Crowd Sourcing

Roy telling a story, using the pictures,
before the group writes it down.

‘Crowd sourcing’ is in fashion these days. It is done for finances and as well as for information and translation. Wikipedia is the classic example of a crowd sourced written work, where numerous people contribute and correct each other’s content. My friend Julien runs the Marco Polo Project, using crowd sourcing to translate Chinese websites into English, linking East and West online as well as in person. All sorts of projects, such as the Bella Journey, get funding through crowd sourcing.

It is rare for me to be fashionable, but when it comes to crowd sourcing, for once I am!

The money I live off in my work is effectively crowd sourced, although in my circles it is referred to as ‘partnership development’ as we partner with churches and individuals to sponsor our work. Yet it is not finance I am referring to in this blog post, but literacy.

While my nieces and nephews have piles of books around their homes and family who have been reading to them since they were babies, most of the languages in PNG have very few books. Learning to read in a language you already know is the best way to learn to read. Having books to read is a critical part of this process, so part of my work as a linguist/translator is helping communities to build up their local library by writing and translating books for beginners.

Debbie working with her small crowd.

There are a whole range of ‘shell books’ available for communities wanting to kick start their collection. Shell books contain a simple story with pictures, are available in the public domain and approved of by the department of education. They cover a range of topics and levels of difficulty. A community ‘just’ has to translate and print them. This is a whole lot harder than it sounds, as there are often few people in a community who are confident to translate and write in their own language, as well as few resources for printing.

This is where crowd sourcing comes in.

While on our recent trip to Gulf Province we spent time helping I’ae speakers in Maipenairu and the Urama speakers in Kivaumai translate shell books for their elementary schools. We did this by gathering together as a large group and telling a story. First one of my team would tell the story in English a few times, showing the pictures as we went. Then the locals would take turns telling the story in their language a few times. They kept telling the story until everyone was happy that it was a well told story.

Writing the story on the blackboard.

One good writer would then be nominated to write the story up on a blackboard, or on paper when a blackboard was not available, while someone else told it. This way a good storyteller, even if not literate, could still contribute to the translation. Those who could read and write their own language with confidence would help correct the primary writer. Those who were less confident would slowly read what was being written, building their confidence as they went. At the end, when everyone was happy with the story, they would read it out loud together and I would write it down in my notebook, as well as taking a photo of the blackboard.

In the evening, our team spent time writing these stories up, using the resources we had available with us in the village. This meant writing with coloured pencils onto the back of the printed pictures. Estimating font size, line spacing etc left little room for error and made me appreciate word processing computer programs. I also had to concentrate very hard on writing neatly. Those who know my handwriting know that it is better used in cryptography than literacy.

A hand written completed shellbook.

The first time we did the binding with dental floss and tape, the second time we remembered the stapler as well as the tape. We then gave these freshly produced books to the school teachers and watched with delight as they read their way through. Later, once reunited with power, computers and printers, these books are properly typed up, formatted and printed in bulk for the schools to use.

As I sat on the floor of the village meeting house at Kivaumai, I could see the king tide rising all around us, including seeing it come under us through the cracks in the floor. Cute but flea ridden puppies kept getting thrown out of the open sided building. Chickens eyed us off as a dry retreat from a very wet village. Pigs looked funny as they swam to higher ground. Around us, at least fifty people had come to work on translating shell books. Debbie, Catherine and I each worked with a separate group. In a nearby house Rebekah and Susie were doing tone analysis with another dozen people (they’d asked for two or three). Robbie was elsewhere working on a dictionary with yet another group.

The village edition of the
13 new Urama books.

We sure drew a crowd!

It was a crowd that between them managed to translate 13 new story books into their language. It is a far cry from what other crowd sourced translation might look like, but it is the same principle and had a wonderful result. The number of Urama books increased significantly that soggy Saturday.