COATI was formed in 2009, coming out of the international anti-capitalist, free-spaces and NoBorders networks, and the experiences of free and open source software, independent radio and volunteer interpreting.
We run as a not-for-profit group that operates, designs, builds and maintains a variety of interpreting solutions and collective tools so that smaller organizations don’t have to maintain their own and each event doesn’t have to solve its technology problems from scratch. We operate according to the principles of non-hierarchy, consensus decision making, open source, DIY self-management and skill sharing. We also aim to consider the ecological impact of the work we do and minimise our ecological footprint.
During the THF we will use COATI spiders to provide simulatenous translation. As they explain, their technologies aims to increase the autonomy of social struggles from the private sector in terms of interpreting and interpreting technologies, and to increase the accessibility and usability of alternative interpreting technologies.
The solutions we offer have all been designed and self-built within the social movements. This means that they may not meet the same specifications as professional equipment, because we are working to other priorities. We try to balance values such as accessibility, ecology and maximizing autonomy with aesthetic and technological specifications.
We currently work primarily with technology which was developed and built for the Social Forums. It is a system similar to professional conference interpreting technology, but it transmits using FM Radio transmitters instead of Infrared. This means the system can be more vulnerable to interference, and sound quality may not be as good as with professional equipment. However, it also democratizes access to interpreting as it makes it considerably cheaper and available to anyone with an FM radio receiver.
We are working on the development of new solutions and ways to improve the existing ones.