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The WikiWordOfGod Project - Big, Hairy, and Audacious
By Stephen Simons | July 28, 2007
The Swedenborg Project, Inc., a501(c)(3) non-profit incorporated in the state of Maryland, has just launched an ambitious new project, the WikiWordOfGod (WWG), with the big, hairy, audacious mission:
TRANSLATE THE WORD OF GOD INTO EVERY LIVING LANGUAGE ON EARTH
So, what will it take to accomplish this mission? As the director of this project I put together some conservative estimates, just to ballpark the baseline:
6,915 Living Languages On Earth
27 Volumes Of Original Text (Hebrew, Greek, And Neolatin)
$50,000 Per Volume For The Translator’s Time
$50,000 Per Volume For The Editor/Manage’s Time
$5,000 Per Volume For Book Design And Typesetting
$50,000 For A Print Run Of 1000 Books, Storage, And Distribution
That comes together as:
6,915 X 27 X ($50,000 + $50,000 + $5,000 + $50,000) = US$28,939,275,000
Now, because of the language knowledge requirements the number of employees is at least:
6,915 X (1 Translator + 1 Editor) = 13,830 employees
So, we’ll round this up to 14,000 to include leadership, operations, and business support. This means that if we figure in 30% on top of the salaries for employee benefits and a conservative 50% of project cost for overhead this project could be accomplished in 27 Years with a budget of:
(((14,000 * $50,000 * 27 * 30%) + $28,939,275,000)*50%) + $28,939,275,000 = US$46,243,912,500
So does that mean that this project needs well over Forty Billion Dollars in funding so that all six billion people on earth can read God’s Word? That’s a pretty steep sum. And what’s worse, this estimate only includes about seven million physical copies, which leaves each copy having to be shared by about 900 people. Not to mention that it will be a truly Herculean task to accomplish this mission on time and in budget, especially because all of these baseline values are pretty optimistic and actual cost, let alone worst case scenario, will be higher.
This is truly a BIG, HAIRY, AUDACIOUS GOAL!
The challenge facing the WikiWordOfGod (WWG) is that the hairiness of the costs could keep the size and audacity of the mission from being accomplished. However, in this information computing age there just must be a better, faster, lower cost solution — and there is.
The solution is human integrated technology. To cut costs and speed production, the WikiWordOfGod project is developing Translaborator™, a proprietary software package that facilitates collaborative translation projects by increasing the efficiency, consistency, and quality of the work done by human translators. Rather than trying to accomplish the near impossible task of machine translation, Translaborator™ leverages the expertise of human translators by providing:
- Trexmo™ - A reading and editing interface that easily integrates the work of many translators and empowers every translator with rapid and intuitive access to the complete body of information contributed by existing language tools and the input from other members of the translation community whether it is a private project with only a few translators or a public web application with thousands of contributors.
- Versamorph™ - Interactive language models and mapping algorithms that can be used to support a variety of translation models including literal, idiomatic, paraphrased, etc.
- LinearD™- Data mining tools that ensure textual consistency through the analysis of the work of individuals and communities within a translation model.
- Verbatrax™ - A dynamic information storage and retrieval engine that is personalized to the individual translator and integrated to support the evolution of publicly accessible tools like lexicons, grammars, etc.
- LateralText™ - A social network of translation professionals, linguists, students, hobbyists, and native speakers of living languages associated by language in combination with locations, dialects, and secondary languages.
Once Translaborator™ is released, the WikiWordOfGod project will launch a publicly available WIKI web application using Translaborator™ as its core to enable native speakers the world over to create free editions of the Word of God in each of the 6,915 languages used by real people every day. This free translation will be protected by a Creative Commons License that will allow it to be shared across international borders and be reproduced electronically or in print by anyone with the resources and inclination to spread the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ, the one and only God.
So, how much money can we save? Well over Forty Billion Dollars! In order to develop Translaborator™ and launch and maintain the WikiWordOfGod, the Swedenborg Project, Inc. needs your financial support. Please consider The WikiWordOfGod Project and the Swedenborg Project in your annual charitable contributions and your tithe as we work to support the kingdom here on earth and its connection with the kingdom of heaven through God’s Word.
If you would like to give to the WikiWordOfGod Project, the development of Translaborator™, or the Swedenborg Project General Fund, please visit us online at http://www.swedenborgproject.org and click on Donate Now to set up your one-time or recurring credit card donation or send your check or money order payable to The Swedenborg Project, with WikiWordOfGod™, Translaborator™, or “General” in the memo line to:
The WikiWordOfGod Project
c/o The Swedenborg Project
P.O. BOX 9111
Lutherville, MD 21093
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Article Republished from Big, Hairy, Audacious, Stephen Simons can be reached online at http://www.translaborator.com or by email to info@translaborator.com