Category:Tools

Overview

Guerrilla Translation and the Guerrilla Media Collective use a series of computer tools, both online and offline, to handle both our production, development and governance process. Rather than fixating on the tools themselves, we believe is important to nurture the protocols and processes through which we use these tools. We use a variety (instead of a closed of system) for expediency and resiliency. So, the most important thing, before diving into the peculiarities of each tool, is what we use them for. Once that’s 100% clear, it’s much easier to explain the protocols that apply to each tool and how they integrate with each other.

Type of tools

It’s important to distinguish between two types of tools:

Procedural tools

“Procedural tools” are those which are used for across the board for the management of or organization and the projects we take on. They are the “backbone” tool and are, generally, used in a daily basis. They are the basic “workstation” for all GT/GMC work. We divide them into Brainstorming tools, Discussion tools, Workflow tools, Website tools and Knowledge base tools.

Task-specific tools

“Task specific tools” answer very precise needs and facilitate processes within the cross-platform system formed within the procedural tools. They are “precision instrument” for occasional, concrete actions

PROCEDURAL TOOLS

"Procedural Tools" are grouped in five subcategories:

• Brainstorming tools: For collective idea planning and solution seeking.
• Discussion tools: For administrative, managerial and translation-related discussion
• Workflow tools: For the distributed organization and follow-through of tasks and projects
• Knowledge base tools: For easy access to our protocols and resources
• Website tools: For web-publishing of our materials

Brainstorming tools

Freemind

Freemind is a free mind-mapping software. A mind map is a diagram used to visually organise information. We use Freemind to brainstorm ideas and organize information ‘’before’’ it is either fed as a ‘’’task’’’ or a ‘’’project’’’ into the Trello Boards or as ‘’’Knowledge’’’ into our wiki.

• Freemind homepage
• [ GT/GMC Mindmaps]

Hackpad

‘’’WE NEED A TOOL THAT COMBINES THE AUTHOR-SHIP “COLOURS” FEATURE OF PIRATE PAD WITH THE FORMATTING AND COMMENTING FEATURES OF G-DRIVE. IT MAY BE HACKPAD IT MAY BE SOMETHING ELSE. THIS ENTRY WILL CHANGE ACCORDINGLY” Hackpad is an online writing collaboration tool. We use it to brainstorm ideas that may not fit into the visual-mindmap format. These ideas are then discussed and voted on in Loomio.

• [Hackpad homepage]
• [ GT/GMC Hackpad]

Discussion tools

Loomio

• Loomio is an online discussion and decision-making tool used to propose, debate and reach consensus on managerial and administrative matters. It is our main managerial and administrative general communication channel.
• [Loomio homepage]
• [ GT/GMC on Loomio]

RebelMouse

• Rebelmouse is a content curation site used to share suggested Guerrilla Translation pro-bono content to the collective. It is a place to curate material concordant with our Founding Principles and to auto-allocate projects as well as suggest them to other. I
• [ Rebelmouse homepage]
• [ GT on Rebelmouse]

Workflow tools

Trello

• Trello is a workflow tool used to organize all task and project work, from inception, through development and until completion. It is the backbone of our system both for translation and managerial work.
• [ Trello homepage]
• GT/GMC Trello Organizations: [Guerrilla Translation], [Guerrilla Glocalization/Guerrilla Media Collaborative], [GMC Projects] and [GMC: Administration and Management].

Open Value Network Operating System

The OPV/OS is a value tracking software used for quantifying member’s contributions to the GT/GCM both for pro-bono and paid translation projects and for all managerial administrative work.

• OPV/OS homepage
• [GT/GMC OPV/OS site]

Dropbox

• Dropbox is occasionally used to share files that are not tied to Trello cards
• [Dropbox homepage]
• [ GT/GMC Dropbox]

Knowledge base tools

Wiki

Mediawiki is a free software open source wiki package originally for use on Wikipedia. It is used as a knowledge repository for the “backend” of Guerrilla Translation/Guerrilla Media Collective. It features easily accessed information detailing our procedural protocols and rules.

• MediaWiki homepage
• [ GT/GMC Wiki]

Website tools

Wordpress

• Wordpress is a web-publishing platform. We use Wordpress for formatting and publishing all or our website materials.
• [ Wordpress.org homepage]
• GT/GMC Wordpress sites: [Guerrillatranslation.com], [Guerrillatranslation.org], [Guerrillatranslation.es], [Guerrillamediacollective.org], [Guerrillamediacollective.es]

TASK-SPECIFIC TOOLS

Task specific tools have a further distinction:

• Linguistic tools: Tools that are useful for translating, copyediting (Dictionaries, glossaries, etc)
• Process tools: Tools that help or speed up part of the management process.

Linguistic tools

Linguee

Wordreference

Process tools

Wordcounter

• Wordcounter is a very simple tool we use to determine Word count for documents:
• Site Link

Diffcount

• Diffcount is a tool that allows you to compare two documents side by side and highlights all the changes between them. We use it when there’s any confusing related to updates to texts, different versions, etc
• Site link