Meridian 180 Launch

Case Study written by Casey Dreier, Singlebrook Technology Web Programmer.
Cornell’s Clarke Program in East Asian Law and Culture. It is a project born out of a desire to see enhanced communication between three different cultures on a variety of current topics led by policy makers and intellectuals. The site aims to provide high-quality, concurrent translations of all content to its users in three languages: Chinese, Japanese, and English.
Singlebrook Technology is proud to have been involved with this project. We developed a custom translation platform that allows contributors to post comments in any of the three languages. The comments are then translated within 24 hours of posting, allowing for a multilingual dialogue to to grow and develop at a rapid pace.
In order to handle the complex translation management and work flow, Singlebrook built a custom module that integrated into the powerful Drupal CMS system, allowing users to switch between different translations of a conversation without missing a single comment, and a queueing system that assigns content to translators.
Singlebrook practices development with an Agile methodology, allowing for extreme development flexibility throughout the course of the project. The core translation code and work flow system was developed first, which allowed our clients at Cornell to start using and giving feedback on the project at a very early stage and be involved every step of way.
When the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, our clients asked us if we could launch a version of the site almost two months early. It is because of our agile process that we were able to say, “yes”. Our clients were able to start a transpacific dialogue on the earthquake and tsunami’s effects and future steps, and raise donations for survivors of the disaster.