Monthly Archives: February 2011

Translators Without Borders recruits ProZ.com Certified PRO members for ambitious localization program 3

by • ProZ.com, translation business • Tags: , , , , , ,

For those not already familiar with it, Translators Without Borders is an independent non-profit association established in 1993, dedicated to helping NGOs extend their humanitarian work by providing free, professional translations.

The funds saved through the use of volunteer translations can then be used by the NGOs in the field, enabling them to extend the scope and reach of their humanitarian work. Some of the supported NGOs include Médecins Sans Frontières, Zafèn, Médecins du Monde, Acting for Life, Aide et Action, the Association ASMAE, ATD Fourth World, ATD Fourth World and GoodPlanet.

The core of Translators Without Borders are the about 300 volunteer translators who donate their time, efforts and knowledge to help make the world a better place, together with doctors, nurses and other volunteers working in NGO and humanitarian associations.

Since translations related to humanitarian emergencies leave no time for review (and even less room for error), Translators Without Borders looks exclusively for experienced and solid translators able to do produce strong, professional translations.

Translators willing to volunteer with Translators Without Borders can complete an application and if the application is approved they are required to perform at least a translation test as part of the screening process.

The job interface

ProZ.com has been supporting Translators Without Borders both in the screening of their volunteer translators via the ProZ.com screening center and in the posting of translation jobs.

The current Translators Without Borders jobs interface is extremely efficient. When a job is posted, the system will identify the pool of translators who are approved for the assignment (approved into the system and with the proper language pair and, eventually, field of expertise).

This pool will then be sorted. In the case of Translators Without Borders this sorting is random in nature, because the idea is to balance the load among the volunteers, but in a commercial application other criteria would be followed, according to the preferences of the company acting as platform manager.

The system will then proceed to notify the translators in batches separated by fixed delays. In the case of Translators Without Borders, these are batches of 5 translators each, and there is a 15 minute delay between a batch of notifications and the next but both of these numbers can be controlled.

These notifications include a link to a page dedicated to the job, with optional descriptions of the client, the project and the job, plus the file to be translated and any special instructions provided when posting the job. The translator can review the offered file and all the information and decide to accept it or not.

When one of the notified translators accepts the job, it immediately becomes unavailable to all other translators and no further notifications are sent out.

This interface includes a communications feature for the exchange of messages (with notifications) between the translator and the job poster, and also a feature to deliver the translated file once the job is completed.

A case study: localization of GoodPlanet’s web page

On February 17th, Translators Without Borders was contacted by the NGO GoodPlanet, who requested help in translating their new website into as many languages as possible beyond English, French and Spanish (which were already available).

Since the languages where Translators Without Borders is stronger were not required, a decision was made to contact members of ProZ.com’s Certified PRO Network and to ask them for help, offering to add any volunteer directly to the list of approved Translators Without Borders translators (the Certified PRO Network has a screening process similar to that used by Translators Without Borders).

The results were amazing; 38 translators volunteered and the GoodPlanet website is currently being localized into the following 15 languages: Italian, Portuguese, Arabic, German, Dutch, Romanian, Russian, Indonesian, Polish, Swedish, Turkish, Hungarian, Greek, Slovak and Japanese.

There is room for translation into additional languages. Any Certified PRO members who are willing to collaborate with Translations Without Borders in general, and with GoodPlanet in particular, are welcome to contact Translators Without Borders via their ProZ.com profile at http://www.proz.com/profile/1352791

New feature: Translation feedback area 4

by • ProZ.com • Tags: , , , ,

A new site area was started this week, to allow translators to share and discuss short translation texts. The idea is to share translations to get opinions and feedback from colleagues, and of course to have fun.

This feature is open to ProZ.com members. To see more about how it works, check out the scope and submission guidelines.

Protecting yourself from fraud: another recent example 8

by • knowledge, translation business • Tags: , , , , ,

Thanks to Neil Payne at Kwintessential for bringing this next case out, in which both translators and agency are affected when the scammer poses as a legitimate, existing company.  I reproduce here a version of the post originally made on Kwintessential’s blog (scroll down for the link to the original posting):

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By very good fortune a translation scam using Kwintessential’s name and brand has been exposed by an eagle-eyed translator.

The email was sent to the translator, who shall be called Mr X, requesting information for a large project.

Dear Mr. X

As translation office on the west coast of the US, we are looking for freelance translators in languages: German, French and Spanish.
Our research for translators in the German language has brought up your name again and again. You have been highly recommended by some of our valued customers and colleagues.

We need to request information on your current rates, your fields of expertise (law, merchandising and advertisement needed), words per day translated also a time schedule of your availability for the months of March, April and May 2011.

The project we will be working on, enfolds a value of 80.000 words, was commissioned by a notable US American company.

We will need your documentation not later than March 01.2011.

Best regards,

[Contact information removed from this post]

Emails went back and forth between [the sender] and Mr X with the former potentially placing a large amount of work. It was by good fortune that Mr X was suspicious of the email due to 1) the email being a non-company address (xxxx@aim.com) and 2) the misspelling of Kwintessential. Out of prudency Mr X decided to reply and CC’d our USA office whose address was used in the signature. Our Manager in the USA immediately drew our attention to the matter.

It appears the scam works in the following manner: a translation agency wins a contract to carry out a translation job. In order to increase their profit margins they send emails to freelance translators requesting they take on the assignment. The poor translator naturally feels they are in good hands but will eventually come to realize they will never be paid. The scamming agency therefore makes a 100% mark-up. All the translator can do is come to the real Kwintessential who will obviously have no idea of what has happened.
It is extremely unfortunate that people feel they have to carry out their business without principles and ethics. It is these scammers that give us reputable agencies a bad name. On top of this they are taking advantage of the good will of translators who work extremely hard, are true professionals and do not deserve such treatment.

Thankfully Mr X was clever enough to work out the bad intentions of [the scammer]. We have written to [the scammer] but surprise surprise no reply.

Message of the story for translators is always check the credentials of the agency and ensure 100% they are the real deal.

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See the original post at Intercultural Communication and Translation News

Guest blog post: “The value and importance of a translation industry wiki”, by Niraja Nanjundan 1

by • knowledge, ProZ.com • Tags: , , , ,

I am happy to present the Translator T.O.’s first guest blogger post, this week by member Niraja Nanjundan, on the subject of the translation industry wiki. Niraja has been a regular contributor to the ProZ.com Wiki, and it is nice to have her here to explain how she sees the concept of a translation industry wiki:

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The value and importance of a translation industry wiki, by Niraja Nanjundan

In an interview with the BBC, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of Wikipedia in January of this year, Jimmy Wales, founder of the well-known online encyclopaedia described it as a “temple of the mind,” a place of learning, discussion and debate. Seen from that perspective, the launch of ProZ.com’s translation industry wiki is significant, as it represents the start of an online encyclopaedia or knowledge base aimed specifically at the translation industry. The ProZ.com Wiki will be a collaborative effort of translators and language professionals covering all aspects of the profession from the technical aspects of translation and interpreting to the business side of the industry.

Officially launched last year, the wiki is divided up into several sections, including the art and craft of translation and interpreting, money matters and business issues and ProZ.com members have already been adding valuable contributions. The forum threads attached to each wiki article have proven to be very popular areas for discussion and debate, such as this discussion on the Translator Career Path. That said, more involvement from users and members will be required for the wiki to really take off as a viable resource for the translation industry. What then are the benefits of this type of specialised wiki and in what ways does it differ from an article knowledge base or a translation blog?

  • A wiki contribution is not a one-time effort by one author. It is a collaborative effort with contributions from as many different people who are interested in contributing, and is continuously growing. This means that it can be updated as things change and develop in a particular area or field.
  • As already mentioned, a wiki article can encourage discussion and debate. The fact that anyone can edit and change the content means that if one person disagrees with another person’s contribution, he/she can easily change it, which can give rise to a discussion on the issue. The forum attached to each wiki article on ProZ.com encourages this type of interaction even more.
  • A wiki can also be a platform for raising awareness on issues and creating transparency. The ProZ.com Wiki has a section on Detecting and reacting to false job offers and other scams, for example, an issue that is very important to many of us who increasingly use the internet for our work, and that has been of concern to many colleagues.
  • A translation industry wiki can also be an important and valuable resource for students and those starting out in the profession, as it can include articles and tips on what the profession involves, how to get started, rates and other issues a novice translator may have questions about. ProZ.com’s wiki already has contributions on Establishing yourself as a freelance translator, “Marketing for translators” and Determining your rates and fees as a translator.

Although wiki articles do not give their contributors as much online exposure as a KudoZ answer or a forum posting may, they still provide an opportunity to hone one’s writing skills and share knowledge about topics that may be of interest to colleagues and of value to the translation industry as whole. And as with KudoZ and the forums, the wiki and its dedicated forums also offer a platform for networking, debating pertinent issues and raising awareness.

 

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Thanks to Niraja for the insightful contribution! The ProZ.com Wiki can be found under the Education menu tab on any ProZ.com page, or at this direct link: http://wiki.proz.com/wiki/index.php