Participatory Culture Foundation

Yesterday, Darren Bridenbeck sent the announcement below via Amara' messaging. I am copying it here, because this way, it will be possible to discuss it:

Google now has it's own Team on Amara!

From darren.bridenbeck

Hi!

My name is Darren Bridenbeck, and I'm an Amara support member. I wanted to write to thank you for contributing to the Google I/O translations, and let you know that Google now has it's own team on Amara.

Just go to: http://www.universalsubtitles.org/en/teams/google/ to join it!

From here on out, this is where all Google related videos will be posted for translation on Amara. Join the team to make sure you're up-to-date on Google video translations.

Thanks again, and happy translating!

Best,
Darren

New announcement of the Google team from Darren Bridenbeck today, again via Amara messaging:

Google has a Translation Team on Amara!

From darren.bridenbeck

Hi friends of Amara (aka Universal Subtitles),

We wanted to let you know that Google has their own team!

You can join it by going to http://www.universalsubtitles.org/en/teams/google/

They recently added a video that had nearly 20 translations in only a few days, and a lot of those translations came from this very team, Congrats!

Happy translating, and thanks for helping make the world a more connected and accessible place.

Sincerely,
The Amara team

See also the new general announcement on top of all Amara pages, though only visible to those who have not yet joined the Google team: "Google now has a translation team: Join!": Amara is really doing its utmost to promote this team.

While the July 11 message was apparently sent to people who had participated in the translation of the 2 videos for which Amara posted a translation request at the end of May, it's not quite clear to whom this new one was sent.
Nor is it clear which "video that had nearly 20 translations in only a few days" he alludes to: there are presently 3 videos in the Google team, i.e. the 2 videos Amara asked volunteers to translate at the end of May; present data:

•  Project Glass: Live Demo At Google I/O - 44 languages, 24 completed
• Google I/O 2012 - Keynote Day 1 - 27 languages, "3 completed" (though one - Indonesian - is still mainly in English, and another one is the English subs, so that's one completed translation: Japanese; then there is Bulgarian, 57% complete, and all the other translations are less than 20% complete )

And then there is  Google+ Platform Office Hours: I/O Recap (3 languages, no completed language) I added yesterday to see if contributors could add videos, as only owners and admins can view the permissions settings of Amara teams (1).

So does Darren Bridenbeck allude to the completed translations of Project Glass: Live Demo At Google I/O ? However, most of them were completed before the team was created on July 11, and relatively few of the translators joined the Google team; present data:

Translations completed before July 11

(when the team was first announced):

1. Bulgarian (100%) Subtitles translated from English. Showing Revision 1, created 07/01/2012 by Darina Stoyanova . (joined team)
2. Catalan (100%) Subtitles translated from English. Showing Revision 1, created 06/30/2012 by avm99963 . (joined)
3. Chinese, Simplified (100%) Subtitles translated from English. Showing Revision 2, created 06/30/2012 by Sophie Zhao . (joined)
4. Chinese, Traditional (100%)  Subtitles translated from English. Showing Revision 7, created 06/30/2012 by 世鰻 潘 . (didn't join)
5. Dutch (100%) Subtitles translated from English. Showing Revision 1, created 06/29/2012 by joost.boerstoel . didn't join)
6. French (100%) Subtitles translated from English. Showing Revision 6, created 06/30/2012 by alain.limoges . (didn't join; of the other translators, only Geoffrey Skularec joined)
7. Greek (97% but green dotted) Subtitles translated from English. Showing Revision 0, created 06/29/2012 by gioyfa (didn't join) .
8. Hungarian (100%) Subtitles translated from English. Showing Revision 0, created 06/29/2012 by adam22 . (didn't join)
9. Indonesian (100%) (uploaded) Showing Revision 1, created 06/29/2012 by Dwi Rianto . (didn't join)
10. Indonesian (100%) Subtitles translated from English. Showing Revision 2, created 06/30/2012 by M Haidar Hanif . (joined)
11. Italian (100%) Subtitles translated from English. Showing Revision 1, created 07/03/2012 by Marco Donadelli . (did not join, nor did the other translator, davide.cassenti)
12. Japanese (100%) Subtitles translated from English. Showing Revision 3, created 07/04/2012 by rk . (didn't join, nor did the other translator, Shogo Kobayashi)
13. Korean (100%) Subtitles translated from English. Showing Revision 3, created 06/29/2012 by Eun Yoon . (did not join)
14. Lithuanian (100%) Subtitles translated from English. Showing Revision 1, created 07/03/2012 by paulius.narusis . (did not join)
15. Persian (100%) Subtitles translated from English. Showing Revision 1, created 07/03/2012 by ashkan.ekhtiari . (did not join)
16. Portuguese, Brazilian (100%) Subtitles translated from English. Showing Revision 4, created 06/30/2012 by Luiz Sodré . (did not join; nor did the other 2 translators)
17. Romanian (100%) Subtitles translated from English. Showing Revision 4, created 07/02/2012 by blecmen . (did not join,  of the other 2 translators, Aura Raducan   joined, but she had translated 1 sub)
18. Russian (100%) Subtitles translated from English. Showing Revision 2, created 07/05/2012 by Nastya Rusina . (joined; the other translator, platovvlad, didn't)
19. Spanish (100%) Subtitles translated from English. Showing Revision 8, created 07/04/2012 by Karenn Figueroa . (joined; none of the other 5 translators joined)
20. Turkish (100%) Subtitles translated from English. Showing Revision 0, created 06/29/2012 by bulentozturk . (didn't join)
21. Ukrainian (100%) Subtitles translated from English. Showing Revision 3, created 07/05/2012 by Nastya Rusina . (joined, see Russian; the other translator didn't)

Translations completed on July 11

(on the day when the team was created)

1. Czech (100%) Subtitles translated from English. Showing Revision 3, created 07/11/2012 by stanleyk14 . (didn't join)
2. Hebrew (100%) Subtitles translated from English. Showing Revision 5, created 07/11/2012 by Moshe Sayag . (didn't join, nor did the other translator,  liorbialik)

 

Thus no further translations of the subs for this video have been completed so far after the creation of the team; only 2 translations were completed on the day the team was created, and of the people who participated in all completed translations, only 8 joined the Google team (though of course, lots of other people joined it: 140 members so far)

 

This does not tally with "a lot of those translations came from this very team", if the phrase indicates the Google team. If it indicates another team, the only one of those I'm member of - and thus via which I could have received Darren Bridenbeck's Amara message - and that might loosely fit this phrase, is NewsHour: Vote 2012. Or did he perhaps send the same message to all participants of all Amara teams?

 

(1) Update July 15, 2012: contributors now can't add videos to the Google team anymore.