Chapter 149 The Collaboration and Evolution of "Out of Control"——Translation Postscript

Many people will think that this book is too technical and not suitable for reading.This is indeed not an easy read.In fact, friends who have had a sneak peek have told me that after each section they read, they stop, think, and even take a break.However, without exception, they also said that this is a truly valuable book, a book of thought and wisdom. Such a "hard" book to read, not to mention the translation process.But the hard work of translation is not something worth mentioning here-translation is a hard job.What makes the translation process of this book unique is that it practiced the ideas in this book.

The translation work started as early as May 2008.At first there was only one translator—who was holding a bachelor’s degree from the Department of Mathematics of Tsinghua University and a Ph.D. degree from the Department of Philosophy of Peking University.After evaluating the original work, we agreed that such a "big tome" must not adopt the method of multi-person collaboration, otherwise it will be difficult to guarantee the quality.Looking back now, this is actually an almost "absurd" conclusion.There were also many high-quality translations in the last century, which were completed by teamwork.It’s just that later, the geographically gathered teams no longer existed, and translation seemed to have become a “one-person battle”. Even if multiple people participated, it was often the editor who divided the original work into several pieces under the pressure of time and packaged it for different translators. The translators are done separately.There is very little ventilation and communication between translators, so it cannot be called "collaboration", and the quality cannot be guaranteed.

By the end of 2008, the progress of the translation was far behind schedule - only about a quarter of the first draft had been completed.In desperation, I decided to take the risk and selected 8 other translators through open recruitment in the community.Among these translators, there are college students, middle school teachers, university teachers, national civil servants, and many more I don't even know what to do.They form a virtual team with previous translators to continue working in a collaborative manner.For this, we have created wiki pages and Google groups. Collaboration was in a state of "out of control" from the very beginning: chapters and paragraphs were freely claimed, and translators would add their own IDs after the title of the chapter on the wiki page whichever chapter they liked.Some translators only cautiously claimed half a chapter; some translators desperately begged for quick translators to give themselves the chapters they liked.As the organizer of the collaborative translation, I just maintain a form and report the progress to everyone every week.Although it feels a bit messy, there are no major problems, and the weekly progress is very satisfactory.

Soon new problems emerged.Some translators posted the difficulties encountered in the translation process to the Google group, which caused disputes, and it was often difficult for anyone to convince anyone else.At this time, I felt that it was necessary to set up some kind of arbitration mechanism, so I proposed that everyone recommend three translators to form an arbitration panel as the final ruling body.Unexpectedly, my proposal was opposed by all the translators. "No, we can fix these ourselves!" Well, so I back off and get on with my promising progress report. In just one and a half months (with a Spring Festival in the middle), the first draft of the book was miraculously completed.In view of the fact that the previous organizational work was really "chaotic" and not "standardized" - for example, there was no unified glossary of terms in advance, but the translators added them to a unified list of terms that they felt needed to be unified during the translation process. on the wiki page; but there is no mandatory constraint on whether other translators recognize and obey it-so everyone agrees to enter the stage of mutual proofreading (in fact, some quick translators have already completed a self-review of their own part before this) school work).

Noisy and noisy scenes are unavoidable in each other's schools.But there are more "extra-complicated" things happening.One translator spent a week searching and annotating more than a hundred characters involved in the book on the Internet; More than 30 key words; several translators started from their own professional backgrounds, combined with entries found on Wikipedia and Hudong Baike, and added technical terms.In the Chinese version that you see today, there are more than 400 annotations!This is the work of translators. After the two rounds of mutual proofreading, everyone recommended a translator to polish the text of the book.By May 2009, this "hive mind" type of collaboration had basically come to an end.The first edition of Chinese was born.At that time, all translations were placed on wiki pages and could be seen by anyone.The translations that can be found on the Internet are basically excerpts and reprints of that version.

After this, I decided to do a final revision of the book by myself to further improve the quality.Who ever thought that this school lasted for more than a year.During this period, I was forced to leave the company where I co-founded and served as the general manager, and built a new website and community from scratch - "things".Fortunately, the team has undertaken most of the work, and the community has also given me great encouragement and help.I was able to complete the end-of-school work on and off for more than a year.It is not accurate to say that it is completed. In the end, Chapter 22 and Chapter 23 will be finalized in the future.Therefore, the Chinese translation of this edition is not perfect, and there is still a lot of room for improvement.

The "procrastination" of the final school is not a "failure" in my opinion. It re-verifies the ideas mentioned in the article to a certain extent, and allows us to have a deeper understanding of "crowdsourcing" - this A new model in the Internet economy era. If the collaboration before the final school is a "hive mind" on a flat level, then the final school is a higher-level behavior above this level.The level here is not a level of class, but a level of function.As the saying goes, "revolutions only have different divisions of labor, and there is no distinction between high and low."

Ideally, high-level behavior should not simply duplicate low-level behavior. "Final school" is not so much "school" as "reading".Relying on my own knowledge background, I read through the translation, and when I encounter awkward or difficult points, I compare it with the original text.However, in the process, I found that the quality of the translation was uneven, and some chapters had to be almost reread.But this is not a problem with the translators, but because at the end of 2008, we did not have the ability to recruit so many translators through the community who were fully qualified for this book.

Even today, two years later, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to recruit just the right number of translators with just enough level and similar style of writing through the community to form a perfect collaborative team.And I believe that the chances of achieving this goal are almost zero, both now and in the future. This is the characteristic of "crowdsourcing" - with a certain degree of uncertainty and uncontrollability. Before proceeding to discuss the "crowdsourcing" model, let's clear up a misconception. "Crowdsourcing" is not "witkey".Using the Internet to select the most outstanding individual from the vast sea of ​​people to complete the task, this is actually the audition for "Super Girl"; without collaboration, without "hive mind", it would not be "crowdsourcing".

Uncertainty often makes people feel uneasy, and uncontrollability is regarded as the enemy of modern enterprise management.On the other hand, uncertainty and uncontrollability are also the source of innovation and the driving force of evolution.I need not repeat this point. How to ensure the quality of products and services without obliterating creativity and evolutionary space? The answer is the hierarchical structure, and often only two levels are enough: the lower level is a dynamic "swarm" collaboration, and the upper level controls the final quality of the product or service.A relatively professional term is used to describe this structure - inclusive structure; the details and stories involved are much richer than my few words here.

When "Wired" editor Jeff Howe first proposed "crowdsourcing" in 2006, he believed that the advancement of the Internet and technological products - such as digital cameras - made it possible for amateurs to complete tasks that would have required professionals. And in the massive library of amateur works, there is always one suitable for you. Four years later, we believe that "crowdsourcing" needs to be redefined. The basis of Jeff Howe's argument is not unique to today.Every major technological advancement in history will "devalue" a certain industry or skill that was originally superior, such as writing.It's just that today, with the rapid development of science and technology, thousands of industries and skills have fallen from the peak of "professional" to the bottom of "amateur" in an instant, leaving those professionals at a loss.And as for the massive content library, come on, we're already suffering from information overload. Therefore, the "crowdsourcing" we are talking about here refers to the Internet collaboration model with the core of "hive thinking" and hierarchical structure.Yes, it is like that. Well, thank you for your patience in reading this far, rather than tearing up these pages at the sight of the words "postscript"-I have heard more than one person express a similar strong desire. Thanks to the translators who participated in the collaborative translation: Lu Ding, Yuan Lu, Chen Zhiyu, Hao Yiping, Xiaoqing, Zhang Juan, Zhang Xingzhou, Wang Qin, Gu Peiqin, Lu Weiran, Chen Xinwu; thanks to the "Dongxi" team: Fu Yanbing (Xixi), Zhang Wenwu (Iron Snail), Shi Beichen, Hao Yazhou, Wang Yi, Guan Ce, Zhou Feng, Zhang Ning, Du Yongguang, Zuo Xiangyu, Ren Wenke (Kevin.Ren), Wang Meng (Neodreamer); also thanks to Zeng for assisting Proofreading by Jin Xiaoxuan. Thanks to the friends who encouraged and helped me along the way: Zhang Xiangdong, Mao Yimin (Maomao), Liu Gang. Thanks to Xinxing Publishing House for "daring" to publish this "tome".Thanks to Yu Chuan, the editor-in-chief, for his hard work and continuous encouragement. We would also like to thank KK for his tolerance and support to us. I also look forward to the continued evolution of the Chinese translation in your hands!