The LinkedIn Controversy
Most of us by now are familiar with the idea of crowdsourcing. The role of crowdsourcing in the language industry and its possible effects, both positive and negative, has been widely discussed and debated.
Most recently, LinkedIn proposed to use a crowdsourcing project similar to that of Facebook and Wikipedia to localize their website. However, I believe their approach communicated an incorrect message to the translation community. Instead of coming across as a crowdsourcing effort, they asked in effect if professional translators would be willing to donate their time, or translate “for fun.”
An outraged translation community responded with pleas for translators not to become involved in the project on the grounds that LinkedIn was demonstrating a lack of respect for the profession. Again, I think it was just incorrect communication on the part of LinkedIn. Either way, they will likely have to come up with another solution in order to localize their website.
Ideas taken from “Translators Wanted at LinkedIn. The Pay? $0 an Hour”
New York Times (NY) (06/29/09) Newman, Andrew Adam
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