NukeNews Mini Camp


 * NukeNews Mini Camp on September 8-12, 2016 in Döbeln, Middle Saxony (D)
 * project meeting focusing on developing the NukeNews newsletter system
 * supposed to be a small and intensive version of the past Nuclear Heritage Network gatherings (the last Network Gathering took place 2014 in Döbeln, Germany)
 * last NukeNews MiniCamp took place in Kaplice in 2014

From 8th – 12th September, 2016 you are invited to a five days working meeting in Döbeln, Middle Saxony. This mini camp will be a chance to meet NukeNews activists and interested people from several regions across Europe to discuss questions that appeared towards the work with the newsletter system and to improve the quality and the impact of the NukeNews. The project meeting will focus on developing the NukeNews newsletter system further, to get to know each other and each other's topics. Another aspect is also to have a nice time together to strengthen our friendships and collaborations to flourish the success of our future work.

If you want to join us, send an e-mail to "[mailto:newsletterATnuclear-heritageDOTnet newsletter AT nuclear-heritage DOT net]".

Proposal for discussion topics
Here is a proposal for the NukeNews MiniCamp in September. As we intend to make it an informal meeting, we would just spontaneously in the camp decide what topics to be discussed when. There could be also more questions to talk about, and if not interesting, we can skip some of the proposed ones. Besides, maybe as (11), we want to utilize the camp to get to know each other (better)! :)
 * 1) Professional vs. volunteer based NukeNews
 * 2) * dissemination of the experiment of the last years
 * 3) * how to continue?
 * 4) * general discussion of the question of paid NukeNews commitment (as an update of the decision made in the last MiniCamp some years ago)
 * 5) Challenging translations (depending on different national perception of highly disputed topics)
 * 6) * we had the case at least one time in the NukeNews (connected to the Ukraine war) -> translation of a phrasing had to be changed to fit for one language edition
 * 7) * it should be discussed how to deal with similar situations in future (national perceptions vs. common interpretations)
 * 8) * maybe we can find a good proposal for future challenges?
 * 9) Unified dictionary of expressions for NukeNews
 * 10) * due to a comment of one English proofreader on the example of the usage of terms like "reactor", "unit" and "block" - it could be interesting to define certain terms we want to use in the NukeNews commonly for certain expressions
 * 11) Extension of NukeNews editions
 * 12) * new languages? (ideas, proposals, opportunities for implementation)
 * 13) Stabilizing / re-establishing NukeNews editions
 * 14) * stabilizing existing language editions which so far don't have enough supporters
 * 15) * possibly starting LT and FIN edition again?
 * 16) * subscribable e-mail newsletter versions of PL and CRO editions?
 * 17) Improvement of NukeNews
 * 18) * more ideas to improve the NukeNews?
 * 19) * translating older editions into existing language versions if capacities available?
 * 20) * NukeNews supporters could use individual Wiki accounts to make the work with the newsletter better
 * 21) * improvement of the NukeNews webpage?
 * 22) Spreading the NukeNews further
 * 23) * how could the distribution of NukeNews be improved?
 * 24) Timetable NukeNews 2017
 * 25) * setting up a timetable for 2017 editions
 * 26) * challenge: meeting deadlines - how to improve?
 * 27) Additional usage of NukeNews
 * 28) * e.g. use translated articles or complete language editions for publication in other media
 * 29) * could increase motivation to produce and use NukeNews news
 * 30) Next NukeNews MiniCamp
 * 31) * proposals for 2017 NukeNews working meeting

Who makes what?/Overview of tasks & who's doing it

 * overview on current situation with NukeNews tasks provided
 * wish to have a tool to make transparent immediately when one translation has been started by someone already (because of double work done sometimes when translators started at the same time)
 * the idea is a page on the NukeNews website for every edition with buttons for each language to be triggered by the first translator; afterwards it won't be possible to push that language's button any more and it is clear for the other translators that this article is taken by someone already
 * a friend would programme this feature, which must be included to our wiki software and needs to be connected to our internet database
 * we intend to introduce this new function with edition #23

Paid vs. volunteer based NukeNews

 * introduction to the history of the discussion, which started in 2014 at the Kaplice NukeNews MiniCamp
 * main result of that camp's discussion was to make an experiment over five years with a few new languages that included annually by 20% reduced contract fees for translaters / proofreaders with the goal to establish completely volunteer based teams of translators & proofreaders for theses new language editions
 * experiment implemented with Slovenian, Polish and Croatian languages
 * overview provided on current situation of paid NukeNews work
 * updated discussion on pros and cons for paid NukeNews activities:
 * PRO:
 * for Eastern Europeans it's more complicated to have capacities for free translations
 * additional motivation
 * support people involved to NukeNews in difficult situations
 * more reliability
 * CONTRA:
 * dependence on state money or funding in general
 * more confusion about who gets money / who doesn't
 * demotivation for volunteer based supporters
 * what happens after stopping payments?
 * reproducing an unfair system (state, dominance, capitalism)
 * much work connected to application & book keeping of grants
 * conflict of interest with the funder
 * higher external expectations towards a professional NukeNews
 * potential conflicts between the competing concepts inside the project (paid/volunteer)
 * comments from the camp:
 * arguments for the experiment are reasonable, but the outcome seems not convincing
 * the current experiment is fine, which probably still continues for two more years; for new languages better not to implement this concept again
 * concerning the proposed new Hungarian language edition: would it be possible to make your arrangements with the person(s) in discussion to do translations for this and other anti-nuclear projects that if there should be payments they would just cover the other activities, but that the Hungarian NukeNews would be done only if they are willing to do it on a volunteer basis?
 * additional proposal from this year's NukeNews MiniCamp: one-off payments for their work to NukeNews supporters who are in urgent economic needs would be fine, if money is available and if it is clearly a unique case-beased action

NukeNews Skype conference

 * suggest to the translation-nukenews mailing list members to arrange a Skype conference to discuss the topics of NukeNews MiniCamp topics together in a bigger circle

Challenging translations

 * topic: depending on different national perceptions of highly disputed topics an original message is changed in the translation, and thus appears with different meanings in different languages
 * example presented & context explained; those cases only rarely appear
 * if it happens again: we need to take more time for the case
 * tell the other translators about the issue and ask for opinions
 * eventually the translator should feel fine with their translation
 * they decide finally
 * however, it could also be fine to just publish the phrasings as they originally were formed and to risk that people won't like it
 * basically it is good to show that others have different opinions about a national topic
 * difficult anyway to find a generally good solution as
 * we don't know about the quality of the original writing (as most are not professional writers)
 * we can't be sure about the real intention of the original as many authors are not native English speakers
 * propaganda battle connected topics are hardly to assess
 * we should try to keep the original message's spirits as long as we don't consider it offensive to our target group or consider it very incorrect
 * in that case consult the translators' group to ask for opinions
 * it also would be an opportunity to try to consult the original author (not always easy to get in touch with)

Unified dictionary

 * sharing experiences with collections of terms and definitions of terms in translation projects
 * such an unified dictionary for the NukeNews would be helpful:
 * English terms with explanation what is covered by those
 * comments on specific languages possible (like in German usually to still translate "Atom-..." if the English says "nuclear ...")
 * some general advice where to look for the information or how to deal with (like different languages for terms in Wikipedia, authorities' websites...)
 * start a list of terms and share it with the translation-nukenews mailinglist to discuss terms and to add more
 * the dictionary should be helpful but not make a bigger hassle for the translator

Timetable NukeNews 2017

 * discussion whether to reduce the number of releases a year
 * no, would be more difficult to be up-to-date with upcoming events and reports + for a newsletter it already is a low number of releases a year
 * to reduce the frequency wouldn't solve the problems like delayed publication dates - because reasons are different ones, e.g. that always other important stuff/tasks appear and compete
 * changing timing (like time between deadline and publication) discussed
 * delays these days mostly were caused by one of us not having capacity/energy to prepare stuff -> it would be much improvement if some translators and proofreaders would directly edit the website
 * one participant created a wiki account for herself and got an introduction how to edit the NukeNews (this is actually really simple as it just concerns the NukeNews on the website were you don't need special skript language or formatting knowledge; the only annoying part could be to have to manually include all linebreaks); first translation is already on the website
 * timetable for 2017 proposed and agreed on:

Improvement of NukeNews - opportunities

 * start wiki accounts for everyone
 * introduce translation started button on website which has to be activated before someone starts translating the message
 * would be nice to add your translation / correction there yourself
 * offer of introductions to using the NukeNews page (e.g. in Skype or via chat)
 * ideas for improvement of the website:
 * somehow automatically link the latest edition to the subscription fields
 * show the latest news on the NukeNews main page
 * language related overview pages for NukeNews
 * one participant will have a look and tell if she has new ideas of improvement; another one will try to figure out if they have an easy technical solution for it (but not sure)
 * improvement of contents:
 * a better mix/composition would be good (regionwise/topicwise), because sometimes we have several messages on one topic - but how to arrange that?
 * explanation to be added to preface if it happens?
 * arrange articles with similar topics together?
 * print version in small copies?
 * designed to look nice to hand over to people in person, or send it to those who would like to receive it by post?
 * could be a nice gimmick, but also additional work (not exactly huge amount of work, but some...)
 * could also be provided as pdf version online
 * another participant will try it with the new edition

Extension of NukeNews

 * suggestion: Hungarian
 * would be great!
 * one participant will ask people about Arabic translations -> if they would find committed persons they would introduce them to us
 * we didn't have more concrete & realistic ideas of additional languages right now

Stabilizing / re-establishing NukeNews editions

 * starting Croatian newsletter mailinglist seems to make no sense as it seems not to continue much longer
 * Polish edition: would it make sense to start an email newsletter mailinglist for that edition?
 * we will also ask one more Polish whether they would like to join the translations to have more native speakers involved
 * Lithuanian / Finnish frozen editions - restart those?
 * one participant will ask a Lithuanian contact, but not very likely
 * we actually don't have new ideas how to get the frozen editions operational again at the moment
 * German edition: more proofreaders would be helpful
 * another participant will ask some German proofreaders of grünes blatt magazine
 * French / Russian edition: both have just one translator, and Russian has no confirmed proofreaders
 * we already asked quite many of our contacts and networks about support in these languages, thus we currently don't have realistic ideas how to improve the situation
 * we hope for the future...

Next year's meeting

 * proposal of a questionnaire to NukeNews supporters who didn't participate in preparation of next time:
 * what reason was there for not particating:
 * region (difficult to reach, too far, or ...?)
 * travel costs
 * time in the year
 * too short notice invitation, or too early?
 * not interested
 * event conditions (camp)
 * send it to everyone in person to be answered within two weeks
 * offer 2017 some concrete culture programme with the invitation? (like city excursion...)
 * maybe next time in Kaplice as offered

Spreading the NukeNews furter

 * ask for placing free advertisement in magazines, e.g.
 * anti atom aktuell
 * IPPNW
 * Strahlentelex
 * ask for placing free promotion text in newsletters of environmental NGOs/groups
 * ask for placing free advertisement on websites, e.g.
 * Greenpeace Norwich
 * ask every group / page you know (others need to do it)
 * send a note to us to inform that there is a link to NukeNews!