SotM 2021 will be a virtual conference just like last year. It will take place from 9 to 11 July 2021. We will provide one main track with classic talks for three days. Around that classic program there will be workshops, panels, breakout sessions and more.
All talks will be held in English as English is the conference language. But this year we want to try something new: we want to provide live translation to other languages! And so we will be experimenting with Mumble as a live translation platform and see if we can find enough volunteers to do these translations.
The technical background of this idea is that we will use a Mumble server with channels for each language. The translator is the only person who can speak in that channel. All visitors of the channel are muted, but they can listen to the live translator. Attendees watching a talk will be shown a list of available languages and will have to access the Mumble server, if they wish to listen to other languages while watching.
Before the day of the conference, translators will have the chance to watch the pre-recorded talks and choose which presentations they want to translate. This will give you time to prepare and take some notes to be able to effectively provide live translation on your Mumble channel during your prepared talk. The Organizing Team will also provide onboarding about Mumble to help you familiarize with the platform.
It depends on the activity and engagement of the OpenStreetMap community how far we can offer this service at SotM. Just like everything else at SotM! So the question is: Are there any volunteers who want to support SotM as live translators? All intensity and amount of support is welcome. As soon as the program is published (beginning of June is the estimation) you can choose the talk or the talks you want to support with translation.
Please contact us via email at sotm@openstreetmap.org on or before 28 June (2 weeks before the conference) so we get enough time to onboard you in the Mumble platform. Send us some information like which language do you want to offer. All languages are welcome. We anticipate that there will be most demand for French and Spanish, but also all other languages will be great!