Book translation website has never been done yet, so there may be UX problems.
- If we don't get funding it might not go through
- The editors might not do their job fully.
- The mod might not be able to see the project through.
- We might not get enough funding to get going with just the first book, but will need successive ones.
- Bugs in UX might pop up, slowing the project down.
- We might not get the crowd that we need.
Costs:
- Programming $4,275 (for pilot project features)
- Commercial Hosting for the year $1,380
Extras:
- Licensing fees anywhere from 5,000-20,000 for an individual book.
- Anything over will go towards new features as listed and/or unforseen problems.