TechGist05

This is an (opinionated) summary of interesting findings from a flurry of conferences that I attended earlier this month. The conferences were the TAUS User Conference, Localization World and tekom. Even though it is tiring to have so many so close together, it is interesting to see what sticks out a few weeks later. For me TAUS and tekom were clearly worthwhile, and Localization World was not, and I believe that #LWSV is an event that is losing it’s mojo in spite of big attendance numbers. Some of the big themes that stand out (mostly from TAUS) were: Detailed case studies that provide clear and specific evidence that customized MT enhances and improves the productivity of traditional (TEP) translation processes The Instant on-demand Moses MT engine parade Initial attempts at defining post-editing effort and difficulty from MemoQ and Memosource A future session on the multilingual web from speakers who actually are involved with big perspective, global web-wide changes and requirem...

I have noticed of late that every conference has a session or two that focuses on the future. Probably because many sense that change is in the air. Some of you may also have noticed that the protest from some quarters has grown more strident or even outright rude, to some of the ideas presented at these future outlook sessions. The most vocal protests seem to be directed at predictions about the increasing use of machine translation, anything about “good enough” quality and the process and production process changes necessary to deal with the increasing translation volume. (There are still some who think that the data deluge is a myth).  Some feel personally threatened by those who speak on these subjects and rush to kill or at least stab the messenger. I think they miss the point that what is happening in translation, is just part of a larger upheaval in the way global enterprises are interacting with customers. The forces causing change in translation are also creating upheava...

One of the reasons that many find MT threatening I think, is the claim by some MT enthusiasts that it that it will do EXACTLY the same work that was previously done by multiple individuals in the “translate-edit-proof” chain without the humans, of course. To the best of my knowledge this is not possible today, even though one may produce an occasional sentence where this does indeed happen. If you want final output that is indistinguishable from competent human translation, then you are going to have to use the human “edit-proof” chain to make this happen . Some in the industry have attempted to restate the potential of MT from Fully Automated High Quality Translation - FAHQT (Notice how that sounds suspiciously like f*&ked?) to Fully Automated Useful Translation – FAUT. However, in some highly technical domains it is actually possible to see that carefully customized MT systems can outperform exclusively human-based production, because it is simply not possible to find as many ...

I recently attended the 7th IMTT Conference in Cordoba, Argentina. I especially enjoy the IMTT events because somehow they have found a content formula that works for both translators and LSPs . You get to see the translation supply chain communicate in real-time. The overall culture of their events is also usually very collaborative, and to my mind the place to see the most open and constructive dialogue between translators and agencies. Some may not be aware that Argentina has a particularly strong concentration of skilled humans who understand the mechanics of localization (especially in FIGS BrPt), and many of the agencies, even small ones, are able to work with pretty much every TM and TMS (Translation Management System) system in the market with more than a basic level of competence. Because of historical decisions made by @RenatoBeninatto many years ago and a great university educational system, Argentina has become a place with a comprehensive and sizable professional translat...

The phenomena of a crowd (or community) stepping forward and doing real translation work, often for no direct financial compensation is something that troubles many in the professional translation world. Mostly because they see this activity, as work being taken away from legitimate professionals or they see it as a ploy to reduce prices. While in some cases their fears may actually be justified, in the most successful uses of this approach I think it is clear that this is not true. As I have said before, the growing momentum in the volume of content demands new production models . This momentum which exists both in the corporate world and also the general world out there simply cannot be addressed by ONLY using traditional professional translation production models. New needs require new approaches. For those who insist that the data deluge is a fiction, the rest of this post is probably irrelevant. Another key driving force behind new crowdsourcing initiatives is the ...