austraLasia #2887
A fly on the wall or a fly in the ointment?
ROME: July 13 2011 -- Time to draw your attention to something you may or may not have thought a great deal about - except that the recent EAO Team Visit at Hua Hin gave it rather more consideration than might have been expected.
The first thing I want you to do is to go to Bosconet, (or if, for whatever reason, that link is not working, then go to www.bosconet.aust.com), take a quick look at the page that opens up, then come back here and read on!
The second thing I want you to do is to note the following comments extracted verbatim from the minutes of the EAO Team Visit meeting several months back:
Fr Wong: (discussion of OPP and how it is implemented around the region): "...there might be a change of terminologies, but the methods are the same".
Fr L.F.: "....the importance of terminology and translation for effective communication...Rome has to look after the whole region regarding understanding of terminology and ensure continuity from preceding (General) Chapters..." Then he goes on to raise a question about what could be meant by "the proposal of Jesus Christ" in the GC26 document.
The RM: "There are difficulties with translation and terminology. For example the OPP is a strategic plan, meaning with the resources I have, the places I am, what can I achieve in order to be more meaningful? This is different from the EPP....".
Fr Wong (further on in the discussion): "Regarding terminologies - these will always be ambiguous when there is a lack of common understanding....Terminology from the Centre must be consistent....".
The RM (Closing address this time, speaking about understanding Don Bosco today): "Good translations and clear and homogeneous terminologies are required".
So that's the 'fly on the wall' bit. I wasn't there, but I have read and re-read the entire minutes, and have merely cited elements dealing with the word 'Terminology', without delving into related terms and issues, of which there were several. But the reality is that this kind of discussion is taking place around the Congregation at every international Salesian meeting. It is a 'felt issue', but with a vague 'maybe we can do something about it' response, for the most part. The point is we can do something about it, and when we add another layer to this discussion (read further on), we simply must!
What do we do about it? And here is the 'fly in the ointment' bit, a saying which almost certainly comes from Ecclesiastes 10:1: "Dead flies spoil a bowl of perfumed ointment". Applying that to Salesian Termbase, (note where the link takes you this time - and yes, same animal! and there is now A German version with at least the home page in German...) it could be expected that such a tool might not immediately receive public anointing; it could be a small detail that even causes a degree of irritation. Never mind. It is the result of five years of solid work - so far, and this is only the beginning. Take a look at the Visual Termbase, for example, and you begin to get an idea as to where this is heading.
People in the formation scene tell me this effort is already producing useful results for them - using it as a compendium of Salesian information, for example, or clearing up small doubts about the meaning of something. But it goes far deeper than this.
Have you heard talk of the 'semantic web'? The World Wide Web has had 20 years of enabling connections between millions of documents. The Church and the Salesian Congregation have played their part in these 'millions of documents'! But we have now become aware that web pages contain data as well, and this 'data' is less accessible and mostly not linked, and machines can't understand it - only humans can. In Bosconet and sdb.org we keep data in databases and occasionally 'present' it via a web page, but still, only humans can follow it. Some of that data is open and useful to the world - but not available in data form for 'meaningful' use by machines. Try looking up 'Consecrated life' on Google - a handful of documents, very little real data - and there are tons of useful data around on Consecrated Life that could make a difference to the way people understand us, and the way we understand ourselves! Try looking for a decent vocabulary of consecrated life - none available, or at least there wasn't, but there is one in the making, and Salesian Termbase lies behind it!
There is much more to come in this area of discussion. I just wanted you to be aware of what has been taking place thus far. The Termbase, by the way is in no way 'closed', and has been contributed to already by many people. It is also a wiki so in nature it is 'read-write'. Naturally, it does not do to leave it open for vandals to destroy - but interested persons are invited to play their part, if they wish. Just a matter of being in touch to organise that.
Incidentally, or maybe not incidentally - the EAO Region is actually contributing to the Congregation in quite considerable ways in this broad area - with one sixth of the world's languages in its area, 17 of them spoken regularly by members of our region, and with people involved in full-time translation of Salesian material into a number of them, we have an experience that can be shared, and fine-tuned.
A fly on the wall or a fly in the ointment?
ROME: July 13 2011 -- Time to draw your attention to something you may or may not have thought a great deal about - except that the recent EAO Team Visit at Hua Hin gave it rather more consideration than might have been expected.
The first thing I want you to do is to go to Bosconet, (or if, for whatever reason, that link is not working, then go to www.bosconet.aust.com), take a quick look at the page that opens up, then come back here and read on!
The second thing I want you to do is to note the following comments extracted verbatim from the minutes of the EAO Team Visit meeting several months back:
Fr Wong: (discussion of OPP and how it is implemented around the region): "...there might be a change of terminologies, but the methods are the same".
Fr L.F.: "....the importance of terminology and translation for effective communication...Rome has to look after the whole region regarding understanding of terminology and ensure continuity from preceding (General) Chapters..." Then he goes on to raise a question about what could be meant by "the proposal of Jesus Christ" in the GC26 document.
The RM: "There are difficulties with translation and terminology. For example the OPP is a strategic plan, meaning with the resources I have, the places I am, what can I achieve in order to be more meaningful? This is different from the EPP....".
Fr Wong (further on in the discussion): "Regarding terminologies - these will always be ambiguous when there is a lack of common understanding....Terminology from the Centre must be consistent....".
The RM (Closing address this time, speaking about understanding Don Bosco today): "Good translations and clear and homogeneous terminologies are required".
So that's the 'fly on the wall' bit. I wasn't there, but I have read and re-read the entire minutes, and have merely cited elements dealing with the word 'Terminology', without delving into related terms and issues, of which there were several. But the reality is that this kind of discussion is taking place around the Congregation at every international Salesian meeting. It is a 'felt issue', but with a vague 'maybe we can do something about it' response, for the most part. The point is we can do something about it, and when we add another layer to this discussion (read further on), we simply must!
What do we do about it? And here is the 'fly in the ointment' bit, a saying which almost certainly comes from Ecclesiastes 10:1: "Dead flies spoil a bowl of perfumed ointment". Applying that to Salesian Termbase, (note where the link takes you this time - and yes, same animal! and there is now A German version with at least the home page in German...) it could be expected that such a tool might not immediately receive public anointing; it could be a small detail that even causes a degree of irritation. Never mind. It is the result of five years of solid work - so far, and this is only the beginning. Take a look at the Visual Termbase, for example, and you begin to get an idea as to where this is heading.
People in the formation scene tell me this effort is already producing useful results for them - using it as a compendium of Salesian information, for example, or clearing up small doubts about the meaning of something. But it goes far deeper than this.
Have you heard talk of the 'semantic web'? The World Wide Web has had 20 years of enabling connections between millions of documents. The Church and the Salesian Congregation have played their part in these 'millions of documents'! But we have now become aware that web pages contain data as well, and this 'data' is less accessible and mostly not linked, and machines can't understand it - only humans can. In Bosconet and sdb.org we keep data in databases and occasionally 'present' it via a web page, but still, only humans can follow it. Some of that data is open and useful to the world - but not available in data form for 'meaningful' use by machines. Try looking up 'Consecrated life' on Google - a handful of documents, very little real data - and there are tons of useful data around on Consecrated Life that could make a difference to the way people understand us, and the way we understand ourselves! Try looking for a decent vocabulary of consecrated life - none available, or at least there wasn't, but there is one in the making, and Salesian Termbase lies behind it!
There is much more to come in this area of discussion. I just wanted you to be aware of what has been taking place thus far. The Termbase, by the way is in no way 'closed', and has been contributed to already by many people. It is also a wiki so in nature it is 'read-write'. Naturally, it does not do to leave it open for vandals to destroy - but interested persons are invited to play their part, if they wish. Just a matter of being in touch to organise that.
Incidentally, or maybe not incidentally - the EAO Region is actually contributing to the Congregation in quite considerable ways in this broad area - with one sixth of the world's languages in its area, 17 of them spoken regularly by members of our region, and with people involved in full-time translation of Salesian material into a number of them, we have an experience that can be shared, and fine-tuned.
