Leveraging Online Collaboration
What happens when you leverage the power of internet volunteerism in much the same way as Wikipedia, but with the intention of translating and subtitling videos? This was the question that Dean Jansen wanted to answer when he co-founded Universal Subtitles, a collaborative platform that allows for accessible and user-friendly subtitling of videos. Universal Subtitles replaces previously laborious tasks such as time-syncing with much easier tools, drawing inspiration from popular game interfaces. With over 40,000 videos already subtitled and key partnerships with PBS, Al Jazeera, and Khan Academy in place, there is no doubt that the model has a growing user base. In this audio interview, Sheela Sethuraman asks Dean Jansen about the organization’s first 18 months, winning the Tech Museum’s 2011 Catherine Swanson Equality Award, and the challenges of scalability and quality assurance moving forward.
Audio lectures brought to you by Social Innovation Conversations, co-hosted by Stanford Social Innovation Review's Managing Editor Eric Nee.
By understanding their unique role in the social change landscape, nonprofit organizations can increase their impact.
A response to a recent article on high stakes donor collaborations, highlighting the New York Merger, Acquisition, and Collaboration Fund.
Organizations need the ability to both scale up successful innovations and create new ones, even those that challenge the status quo.
Innovation is necessary to further social progress, and yet the challenges and paradoxes inherent in the endeavor cannot be avoided.
From Skoll World Forum 2013: Will new measurement tools such as “big data” be a big distraction or a big opportunity?
