Transcription Team

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This page serves as the central hub for information concerning all coordinated English Transcription Team activities throughout the RBE Community. We fully expect the approaches described here to undergo the same kind of emergent evolution as any other part of our transition towards a fully open and much more sane society, so please feel free to add to the Linguistic Team Development Checklist to offer ideas for improving these approaches to this incredibly important topic of transcribing, proofreading and translating all of the movement's shared materials. Once you save the edited page, your suggestions will be added to the last section of the main Linguistic Team Wiki page

If you would like to learn more &/or get involved with any facet of the Transcription Team, contact any English Transcription Coordinator listed at the bottom of this page.

Below, you will find descriptions of the more successful approaches used by English transcribers across the ZM community. The aim of each of these efforts is to provide our translation team with the best English transcriptions possible. To that end, both transcription and thorough proofreading approaches need to be taken very seriously. This team was created in order to help ensure the best results while providing the most inter-team support possible.


Initial Handling of Various Media Types

Movies & Videos

All new videos (including small ones) are uploaded to a special account named TZMOfficial at dotSUB where they are then transcribed into English with full and correct subtitles & timestamps.

As you'll see in the tutorials included below, dotSUB makes it extremely easy to transcribe with these very important features intact. One strong benefit of using dotSUB is the ease with which we can Export select efforts for translation within Pootle.

Members who wish to help with these English transcriptions will need to have or create a dotSUB account and possess a reasonably good command of the English language (punctuation, spelling, capitalization, etc.). Announcements of new videos requiring English transcription are always posted in the Linguistic Team Forum and added to the Linguistic Team's Media Center wiki, so watch those areas.

Note: If you log into the Wiki (same user & pass as the forums), you can subscribe to the Media Center page to be notified by email of updates to the page.

Once the full English transcription has been created and then passes the separate English Proofreading Team's scrutiny, the transcription will be set as 'Finished' by one of the English Proofreading Coordinators. At that point, we'll determine whether it should be moved into Pootle or left within dotSUB for translation. That determination depends on several factors including the overall relevance of the project to the movement, the amount of already existing projects within Pootle that still require translations, the number of active Pootle translators, etc..


Important Points To Remember:

  • Volunteers who are new to dotSUB should check out their "How to transcribe a video on dotSUB" - a short video tutorial.
    • Additional tutorials for topics related to translating, downloading translations and embedding dotSUB efforts into your own websites can be found on the LingTeam Priority List page within our wiki.
  • Please also refer to our Linguistic Team Official Guidelines for a list of the standards we adhere to when transcribing & proofreading.
  • A public pad is also provided under Transcriber/ Proofreader Notes to allow transcribers to make any notes about the project which they would like the proofreaders to review.
  • Before suggesting a new video project, always check the Linguistic Team Media Center first to see if the item(s) you're interested in transcribing is already in the system. Please be aware that various sections of the Media Center are used to focus on different multimedia formats and translation-assist locations (Pootle, dotSUB, etc.).
  • If you cannot find your specific project in the above location, assume that the project does not yet exist and suggest it by posting a new thread to the Linguistic Team Forum.
  • When a dotSUB transcription has been completed (separately for both Transcription & Proofreading), please update the Linguistic Team's Media Center wiki page above. If you are unsure how to do that, please don't hesitate to ask for assistance. We have many members who are very happy to help and they can usually be found hanging out in the Int'l LingTeam email group.
  • With dotSUB projects, all proofreading must be performed before the English transcript will be set within dotSUB as 'finished'. Also, these videos are always set so that no translations can be started until after final proofreading. The moment anyone prematurely checks the 'Finished' box, it prevents further additions/corrections to the transcript until that 'Finished' label can be cleared by one of the coordinators, making it take longer before it can be opened up for translation.


Radio Address, MP3's, Podcasts & other audio-only productions

These are [audio-only items that don't require subtitles &/or timestamps. MSchlager, a developer and member of the Radio Address Transcription Team, has produced an excellent online translation tool called ZMTranscribe specifically for use in transcribing audio files. We are currently testing the idea of making this app available to multiple projects by incorporating it into the main site. This section of the page will be updated once that is completed (assuming it's possible, of course).

The Radio Address Transcription Team, which already has full use of ZMTranscribe, has plenty of room for transcription volunteers.

If you have another audio-only project that needs to be transcribed, here is a relatively thorough overview of the manual method developed by the Radio Address Transcription Team over many months of trial and error. The included 'Tips & Tricks' links are especially important to understanding the overall approach taken. Note that this description is specific to the RA transcriptions and developed for use by a team of transcribers working together on the same item, so adjust the directions to your own needs if your situation is unique.


PDF's and other e-book items

These items are generally set and formatted in English text, so the only thing needed is the proofreading to make sure no errors got past the original editors. This may seem like a waste of time to some, but we've already found some serious blunders in what were supposed to be 'professionally produced' items.


(other types of multimedia - yet to be determined)

Help expand this page by adding suggestions to the Linguistic Team Development Page.


Ongoing Transcription Projects

To join any of these English Transcription projects, contact any English Transcription Team coordinator listed at the bottom of the page for more info and tips. Be sure to bookmark any links below that pertain directly to the project(s) you choose to join.

Project Team Short Description Team's Primary Discussion location Team's Primary Work location (if applicable) Team Wiki Description Output Location
dotSUB Transcription Team Transcribes all videos into English text Transcription Team email group TBA dotSUB Transcription Team Wiki Page Directly handed off to English Proofreading Team within dotSUB
Radio Address Transcription Team Transcribes PJ's Radio Address into English text Forum Thread ZMTranscribe, PiratePad Radio Address Transcription Team Wiki Transcription Wiki Page
Audio Transcription Team (TBA) Will transcribe non-Radio Address "Audio-Only" media into English text Project is not yet launched ZMTranscribe, PiratePad Transcription Team Wiki Page Handed off to English Proofreading Team - TBA


English Transcription Team Coordinators

Member Username Member of (Team) Preferred working area Availability Contact Info
Gman English Transcription Team Coordinator Pootle admin, dotSUB admin, ZMTranscribe admin, Wiki Admin Varies
freedombeing English Proofreading Team Coordinator dotSUB Usually on weekends Email Ezra, Skype user: ezra_ho


English Transcription Team Members

Member Username (links to homepages for PM use) Dotsub Username Usual work area Current task Availability Contact Info
toastofchaos toastofchaos dotSUB Proofreading this: http://dotsub.com/view/f5d50e20-2b7d-4917-8658-3a32aa10c70c Varies Skype user: toastofchaos666
Vortex11 TBA dotSUB Varies
jeanneks TBA dotSUB Varies
dmaar TBA dotSUB Varies
gspat TBA dotSUB TBA Varies
jamesmiw TBA dotSUB Varies
Meshuggeth TBA dotSUB Email Meshuggeth
karolain TBA dotSUB Email karolain
Ben Griffin bengriffin TBA TBA
ichernev ichernev iskren [dot] chernev [at] gmail [dot] com, Skype user: ichernev 5-10 hours/week
Craig TBA TBA TBA
Josiane TBA TBA TBA
Roberta TBA TBA TBA



LTI WikiLanguage Team Contacts | FirstTimers-General Guidelines | LTI Guidelines | Transcription Team | Proofreading Team | Translation Teams | Translation Proofreading Teams | Linguistic Tech Team | Media Center | Project Teams | LingTeam Development | Meetings (edit)