Parallelizing Translation

[jok707s at mail.smsu.edu]

Let me throw some more fuel on the fire for the translation discussion:

Suppose one had a large, complex web site that was also constantly changing.  
Furthermore, suppose one wanted this entire site to be always available online 
in a large number of different languages.  Could the ongoing process of site 
translation be parallelized by target language &/or page?  My offhand guess 
would be that splitting up the process for different languages could be 
embarassingly parallel, but doing it by page might be more complex due to 
links.

Besides the translation process per se, what issues would be involved in the 
relationship between the translating hardware/software and the web server that 
would be keeping the whole thing online in a state as close to real-time as 
possible?  Is anyone using beowulf(s) for something like this already?

Perhaps a country like India is already wrestling with something like this.  
If I recall correctly, India has somewhere around fourteen official languages, 
several hundred unofficial ones, and more dialects than anyone has ever tried 
to count (somebody with the facts can correct my numbers)--and this is even 
before you cross the border and try to reach the rest of the world.  If 
Internet access reaches the rural corners of India faster than the people out 
there learn English, intense parallel translation could be very handy.

Any interested parties who have not yet seen www.tranexp.com might want to 
check out the InterTran software; this could give you a better idea of both 
the possibilities and the problems involved here.

Joel