Volunteer translators flock to crowdsource the first Arabic tech and social media dictionary

Crowdsourcing work has begun to translate thousands of Web and technology-related terms to Arabic, as part of a volunteer-led project to create a ‘Web 2.0 dictionary’ in the language.

As we reported earlier this year, the plan here is to introduce what it is claimed will be the first Arabic technology and social media glossary. Despite its popularity, Arabic content makes up a tiny percentage of the Web, and many popular English tech terms don’t have commonly used translations. Now Taghreedat, a Middle Eastern volunteer group working to increase the amount of Arabic used online, has opened up a platform to allow anyone to help translate 6,500 terms for the resource. The terms cover the areas of social media, cyber security, cyber safety, IT, graphic design and ‘general tech’.

Taghreedat says that in the first ten hours since crowdsourcing began, over 250 translators from 10 countries across the Middle East have already contributed. In that time, it says that over 55% of the total 6500 terms have been translated and voted upon by the community.

Judging by those figures, there’s clearly pent-up demand for such a dictionary, and when it goes live in its finished form, we’ll be sure to let you know. In the meantime, you can find out more, and volunteer if you have the skills, at the (entirely Arabic) Taghreedat website.

Image credit: Iwan Gabovitch