Interjú: Shvoong.com

Egy újabb interjú következik, ezúttal a Shvoong alkotóival. A Shvoongról Pollnernél olvastam, és már akkor felmerült, kiváncsi vagyok, hogy ki ez a társaság, és hogy mi a célja (szerintük) az oldalnak. Mivel nem magyarokról van szó, ezúttal az interjú angol nyelven folyt. Kicsit hezitáltam, hogy lefordítsam-e, de inkább megkíméltem magamat a fordítástól, így talán a tartalom pontosabb lesz. Az angolul nem tudok most nézzenek félre, mert angol szöveg következik:

Who you are, is there a company or just some persons are behind the service? Where are you from?

Shvoong was created following the reunion of two high school buddies - the Israeli businessman Avi Shaked, and the Ha’artez (one of Israel’s major newspaper) journalist Avner Avrahami. Avner was dreaming of making the essence of human knowledge accessible to all, and Avi completed the idea with rewarded user generated content. These two principles became the basis of Shvoong.

When, and why did you start the page?

Shvoong has been on the net about a year and a half.

Can you detail, what is the page about, introducing its services? Why do you think, that it’s worth to visit the site?

Shvoong is the world wide abstracts site, aspiring to become the largest free knowledge sharing project online. We think the essence of human knowledge should be accessible to all. Abstracts cannot replace the original text; however having multiple references helps people get different perspectives and generates curiosity and interest. Shvoong doesn’t limit the number of abstracts published on each book or article, so everyone can choose what fits his or her needs better. We think our site addresses a wide variety of people – from scholars looking for quick reference, to ordinary surfers looking to expand their knowledge and share theirs with others. The writers and translators are also rewarded with royalties, so it is attractive to avid readers who like to practice their writing and translating skills and earn some extra money.

When did you introduced the Hungarian translation?

Our site was initially launched in 34 languages; Hungarian is one of them.

If somebody would like to help fixing the translation, how can (s)he help?

We are always striving to improve the quality of our site, and all its sub-domains (languages). As you probably know, Hungarian is not an easy language. Our team of translators is putting its best efforts to make the site as error-free as possible. These changes should be noticed on our upcoming new version. Then, if any surfer still has any comments, he or she will be welcome to send them to us.

Which languages are available?

Shvoong currently supports thirty-four languages: Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese Simplified, Traditional Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Farsi, Finnish, French, Georgian, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Uzbek and Vietnamese. (See http://www.shvoong.com/languages/)

What’s your plan about the future?

We plan on becoming the best and biggest abstracts site, and cooperate with major publishers and universities. We have recently signed a deal with a major Chinese University and with a large database of academic work.

Who visits your pages; can you share some statistics (countries, etc.)?

Shvoong is visited by over 50,000 unique visitors a day. Languages-wise, it is about 30% English, 25% Chinese, 8% Spanish, 7% Portuguese, 7% Polish and 7% French.

What do you use in the background to support the page (PHP, Linux, etc.)?

Microsoft dotnet.

Are you web developers? Since when?

In the beginning we worked with some outsourcing services, however recently we have established our in-house development team.

Do you think that your page is Web 2.0?

Yes. The whole idea of having the public contributing to our website (writing, rating, gaining profit) is the web 2.0 essence.

The quantity effect the quality!

What do you think about Web 2.0, what’s the most interesting Web 2.0 service in your opinion.

I think that Wikipedia and Shvoong are the most impressive web 2.0 enterprises, while users contribute “knowledge” and not only “Entertainment”, such as blogs, forums, etc.

Is there something, would you like to tell about yourself?

We truly believe in surfers’ ability to change the net, and the world. Shvoong is a great platform, where everyone can read and write abstracts, share knowledge, practice their skills and even earn royalties. We believe knowledge should be free, and writers rewarded. Our writers and translators are our partners, so we are most attentive to their ideas and comments. Come and make a change!