AbjaDAO Glossary | Translating Cardano to Arabic

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Ammar Manla Hasan

[GENERAL] Are you delivering this project as an individual or as an entity (whether formally incorporated or not)

Entity (Not Incorporated)

[GENERAL] Please specify how many months you expect your project to last (from 2-12 months)

6

[GENERAL] Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated into English from another language.

No

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem (200-character limit including spaces)

We are developing, maintaining and propagating the first standardized and methodical Arabic glossary for blockchain terminology, which is being adopted by a growing number of entities.

[GENERAL] Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

No

[GENERAL] If YES, please describe what the dependency is and why you believe it is essential for your project’s delivery. If NO, please write “No dependencies.”

No dependencies.

[GENERAL] Will your project’s output/s be fully open source?

Yes

[GENERAL] Please provide here more information on the open source status of your project outputs

Project will be fully open source.

[METADATA] SDG rating

SDG Goals

4 - Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

8 - Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

9 - Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

10 - Reduce inequality within and among countries

11 - Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

17 - Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development

SDG Subgoals

10.6 - Ensure enhanced representation and voice for developing countries in decision-making in global international economic and financial institutions in order to deliver more effective, credible, accountable and legitimate institutions

10.c - By 2030, reduce to less than 3 per cent the transaction costs of migrant remittances and eliminate remittance corridors with costs higher than 5 per cent

17.16 - Enhance the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources, to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in all countries, in particular developing countries

17.9 - Enhance international support for implementing effective and targeted capacity-building in developing countries to support national plans to implement all the Sustainable Development Goals, including through North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation

4.3 - By 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university

4.4 - By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship

8.2 - Achieve higher levels of economic productivity through diversification, technological upgrading and innovation, including through a focus on high-value added and labour-intensive sectors

9.3 - Increase the access of small-scale industrial and other enterprises, in particular in developing countries, to financial services, including affordable credit, and their integration into value chains and markets

9.5 - Enhance scientific research, upgrade the technological capabilities of industrial sectors in all countries, in particular developing countries, including, by 2030, encouraging innovation and substantially increasing the number of research and development workers per 1 million people and public and private research and development spending

9.a - Facilitate sustainable and resilient infrastructure development in developing countries through enhanced financial, technological and technical support to African countries, least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing States

Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

17.9.1 - Dollar value of financial and technical assistance (including through North-South, South‑South and triangular cooperation) committed to developing countries

10.6.1 - Proportion of members and voting rights of developing countries in international organizations

9.5.2 - Researchers (in full-time equivalent) per million inhabitants

4.4.1 - Proportion of youth and adults with information and communications technology (ICT) skills, by type of skill

4.3.1 - Participation rate of youth and adults in formal and non-formal education and training in the previous 12 months, by sex

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution.

AbjaDAO is an alliance of 4 MENA-based organizations, coming together to develop, maintain and propagate the first standardized and methodical Arabic glossary for blockchain and web3 terminology. AbjaDAO was conceived in summer 2022, consisting of:

• Taxir: a Beirut-based initiative working towards facilitating blockchain adoption in MENA through research, education and communication. (https://taxir.xyz/)
• Arabs in Blockchain: A pan Arab initiative working towards facilitating blockchain adoption in MENA through events and education. Arabs in Blockchain is founded by Eman Herawy, a blockchain developer, an Ethereum fellow and a lead translator at Ethereum Foundation. (https://www.arabsinblockchain.com/)
• ZeFi: a 40 people strong team of Arab researchers and media workers based in Berlin, doing research and communication on crypto in humanitarian contexts. (ZeHub)
• DocStream: a collective of high-end linguistic service providers, catering to clients such as the British Council, DocStream's team consists of editors, translators and linguists. (DocStream | Passionate Linguists - DocStream Team)

AbjaDAO came to existence as a response to the sever lack of standardization and resources on translating blockchain to Arabic, a problem that has created a bottleneck keeping most of quality blockchain content outside the reach of mono lingual Arabs. The lack of translation resources has also made it difficult for content creators in MENA to produce quality content on blockchain in Arabic, and more difficult still to promote such content, since Arab users tend to use different translations for the same keywords, which makes it particularly difficult to achieve adequate SEO efficiency.

To shed some light on the matter, the word 'Blockchain' itself has no standard way of writing in Arabic. Some choose to translate the word to: سلسلىة الكتل (chain of blocks), others prefer to transliterate it, as to say to keep its sound but write it down with Arabic alphabet. This can result in as many as 8 different spellings for the word: يلوكتشين، بلوكشين، بلوكتشاين، بلوكشين، بلوك تشين، بلوك شين، بلوك تشاين، بلوك شاين. This problems stem from the complex nature of Arab phonetics, as well as the variety of local variations of Arabic dialects across the MENA region.

While many organizations over the years ended up developing their in-house glossaries, and sometimes making them available to the public, but rarely were those glossaries the result of a methodical process, which made them only used in their respected organizations.

We planned to develop a glossary that is different than the ones already available in three ways. First, it had to be standardized and methodical. To achieve this aspect, we carried out several methodology workshops, resulting in a set of rules and standards, including: translating slang to slang, considering cross-cultural sensitivity of metaphor-based terms (like Whale, Bear Market, White-hat hacker), avoiding Arabic's light vowels (harakat) for their SEO unfriendliness. The second difference is to make sure that AbjaDAO is not a one-time off translation effort, bur rather a constantly updated and expanded effort. And thirdly, we strongly believe in the importance of propagating the glossary and pushing for wider adoption, instead of just making the glossary available online.

During 2022 and the first 4 months of 2023, the AbjaDAO alliance built a team of translators and experts, and carried out 10 4-hour long translation workshops, the recordings of which could be found on AbjaDAO's twitter account (https://twitter.com/AbjaDAO), to translate 600 essential blockchain / web3 terms for AbjaDAO's first edition, which was released in early May after two months of collecting community and expert feedback on the beta version.

The Solana foundation funded the development of AbjaDAO so far, and the Ethereum foundation provided logistical support and shared resources with us.

[IMPACT] Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community.

Our project is chain-agnostic in nature, and we believe it is essential for the entire blockchain community, particularly to ecosystems with interest in the Arab World (North Africa and Middle East). We have implemented our project's first edition, and achieved most of the propagation's first wave. But it is essential for AbjaDAO's success and mission for our glossary to remain constantly updated, expanded and propagated, and for it to incorporate the terminology and lingo of various blockchain ecosystems. Our proposal tackles this aspect, and aspires to add consistency to what we have achieved already, by adding two new vital updates / expansions, as well as integrating Cardano's own glossary into AbjaDAO, and bringing essential Cardano content to Arabic.

By partnering with the Cardano ecosystem we will be able, beside maintaining AbjaDAO, to ensure fair coverage for Cardano's terminology and translation tools, and to make a considerable amount of vital Cardano content available in Arabic, in a similar way to what we have done with the Solana and Ethereum Foundations, which provided previous support for the project.

[CAPABILITY & FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

As this is an expansion of our project, we already have a track record of developing translations standards, producing translated list of 500 blockchain terms, and propagating our output through the regional and global blockchain community. Additionally, we have translated 20 wikipedia pages on blockchain and web3 to Arabic. You can find documentation on our propagation efforts, wikipedia translations and media coverage of AbjaDAO through this link: AbjaDAO Propagation - The Release Wave - Google Sheets

You can browse AbjaDAO through this link: قاموس أبجداو - البلوكتشين باللغة العربية (softr.app)

You can read an overview of AbjaDAO's methodology over this link (Arabic only): قاموس أبجداو - البلوكتشين باللغة العربية (softr.app)

You can listed to our 10 4-hour long translation workshops on our Twitter page, since they were conducted as Twitter spaces (Arabic only): https://twitter.com/AbjaDAO

You can find further documentation of our translation methodology and process through these two links (Arabic only):

الكلمات المشتركة - البلوكتشين باللغة العربية (softr.app)

الخيارات اللغوية - البلوكتشين باللغة العربية (softr.app)

Attached here is our propagation presentation, making the case for adopting AbjaDAO, in Arabic and English:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gxDctKlXSsDrG8APpn-x5-JDNToMolPF/view?usp=drive_link

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NF7fg8ehBZkSvw0ZOWvn0XSraWLcFWBi/view?usp=sharing

[Project Milestones] What are the key milestones you need to achieve in order to complete your project successfully?

First thematic update / expansion of AbjaDAO, adding 120 new terms around the themes of: NFTs, metaverse and GameFi.

Second thematic update / expansion of AbjaDAO, adding 120 new terms around the themes of: DeFi, Layer 2s and Blockchain Infrastructure.

Translating Cardano's glossary to Arabic and integrating it into AbjaDAO, and translating 10,000 words of Cardano resources and content to Arabic.

Submitting a report of deliverables and methodology notes, collect feedback from the community, and deploy any needed modifications.

[RESOURCES] Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

AbjaDAO is an alliance of four organizations, represented by several members:

Ammar Manla Hasan (Taxir). A journalist, editor and literary translator with over a decade of experience, Ammar has surveyed MENA's media and culture scenes by leading several projects, mostly during his tenure at Ma3azef, MENA"s leading music magazine, where Ammar has worked for 6 years, 3 of which as an Editor in Chief. Ammar is one of Taxir's two co founders. Role in the project: translator, coordinator. Ammar Manla Hasan | LinkedIn

Ali Karake (Taxir). A former risk assessment banker with 13 years of experience, Ali is Taxir's other co founder, and AbjaDAO's financial and managerial officer. Ali Karake | LinkedIn

Yaaser Al Zaiat (DocStream). A senior editor at Syrian prestigious and award-winning online publication, Al Jumhryah, and a member of the Febrayer Network of alternative Arab media, Yasser is the founder of DocStream, and a savvy translator and editor. Role at the project: translator, linguist. Yaaser A. | LinkedIn

Anas Horani (DocStream). A journalist at Al Jumhuryah and a linguist / translator at DocStream, Anas moderated AbjaDAO's translation workshops and provided vital linguist insight to the project. Anas Alhorani | LinkedIn

Eman Herawy (Arabs in Blockchain). A blockchain developer and winner of many hackathons, Eman has founded Arabs in Blockchain in 2018, one of the earliest blockchain education initiatives in the Arab world, and has been involved ever since in blockchain education through events and programs. Eman is also the lead organizer of the Arab Blockchain Week, an Ethereum fellow and a lead Ethereum translator. Role at the project: translator, propagator. Eman Herawy | LinkedIn

Khalil Hamoud (ZeFi). A technology journalist, researcher and translator, Khalil is a core member at the ZeFi foundation, and ZeFi's lead representative at AbjaDAO. Role at the project: translator. Khalil Hammod | LinkedIn

[BUDGET & COSTS] Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

Our budget consists of four items:

1- AbjaDAO's first update / expansion (120 terms on NFTs, Metaverse & GameFi):

Preparations and setting up translation patches:

15 hours x 150 ADA = 2,250 ADA

Translation workshops:

2 workshops x 6 members x 4 hours per workshop x 150 ADA per hour = 7,200 ADA

Total: 9,450 ADA

---------

2- AbjaDAO's second update / expansion (120 terms on DeFi, Layer 2s and Blockchain Infrastructure):

Preparations and setting up translation patches:

15 hours x 150 ADA = 2,250 ADA

Translation workshops:

2 workshops x 6 members x 4 hours per workshop x 150 ADA per hour = 7,200 ADA

Total: 9,450 ADA

---------

3- Translating Cardano's glossary to Arabic (203 terms):

Preparations and setting up translation patches:

15 hours x 150 ADA = 2,250 ADA

Translation workshops:

2 workshops x 6 members x 4 hours per workshop x 150 ADA per hour = 7,200 ADA

Translating glossary texts (definitions):

8 hours x 150 ADA = 1,200 ADA

Translating 10,000 words of Cardano content and resources to Arabic:

45 hours x 150 ADA = 6,750 ADA

Total: 17,400 ADA

---------

4- Project management (coordination, outreach, social media, propagation):

6 months x 15 hours x 150 ADA = 13,500 ADA

--------------------------------

Project Total: 49,800 ADA

Rate: 150 ADA / hour

[VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

We believe that developing an Arabic glossary is a path must be taken at some stage, as the Arab world homes around 400 million people, many of which are mono lingual. Having a reliable, unified and constantly updated glossary will reduce the cost of addressing the Arab world on three levels:

Reducing translation cost and time: by providing translators and content creators with a reliable tool, we circumvent the time and effort spent by experts on looking for the translation of a certain word in different glossaries and come to a decision around which translation to use, as well as the time and effort spent to develop new translations for terms that are not covered by any of the available glossaries and resources. Unlike other translation efforts that tend to be one-time off, AbjaDAO is constantly updated, expanded and propagated.

Improving the quality of Arabic blockchain content: AbjaDAO has an advantage over other glossaries and translation tools inso being methodical and standardized. For example, while other glossaries translate English slang terms to formal Arabic, losing many connotations in the process, AbjaDAO translates slang to slang, and uses Levantine and Egyptian slang in particular for their understandability across different Arabic countries. AbjaDAO also pays attention to cultural biases, for instance in terms that use the word 'white' in a biased positive content, such as: white label, white paper, white list, white hat hacker; and chooses to find alternatives to this word while translating. One last point to bring up, is AbjaDAO's attention to the complex phonetic systems of Arabic language, and its keenness on maintaining consistency while dealing with these systems so if one term is translated according to one approach, all other similar terms should be translated accordingly.

Increasing SEO efficiency: propagation is perhaps the key advantage that sets AbjaDAO apart from other blockchain translation efforts in Arabic, which are usually in-house glossaries and only used by their respected organizations. AbjaDAO's three waves of propagation aim at reducing translation dispersion and promoting unified translations for blockchain terminology, in a way that would increase SEO efficiency by providing copywriters with unified keywords to use in their content.

[IMPORTANT NOTE] The Applicant agrees to Fund Rules and also that data in the submission form and other data provided by the project team during the course of the project will be publicly available.

I Accept