TechGist05

As machine translation continues to gain momentum, we are seeing many more instances of LSPs and some enterprise users exploring the potential use of the technology in core production work. MT today is still unfortunately quite complex and there are few universally accurate truisms or rules of thumb that replace the need for at least some minimal amount of expertise and understanding. Expertise and knowledge are key requirements for those who wish to use MT successfully in a translation production context. However, there are still many misconceptions about the effective use of the technology. Some of the most common misconceptions include: All MT systems are about the same. Not really, some MT systems that have undergone expert-managed customization and domain focused training can produce dramatically better results than generic systems. This also means that you are not likely to get a very good understanding of the capabilities of an MT technology without doing a real pilot project t...

This is a guest post by Huiping Iler who I had the pleasure to meet in New Orleans last month who made a very interesting presentation on how to increase the intrisnic value of an LSP firm. She runs a language services firm that is one of the growing fold of LSPs who have direct experience with post-editing MT output, and see an increasing role for MT in the future of her business.   I should add that while her own feedback on my presentation here is quite flattering, there were also others who commented through the regular feedback process that my slides were too dense and information filled, and one who even felt that my presentation was a “thinly disguised sales pitch ”. ( I assure you Sir, it was not.) It is difficult to find a balance that makes sense to everybody and all feedback is valuable . The pictures below come from the wonderful photographic eye of Rina Ne’eman taken during her visit to New Orleans. -------------------------------------------------- It was a real de...

One of the major challenges that enterprises have in the use of increased automation in business translation, is understanding the productivity and quality impact of any new automation strategy. As the discussion of quality and and even productivity in the industry is often quite often vague and ill-defined, it is useful to show an example where a company understands with great precision what the impact is before and after the use of new translation production technology. The key questions that one needs to understand are: · What is my current productivity (time taken, words produced) to achieve a defined quality level? · What impact does new automation e.g. an MT system, have on my existing productivity and final delivered quality? Kevin Nelson, a Managing Director at Omnilingua Worldwide , recently presented part of the Asia Online webinar " Meaningful Metrics for Machine Translation ". Omnilingua is a company that prides itself in building teams that deliver definable qual...

As the practice of post-editing MT continues to gain momentum and perhaps even some acceptance as a legitimate practice, there continue to be questions raised about how to do this in a way that is equitable and beneficial to all the stakeholders.  There was an interesting discussion in LinkedIn on this subject where it is possible to see the perspectives of tools developers, LSPs and clients and even some translators in their own words. Some of the things that stand out from this discussion is the general sense of the lack of trust between constituents in the translation production chain, the inability to share and take operational risk between stakeholders, and the difficulty in defining critical elements in the process e.g. MT/final translation quality and accurate productivity implications. The issue of equitable compensation for the post-editors is an important one, and it is important to understand  the issues related to post-editing, that many translators find to be a s...

This is a summary of what I think are some interesting recent articles on the web on subjects relating to MT. The Big Wave , an Italian initiative that focuses on the changes happening in language technology released details and proceeding papers from their conference held in Rome in the summer of 2011. There are many interesting papers related to MT, controlled language and collaborative translation related issues. These papers provide a balance of practitioner, academic and user perspectives on these subjects and are worth a close examination. Some highlights include: Linguistic resources and MT trends for the Italian language by Isabella Chiari discusses the implications of various kinds of data and their value for building data-driven MT systems and provides some specifics for EN <> IT MT systems. The paper is a great overview on the kinds of data that can be used and also provides insight on what data to use and where to use it with summary implications. It also makes a gre...