Skill Data Dictionary, Part 2: Taxonomies, Ontologies, and More - ATD - Dictionary

In our last blog post, we explained the key terminology around skill data and offered some definitions to help you understand and use them in your organization. This blog post will expand beyond the basics into the different methods of structuring your organization’s skill data.

There are many overlapping (or even contradictory) ideas about what it means to have a skill strategy and how that strategy relates to a skill taxonomy or ontology. These ideas aren’t inherently simple, but they don’t need to be overly complicated. That’s why we’re breaking them all down for you here.

Skill Strategy

Definition: A strategy for talent development that prioritizes skills as a way to measure the ability of your people. This measurement is aligned with the work that your organization needs to complete and the career opportunities that exist internally. Skill strategies can vary greatly between companies and can use any combination of upskilling technology, skill taxonomies, skill ontologies, skill clouds, or none of those.

Why It Matters: Using a skill strategy as opposed to a competency model (or in tandem with one) can help make your workforce more agile and enable opportunities for internal mobility and career growth.

Skill Taxonomy

Definition: A hierarchical system of classification that can categorize and organize skills in groups or “skill clusters.” A skill taxonomy is structured and will usually include the skills that are most important to business goals, sometimes with the skills’ definitions as well.

Why It Matters: This can help workers understand which skills they have from the taxonomy, how those skills relate to organizational needs, and what they should learn next. The purpose of the framework is not to capture every skill but to capture information about the most essential skills relevant to your business strategy.

Advertisement

Skill Ontology

Definition: A set of skills and their relationships between one another.

Why It Matters: A skill ontology allows organizations to define and measure relationships between skills (and even jobs and people). It helps create a common language and understanding of skills across various different dimensions or platforms. Another way of looking at an ontology is that it is a “smart system” that helps maintain, aggregate, and simplify the skill data within a taxonomy.

Skill Graph

Definition: A skill graph shows the relationships between other skills and determines how skills map to roles, content, and other skill-related features. It’s often simply a visual representation of a skills ontology.

Why It Matters: Understanding how different skills are related to one another (and how closely they are related) can inform how artificial intelligence and models offer upskilling and mobility opportunities.

Advertisement

Skill Cloud (Also Called a Skill Inventory or Skill Registry)

Definition: An inventory of skills across organizations that includes all known skill terms. It is the data set that is used to evaluate skills to include in organizational skill lists, ontologies, or taxonomies. It is basically a single source of truth for any skill, but it does not order or categorize skills like a taxonomy does.

Why It Matters: A skills cloud helps organize and standardize skills across an organization, but it alone does not make these skills actionable. They simply sit in the cloud.

Skills I/O

Definition: A skills I/O manages skills, skill data, and the structures mentioned above. You can use the skills I/O to build taxonomies, manage multiple skill sources, integrate different taxonomies, and edit the skills in your organization.

Why It Matters: Whereas taxonomies, ontologies, and graphs help us understand skills in relation to our business objectives, a skills I/O puts those concepts into practice together.

For more information on skill data, download The Ultimate Skill Data Handbook.

Women's Conference Funds $1 Million Bible Translation in 5 Hours | News & Reporting - ChristianityToday.com - Translation

The Bible translation alliance IllumiNations has a goal of making God’s Word accessible to all people by 2033, and it’s inviting partners to support its work one verse at a time.

Through IllumiNations’ 12 Verse Challenge (12VC), donors can cover translation costs for 12 verses of Scripture at $35 a month for a year. The challenge kicked off at this month’s virtual women’s conference IF: Gathering, where attendees pledged over $1.5 million toward the effort— enough to sponsor translating the entire Bible for an unreached people group and make significant progress on a second one.

As thousands of women tuned into the March 6 event, the display on the 12VC site scrolled through the chapters and verses their pledges had sponsored. More than 750 views signed up for the challenge within the first five minutes.

“We’re going to be Christians that know this book, love this book, believe this book, and give this book away,” said IF: Gathering founder Jennie Allen.

Allen watched alongside pastor David Platt, a speaker at the event, as the campaign met the cost of its first full Bible translation—just over $1 million—in a span of five hours, and the donations kept rolling in. “This is our most important work to date,” she said.

Translators estimate that nearly 1 billion people have little or no access to Scripture in a language they can understand (they call it “Bible poverty”).

IllumiNations, a collaboration among 10 top translating ministries, has been able to accelerate the timeline for all people to have access to the Bible from 2150 to 2033—as long as the funding comes through to back the translators already in the field. IllumiNations currently tallies 307 current projects on their website, each with a bar indicating how much more money is needed to complete the translation.

The translation funded by IF through the 12 Verse Challenge will go to people in western Ethiopia. “Because of you, we're able to help the Konta, Oyda, and Melo people groups of Ethiopia have the Bible in their language,” IllumiNations wrote in an Instagram post.

According to the Joshua Project, a combined 235,000 people speak Oyda, Melo, and Konta. Though Christianity is considered their primary religion, and they all have portions of the New Testament, none of these groups has a full Old Testament translation.

Allen said the funds raised will also help a translation project in a restricted country where churches must meet in secret. As of March 12, more than 6,300 women had pledged.

The IF fundraising campaign is the launch of the new 12 Verse Challenge model, and churches can now sign up to host a challenge themselves. IllumiNations says, “If just one percent of the Christians in America alone would fund the translation of 12 verses at $35 per verse, this task would be completed.”

This isn’t the first time IF: Gathering has highlighted Bible translation. The 2017 the event featured a Seed Company translator, and 650 women committed to monthly sponsorships to fund verse-by-verse translation.

Framing unreached people groups as living in Bible poverty makes the broad challenge of Bible access seem tangible and personal, like sponsoring a child in poverty. And during a time when many ministry connections have gone digital, it allows women participate in global missions without having to leave their ZIP codes.

Incremental faithfulness leading to global impact is baked into the DNA of IF: Gathering, founded in 2014. Its website says that if 4,000 women each disciple two women each year, and those two women then disciple two more each year, the chain reaction will lead to 4 million women discipled in a decade.

Historically, Christian women have been a driving force in Bible translation work. “If it hadn’t been for single women over the 70-year history of Wycliffe, half of the translations wouldn’t have been completed,” Russ Hersman, Wycliff Bible Translators’ former chief operations officer, told Christianity Today in 2017. At the time, women made up 85 percent of Wycliffe’s translation force.

“I cannot imagine a more powerful force on earth than these women in their places coming together to change things,” Allen said. “They are a tremendous force for good and change.”

The English Translation of Selena Gomez's Song "Buscando Amor" Will Surprise You - Seventeen.com - Translation

Tibrina HobsonGetty Images

Selena Gomez's first Spanish-language EP, Revelación, is *finally* here and let's just say... I can't stop dancing.

This isn't the first time the "Lose You to Love Me" singer pays homage to her Mexican heritage — she's covered Tejana singer Selena Quintanilla's "Bidi Bidi Bom Bom" in the past, as well as feature on the 2018 smash hit "Taki Taki" alongside DJ Snake, Cardi B and Ozuna. She also dropped the single "Baila Conmigo" just last month.

Finally, Revelación is here and it’s Selena’s first full-length project entirely in Spanish.

During an Instagram Live, Selena said that "Buscando Amor," which translates to "Looking for Love" in English, is one of her fave songs on her new project. So, let's dive into these lyrics and see why.

This content is imported from YouTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

[Intro]
They go out so they can see her
They get lost in the rhythm
They aren't looking for love
They aren't looking for love

Based on the title alone, some people would probably expect the second track on Revelación to be a slow jam or ballad about looking for a lover, but it is quite the opposite. Selena sings about what it's like to be single and have fun without the pressure of looking for love.

[Verse 1]
Let the rhythm take you over
That's how I like it, just like that
There's more to do tonight, I don't limit myself
The music is good and I don't resist

[Chorus]
They go out so they can see her because she likes to dance
They get lost in the rhythm, they start to forget
They aren't looking for anything, they're happy just as they are
Don't talk to her about love, that's not going to fly
They go out so they can see her because she likes to dance
They get lost in the rhythm, they start to forget
They aren't looking for anything, they're happy just as they are
Don't talk to her about love, that's not going to fly

"I’m actually grateful that I’m not involved with anyone right now," Selena said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

"Buscando Amor" is a reggaetón-infused bop that explores the idea of being content with yourself as you are. In the chorus, Selena sings "No están buscando na', 'tan bien así como están," which translates to "They aren't looking for anything, they're happy just as they are."

[Verse 2]
Today we're going out incognito
We're going to get into trouble
We're just partying, baby, we aren't looking for rings
When they play the music we go hard
Who doesn't like a Latina dancing to reggaetón?
Come if you want to taste it, leave if you're going to fall in love

[Bridge]
We won't stop until dawn
The party is over if we go
With our phones off

"We aren't looking for rings" further describes the idea of letting loose and having fun without the pressure of commitment. Things heat up in the second verse as Selena flirtatiously sings "Vente si quieres probar, vete si te vas a enamorar," which translates to "Come if you want to taste it, leave if you're going to fall in love."

In the bridge, she nods to partying with no phones and being present in the moment. In an interview with Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest in 2019, Selena said that she deleted Instagram from her phone although she is one of the most-followed people on the app.

[Chorus]

They go out so they can see her because she likes to dance
They get lost in the rhythm, they start to forget
They aren't looking for anything, they're happy just as they are
Don't talk to her about love, that's not going to fly
They go out so they can see her because she likes to dance
They get lost in the rhythm, they start to forget
They aren't looking for anything, they're happy just as they are
Don't talk to her about love, that's not going to fly

[Outro]
They go out so they can see her
They get lost in the rhythm
They aren't looking for love
Leave if you're going to fall in love (They aren't looking)
Leave if you're going to fall in love

I seriously can't stop listening to "Buscando Amor," and I can't wait to listen to the rest of Revelación in all of its glory.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io

Translation, personal contact underpin efforts to get COVID-19 vaccine to Durham's immigrant communities - WRAL.com - Translation

By Sarah Krueger, WRAL Durham reporter

Durham, N.C. — Groups in Durham are taking the effort to spread awareness and access to COVID-19 vaccine to the streets.

It is a literal door-to-door project for Siembra NC. On Friday, the group was handing out information and answering questions for the residents of a primarily Hispanic neighborhood.

In the Bull City, about 14% of the population is Hispanic, but only about 5% of the first doses given in the city have been to Hispanic people.

A Siembra NC survey shows that, while 65.7% of those who responded are interested in getting a COVID-19 vaccine, 73.6% did not know how to go about it. So the group decided to meet people where they are – at home – to deliver that message.

"We want to protect our communities, so we are going to go door by door, neighborhood by neighborhood," said Siembra NC organizer Laura Garduño.

The group is asking to help to get that message into more homes.

"We know that there have been a lot of phone calls received on these local hotlines. But we know that the services aren’t always available in Spanish," Garduño said. Siembra NC is asking that the county provide a dedicated hotline for Spanish speakers to get vaccine information and appointments. "Websites should also be available in Spanish," she said.

Durham City Councilman Javiera Caballero joined Friday's door-to-door effort.

"If we actually want to meet this goal that President Biden set out for everyone that everyone over 18 by May should be able to get vaccinated, we’re not going to reach that goal if we don’t do some serious work in the community. I think we’re going to have to put in some serious effort and work if we are going to make the impact that we need to make," she said.

Thao Nguyen, policy lead at Greenlight Durham and a Duke University medical student, said the need goes beyond Spanish.

"We have a large Mandarin speaking population, for example. It’s really difficult for them to receive services because of language."

Nguyen said her own mother is among those who doesn't speak English or Spanish. She had to schedule her mother's appointment and accompany her to translate.

There are resources available, but not all realize they can access them.

"We have folks at Duke, medical students, who will help with these phone calls in Mandarin, help schedule the appointments and at the appointment times, help with interpretation if they need that as well," Nguyen said.

Greenlight and Siembra are partnering with GoDurham to make transportation available to those who need it and are pushing for vaccine clinics in communities where the need is greatest.

"We know that there are certain apartment complexes in Durham that have higher immigrant populations," Caballero said.

"We need to take it right to their doorsteps, because there are just so many barriers in asking them to come to Duke or the health department for example," Nguyen said.

More On This

The challenge of translating Amanda Gorman if you are white - EL PAÍS in English - Translation

The story begins with the impact of a prepossessing young woman proudly reciting the poem she has written to celebrate Joe Biden’s inauguration in Washington. Amanda Gorman’s voice, confident and eloquent, read out The Hill We Climb, rising above the cold January morning to announce the end of an era – “never-ending shade” – and the beginning of a “new dawn.” Her yellow Prada coat illuminates her like a torch. The enthusiasm she arouses spreads far beyond the United States. Just two months after her performance, agreements have been signed to translate The Hill We Climb into 17 languages.

Lumen, which belongs to Penguin-Random House, contacted me about translating Amanda Gorman’s poem into Spanish. Lumen and I knew it was more than a poem: it was a symbol of the victory of light over darkness.

Barely a few weeks had passed since I delivered the translation, when Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, the Dutch writer chosen to translate Gorman’s poem into Dutch, withdrew following protests on social networks. The trigger was an article written by Janice Deul, a Dutch online lifestyle writer. Deul, who is Black, called it “incomprehensible” that a translator had not been chosen who, like Amanda Gorman, was also “a spoken-word artist, young, female and unapologetically Black.” Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, a non-binary white person whose preferred pronouns in English are they/them, last year won the International Booker Prize with their first novel.

Rijneveld had been approved by Amanda Gorman, as had I, along with 15 other translators

Following Rijneveld’s decision to stand aside, Dutch publisher Meulenhoff issued a statement: “We want to learn from this by talking and we will walk a different path with the new insights. We will be looking for a team to work with to bring Amanda’s words and message of hope and inspiration into translation as well as possible and in her spirit.”

End of story? No. Rijneveld had been approved by Amanda Gorman, as had I, along with 15 other translators. What authority did Deul have to question Gorman’s judgment? None: she hadn’t even bothered to read a single verse of Rijneveld’s translation. Deul had simply invested herself with the new and fearsome power of social media. She was the visible face of the anonymous chorus of voices that, under the banner of “moral right,” bolsters its censorious supremacy with each passing day. For Deul, the quality of the translation was the least-important thing: what mattered was the identity of the translator: the color of their skin, their age, their militancy.

What happened is not irrelevant. It points, beyond translation, to the very essence of creation: imagination.

According to Deul, applying what we might call Deul logic, only whites can translate whites, only women can translate women, only trans people can translate trans people... And so on ad infinitum: only Mexicans can sing rancheras, only the Japanese can write haikus, and so on. And, of course, forget about translating Marcel Proust if you aren’t homosexual and have never tasted a madeleine.

The simple truth is that Deul is not talking about translation, she’s talking about politics. She confuses “moral right” with literary quality, ignoring the fact that imagination is what makes translation and art, in general, possible. Deul’s logic makes translators visible, when the essence of translators is to be invisible. Their voice embraces all voices. In order to be everyone, they must dissolve and be reborn; to come out of themselves in order to enter into others. Contrary to other disciplines in which the artist seeks to have a voice, a stamp, to be Someone, in translation excellence is to be Nobody. It is a matter of not being.

Applying what we might call Deul logic, only whites can translate whites, only women can translate women, only trans people can translate trans people

Gorman writes in The Hill We Climb: “We will not be turned around/ or interrupted by intimidation.”

What if Marieke Lucas Rijneveld withdrew because they did not want to be the victim of a scandal to which they were oblivious and which was likely to affect the reception of their own work as a writer? What if the publisher gave in because it feared that its own image and therefore its sales would plummet?

Deul has triumphed. Deul’s triumph is a catastrophe. It is the victory of identity politics over creative freedom, of the given over the imagination. From the pride of being who you are, we have moved on to the imperative, subject to penalization, of not being someone other than who you are: our skin has become a straitjacket. But art is hybrid, omnivorous, inapprehensible. To remove imagination from translation is to subject the craft to a lobotomy that makes it impossible to exercise.

We do not yet know if Deul’s logic will spread, if it will affect the other people hired to translate Amanda Gorman’s poem into their language. But we do know one thing: what has happened is no mere anecdote. It is symptomatic of a new censorship, lethal for translation, for art, for life.

Nuria Barrios is a writer and translator. She has recently translated James Joyce’s ‘The Dead’ and Amanda Gorman’s ‘The Hill We Climb,’ to be published by Lumen in April.

English version by Nick Lyne.

A translator for Amanda Gorman's poem has been dropped in Spain - CNN - Translation

Written by Jack Guy, CNN

A writer hired to translate Amanda Gorman's poem "The Hill We Climb" into Catalan said he has been removed from the position by publisher Univers.

Victor Obiols, whose previous work includes Catalan translations of William Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde, told CNN Thursday that the commission was initially approved by Gorman's representatives, but they later decided he wasn't right for the job.

It is the second such case in Europe in the past month, after a Dutch writer stepped back from their commission in February after anger that a Black writer was not chosen.

Although Univers has not yet responded to CNN's request for comment on its decision, Obiols said Gorman's representatives were looking for "someone matching the profile of the original writer."

"I think this is a reflection of the dynamics of muting or not promoting what is politically incorrect," he said, explaining that the Barcelona-based publisher informed him of the decision after he had delivered the translation.

CNN has also contacted Gorman's publisher, Viking Studio, and its parent company, Penguin, for comment.

Gorman is the US youth poet laureate and was one of the breakout stars of US President Joe Biden's inauguration, where she read "The Hill We Climb."

The publisher's decision comes shortly after Dutch writer Marieke Lucas Rijneveld handed back a commission to translate Gorman's work, following a backlash from critics who questioned why a White writer had been chosen to translate a Black writer's work.

Obiols told CNN that he thought the decision to revoke his commission was down to the pressure of US social movements.

"I understand the political dimension of the decision," he said. "I feel solidarity with women and Black people."

National youth poet laureate Amanda Gorman arrives at the inauguration of US President Joe Biden on January 20. Credit: WIN MCNAMEE/POOL/AFP/Getty Images

Obiols said authors or their agents have every right to choose a translator, but the latest move feeds into a wider conversation around creativity.

"There is a debate about whether the circumstances of a work of art is part of this work of art, or whether it should be judged by the content itself, independently of the circumstances (or) identity of the author," he said.

'Not easy to choose translators'

Catalan, an official language alongside Spanish in the region of Catalonia, is spoken by more than 9 million people in eastern and northeastern Spain, as well parts of France and Italy.

Ananya Jahanara Kabir, a professor of English at King's College London, told CNN Thursday that translation "is a way to carry across experiences that are private, intimate and products of specific histories and cultural experiences, into another sensibility."

Deep historical injustices against people of African heritage, and their continuing repercussions, mean it isn't easy to choose translators for Gorman, Kabir said.

"But decisions to drop translators because of racial and/or gender difference miss opportunities for transcultural healing and understanding," she added in a statement. "These are opportunities for people who are neither African American nor female-identified to recognize and struggle with their historical burdens and make that struggle their own process of learning."

"It's a pity if in the search for redressal we forget literature's function of opening and crossing borders, of teaching us to become porous to the others' traumas, resistance, and joy."

Amanda Gorman is the US's first youth poet laureate, pictured in July 2019. Credit: Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe/Getty Images

Last month, Rijneveld, winner of the International Booker Prize in 2020, withdrew from a commission to translate Gorman's work into Dutch.

Rijneveld, who is White and non-binary, announced on February 23 that they were to work on the project with publisher Meulenhoff.

Gorman retweeted Rijneveld's tweet revealing the commission, but Rijneveld said they had handed back the assignment three days later.

"I am shocked by the uproar around my involvement in the spread of the Amanda Gorman's message, and I understand the people who feel hurt by Meulenhoff's decision to ask me," wrote Rijneveld.

Meulenhoff said it understood Rijneveld's decision and was looking for a new team to translate Gorman's work.

Adventists in Moldova Celebrate Bible Translation on Its Anniversary - Adventist Review - Translation

March 12, 2021

The year 2021 marks 15 years since the New Testament was published in the Gagauz language.

By: Ruslan Bulgak, Euro-Asian Division, and Adventist Review 

Seventh-day Adventist church leaders and members recently gathered to celebrate the 15th anniversary of a Bible translation feat in Moldova. On March 6, 2021, the Komrat Seventh-day Adventist Church in southern Moldova remembered the first translation of the New Testament to the Gagauz language by Adventist translator Stepan Bayraktar.

The first edition of the Gagauz “Yeni Baalanta” (“New Testament”) was published in 2006, five years after Bayraktar’s death. Bayraktar had been not only a translator but also a preacher of God’s Word in that language.

The Gagauz New Testament was published in two formats, one in Cyrillic and the other in Latin characters. It was something, Bayraktar had explained, that helped the text to be friendly not only to the older but also to younger generations, many of whom are not fluent in Cyrillic reading.

As part of the March 6 ceremony, church members participated by praying in the Gagauz language. Together with guests, they also took time to sing in that language. Leaders led a public reading of John 1:1–18 in the published translation.

• 

  Cover of the first edition of the “Yeni Baalanta,” the New Testament in the Gagauz language, the work of Seventh-day Adventist translator and preacher Stepan Bayraktar. It was first published in 2006. [Photo: Euro-Asian Division News]

Guests reviewed the history of the writing of the New Testament in Greek, and how from there, the text was translated into classical and modern languages. “The hearts of guests and members were filled with gratitude to God and all those who sacrificed to make the Word of God available to everyone in their native [Gagauz] language,” local church leaders said.

About the Gagauz People and Language

The Gagauzes are Turkic people residing mostly in southern Moldova and southwestern Ukraine. Most Gagauzes are Eastern Orthodox Christians. There are Gagauzes also living in Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, and other countries. The total population of modern Gagauz is estimated at around 250,000 people. The Gagauz language belongs to a branch of the Turkic languages, which also includes the Azerbaijani, Turkish, and Turkmen languages.

The Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia is an autonomous region in southern Moldova. There are dozens of Seventh-day Adventist Church congregations in the area, with more than 900 baptized members.

Local church leaders celebrated that ethnic Gagauzes can read the New Testament in their native language and highlighted the unchanging and vital role of God’s Word.

“We continue to believe that ‘All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness’ [2 Tim. 3:16],” they said.

The original version of this story was posted on the Euro-Asian Division news site.

---

We reserve the right to approve and disapprove comments accordingly and will not be able to respond to inquiries regarding that. Please keep all comments respectful and courteous to authors and fellow readers.