I met a very nice and well-informed man at the ATC conference in September - Renato Beninatto - who has his finger on the pulse of the big companies in the globalisation, localisation and translation world. Today he sent me his predictions for movements in the industry in 2007 -some of which could potentially affect European freelancers like us:
The Good News
Companies like Alchemy, Lingotek and MultiCorpora and other new players are expected to challenge SDL-Trados market dominance on TM - could this mean cheaper software for us?
The Translator Profile Exchange (TPX) initiative will allow Language Service Providers (LSPs) to receive automatic updates on translator profiles and work records - no more sending out endless CVs to agencies every time you add skills and experience (perhaps). Though this would only be for those large companies who subscribe to the scheme - the others will still have their separate databases.
Mash-ups are on their way - for instance Googlemaps and estate agents can now combine to show properties on a map - Renato believes we may see directory services tied to Googlemaps which send SMS messages to interpreters near the location needing language help....
The Bad News
Google, IBM, Language Weaver and Microsoft will be looking further into statistics-based automated translation applications, these will produce better automatic translations based on corpora of texts - this one will be interesting to watch.
India's National Knowledge Commission expects 500,000 jobs to be created in the Indian translation industry (Cisco, Microsoft and EMC are already there).
China has loads of foreign currency and salaries of US$600 per year for an editor, they are expected to build a powerful language and translation sector both for internal minorities and their export activities - watch this space!
BUT!
Before all this sets our hearts-a-fluttering we must remember that good quality output of any complexity can only be produced by human translators well-versed in the details of the real world - culture, genre, professional and local usage and the like.
One over-riding message from the ATC conference in September was that all the key players are desperate for listings of good, reliable, professional translators - many buy-outs of smaller companies are based almost exceptionally on the aquisition of good databases.
And remember, the big boys of the sector may be profit motivated and margin dominated, but they cannot provide adequate quality products for the high-end of the market without the likes of you and me.
For up to date information on developments amongst the big boys (albeit with a bit of a US bias) see:
www.commonsenseadvisory.com
Wednesday, 13 December 2006
Thursday, 7 December 2006
Web Learning: TM and Corpora with MeLLANGE
Talking of e-learning: the ITI offered their members three weeks of free access to two e-learning courses developed by the MeLLANGE consortium last month in return for feedback to the team developing these.
The courses, "Translation Memory 2" and " Corpora for Translation," covered the key points of both these subjects in quite some detail, including some practical activities on demo versions of the software allowing students to practice the procedures they were learning.
Personally, I would have liked some more of these "hands on" elements (I have to do things about 10 times before the process sinks in) but on the whole the courses were very well-structured, meaning the blocs could be taken at a pace that suited individual learning capacity/time availability.
There were a few irritating elements in some of the "movies" (jazzy swirly bits you could not switch off) and I had to play some of the TM demos two or three times to get all the steps as the breaks seemed a little too far apart.
Overall though, the courses are an excellent introduction to two areas of relatively recent development in translation. They are are great for building up vague ideas into informed opinions, providing valid criticism of these technologies along with praise for their capacities.
I must admit, I do get very over-excited at the potential of e-learning! For people like me with limited time, family and work commitments etc. it's the best way I can see of accessing new concepts and keeping abreast of the constant changes in professional skills and practices. Hmmmmmmmmm! That's got my cogs turning...
(For more abouth MeLLANGE see http://mellange.eila.jussieu.fr/ )
The courses, "Translation Memory 2" and " Corpora for Translation," covered the key points of both these subjects in quite some detail, including some practical activities on demo versions of the software allowing students to practice the procedures they were learning.
Personally, I would have liked some more of these "hands on" elements (I have to do things about 10 times before the process sinks in) but on the whole the courses were very well-structured, meaning the blocs could be taken at a pace that suited individual learning capacity/time availability.
There were a few irritating elements in some of the "movies" (jazzy swirly bits you could not switch off) and I had to play some of the TM demos two or three times to get all the steps as the breaks seemed a little too far apart.
Overall though, the courses are an excellent introduction to two areas of relatively recent development in translation. They are are great for building up vague ideas into informed opinions, providing valid criticism of these technologies along with praise for their capacities.
I must admit, I do get very over-excited at the potential of e-learning! For people like me with limited time, family and work commitments etc. it's the best way I can see of accessing new concepts and keeping abreast of the constant changes in professional skills and practices. Hmmmmmmmmm! That's got my cogs turning...
(For more abouth MeLLANGE see http://mellange.eila.jussieu.fr/ )
SDL Multiterm Webinar
Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending (virtually) the first SDL Multiterm Webinar - a presentation on how to use Multiterm to structure a termbase by Michael Wetzel. Although my technical incapacity meant I missed the first couple of minutes (I couldn't get the VOIP to work!) I could then relax and enjoy an introduction to Multiterm in the comfort of my own big chair.
I am no techie, but basically Mr Wetzel's desktop appeared on my screen and the presentation played itself out with Mr W talking us through the advantages of Multiterm over Excel and the like, going on to describe the basics of termbase structure in the SDL program.
I was ready to be presented with a sales spiel and was pleasantly surprised to find there was a large section of the middle of the presentation that was really useful to me as a frustrated Multiterm user (there was a little promotion, but it was within the bounds of reason).
Overall then, (and to my surprise as I am always wary of anything offered free by large corporations) I was favourably impressed, and I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with next.
I presume the Webinar was offered only to recent Trados/Multiterm customers, but I will let you know if they are planning to open these up to the general public when they get back to me.
(30 mins later - the SDL Marketing Initiatives Manager Massimo Ghislandi said they sent invitations out to license holders, but they were happy for this to be sent on to "friends" - so basically if you know someone with Trados/Multiterm and you fancy a bit of free input, get them to forward future invitations to you.)
I am no techie, but basically Mr Wetzel's desktop appeared on my screen and the presentation played itself out with Mr W talking us through the advantages of Multiterm over Excel and the like, going on to describe the basics of termbase structure in the SDL program.
I was ready to be presented with a sales spiel and was pleasantly surprised to find there was a large section of the middle of the presentation that was really useful to me as a frustrated Multiterm user (there was a little promotion, but it was within the bounds of reason).
Overall then, (and to my surprise as I am always wary of anything offered free by large corporations) I was favourably impressed, and I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with next.
I presume the Webinar was offered only to recent Trados/Multiterm customers, but I will let you know if they are planning to open these up to the general public when they get back to me.
(30 mins later - the SDL Marketing Initiatives Manager Massimo Ghislandi said they sent invitations out to license holders, but they were happy for this to be sent on to "friends" - so basically if you know someone with Trados/Multiterm and you fancy a bit of free input, get them to forward future invitations to you.)
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