For the past several years the Marriott School has conducted a Management Conference. Many of the presentations, which provide excellent insights into many aspects of business, personal development, and the gospel, now reside in a private Marriott School library and are essentially inaccessible to the rest of the world. The objective of this project is to make these presentations available to friends and associates of the Marriott School and BYU, especially those who live abroad.
There are five components to this project. First, appropriate talks will have to be chosen. Efforts are being made to obtain permission from the speakers to use their talks in this manner. Next, the talks will be transcribed. Following transcription, the talks will be translated into Spanish and Chinese. The major Asian languages, German, and French will be subsequently translated if the use of the Spanish and Chinese translations are high. After translation, the talks will be recorded and dubbed into the foreign language with video. Finally, they will be made available on the Internet for on-demand streaming. The target audience for the presentations will be Marriott School alumni and friends.
Phase I includes selecting the talks, putting non-audio talks on audio tapes, and taking the audio tapes to the Marriot School's word processing center in TNRB 574. As of 09/30/03, all five talks have been transcribed, with several others under consideration. Phase I is complete. Phase II will begin on about April 1 and includes the translation process. The talks will be translated and reviewed for accuracy. Phase II is scheduled for completion in Fall 2004. Phase III is the speaking portion. The talks will be read by native speakers and put on the Center's website for use by the public. Phase IV occurs during the fall and winter semesters. Using available software, the usage of the talks will be monitored from December 2003 to April 2004. The project will be evaluated for effectiveness in April 2004.
The content that currently exists provides a unique BYU perspective on important business and management issues. Making this available to a much wider audience will enable the Marriott School to strengthen its ties to alumni and other friends.
Winter 2003--The translation process has taken longer than previously expected, due in part to the need for someone to review each of the translations for correctness. By April 15th the committee hopes to post at least one talk in Spanish and Chinese.