OurWord originated in September, 2004 in response to the
need for powerful, yet
easy-to-learn-and-use, software for translators in Timor. The team had
previously experimented with numerous other approaches, but found none
that would work well for them. Rather, these had typically a high learning
curve for new translators, and the project advisors were spending an
inordinate amount of time on 'busy-work' tasks such as cleaning up files
and doing file management. The translators, being relatively new to computers,
were similarly frustrated because operating the software was getting in the way of
actually accomplishing the translation.
The initial version of OurWord was cobbled together over
a few weeks, and tested with a translator from the Amarasi language who was
in Darwin, Australia (where we were living at the time.) Over a mere
three week period he drafted Luke, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy and James;
all in excellent quality. We realized that between the
Front Translation Process, and this new software, that we might be on
to something.
a
In November 2004 we invited all of the active translation
teams in Timor to a workshop at the Church Synod offices in Kupang, Timor. Five of the
twelve teams were given their first computers; a number of other translators
operated computers for the first time (as opposed to having one team member
be the keyboarder.) We spent time on such topics as 'turning the computer on'
and 'how to keep your computer healthy in a tropical and dusty environment'; as
well as conducting translation and linguistic discussions. And yet during the four-day
workshop, these teams still found time to draft the equivalent of one-half of
a New Testament.
In the meantime back in Darwin an Australian Aboriginal woman heard of
the work. She related that her father's dying wish in 2001
was that she translate God's word into her Wangurri language. We set up a trial for her
in John's Gospel, and she developed a vision for seeing this work begin for the
languages in northern Australia. It took a while to finally come together,
but in September 2009 we held a
'launching' workshop which has now expanded to encompass some ten translation projects.
OurWord expanded into remote collaboration as a result of the need
for another Asian project, where the advisor needed to live in the United States due to
her husband's administrative role in the Seed Company. At that point we took advantage
of Chorus as an engine to drive a Send/Receive across the Internet. A satelite system
was provided to the translator, and the two proceded to work on the final revision
of their New Testament. Remote collaboration has been a major and time-consuming
feature to implement, with numerous 'surprises', but I feel it has tremendous
potential to impact Bible translation by bringing consultants and translators together.
We have found that every new place that we support has
generated new needs for the software. Thus while Timor has people working
remotely in their villages, the Tomohon group works in an office environment.
And while Timor and Tomohon have one computer per language, the Huichol project
has four computers (which present all kinds of collaboration challenges.) So we
are thankful for these pioneering projects that have helped to shape the direction
of OurWord development.
We are often asked why we do not use computer adaptation. This was
the desire of the translators. They felt that correcting a computer-produced draft
was more difficult than just translating onto a blank page. We were surprised to find
during experimentation that a first draft produced by OurWord takes about equal time as
a draft produced by computer adaptation, if one includes the first manual editing pass that is
done following computer adaptation to get it to the same level of quality. We realize, of course,
that other language situations will arrive at different conclusions as to which approach
to take. But the key for speed isn't whether adaptation is manual vs computer, but rather
it is the use of a high-quality source translation.
What of the future? My intent is to continue to observe how
translators work, and to attempt to meet their needs. My goal is to provide them
with sophistication in what one person called "a radically simple" user interface.
Your comments and suggestions on how to accomplish this are most welcome.
John Wimbish, Feb 2010