The world may be glued to the TV to watch the start of the Olympic Games in London, but Global Voices Lingua translators are excited about another challenge: the Internet Freedom Translathon, a marathon to get the Declaration of Internet Freedom translated in as many languages and dialects as possible over the course of 24 hours on Friday August 3. Everyone can join: you don't have to be an Olympic athlete or professional translator to help!

Lingua is partnering with New American Foundation and Free Press to provide official versions of the declaration in a number of languages. Since the Declaration was posted on Global Voices Advocacy last weekend, our translators have rendered the text into 20 languages. Global Voices’ content is currently translated into almost 30 languages by our volunteers, a big achievement but a small fraction of the 6,909 known living languages catalogued by Ethnologue.

This means that there is one language for every 862,000 people on Earth: Europe alone accounts for only 234 of them, whereas in Asia 2,322 languages are spoken on a daily basis. We hope to offer the declaration in as many of them as possible, even in artificial languages: from Solresol to Esperanto, there are 200 auxlangs in which the declaration would look great too! And with your help and luck, we can even hope to reach impromptu translators of those 46 languages that have just a single speaker.

The Internet Freedom Translathon is part of the Summer of Internet Freedom, a series of events taking place this August to encourage Internet users to continue the global conversation about the role of the Internet in our lives and how we can keep it free and open. It is also a way to engage with the Declaration and to show public support for Internet freedom. Anyone can host offline or online events, anywhere around the world.

Everyone can join forces in the Internet Freedom Translathon: you can offer your skills to translate or proofread the declaration in your language or dialect. Or, if you don't speak any other languages, you can blog about the Translathon, republish translations, share this post, promote it on your social networks, join our event, or spread the word. Join Lingua in this marathon for freedom, libertà, liberté, libertad, llibertat, liberdade, свобода, özgürlük, szabadság, uhuru, свобода, Ελευθερία, Hettagol, Freiheit, wolność, Yɛrɛmahɔrɔnya, vrijheid, آزادی, স্বাধীনতা, 자유, आज़ादी, 自由, حرية.

Save the date – Internet Freedom Translathon

When: Starting at midnight GMT on Friday, August 3, for 24 hours

Link: http://bit.ly/Translathon (the translation form is closed and will be available just before midnight on August 3, 2012)

Connect: join the Translathon event page at the Summer of Internet Freedom website.

Please promote freely – in any language!