There hasn’t been a single area of contemporary life that technology has not had a redefining effect on yet. Technology enables us to reach further and extends our realm of abilities. Translation technology in particular stretches the extent of cross-cultural activities never more so than in our globalized and localized age which in turn brings about several concerns such as quality assurance.
TAUS spoke with Adolfo Hernandez, the CEO of SDL, about what he had learnt from his first 18 months in his position. Adolfo is probably the captain of the translation industry with one of the shortest C-suite tenures. The theme of the conversation was:
"What is the single biggest lesson that you have learnt about the translation industry?"
The translation industry is experiencing a most exciting time of opportunities. In my previous article - The Story of the Translation Industry in 22 - I described ten different innovation themes with an inside-outward looking perspective. In this article I take a view from the outside observing sentiments that could dampen the growth and opportunity curve of the translation industry. Political fashions seem to be leaning more towards protectionism. Companies tend to think that they are more globalized than they in fact are, and find that they are spending enough on localization. The art of localization is to exploit the differences in cultures rather than simplifying them to global standards. We knew that, but do we really practice it? Now more than ever, stakeholders in the translation industry need to be firm about their mission and the unique role they have in their companies’ and clients’ globalization strategies. They need to be “locamaniacs”.
Many of us go to industry events to meet new people, gain knowledge and experience or learn new skills. If you’ve ever attended a conference, you know that they can be a bit daunting, because they are high-paced, the days are long and there are lots of people. You are sometimes also dealing with a jet lag and lacking the comfort of your own home (and bed). To make your conference experience a little easier and, more importantly, more rewarding (in time, energy and money) here are a few tips to make the most out of your conference experience.
What is a Quality Manager in a translation company doing? Checking the quality of the translations, of course. That’s what one would think immediately. But just like many other jobs, the job of the Quality Manager is changing, and just like with other jobs the reason is: data. Here are five reasons why modern Quality Managers should be obsessed about data.
Translation productivity tells you how fast a translation was completed. It’s used to profile translators and post-editors, to set prices, compare vendors, to categorize content or evaluate MT engine output.
However, not everybody agrees productivity is the best way to track a vendor’s performance, irrespective of this vendor being an LSP or a translator.
Rory Cowan, founder of Lionbridge, is stepping down this year after 21 years as a highly successful CEO and moving into the role of Chairman. To kick off a new series of interviews with major figures in the translation/language services industry, TAUS wanted to find out the one big thing that Rory has learnt as head of the world’s largest language service provider. He responded with a veritable master class on how industries evolve, and how market participants can anticipate the timing, magnitude and impact of major industry changes.
The translation industry is adopting machine translation (MT) in increasing numbers. Yet a prerequisite for efficient adoption, the evaluation of MT output quality, remains a major challenge for all. Each year there are many research publications investigating novel approaches that seek ways to automatically calculate quality. The handful of techniques that have entered the industry over the years are commonly thought to be of limited use.
In the age of exponential growth we currently live in, innovation is ubiquitous. Startups are sprouting up everywhere, all with the idea that they have discovered the technology, platform, service, process or model that covers the hole in the market we didn’t know was there yet. Inspiring innovators, genuine game changers and deadly disruptors.
TAUS recently held its 10th Quality Evaluation (QE) Summit in Barcelona, welcoming participants from all over the world both from the buyer and the vendor side. The event was hosted by CA Technologies, a software company specializing in business management software.