Crowdsourcing is a God-send for large-scale projects (example, web translations). But before it can effectively work, there has to be an actual crowd. Take Wikipedia for example: there are so many eyes on Wikipedia that its crowdsourcing model actually works.
But without that crowd, we just get annoying results like the following:
Facebook account security settings (in English)
The same settings in the Filipino language
Roughly, the boldface sentence translates to:
Hello Mom! How are you doing? We hope you’re doing great.
Yes? or No?
I guess the Filipino translation of Facebook will never have an actual crowd, seeing as most Pinoys on the web actually prefer English. If you speak Filipino, and use Facebook in Filipino. Please participate in the translation process, it’s really really easy to get started.
opinion
Due to serious peer pressure, I have succumbed into the internet’s equivalent of quicksand. FACEBOOK! Woohoo. Okay, there wasn’t much pressure. However, knowing that my mom had an account and I didn’t was the final blow to my otherwise unshakable resolve not to join social networking sites. I do have a Multiply page which I barely touched since college.
It’s interesting how I’ve always been extremely slow at adapting these web “trends”. That’s considering the fact that I’m a techie at heart with a degree in Computer Engineering (soon to be M.S. in Electrical Engineering). I guess it’s not that I don’t get the purpose of these whirlpools of unproductivity. I mean, it doesn’t hurt to spread your network (social or otherwise). My hesitation is probably because of my passion for productivity and efficiency. Facebook and productivity just don’t go well together. I can prove it. I’ve just created an account and have done nothing to my profile yet, but I’m already getting “sucked” into the quicksand.
Oh well, there’s no turning back now. I guess I’ll just try to check my account once in a while. I’ve already created a Gmail filter so that friend requests won’t interrupt my otherwise prestine inbox. So if you know me personally, look for me on Facebook.
personal
