Three Challenges in Developing Open Multilingual DH Educational Resources The Case of The Programming Historian

Abstract

What are the necessary conditions for developing multilingual open DH educational resources? Drawing on the English, Spanish and French-speaking editions of The Programming Historian, the aim of this lightning talk is to discuss three challenges encountered while implementing linguistic and cultural inclusivity and access. The first challenge concerns the internationalization of the Editorial Board and our lessons. In 2016, a Spanish-language team was recruited in order to translate tutorials under the title The Programming Historian en español. In 2018, the Board recruited a French-language sub-team and in April 2019 it launched The Programming Historian en français. The Board also published a set of \u201CGuidelines for writing for a global audience\u201D: authors are encouraged to write tutorials that are as much accessible as possible, having in mind cultural differences. The second challenge is the translation process. The act of translating requires extensive teamwork and coordination across our editorial team. Our translations are adapted to the target audience and they usually contain new instructions that cover the necessary steps to process texts and data in Spanish or French. In addition, these new full-language initiatives have challenged our infrastructure as an Open Access scholarly publication. As we are committed to publishing openly reviewed tutorials to a high standard, there is an extensive set of technical, editorial and administrative processes and policies in place. The third challenge is the production of original lessons in Spanish and French. After translating more than 40 tutorials from English to Spanish, in April 2019, The Programming Historian en español has just released its first two original tutorials in Spanish. The design of a strategy to promote lessons that address research questions relevant for the Hispanic and Francophone communities seems a priority in the near future. Lessons that use alternative methods could contribute to increase the diversity of DH, especially if translated into English.