These are slides from a talk given to SI 657 Information Technology and International Development at the School of Information at the University of Michigan. Slides are by Kathleen Omollo and Bob Riddle, CC BY Regents of the University of Michigan.

1. Approaches for Translation &
Adaptable Technologies to
Overcome Limited Connectivity
Overview of
Department /
Initiatives
Captioning
and
Translation
Flexible
Offline
Wireless
Networks
Kathleen Ludewig Omollo, Bob Riddle
UMMS Office of Enabling Tech - Open.Michigan Initiative
Audience: SI 657 IT and International Development
Oct. 31, 2013
Download slides: http://www.slideshare.net/kludewig
Except where otherwise noted, this work is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Copyright 2013 The Regents of the University of Michigan
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2. Office of Enabling Technologies
(part of Medical School Information Services)
The Office of Enabling Technologies aims to
strategically enhance learning experiences at
individual, team, institutional, and international
levels through novel uses of information services. By
leveraging a diverse toolset of technologies, design
and research principles, and interdisciplinary
partnerships, we empower our community to lead
in the rapidly changing healthcare environment.
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3. Office of Enabling Technologies
Featured Initiatives for Talk
• Open.Michigan Initiative
• African Health Open Educational Resources
Network
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4. Open.Michigan Initiative
Open.Michigan enables University of Michigan
faculty, students, staff and others to share their
educational resources and research with the
world. Our two primary goals:
•to sustain a thriving culture of sharing knowledge
at U-M; and
•to provide comprehensive public access to all of
U-M’s scholarly output.
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5. Open.Michigan:
Attributes of Content That Is “Open”
Free
Public
Under some licenses to use, adapt,
redistribute
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Image CC:BY-SA Colleen Simon (
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6. Context for Global Activities:
Context: Health Disparities
Disparities
Source: World Health Organization. Working Together for Health: The World Health Report 2006.
WHO Publications: Geneva. 2006.
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7. Context for Global Activities:
Context: Health Disparities
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Increased demand for education
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Image CC:BY-NC-SA 350.org (Flickr)

8. Context for Global Activities:
Context: Health Disparities
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Limited space and instructors available
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Image CC:BY-NC University of Ghana

9. Context for Global Activities:
Context: Health Disparities
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Lack of relevant materials
When you look in
textbooks it’s
difficult to find
African cases.
[S]ometimes it can be
confusing when you
see something that
you see on white skin
so nicely and very easy
to pick up, but on the
dark skin it has a
different manifestation
that may be difficult to
see.
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Professor at Partner
Institution in Ghana
Image CC:BY-NC-SA Kwame Nkrumah
University of Science and Technology 9

10. 10
Context: Health Network
African Health OERDisparities
Advance health education in Africa by:
•Creating and promoting free, openly
licensed teaching materials created by
Africans to share knowledge
•Identifying and addressing curriculum
gaps
•Bridging health education communities
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Image CC:BY Sherrie Thai (

11. African Health OER Disparities
Network:
Context: Health
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Partners in 2008
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12. African Health OER Disparities
Network:
Context: Health
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Current Partners
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13. Captioning and Translation:
Context
Problem: Most of the Open.Michigan
and African Health OER Network
materials are in English only.
Goal: Make our materials available to a
wider audience of learners around the
world.
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14. Captioning and Translation:
Considerations
• Consent for and copyright of content
• Translations are derivative works and
require permission from the copyright
owner. Use existing openly licensed
works.
• Professional translators are expensive
• Crowdsource, partner, short videos
• Tools to manage volunteers/languages
• GoogleForm, Amara.org, YouTube
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15. Captioning and Translation:
Lessons
1. Provide captions in source language
2. If instructional, review for quality
by subject matter experts
3. Design workflows to accommodate
volunteers with varying levels of
time commitment, windows of
available, levels of subject
knowledge and language fluency.
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16. Captioning and Translation:
Lessons
4. Recruit volunteers with the
necessary language and subject
matter expertise using formal and
informal social networks
5. Develop a lexicon of core technical
terms for the given subject
6. Use software to manage parallel
translations and versioning
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17. Captioning and Translation:
Lessons
7. Arrange proofreading
8. Review formatting of translations
for consistency of style
9. Recognize or reward the
contributions of volunteers
10. Promote the results (more
volunteers, more learners)
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18. Captioning and Translation:
Partners
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19. Captioning and Translation:
Recognizing Volunteers
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20. Captioning and Translation:
Translator View in Amara.org
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21. Translation
Captioning and Translation:
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Delivery on YouTube
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22. Translation
Captioning and Translation:
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Results to Date
LANGUAGE
# VIDEOS
SPANISH (PRIORITY)
28
JAPANESE
22
FRENCH (PRIORITY)
14
# VIDEOS
53
PORTUGUESE (PRIORITY)
# LANGUAGES PER VIDEO
OTHER THAN ENGLISH
RUSSIAN
7
ROMANIAN
5
GANDA
3
SWAHILI (PRIORITY)
2
ARABIC
2
DANISH
1
CHINESE (SIMPLIFIED)
1
CHINESE (TRADITIONAL)
TOTAL CAPTIONS
6
3
5
# VOLUNTEERS
PER COMPLETED
TRANSLATION
# CAPTIONS
43
2
2 (TRANSLATOR
AND REVIEWER)
4
5
1
96
3
6
TOTAL
2
36
1
1
TOTAL VIDEOS
*31 VIDEOS IN ORIGINAL
CAMPAIGN
AFFILIATION OF
VOLUNTEERS
# CAPTIONS
CONTRIBUTED
139
#
VOLUNTEERS
CONTRIBUTED
1 OR MORE
1
53
#
VOLUNTEERS
27
1
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
ACTIVE MEMBER OR
ALUMNI
139
EXTERNAL OR UNKNOWN
35
35
12
MAX = 31
1
MEDIAN
2
MEAN
4.63
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23. African Health OER Network: Online Distribution Channels
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24. Content Distribution:
Common Challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa
• High technology cost
• Limited technology availability
(equipment, understaffed dept.)
• Unpredictable infrastructure
noii’s, flickr
lydia_shiningbrightly, flickr

25. Offline & Semi-Connected Distribution:
Goals
•
•
•
•
•
•
provide a local wireless network …
provide content via web browser …
provide content via file or app server …
do this with or without the Internet …
do it with or without an electrical outlet …
do all of this for <=$200 …
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26. Offline & Semi-Connected Distribution:
Devices
Raspberry Pi and TPLink (configured for Library Box) are
both solutions for providing digital content to laptops,
smartphone, and tablets with wireless network capability
in areas with unreliable electricity, no or inadequate
Internet service, and limited physical or human
infrastructure for technology. Connect the USB storage
device and the content is available to users in range of the
wireless “neighborhood”. Just plug it in to activate. Unplug
it when done.
Raspberry Pi Model B
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27. Offline & Semi-Connected Distribution:
Devices
Library Box (http://librarybox.us) similarities with Raspberry Pi:
•provide digital content over local wireless network capability in areas
•Can connect to rechargable battery pack for backup power source
•Connect the USB storage device and the content is available to users in
range of the wireless “neighborhood”
Differences:
•PirateBox allows local peer to peer file sharing (read and write).
•Library Box is read only for users
•Raspberry Pi has a full Linux operating system, which allows full
applications and more customization of services (e.g. Dropbox, Moodle),
and user interface.
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28. Questions?
Email: open.michigan@umich.edu
Translation: http://openmi.ch/translation-overview
Offline and Semi-Offline Networks: http://openmi.ch/rasppi-wiki
Open.Michigan Website: http://open.umich.edu/
African Health OER Network Newsletter:
http://openmi.ch/healthoernetwork-newsletter
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