TechGist05

“Blogs are about sharing with authenticity. A good blog can help you really connect deeply with your audience in a meaningful way because the content is not only relevant but insightful and personal. I think most enterprises miss that point. When you do it right, your customers will walk away not only having learned something new but will also feel much more connected to your brand . ” David Armano EVP, Global Innovation & Integration at Edelman Digital It seems like it was a just a moment ago that I summarized the most interesting blog posts of 2011 but here we are again and the world has not ended. I was not as active writing in 2012 as I was in 2011 as I felt that I had said much of what I had to say, and really there is only so much one can really write about machine translation without being repetitive. The topic has had more coverage across the industry and is perhaps slightly better understood now than it was last year. I am limiting the list to the top 6 since I had fewer ...

In my last post I talked about various viewpoints on the emerging trends in the industry and I noticed that the post very quickly established itself amongst the most popular of the year. In fact second only to a March posting on post-editing compensation, a subject which continues to draw ongoing attention. In many ways this post is an expansion on some of the points that were raised in the last post . When one considers the general focus of translation work done by the professional translation industry, I think we see that a large part of the work is related to translating content that facilitates and enables international commerce. The world of localization, to a great extent focuses on the content that is closely related to the final packaging of products that are sold in international markets. This focus is the software and documentation localization mindset that is at the heart of the largest translation agencies work in the business translation industry. So much so tha...

As the year comes to a close, it is sometimes useful to review and look ahead on where things may be going, and even though many of these type of ruminations can be self-indulgent and self-serving, I have decided to throw in my two cents anyway. These are personal opinions on other opinions, and like much of what I do in this blog, this is also a collection of information that I consider most worthwhile to share on this subject of trends. The translation industry remains a highly fragmented industry with relatively inefficient production and business models. In 2012 we still have over 25,000 language service providers (agencies) of varying quality and professionalism doing the work of business translation across the globe. Efforts to define the final product or service produced by these firms are unsuccessful despite valiant efforts from industry associations.   However, many have been talking about change and disintermediation and many of us are aware that something is afoot....

MT continues to build momentum because the need for large global enterprises to make more information available faster, continues relentlessly. There are still some who question the “content tsunami”, and we are now getting some data points that define this for industry players in very specific terms, for those who are still doubtful.  For example, last week at AMTA 2012, a senior Dell localization professional gave us a specific data point: Dell has increased it’s volume of business and product related translation from 30 million words to 60 million words in two years. This was done without any increase in translation budget. This situation is mirrored across the information technology industry, and now many with information intensive products apparently do realize that translating large amounts of product/service related information enhances global business success. Given the speed and volume of information creation, it is often necessary and perhaps even imperative to use techn...

An issue that continues to be a source of great confusion and dissatisfaction in the translation industry is related to the determination of the appropriate compensation rate for post-editing work. Much of the dissatisfaction with MT is related to this being done badly or unfairly. It is important that the translation industry develop a means to properly determine this compensation issue in a way that is acceptable to all stakeholders. Thus, developing a scheme that is considered fair and reasonable by the post-editor, the LSP and the final enterprise customer is valuable to all in the industry. It is my feeling that economic systems that provide equitable benefits to all stakeholders are the ones most likely to succeed in the long-term. Achieving consensus on this issue would enable the professional translation industry to reach higher levels of productivity and also increase the scope and reach of business translation as enterprises start translating new kinds of content with higher...

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...