Crowdsourcing language translations

Crowdsourcing is the practice of asking the public to help perform a given task. These days, the internet is often used for the asking and for the performing. The most recent example is Twitter crowdsourcing the translation for its international editions, via a “Translation Center” website. Here is how it works:

Flattr for publishers: tips and wishes

Flattr is a way for readers to donate small amounts of money to publishers. Read [1] for an introduction to Flattr. This post describes its benefits for publishers in more detail and lists tips and wishes.

Flattr or how to finance web content

One of the greatest challenges of the web has been how to pay the people who produce (freely accessible) content for it. For example, you find an article you like and would love to support the author, but don’t know how. Or, it’s paid content that usually costs too much and does not allow you to see in advance if it is worth its money. Until recently, there was no middle ground between free and too expensive. And it hurts publishers. Ideally, a publisher would write a free article that, thanks to it costing nothing, is read by, say, one million people. If each of those people paid one cent, the author would earn $10,000. To make small donations viable, there has to be a company that aggregates the money that is spent and the money that is earned. But it is not easy to get such a company going, because you need both publishers and consumers on board. Flattr, a Swedish company, is currently giving micro-financing web content (text, software, music, etc.) a shot.