How to Survive Technological Hypes
This article was originally published on the WordBee Blog. Neural networks, neural machine translation, speech-to-speech technology, blockchain, translator implants in our brains, automated interpreting, mind reading computers, digital twins, ambient intelligence. In one word: artificial intelligence. Are all these technologies hypes that will deflate in time? Or will they become relevant to our business? How to Spot a Hype As language professionals, we turned first to a dictionary for a definition of the word “hype”. This is what...
read moreGDPR: What’s the Commotion All About?
This article was originally published on the WordBee Blog. Does Y2K Ring a Bell? Where were you on January 1st, 2000, at 00:00 AM? I was switching on my computer to see whether it would still be working. Like many others, I was scared that, because of the Y2K, the global ICT infrastructures (including my humble desktop) would collapse in the first few minutes of the year 2000 and society would descend into chaos. In the end, Jan. 1, 2000 went by rather quietly. Y2K turned out to be a bit of a damp squib, but it was a golden bowl for...
read more[#SmartReads 3-2018] The second sneak preview
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#SmartReads 3-2018 on the Translation Industry. The March issue of this newsletter contained a sneak preview about the Translation Technology Summer 2018. Here comes another announcement. Build the Foundation Meeting The Luxembourg-based translation technology provider WordBee is organizing a user meeting in Brussels on May 30, 2018. They have a great program with two tracks, one centered around the numerous functionalities of the WordBee platform and one with presentations by various experts. The WordBee team has kindly invited me to join a...
read more[#SmartReads 2-2018] What’s coming
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Hello, Here it is: #SmartReads 2-2018 on the Translation Industry. I skipped the February newsletter because there are few interesting things in the pipeline. I am going to write about them very soon. For the time being I am going to give you just one small sneak preview… Keep reading. Sneak Preview: Translation Technology for the Summer 2018 The International Summer School for Translation Technology, organized by the Belgian university KU Leuven, is now in its 3rd edition and will take place from Sep. 3 to Sep. 7, 2018. It’s a...
read moreBest of Translation Fun –
#SmartReads on the Translation Industry 1-2018. Downloads Galore During the Christmas break, I took some time to write a couple of documents. They were meant initially for my clients, but after feedback from some colleagues, I’ve decided to make them widely available. First of all, I put together a Cheat Sheet on translation project management because, despite today’s most sophisticated translation management systems, it still pays to take the basics into account. You can download the Cheat Sheet here. Also, in the last four...
read more[Newsletter] #SmartReads on the #Translation Industry – 2017
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#SmartReads on the Translation Industry is a digest of interesting, popular or unusual articles and news on… Translation & Localisation Translation Technology Terminology Language & Communication … and other facets of the translation and localisation industry. Not sure whether you should sign up? Take a look at the previous issues underneath #SmartReads 2017-1 – The Beginning #SmartReads 2017-2 – Facts, Fiction and Terminology #SmartReads 2017- 3 – Controlled Languages and Translators’ Training...
read moreStarting Up
I live in Amsterdam, the city that prides itself not only for its “live and let live” mentality and for having been a location for Sense8, but also for being iCapital, i.e. the European Capital of Innovation 2016. Tesla, Netflix, Optimizely and NextDoor have the European HQ in Amsterdam. Companies like TomTom, Squla, Alliander and others are attracting young talented data scientists and machine learning experts to Amsterdam. And when even a royalty is involved in StartUpFest Europe, you know that the Dutch mean business. But what about my...
read more[Interview] What Writers Can Learn from Watching MasterChef
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Lisa Friedman is a well-known writer and writing instructor in the Netherlands. In 2003, she founded the Amsterdam Writing Workshops for writers of fiction and nonfiction. In 2010, she formed the Institute for Business Writing to serve people who write in the professional contexts of industry, government, and NGOs. I’ve known Lisa for quite a long time and I’ve taken many of her workshops. Last week we found some time to get together, break bread and talk about writing. What Writers Can Learn By Watching MasterChef is the write-up...
read more[Guest Post] The Need For MT Evaluation
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After I published my review of Slate Desktop few weeks ago, I received some interesting comments. Specifically my statement If you’re a translator who works with texts that are not confidential, your best bet would be to choose Google Translate (of course, it also depends on your language pairs). If you translate mostly confidential texts and your clients require maximum privacy, then SD could help you leverage your language data. seems to have intrigued some readers. Is GNMT really better than a Slate engine? Why build a SMT engine when NMT...
read more[Review] Who Is A Translator’s New Best Friend?
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When I am involved in training colleagues or students (for ex., the ITV students) and have to talk about machine translation and post-editing, I have to remind myself not to take a few things for granted: My story shouldn’t become too technical, otherwise most of the participants will have a case of MEGO. I need to pinpoint that, although far from perfect, Google Translate has been constantly improving since inception, especially considering that is not a language- and domain-specific system. Inevitably, one or more students come up with the...
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