Anti-nuclear mini camp in the Czech Republic


 * anti-nuclear mini camp on August 25-29, 2014 in the Czech Republic in Kaplice
 * to get to know each other and each other's topics
 * 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 2012 in Döbeln, Germany)

As somebody, who has participated already in several activities of the Nuclear Heritage Network I value especially the NukeNews and know, that it is not an easy thing to have something like this going without big money. For some you, who would like to see this info-network still improved (for example by doing some translations) and personal contacts among us intensified, I'd like to offer organizing something like a work- and get-to-know-the-country-and-each-other-camp near the town of Kaplice in the South of the Czech Republic, very close to the Austrian border. For around 5- max. 10 people I could offer some simple accommodation and partly supply of nourishment. Transport to at least Prague or Linz would have to be organized by yourself, with the rest I'd try my best to help.

Time: about a week in July or August 2014. People interested please write to: [mailto:b.riepATeduhi.at b.riep AT eduhi.at] until around March 2014 (http://www.slunceasvoboda.eu respectively http://www.sonneundfreiheit.eu)

The inviting NGO has some experience and know-how in cross border cooperation with also interests reaching beyond anti-nuclear activism, attempting to integrate elements of culture and renewable energy aspects.

Minutes of the meeting
NukeNews MiniCamp in Kaplice, August 25-29, 2014

''This is a documentation of discussions during the NukeNews meeting. These minutes are aiming on reflecting different opinions and arguments brought up here, as well as pointing out the decisions/agreements made as far as there were those. Thus, this document represents opinions of different people, not every statement is shared by everyone.''

Topics for discussion/to work on:
 * Krško NPP article
 * „not completed yet“ message on the website
 * automatic presentation of latest NukeNews on the website
 * translation of upcoming events section
 * translation of older editions into new languages
 * translation of listserve info text
 * professional vs. volunteer based NukeNews
 * number of people for each language edition
 * finishing translations / proofreading on time
 * proofreading of language editions
 * new language editions for discussion
 * use translation listserve + wiki
 * update of language box of the editions
 * additional usage of NukeNews

Translation of upcoming events section

 * if dates are in past already, it doesn't make much sense, and thus translating them would be not useful work
 * those people who are interested in international events need to speak English anyway, thus it is not necessary to translate them
 * idea of the newsletter is that it is provided in local languages to reach people who are not too much in the topic already – if there is an impression the translation is bad, regular people easily give up reading/following the NukeNews; thus everything should be provided in the edition's language
 * it is not much work to translate the upcoming events as the titles often can remain, and only some words and date format need to be adapted
 * the NukeNews aim to spread the word, that doesn't work as well in foreign languages as in the local language
 * capacities of people doing translations are limited; thus it is a question what work is reasonable – is it benefitable enough to translate the events?
 * for quality it would be good to have translated everything, even old newsletters' upcoming events
 * agreement: introduce new category for unfinished translations; not add the „not completed yet“ message on the webpage of newsletters where only the upcoming events section is not translated (if we expect this not to be translated in near future)
 * the general approach – to translate the upcoming events section at all in general – needs more discussion with other affected persons (translators) → how will this discussion / exchange of feedback be initiated?

„not completed yet“ message on the website
for some visitors of newsletters with this message box it reduces the value of the newsletter from maybe 100% to maybe 20% - as the message would be perceived as low quality
 * the box is supposed to motivate people to help with translations when they understand there is support needed; it also makes visible to us that something is not finished yet – otherwise we would maybe never figure out that some parts still are undone
 * the problem was that Slovenian organizer wanted to distribute the link to a newsletter with the box, but that this message would make it unattractive to the audience he approached
 * agreement: possible technical solution for the administrative aspect (to quickly understand what pages still need translation) could be adding a new category (like „unfinished translation) to the page instead of the message box (in case of the upcoming events section); the communication aspect to motivate native speakers to contribute to the translations is not covered by this solution – thus it should be taken only exceptional (upcoming events sections that we consider not to be translated in near future) → F. set up the new category

Automatic presentation of latest NukeNews on the website

 * there could probably be a variable representing the number of the latest NukeNews to be added to a template that always shows the latest edition – thus to be easily included even by external pages
 * problem right now is that F. doesn't have the skills to do it themselves, and would need hours or days to self-educate for creating such template
 * possible solution: to find someone who has the skills/capacities to create that for us → What to do with this now?
 * if it would be paid work, there would be at least three concrete persons who could be asked and would most likely do that; but without paying it would be not clear if/when they would do it – but it is a general question whether we want to orientate the NukeNews to paid work or remain with the volunteer concept

Proofreading of language editions

 * experience that very often mistakes can be found in translations
 * good, if local translators could make sure their work would be proofread by some other native speakers
 * in Slovenia it seems to work quite well with translation and letting someone to proofread it before publishing
 * at the moment centrally only the English version is forwarded to proofreaders, the translations currently are directly published after being sent to the translation mailing list
 * proofreading should also include the aspect of "simple language" - not too long sentences, explanation of abbreviation, …
 * suggestion: best would be if translations would be made continuously when the articles reach the translation mailing list; from the mailing list they will be taken for the NukeNews website, and stepwise be updated; the proofreading could be made at the end when one newsletter is complete; after that it would be sent to the subscribers (the pages usually are not visible to normal visitors of the website as they are not linked there – only if you are searching for the page you would find it before „publication“) → who are the ones proofreading for each language?
 * corrections better should be marked – not to send just the updated newsletter, otherwise the whole page would need to be worked through again; e.g. send an OpenOffice document with "changes tracking" enabled, or with manual marks to show what has been changed; due to technical reasons publishing the newsletter on the website takes some work – usually about an hour per language version; thus only to change the corrected parts will save much time for the person working with the online edition
 * for individual proofreading of translated newsletters (e.g. Slovenian) it could make sense to copy/paste the completed newsletter in this language from the website to an OpenOffice document and send it to the proofreader for making corrections; they should activate the tracking mode and send it back; could this be organized by the translators themselves? Or should it be done centrally by F.?

General approaches

 * how to organize translation process in each language?
 * experience so far is that the more people committed to do translations of the language, the less reliable it worked; currently most reliable work those translations with only one responsible person (but those are probably quite overloaded at the same time)
 * actually it was an approach to have several people sharing the translation work for a language; but we probably cannot force it more as it has been an approach since long time already; however, we set the goal to find at least a second person for each language soon
 * in Slovenia the proofreader is also forwarding the links to Slovenian editions to Slovenian audience
 * it should be an approach to have for each language someone for proofreading
 * ideas exist for CZ
 * it works already for SLO, EN
 * solutions needed for D, RUS, FIN, F, PL, HR → needs to be discussed with the current translators → German translators will discuss it with each other; Russian and French translators will be asked by F. about opportunities; others are more challenging and probably rather a long-term approach
 * before sending the newsletter to subscribers it should be proofread (first compiled on NukeNews webpage)
 * challenge currently: finishing translations/proofreading on time
 * CZ needs first completed German newsletter as the translators don't understand English well, thus there is always a delay, and the later the German translations are finished, the later the CZ newsletter can be prepared (this will be even a bigger delay when we start additional proofreading of the newsletter as planned now)
 * in future Slovenian newsletter will be delayed a bit, because then the proofreading will take place after compiling the newsletter online
 * the same should apply to the other translations if we manage to arrange additional proofreading as discussed in this meeting
 * EN always is delayed for at least a day or more due to external proofreading – this could be improved by preparing the EN newsletter earlier as the English original messages already exist
 * but: often messages arrive after the deadline – thus, even the English newsletter usually is not possible to be prepared quickly; solution is only to push more for meeting the article deadline and to try more to get more messages for NukeNews so that we could reject late contributions

New language editions for discussion

 * Slovenian edition seems to work already well, and will be continued for a while for sure; thus, we can set up the newsletter mailing list already – and should now start to promote it for interested people to subscribe it; application for new mailing list has been sent to internet provider
 * Polish and Croatian versions are not sure enough yet, so we should still wait before setting up a mailing list for the newsletter to be subscribed
 * new language ideas: Romanian, Bulgarian and Hungarian – to be discussed by a Vienna based group of people who showed interest in helping exchanging information from these countries including translations; we had a Skype talk with one of them on August 27th, and they will clarify by autumn whether they would like to try to start to arrange these language versions of the NukeNews

Update of language box of the editions

 * the language box provided with each newsletter on the website (showing all available languages of the specific issue) has been worked on, so that this element is now up to date

Use translation listserve + wiki

 * We approach if possible all translators to be subsribed to the translation-nukenews listserve; currently a few translators who only wanted to help in emergency cases are not subscribed as well as the Czech translators (as they could not afford capacities for using the mailing list). Additionally, those who are just in the phase of figuring out if they would contribute to the NukeNews translations are usually also not subscribed yet. Everyone else is currently receiving the translation-nukenews messages.
 * It would also save time for the coordinator if more people could start to use the wiki website themselves for making corrections or adding NukeNews there... - For this you first need to apply for a user account on the Nuclear Heritage Network website (follow the link in the right corner on top). After one or two days your account should be enabled and you could start to use it. If you should have technical problems or need support, contact F.!

Translation of listserve info text

 * better if the info subscribers find online or receive in welcome messages of the newsletter systems are provided in their language – thus, it would be good to translate the listserve info texts, too
 * translation is currently missing for: French, Lithuanian (currently frozen), Slovenian → F. will ask French translators if they could do that, too; Slovenian done by I.

Translation of older editions into new languages

 * in the long run for quality reasons it would be good to have also all older editions of the NukeNews translated into all languages
 * some of these translations have been started at some point, but not finished yet: Finnish: #5, #14; French: #7, #8, #9; Lithuanian (currently frozen): #10, #13
 * completely missing translations:
 * Finnish: #10, #11
 * Lithuanian (currently frozen): #1 - #5, #11, #12, #14
 * Polish: #1 - #11
 * Slovenian: #1 - #9

Krško NPP article

 * I. is working on a translation of the article from Croatian into Slovenian
 * we will figure out if this could also a contribution to grünes blatt and for the Nuclear Heritage Network website
 * there are several critical aspects in the text: pushing politicians for implementing nuclear waste repository means to sacrifice at least one of the mentioned regions; phrasing concerning medical waste underestimates the actual risk of it and claims it would be harmless at a reasonable point of time; arguing one site would be geologically better is dangerous as soon as politicians/authorities will take over the position and establish the nuclear waste repository there, because then it will be hard to argue against it; the discussion of ESPOO convention (siting close to the border as the main risk) is misleading as the relevant impact on "neighbour countries" is given already by the possible distribution of radioactive emissions/leakages – not only to the direct neighbours, but also to anyone who could receive it via wind or water streams; propaganda for thorium technology is unacceptable; hopes expressed on the activities of the EU institutions mean a support of their pro-nuclear pushing for the establishment of many nuclear waste repositories – without consideration of the general lack of safety of those facilities
 * we wouldn't promote a party in the network or grünes blatt – but the facts on history of siting the repository and anti-nuclear resistance (without additional interpretation of political approaches that have a touch of Green Party policy viewpoint = political statements) would be valuable for our media

Additional usage of NukeNews

 * NukeNews are already used in other media, too:
 * German: grünes blatt, sometimes partly in ÖkoNews platform, X1000-News mailing list
 * English: sometimes Nuclear Heritage Network website, Nuclear Heritage Network Facebook page
 * it could be motivating for volunteers with the NukeNews to figure out more regular ways of publishing/forwarding/using the NukeNews news

Professional vs. volunteer based NukeNews

 * input: project funding (Upper Austrian anti-nuclear fund) applied for by CZ-A group for contributing new (South) Eastern European languages in NukeNews (Slovenian, Polish, Croatian)
 * the NukeNews description says: "The articles are written and translated by activists, additionally to their usual anti-nuclear activities. No- one is paid for that work, as we want to provide resources like this information system to the anti-nuclear struggle as independent as possible." - This doesn't fit any more with the new funding that was contributed from CZ-A group to the NukeNews. Actually, it is not an "internal" decision/application of the NukeNews project, but was an autonomous contribution by another group - anyway, it could impact the NukeNews project. It is to be discussed what to do with this situation.
 * potential threats of funding:
 * influence of those providing the money
 * adapting the project to expected wishes of the fund
 * avoiding possibly difficult topics
 * reducing motivation for unpaid volunteer contributions
 * increased external expectations to the project (NukeNews)
 * potentially competing concepts of voluteer based and paid/professional work (including separations inside NukeNews project/possible damage/end of the project)
 * increased dependency risk on money for NukeNews
 * potential conflicts between different approaches of professionalism and volunteer work
 * advantages / reasons for paying for interpretation of NukeNews:
 * possible additional motivation
 * in Eastern Europe often if people have work, they have no time for volunteer work – if they have no work they need to somehow finance their lives in the first place – without a little financial support they probably wouldn't/couldn't do it
 * partly more professional/reliable work can be expected from paid people
 * special case: CZ version translated by people for free who are professionally doing anti-nuclear interpretations (not paid for NukeNews in special, but can integrate this work to their regular tasks)
 * financial support for NukeNews is welcome – there are certain optional expenses to be funded with less risks for the project: additional costs/features that could be given up if there would be a conflict: e.g. additionally printing the NukeNews on paper; annual working meeting of NukeNews (travel, food, accommodation costs); contribution to internet provider costs of newsletters/website; …
 * maybe fine if paid work would be just for limited time and to initiate/establish regional volunteer based circles to continue this work without being paid for it
 * maybe clear rules for what reason money would be provided could reduce negative impacts of funding for NukeNews – like defining certain regions where people usually have almost no opportunities to do volunteer work as they are struggling to pay for their lifes (e.g. Belarus?)
 * better solution regarding the risks of paid work could be providing a limited budget to the Eastern European translators for covering costs they need to proof by bills (e.g. stamps, phone costs, travel costs, material costs...)
 * good approach from the non-money-based viewpoint could be to understand what need of support activists involved have and to find solutions for that – e.g. someone who needs additional 400 EUR could get a contract fee (to be arranged outside NukeNews project) for a presentation or workshop, for instance on atomic power in their country or on media work, but still their NukeNews translation work would be on volunteer basis
 * idea for 2015: NukeNews camp (up to maybe 15 people) in Slovenia (Koracice) inviting NukeNews translators & others involved to gather, discuss and work on NukeNews & translations – some who need additional support could get a contract fee for offering presentations/workshops; accommodation would be free; food would partly be from the garden and free, partly to be paid by participants; travel costs should be covered by participants themselves, otherwise individual solutions would be needed to be found
 * agreement: the 2014 funding of new NukeNews language versions is considered an experiment; in those or later similar cases for the following years funding of NukeNews translation should be increasingly limited (by about 20 % each year with a max. 5 year possibility) as an initiative to establish a volunteer based translation circle for the concerned countries – these people can get a contract fee for their NukeNews work (of course still to be arranged externally by other groups outside NukeNews project), which includes figuring out possibilities to arrange that on a non-paid basis and attempting to arrange settings to continue translation work in future on a volunteer basis after that; we want to understand what challenges and needs translators for additional NukeNews languages in Eastern European regions have and will try to figure out individual solutions of support.