This is #SmartReads 6-2017 on the Translation Industry, a digest of articles and news on the translation & localisation industry. If you want to be notified every time a new digest is available, please subscribe here.
Even if you have nothing to write, write and say so.” (Cicero)
There are no special articles or reviews in this issue of the #SmartReads newsletter. There is a heat wave going on in the Northern Hemisphere and a pile of work is building up on my desk. But I am going to test some newish technology next week, you’ll read about it in the next issue.
In the meantime here are some links for your information, meditation and relaxation.
The Democratization of Translation – This is the presentation that Spence Green, CEO of Lilt, held at the first SlatorCon in London, back in May. In case you still don’t know, Lilt is a platform offering AdaptiveMT technology to translators and translation businesses alike.
Machine translation and Brute Force – Noam Chomsky gives his opinion on machine translation and natural language processing. Yes, he uses Google Translate.
Translation Quality Tools – An article by Arle Lommel (Common Sense Advisory) on three new arrivals on the translation-quality-tools stage.
For a broader and at the same time systematic view on what constitutes quality and how to manage it, try these 9 pages of notes and quotes from “Quality is Free“, the classic on quality management by Philip B. Crosby.
***Free Download*** – Getting the most from MT and PE – Originally a presentation given by Luigi Muzii at LocWorld34, this article is meant for LSPs and translation buyers who want to manage their MT-PE projects in a productive way. The article contains suggestions and recommendations to define the best setup for an operating environment based on the right project requirements and practices. For more on post-editing practices, you might want to check the TAUS PE4PM guide by the same author, available in English, Italian, Russian, Spanish and Polish.
The Future of Non-Text Communication – This is a podcast from the BBC on the role of emoji in non-textual communication. Did you know that we send over 6 billion emoji every day and sometimes we send emoji-only messages? When Oxford Dictionaries named the ‘Face with Tears of Joy’ emoji as their ‘Word of the Year 2015’, there was a lot of public criticism. Can an emoji really be a word? Will emoji make us dumber? Or lazier? Will they make us less adept at communicating? Also, back in December 2016, Today Translations was looking for an emoji translator: Is the death of language near?
**Suggested Beach Reading on artificial intelligence** – Even if you’re not a fan of science fiction and aren’t even slightly interested in AI, I promise you, you’ll love this novel: Speak by Louisa Hall. the novel features Alan Turing, some dangerously addictive robots and a computer programme named MARY. Here is the NPR’s interview with the author.