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Moderators:
Cheryl Lai, Taiwan
News Vice Editor-in-Chief
主持人賴秀如（Taiwan News 副總編輯）
Alex Chan, Special
Assistant to General Manager, Taiwan News
詹憲民（Taiwan News 總經理特助）
Guests:
張釗嘉（台北市政府代表）
Eddie Chang (Representative of Taipei
City Government)
陳俊男（台北市政府代表）
Chen Chun-Nan (Representative of Taipei
City Government)
陳怡誠（台北捷運公司代表）
Anthem Chen (Representative of Taipei
Rapid Transit Corporation)
鄭淑方（台北縣政府代表）
Cheng Shu-fang (Representative of Taipei
County Government)
吳明峰（宜蘭縣文化局代表）
Wu Ming-Feng (Representative of Cultural
Affair Bureau of I-lan County) |
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INTRO. Ways of life and modes of
economic production have radically changed as the consequence of
20th-century commercial developments driven by the information and
communications technologies, and knowledge-intensive activity has
become the prime mover for enhancing economic competitiveness. The
question of how to utilize bilingualization of websites has become
one of the key approaches of strategic thinking for enhancing
Taiwan's global competitiveness. Since Taiwan's accession to the WTO,
the urgency of using English as a tool for international
communications and getting in synch with global commercial and
humanistic activities has become particularly apparent. In view of
this, the Taiwan News has conducted a series of roundtable
discussions, inviting experts from the worlds of business,
government and academia to engage in-depth discussion and exchange
of views concerning the content and design of bilingual website
services.
Cheryl Lai: Most people gathered
here today are involved in local governmental Web site design;
consequently you are apt to come across the same kinds of problems.
Perhaps some of you have already found solutions to these problems
and can offer suggestions. Lets ask the representative from the
Taipei City government to speak first.
Local Government Web site Operation
Chen Jun-Nan: The Taipei City government English Web site has
been undergoing renewal since last year.
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Cheng Shu-fang,
Representative of Taipei County
Government |
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What sort of material does an English Web site need to contain in
order to meet the demands of our target audience? We first determine
certain categories of people who might want to use a Taipei City
English Web site. These might include tourists, businesspeople,
those already residing in the city or just people who have a general
interest in urban-related Web sites. We then design our site with
appropriate material for these potential users, which can then help
to establish a more comprehensive site.
As we are unable to completely come up with appropriate content for
the Web site on our own, we have invited some expatriates living in
Taipei to give us their input. We have even gone as far as to work
with other Web sites that are concerned with Taipei City.
Eddie Chang: The Research, Development, and Evaluation
Commission cooperates with the Information Center within the city
government. In the past four years, we have appraised the different
Web sites of Taipei City organizations, except for schools, on a
regular basis. In the past, these appraisals were mostly concerned
with whether or not the content was updated. In the future, we will
take a look at how the sites are adapting to the bilingual policy.
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Anthem Chen,
Representative of Taipei Rapid
Transit Corporation |
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Anthem Chen: The content for our English Web site comes
mainly from our Chinese site; we choose content we think pertinent
to the international community to translate. We do not contract out
for translations but use staff members whose English ability is
sufficient to help out on translations.
Chang Shao-Hsian (Representative of Taipei Rapid Transit
Corporation): Our expatriate clientele at Taipei Bank needs basic
Internet banking services in English more than administration or
financial data.
Wu Ming-Feng: The Cultural Affair Bureau in Ilan County is
still without an English Web site. In the past, we didn't think too
much about the need for an English site. The need for such a site
hit me when, two months ago, a Canadian musician, with whom we were
well acquainted, called to tell us of the difficulty of reading our
Chinese site. In the past, our theater troupe performed mostly
domestically and so the need for an English site never dawned on us.
As the theater terminology we use is quite technical, it has
frustrated our efforts to come up with adequate translations. In the
past, we contracted out to a rather esteemed translation service,
but I could see there were still quite a few problems, even with my
limited English ability.
Cheng Shu-fang: I wonder if the Taiwan News could shed a
little light on why the Research, Development, and Evaluation
Commission is holding this symposium? Do they have a plan to
subsidize the establishment and maintenance of governmental
departments' English Web sites?
Moderator: Lets ask project administrator Alex Chan to tell
us more about any such plan.
Preliminary Plans for Web site Content
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Chen Chun-Nan,
Representative of Taipei City Government |
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Alex Chan: The Research, Development, and Evaluation
Commission asked the Taiwan News to help out with this symposium
because, like you all, they have questions about establishing and
maintaining an English Web site. Consequently, they hope that this
preliminary plan can help us understand better the feasibility of
some possible methods. They hope that the Taiwan News can implement
a six-year plan, which would keep track of yearly progress and could
act as a guide for governmental departments.
Each department will naturally run into many problems when
implementing bilingual Web sites. These problems will include such
areas as translation, content, maintenance, administration and
publicity. We have even considered such problems as insufficient
liaison between offices. An example of such a problem is when
different departmental Web site engineers feel they have to go it
alone as they are not well acquainted with other departments. We
hope to take care of any such difficulty in our preliminary plans.
The second phase of our work is geared toward expatriate
businesspeople and embassy personnel living in Taiwan; we have
already conducted polls to better understand their needs. The third
phase is to search globally for 200 or more governmental Web sites.
By the end of March, we will be able to come out with a more
comprehensive report which offers more suggestions.
There have been some recurrent themes in the past symposiums as well
as this one, which will help us in coming up with a more uniformed
policy. Take translation fees for instance, the fixed price for
governmental jobs is 1.2NT per word, but most translation agencies
charge 4NT per word. There are ways to get around the 1.2NT limit
though. Perhaps in the future, each department can hire two
translators to be on staff, but that is uncertain for the time
being.
As far as what sort of content each English Web site needs, there is
no standard answer as the target audiences of each department are
different. In the end, English content would have to be left up to
each department concerned.
Moderator: Lets ask the representative from the Taipei County
government to talk about the problems she has come up against.
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Wu Ming-Feng, Representative of Cultural
Affair Bureau of I-lan County |
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Cheng Shu-fang: The problems we have faced in operating a
bilingual Web site have been with whether or not content is adequate
and whether or not it is something expatriates would want to see.
Presently, our English Web site, for the most part, has listed major
events taking place, like recent local lantern festivals. We hope
listing such events would attract a more international audience to
them.
The biggest problem for us is still one of translation. Even though
county governments have some funds set aside for contracting out for
translation services, we still lack anyone able to check the
accuracy once we get the translations back.
Chen Chen Hui (Representative of Cultural Affair Bureau of
Taipei County): If English Web sites only put a few pictures on
their sites, people will look at it once and not pay much attention.
The Cultural Affair Bureau has material concerning different events,
but because of budgetary considerations, both English and Chinese
content may be limited.
Moderator: How much is appropriated for large-scale events
like the Lantern Festival in Ping Shi? And how much of that is used
on publicity on the Web site?
Cheng Shu-fang: I am not sure exactly how much was allocated
for the Ping Shi festival. I do know that part of the money was
given to us for the Web site, but it wasn't enough. We had to think
of a way to come up with the rest of the money we needed. Aside from
insufficient funds, we have to find people to help translate fliers
into English.
Web sites lack funds, personnel
Moderator: How many people do you have working on Web site
maintenance? How much is allocated annually for such work?
Cheng Shu-fang: Previously it was just me, now there is one
more person.
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Alex Chan, Special
Assistant to General Manager, Taiwan News |
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Pai Ying Nan (Representative of Cultural Affair Bureau of
Taichung County): I am the sole person responsible for Web site
maintenance at the Cultural Affair Bureau. I have to make twice
monthly reports as well; it's quite a lot of work.
Wu Hsi-hsiung (Representative of Keelung City government):
The Keelung City government has yet to set up an Information Center.
Computer personnel are still subordinate to the Planning Department.
There are two people actually responsible for information services.
Operating Web sites is quite complicated; for news and data pages we
contract out. Our annual budget is only about 500,000 to 600,000NT,
with the biggest share going to the Chinese site. The main problem
is still lack of funds and qualified personnel.
Chang Hsin-Yi (Representative of The Fair Trade Commission):
I am the representative from the Fair Trade Commission. Our English
site contains a lot of legal terms, so we contract out for most
translations.
Lin Jung Min (Representative of Cultural Affair Bureau of
Taoyuan County): Presently, the Cultural Affair Bureau of Taoyuan
County employs only one person in charge of maintaining our Web
site, and there is no money to set up an English one. I don't know
whether or not the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission
could set up a common portal Web site, where we could all submit
Chinese material and the Commission could take care of uniform
translations. This could save money as well as lessen the burdens on
other departments.
Lan Jr-hung (Representative of Taoyuan County Government):
The main problem is that there is a lack of translating personnel.
Last year we allocated six to seven million NT to set up our Chinese
Web sites. The English counterpart needn't be as elaborate; it only
needs to list a simple introduction, tourist spots and the like.
Moderator: What sort of information would an English Web site
need to attract businesspeople?
Lan Jr-hung: Things like general introductions for industrial
parks.
Moderator: How about laws and regulations?
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Eddie Chang
Representative of Taipei City Government |
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Lan Jr-hung: Most laws and regulations don't require that
much alteration when it comes to translation. They should be up on
the English Web sites sometime this year.
The Ilan Experience with the International Children's Folklore and
Folkgame Festival
Wu Ming-Feng: The Ilan County government has an experience we
can share with everyone. We held the International Children's
Folklore and Folkgame Festival, which necessitated English publicity
that included an English Web site, as quite a few international
participants take part every year. As soon as we came up with
Chinese content, we immediately had it translated. Our promotional
fliers and Web site were developed simultaneously. This did not
cause the kind of delays that you would imagine, although
preparation time had to be extended somewhat.
Although the festival was sponsored by the Ilan County government,
the Lan-Yang Cultural and Educational Foundation was responsible for
carrying out most of the activities. Foundations are not limited by
governmental regulations when accepting bids for projects. As there
were admission charges for the festival, it was more than likely
going to make a profit. That allowed us a lot of leeway when it came
to budgetary concerns. This allowed us to be a bit more
comprehensive with the structure and content of our Web site.
Alex Chan: Let me add a little here. The Ilan County Cultural
Bureau was rather efficient in carrying out such a large-scale
international event because they accredited international
journalists, who then made direct English broadcasts. The Web site
content came from these sources as well as signing contracts with
the English media. This was an ingenious way to garner reliable
material for the site.
The Structure and Content of English Web sites
Chang Shao-Hsian: Our English Web site is set up in
accordance with our annual reports, each year the reports are
updated. The structure of our English site is obviously different
than the Chinese one. If our English site were to contain the
abundance of information that our Chinese has, then it would most
certainly be a strain on our budget.
Anthem Chen: The structure of our Chinese site and English
site is a bit different because of the nature and the amount of the
content on each. In the future we hope to make each site more
structurally uniform.
The content of a Web site can be divided into static data, which
isn't changed much and data that needs to be renewed at regular
intervals. The job of data technicians is to set up the system and
not to maintain content. Consequently, we need to ask colleagues or
those outside concerns we are cooperating with to submit an English
version of the data they want posted as well as their original
Chinese. The biggest headache we face now is how to immediately
renew data. If we had to do that for an English site as well, it
would just make our work that much harder.
Eddie Chang: Although some data on Web sites is considered
static, there are some points worth paying attention to. The Taipei
City MTR for example has an area dedicated to the Bureau Chief and
any thoughts he wished to share, but the chief was changed and the
name on the site wasn't.
Moderator: How much money is allocated by the City Government
for their Web sites?
Eddie Chang: Our budget is lacking like every other county
and city in Taiwan. Sometimes we need to go soliciting funds
ourselves.
Alex Chan: Taipei City government isn't as awash in funds as
people think. As far as I know, the city government has no funds set
aside for things like Chinese-English tourist pamphlets or bus
handbooks. They have to solicit sponsors to raise money for such
projects.
Chen Jun-Nan: We hope that the city government could have
only one English Web site, with a few pieces of basic data. That way
pertinent departments would merely have to worry about contributing
their own data. Of course we would start with a few models and then
guide other departments on how to join in.
On the matter of content, we could go in on buying relevant English
news with the various departments involved, and put that on the
site. Aside from this sort of plan, we also have a section on our
English Web site entitled "Urban Diplomacy". This section introduces
our sister cities and lets people know things like what kinds of
activities are being held there in any particular month. Actually,
departments have an abundance of materials, but they have trouble
getting it on line. The Taipei City Information Office publishes a
magazine called "Discover Taipei", which contains a lot of English
articles that could be put on a Web site.
We have a plan for next year to bring in two or three expats to run
our English Web site, if the budget allows.
Actually, Web site data for central government agencies like the
Tourist Bureau and the Council for Cultural Affairs is not yet
comprehensive enough, nor does it take into consideration whether or
not it is suitable for local governments to use. The central
government could use some more overall planning in this area.
How to solve the problem of insufficient translators?
Moderator: Doesn't the Taipei City government have a problem
finding translators? How are you able to find qualified people to do
your jobs?
Chen Jun-Nan: Of course we have problems along these lines
too. Many of our bureaus lack any foreign consultant. But we have
found that many departments have hidden talents within that they are
reluctant to reveal. For example, if a letter comes to the mayor's
office written in English, then it should, of course, be answered in
English. We can't find English consultants each time a letter needs
to be answered, so personnel in each office takes care of them. It
is here that we have found many linguistically talented people. The
problem is everyone seems to want the least amount of hassle as
possible.
Alex Chan: English content on Web sites can be classified in
order of importance, as we have to consider the problems personnel,
ability and expenditures. Some policy news, for instance, must be
translated more carefully, while activities don't have to be as
exacting.
English professional titles must be translated uniformly.
Furthermore different technical terminology should be stored in a
database for convenient referral. Right now there is an overflow of
Web site data, which means there is a lot of redundancy. The
opposite end of the spectrum is wasting data, which makes
maintaining Web sites difficult. Our experience has been that the
money needed for maintaining a Web site is more than what is needed
to set up a site to begin with. If there is too much data to start
with, it makes it that much harder to maintain. Consequently, I feel
budgets for maintaining sites should be 60% of what it cost to
establish them.
今日座談中文內容刊載於第72期Taiwan News總合周刊
