Protecting Internet Freedom With Localization Tools

MANILA, PHILIPPINES–(Marketwired – Mar 23, 2015) – RightsCon 2015 — Transifex, www.transifex.com, a leading Localization Automation Platform (LAP) for modern technology companies, and The Localization Lab, an OTF-sponsored initiative for localization and usability of Internet Freedom Tools (IFTs), will join digital rights activists, companies, government officials, technologists, and academics at RightsCon 2015 in Manila to help protect Internet freedom through localization. The Localization Lab, which is built on the Transifex Localization Automation Platform, will also host a Localization Sprint in April to build on the work done at RightsCon, uniting translators and developers from around the world to translate Internet freedom tools.

The Localization Sprint will build on the relationships and partnerships established at RightsCon in Manila. It will take place in late April and focus on translating Tails, a live operating system that preserves privacy and anonymity to circumvent censorship, into Farsi, Urdu, Thai, Tagalog, and Vietnamese simultaneously. A community of translators and developers will gather in one room and work side-by-side — much like a hackathon — to rapidly translate content. The translators and developers will be able to view their content in-context in real-time using Transifex Live on screen.

“Internet freedom is a real issue in countries where people literally lose their lives for expressing their opinions or even just reporting the news,” said Dragana Kaurin, Localization Lab Manager. “Our mission is to make the Internet freedom community open to everyone to participate, contribute, and collaborate on real-world tech problems of circumventions, privacy, and transparency. Of course, everyone should have the right to communicate and request information privately, but also to participate in the dialogue on how these policies affect them.”

“The Localization Lab for Internet freedom tools has a profound impact on real people’s lives,” said Dimitris Glezos, founder and CEO at Transifex. “What began more than two years ago has become a movement with a huge group of users committed to localizing open source Internet freedom technology. RightsCon is about the intersection of technology and human rights. We are truly honored to be a part of this work with SecondMuse.”

“When localizing content into different languages, context is extremely important,” added Kaurin. “If words such as ‘cancel,’ ‘abort,’ or ‘delete’ are translated the wrong way, they can have very different meanings in different languages. Transifex Live gives immediate feedback so you can check context right away rather than waiting for days or weeks to go back and forth with a translator, the way localization used to be done. Transifex’s Localization Automation Platform is a godsend with instant gratification!”

Members of the Localization Lab community will be in “The Demo Room” at RightsCon March 24-25 sharing an interactive demo in the category of “Technology for Advancing Human Rights” with other liberation technologies from around the world.

About the Localization Lab
The Localization Lab is a global community of volunteer translators who support the translation and localization of Internet freedom tools: technologies that address security, privacy and anonymity online to ensure that people around the world have safe avenues for accessing information on the Internet. Many of the tools translated by the Localization Lab help to protect the lives and physical security of individuals who do not have open access to information on the Internet, including tools like:

• TOR: Free software and an open network that helps users defend against traffic analysis, a form of network surveillance that threatens personal freedom and privacy, confidential business activities and state security.
• Cryptocat: An encrypted chat application for browsers and mobile phones.
• Psiphon: A censorship circumvention tool providing an extra layer of security when using open WiFi networks or accessing blocked sites.

The Localization Lab translates more than 30 tools into over 180 different languages and dialects and is currently to expand its translations of tools in Tagalog, Khmer, Vietnamese, Burmese, Laotian, Indonesian, Thai and Chinese (simplified and traditional scripts). The Localization Lab community is growing and this year will be coming together for community events, translation sprints and other fun activities that will push forward the localization of these tools.

About Second Muse
Localization Lab is part of Second Muse, and provides localization services and support for Internet freedom tools: technology that addresses security, privacy, anonymity and circumvention issues. SecondMuse is a leader in understanding and addressing user needs in the context of Internet freedom, having developed a methodology for applying human centered design and Needfinding to user communities. SecondMuse is also home to the Localization Lab, a growing community of thousands of volunteer translators, developers, and intermediary organizations committed to localizing open source Internet freedom technology.

About Transifex
Transifex is a Localization Automation Platform that powers the process of launching digital products and content into multiple languages. Built for companies with rapid development cycles, Transifex’s SaaS platform enables developers to create a continuous localization workflow. Through the Transifex API and Git-like command-line client, developers can ensure that new content is always translated, and the latest translations are included with each release. This means faster time-to-market, less strain on engineering, and a better experience for end users.

The company is at its heart both global and digital — with engineers on two continents and customers in over 30 countries representing 20,000+ projects and 200,000+ users, localizing content in more than 100 languages. Companies including Atlassian, Coursera, Eventbrite, Kixeye, and Waze rely on Transifex to achieve a continuous localization workflow.