Traduxio is acomputer assisted tool and a online workbench intended to promote translation through and on the Web.

Designed by the non-profit organization Zanchin, and developed with the technical support of the Tech-Cico laboratory of the University of Technology of Troyes (France) and the help of other partners, Traduxio employs the most innovative solutions to foster cultural exchange and the preservation of the world’s linguistic diversity.

This new collaborative software, directly inspired by Web 2.0 spirit, has the vocation to become a major asset for current efforts to foster cultural exchange and the preservation of the world’s linguistic diversity.

In the long run, the tool should also encourage the diversification of language learning and a reappraisal of translation activities, especially in the field of research-making.

Its potential has already been recognized and Traduxio is being currently supported by the Unesco and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie.

To understand how Traduxio actually works and what it can do, check the tutorial.

Traduxio, applying original solutions to translation

• Whereas traditional Translation Memory device are limited to two languages (source/target), Traduxio enables the comparison of different versions of the same text. A translated text is actually not considered an independent segment, but a version of the initial text in another language.
• Traduxio offers a better management of the translation context, thanks to a contextualized classification of the source (i.e. classification of the text according to the history, genre, author, etc.).

Traduxio to whom ?

As a mechanism of general interest, grounded on a logic of collaboration and mutualization (gradual feeding of the database), Traduxio is easy to use and available to a very broad audience:

• It can be used by translators, researchers, teachers, students, and all those who use language and need translation for broadening the impact of their work and activities.
• Likewise, NGOs, international organizations, research institutions, think tanks, schools, stage performers reviewing translations for a theatre play, and all those who may come across a need for translation are Traduxio’s potential users.

Translating with Traduxio: Legal and Practical aspects

• Traduxio as a workbench

Traduxio is not designed to perform any publishing or editorial functions, but rather to work as a digital workbench and network connecting users/translators worldwide. Translations carried out using Traduxio are thus not intended to be published or printed by the web-service itself – although authors may personally chose to do so.

• Traduxio as a “commons”

All content provided by users are integrated to the Translation Memory, which is the foundation and the real differential of the tool. Following the logic of mutualization on which it is based, Traduxio’s ultimate goal is to become a “commons” (like Creative Commons or Wikimedia Commons) on a non-profit basis.

• Protecting translators’ work while promoting the ‘common good’

The non-commercial and ‘communitarian’ dimension of the tool do not imply that the resulting translations will belong to the public domain. On the contrary, each translator will be given the possibility to tag its creation with a legal license of his choice (e.g. Creative Commons license). The range of rights’ attribution goes from the public domain to full copyright (in which case, a ‘fair use device’ shall be used for quotations from the database). Users will be however encouraged to choose at least an attribution license.

Attribution of authority over translations is indeed important since the re-utilization of “memory matching” depends on the identification of the author of a given semantic creation. Frequent users could thus benefit from a form of public and non-financial recognition (a system of “points”), which eventually might turn into a sort of professional reputation.