Ingrid Fischer-Schreiber 

Twitter, das Social Networking Service, das im Moment nur in Englisch und Japanisch verfügbar ist, hat heute angekündigt, Versionen in Französisch, Italienisch, Deutsch und Spanisch bereitstellen zu wollen – in der Folge dann auch für noch mehr Sprachen:

“Twitter has become a valuable tool for folks to exchange timely bits of information, whether it be a momentous news event, a personal story, or a random thought. We want everyone in the world to have the opportunity to engage in this important exchange, so we’re calling on the help of real Twitterers to translate our site into their own language. You’ve helped define what’s important about the product, so you should define your local experience, too. (Quelle: http://twitter.com/translate)

Etwas detaillierter der Twitter-Blog-Eintrag dazu:

Twitter Translate users can make suggestions.
We are inviting a small group of people to become volunteer translators at first. As more folks volunteer, the translation suggestions should accumulate faster and we’ll have enough material to respond by making Twitter available not only in English and Japanese but also French, Italian, German, and Spanish. We will distribute the translations to Twitter platform developers making it easier for them to offer multiple language support as well.” (Quelle: http://blog.twitter.com/2009/10/coming-soon-twitter-in-more-languages.html)

Das Translation Agreement (geposted von Angel Dominguez auf LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=2032092&discussionID=8164833&goback=.anh_2032092) enthält u. a. folgende Vereinbarungen:

- Twitter verpflichtet zu Geheimhaltung. Als “Volunteer” besteht kein Anspruch auf Vergütung. Twitter kann die bereitgestellte Übersetzung in jeder beliebigen Form verwenden (oder auch nicht) und mit der Developer-Community teilen, sodass alle Applikationen in mehreren Sprachen zur Verfügung stehen.
- Die Übersetzung darf nicht maschinell erstellt sein, der Übersetzer ist für die Korrektheit verantwortlich.
- Der Übersetzer hat keinerlei geistiges Eigentum oder andere proprietäre Rechte auf seine Übersetzung.
- Jeder Twitter-User bzw. die Allgemeinheit können die Übersetzung für jedweden Zweck verwenden.
- Das Agreement, das Übersetzer unterschreiben müssen, ist hier auszugsweise nachzulesen.
- Den einzigen Lohn, den Übersetzer erhalten ist ein Banner auf ihrem Profil, der sie als Übersetzer ausweist und ihren Status anzeigt.

Im Social Network LinkedIn (das eine ähnliche Strategie verfolgt) hat diese Ankündigung in der Gruppe “Translators against Crowdsourcing” massiven Widerstand hervorgerufen, wobei die US-merikanischen ÜbersetzerInnen das Fehlen einer Standesvertretung (Gewerkschaft) für die Missachtung der Leistung von Übersetzern verantwortlich machen.

“It is becoming very clear that our code of ethics should soon include an article prohibiting professional translator for translating without compensation when benefiting for-profit corporations.” ( Dena Bugel-Shunra)

“Maybe we should participate and sabotage the system by slipping in offensive translations…”  (Edwin de Boer)

Twitter Translator Agreement
Posted by Angel Dominguez auf LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=2032092&discussionID=8164833&goback=.anh_2032092

Since you’ll be helping out Twitter (thanks again for that) we want to let you know our ground rules. Please read the full agreement below before continuing. Here are some of the things you can expect to see:

· We may show you confidential, yet to be released products or features and you must be willing to keep those secret.
· You’ll be volunteering to help out Twitter and will not be paid.
· Twitter owns the rights to the translations you provide. You are giving them to us so that we can use them however we want.
· Among other things, Twitter plans to share the translations with the Twitter development community. We want to help make all of the other great Twitter apps, not just Twitter.com, available in your language.

Thank you again for helping make Twitter easier to understand around the world! — The Twitter Team.

Community Translator’s Responsibilities.
By clicking “I agree” or using the Twitter translation interface, you agree to provide translations in good faith and not to provide automated or inappropriate translations. You also agree to keep the content of the material you are translating confidential and not to blog, Tweet or otherwise tell others about it. Although you are responsible for the content and accuracy of each translation, Twitter reserves the right to review, reject, or remove any translation at any time for any reason in its sole discretion. You represent and warrant that all information you provide for the purpose of enrolling as a Community Translator will be accurate, complete and current.
Confidentiality. Features, functionality, text, graphics and other information visible through the translator interface may not be generally available to the public and all such features, functionality, text, graphics or other information shown through the translator interface are Twitter confidential information (“Confidential Information”). You agree to keep Confidential Information confidential, not to disclose Confidential Information to any other individual, organization or entity, and not to use Confidential Information for any purpose other than providing translations to Twitter.

Proprietary Rights.
You acknowledge and agree that Twitter owns all legal right, title and interest in and to the text strings, including any intellectual property or other proprietary rights which may subsist in the text strings translated or the resulting translations (whether those rights happen to be registered or not, and wherever in the world those rights may exist). To the extent Twitter does not own all such right, title and interest, you hereby assign such rights, title and interest to Twitter. You therefore acknowledge that you have no intellectual property or other proprietary rights in such text strings translated or the resulting translations.

No Compensation or Employment.
You understand that Twitter, other Twitter users, and the general public, may use your translations for any purpose. You acknowledge that you are providing these translations on a purely voluntary basis, as a means of assisting, and in consideration of the opportunity to assist, the Twitter community to use, implement, and understand various facets of the Twitter platform. Twitter makes no guarantee or representation as to whether or not your translations will be used, and you understand and acknowledge that Twitter will not compensate you for the translations that you provide. Furthermore, you acknowledge and agree that nothing in this agreement or in your voluntary submission of translations creates any employment relationship between you and Twitter.