The deadline for program submissions is just around the corner – May 21. The technology showcase, where you can demonstrate research or commercial systems that incorporate MT for FREE, accepts submissions well into June. There are program tracks for commercial and government users of MT. The submission requirements for user studies are quite modest. If you are an active MT user, please consider telling your story at AMTA! You can find details under Call for Papers and User Presentations on the AMTA conference website.

Two keynote speakers have been confirmed: Bonnie Dorr, DARPA Language Technology Program Manager, and Luis von Ahn, founder and inventor or reCAPTCHA and Duolingo and a notable TED speaker (see our January post).

AMTA is sponsored by Microsoft, SDL International, Systran, and Multilingual.

Language technologies such as translation environment tools, terminology management systems, term extractors and machine translation systems play a growing role in the language industry today. They can allow us to achieve things we would never have believed possible or practical, but they can also bring equally unanticipated challenges. In either case, they can affect the ways that we as language professionals perceive our role and our work. To better understand how the effects of language technologies are perceived in a wide range of working environments, we need to encourage a wide variety of language professionals to share their views.

This means that if you are a language professional, we need your help! If you currently use or have ever used language technologies in your work, you are invited to participate in the study Powering the language industry and empowering language professionals: A dual role for language technologies? conducted by Elizabeth Marshman, Assistant Professor at the University of Ottawa’s School of Translation and Interpretation (elizabeth.marshman@uottawa.ca).

To participate, any time until April 15, 2012, simply fill out the anonymous, online questionnaire at http://app.fluidsurveys.com/s/em-powering-translation/langeng/ and tell us about your personal observations and perceptions. By investing a few minutes of your time in sharing your opinions about technologies’ influence, you can help language professionals, clients and employers, professional associations, technology developers and educators to better understand how technologies affect how “in control” you as a language professional feel in various aspects of your work, and some of the main benefits and drawbacks of technology use.

Elizabeth Marshman has been teaching terminology and translation technologies at the School of Translation and Interpretation since 2007. She is currently the Director of the Collection of Electronic Resources in Translation Technologies (CERTT) team. CERTT includes a range of translation technology training resources that are available to the public through the Language Technologies Research Centre’s LinguisTech site.

Language Technology at European Institutions
author: Conrad Toft, European Economic and Social Committee
published: Jan. 9, 2012, recorded: June 2011 ▼

Link to the presentation slides.

Copyright VideoLectures.Net
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0

You can find the website at www.cttic-edu.ca, and there should be at least one face familiar to LTD members.

(via A Walk in the Words)

This is a straight-forward, short survey; it will not take much of your time and it will not solicit any information you would not want to share with anyone.

While it is easy to grasp that shiny new computers or feature-loaded laptops have a tangible value and should be protected against damage and loss, it is actually the intangible data residing on those computers that are much more valuable and, in many cases, irreplaceable if the proper protective measures are lacking.

It’s always shocking to learn
how many translators give no thought to
and spend no effort on
securing their data,
even though these data are
the lifeblood of their business.

For better or for worse, most data that drive a freelance translator’s business exist in electronic form. This goes way beyond source and target documents. We all keep reference material and glossaries on our hard drives and accumulate translation memory entries. The e-mail correspondence with our clients resides on the same drives, as do our bookkeeping files where we keep track of invoices and payments. And that is probably not everything. What about software we downloaded, our fonts, or credentials for access to websites and accounts? What about browser bookmarks and other important reference material we found on the Internet?

In discussions with colleagues, it is always shocking to learn how many translators put no thought or effort into developing strategies to secure their data, even though these data are the lifeblood of their business. Where does that leave you in case something happens to your computer after a fire, flood, or theft? Hardware is easy to replace – just walk into the nearest Best Buy and you are all set. However, with your accounting, your e-mail archives, and translation memories gone, not to mention any projects you may have been working on, you will have a much harder time to recover.

Securing data against loss to safeguard one’s business intersects with another important aspect: protecting data against unauthorized access. One of the cornerstones of our business is confidentiality. Clients hand us documents with all kinds of information, and they have a reasonable expectation that those details will not go beyond our desk. Backing up and securing data will help you maintain client privacy and give you peace of mind. There are several options out there to safeguard data. Let’s get started.

Backing Up Data

Hard drives fail. It is not a question of if, but when. Environmental factors, such as heat, will accelerate failure. The objective is therefore to store the information not only on the hard drive but in other places as well, so that we can retrieve it from there in case of a hard drive failure.

It’s actually the
intangible data residing on computers
that are much more valuable and,
in many cases, irreplaceable if
the proper protective measures are lacking.

Data backups require a backup strategy that takes into account the time and storage required for the backup, the ease of restoring data from the backup set, and how often data changes on your computer. It is a good idea to invest some thought and planning into your backup strategy. Once disaster strikes, it is too late.

There are two types of backups relevant to the situation of most freelance translators: full backups and incremental backups. You can decide to use only full backups or a combination of full and incremental backups.

The full backup is exactly that: a complete copy of all files you want to back up to your backup storage. It is the first step in any backup strategy. While backing up takes longer with a full backup, restoring data is very simple.

The incremental backup copies those files that have been created or changed since the last full backup. It has to be based on a full backup to work. The backup time required is shorter, but restoring data is a more time-consuming process.

In your backup plan, you could decide, for example, to make a full backup every weekend and incremental backups at the end of every weekday. The backup schedule, as well as the selection of files you want to back up, depends entirely on the nature of your work and what data you are planning to secure. In any event, it is probably a good idea to arrange to have several versions of your data available at all times, just in case you want to revert to an earlier version of a file.

External Drives

Of the many choices in storage media, the external hard drive seems to have the most advantages. Those drives are available in a wide selection, and it should be possible to find one that fits most budgets and storage requirements. The cost per megabyte has fallen dramatically, so there is no reason to scrimp on external storage.

External hard drives connect through a USB port and have their own power supply. Switching external drives off when not directly in use extends their life and keeps them separated from the computer and any disasters that may happen there. In addition, external hard drives are portable. You can take them with you or store them off-site when you travel, so disasters like fire, water, or theft are less likely to affect your data.

RAID

One technology that has become available to average computer users is called RAID, short for “Redundant Array of Independent Disks.” Here, a computer has two (or more) identical hard drives, and a RAID controller makes sure that the content of the first drive is mirrored exactly onto the second. This is called Level 1 RAID.

The great news is that RAID 1 automatically copies all data to a second drive. The downside is that it also automatically copies all mistakes and errors – if you irreversibly delete or overwrite something by mistake, it is gone on both drives. However, if one drive suddenly fails, you can continue working with the other drive until you are ready to get your computer fixed, and that is worth a lot. Just remember that it is not a true backup system; it secures availability of your computer in case of a drive failure.

Remote Backup

Thanks to broadband Internet access, remote backup solutions have become feasible. These are set-ups where your data are sent via the Internet to a remote location for storage. Remote storage locations keep data safe from disasters that may befall your work location.

Securing data against loss
to safeguard one’s business intersects
with another important aspect:
protecting data against
unauthorized access.

The upside of remote backup solutions is that they usually synchronize your backup copies with your hard drive on a continuous basis. You do not have to worry about forgetting to back up your data. The physical safety of the remote location is also a plus.

The downside is the slow pace of data transmission even with fast broadband connections. When you start with a on-line data backup scheme, it may initially take days or even weeks to send a first set of all your data to the remote location. The service I’m using, Crashplan, offers “seeding” of backups for an additional fee. They mail a hard drive to their customers for storage of a first round of backups. After returning the drive to Crashplan, they then seed your on-line backup space with the data from that drive. My on-line storage is around 200 GB, and this seeding service has saved me a lot of time when I started to back up to Crashplan. If you are generating a fair amount of data, keep in mind that it may be difficult to keep up with backups. Another caveat is that your data will be entrusted to third-party servers, which is something you may not want to do with sensitive files unless they are encrypted.

With all the convenience of “the cloud,” don’t close your eyes to the fact that you are actually not in control of your data. The service can become suddenly unavailable (the keyword here is Amazon); the company offering the service can go out of business and your data can disappear; there can be serious security lapses (the keyword is Dropbox). It is important to know what can go wrong – and to back up locally on a regular basis as well, like to an external hard drive.

Unauthorized Access

When we think about keeping our data secure, it is important to understand that this not only serves our own interests but our clients’ as well. As ATA members, we subscribe to the Code of Ethics and Professional Practice, which states that translators accept as their ethical and professional duty

“to hold in confidence any privileged and/or confidential information entrusted to us in the course of our work.”

In addition, many of our clients ask us to sign non-disclosure agreements that stipulate adherence to the strictest confidentiality. But even without such agreements, it seems to me that observing practices that safeguard confidentiality is only logical as an integral part of professional behavior.

Riccardo Schiaffino describes in a February 2010 post in his blog, About Translation, how some translation companies send out requests for quotes to undisclosed lists of translators and attach confidential and/or sensitive documents to that request. This is hardly what clients had in mind as confidential treatment of their material. After sending sensitive files to unvetted recipients, sending them by e-mail without encryption is probably the next-worst breach of confidentiality.

E-mail is inherently insecure. The message content, as well as the attachment content, can be intercepted and read by anyone at any point along the transmission path. In addition, content can be altered without the recipient’s knowledge. To make things worse, the sender of a mail message can be faked easily.

Yet, many translators and agencies seem to trust the Internet. Instead of locking up sensitive content, all they do is add arcane disclaimers to their e-mail messages. By having a system in place that protects the confidentiality of data through blocking unauthorized access, translators can use this as an important selling point in their direct-client marketing efforts.

Transmission

The transmission of data is one of the more vulnerable transactions, but it is rarely protected against unauthorized access. The most logical step to safeguard this process is to encrypt the transmission.

For a long time, the gold standard of encryption for e-mail has been Pretty Good Privacy (PGP). There are open-source versions with reasonably easy interfaces that integrate with popular e-mail clients. There used to be a version for Google Mail which, unfortunately, is no longer supported. Paid versions of PGP, sold by Symantec, can be used both for desktop clients and on-line mail services. Early incarnations of PGP had a hard-to-master command-line interface, which gave it the reputation of being unfriendly. The good news is that this is no longer the case.

Another encryption option is to use secure FTP transfer, for which the server you connect to has to be set up. Yet another way is to encrypt the file only and attach it to an unencrypted e-mail.

Many encryption schemes, like the one offered for PDF files, can be circumvented easily. If you are serious about file confidentiality, research the advantages of public-key encryption and select the best method available.

Travel

Many translators lead very mobile lives and carry a lot of their data with them, either on a laptop or on memory sticks. There are many risks associated with transporting your date in this manner. For example, you could lose the data, the memory device could be stolen, or officials could confiscate these devices when you enter the country. For that very reason, many business people use remote servers to store their data rather than carry them on their laptops.

If you have to travel with important and sensitive data and you want to keep them from falling into the wrong hands while on the road, you can encrypt your laptop’s hard drive or the memory stick. For an additional level of security, you can also create a hidden volume and even a hidden operating system for what is called “plausible deniability.” Here you can invisibly store data in case you are forced to reveal the password for the regular, not hidden, encrypted hard drive parts.

How Secure Are You?

Take a hard look at your computer and data situation. Determine how you would fare in case of sudden data loss. Ask yourself how well your clients’ data are protected against unauthorized access. If you have no backup and encryption schemes in place, now would be a good time to start protecting your most valuable assets and to show your clients that you take confidentiality very seriously. Make sure to check out the various links below for more information on various programs available to you.

© 2010 Michael Wahlster

The following links are for information only; you should make yourself knowledgeable about the pros and cons as well as about alternative solutions:

Backup
∎ Acronis Backup & Recovery
∎ Norton Ghost
∎ EMC Retrospect

Encryption
∎ GPG4Win (PGP for Windows)
∎ PGP for Mac
∎ FireGPG (PGP for Google Mail) – no longer supported
∎ Symantec PGP products
∎ TrueCrypt

Remote Backup
∎ Dropbox
∎ Carbonite
∎ Crashplan

http://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/user_timeline.rss?screen_name=xxxxx

This is your Twitter RSS feed – when you replace xxxxx with your Twitter name.

RSS
Feed icon

Why is this important? You may want to feed the tweets of a Twitter account to your blog or website, and the easiest way (other than using, for example, WordPress widgets) is via RSS. I know that RSS is seen by many as yesterday’s technology. Still, RSS feeds are easy to handle and can be used in a variety of situations. The retweeting of LTD website posts on the LTD Twitter account is an example for RSS-driven functionality. Since many of the more “modern” methods acutally build on RSS, it will probably not go away anytime soon.

In case you do not know how RSS feeds work, there is a short description on this website from way back in April 2007.

The minutes of the meeting are now up. You can click on LTD Documents in the sidebar to see all LTD-related documents available, or you go straight to the AGM 2011 Minutes.

The largest part of the time slot was taken up by a panel discussion on standards. Jiri Stejskal moderated a panel consisting of Beatriz Bonnet, Susanne Lauscher and Alan Melby. At this time, immediate past Division Administrator Michael Metzger is busy setting up an on-line standards survey. You will receive an e-mail notification once the survey is on-line. Please make sure to fill out the short questionnaire.

LTD Annual General Meeting 2011

Last night I was at a Colorado Translators Association event at which the presenter (the ever-popular editing consultant Alice Levine), mentioned an online tutorial for the Track Changes feature in Microsoft Word. This made me realize that there must be similar websites for OpenOffice.org. Here are a few that I’ve found:

A really comprehensive resource for OpenOffice.org users is Get OpenOffice.org, which offers all kinds of training materials, transition advice, tips on running OO.o on Vista, etc. Solveig Haugland, the founder of Get OpenOffice.org is also the author of the OpenOffice.org 2 Guidebook, so this website rates high on the reliability index! She also has a blog about OO.o, at OpenOffice.blogs.com.

Learn OpenOffice.org offers a variety of free online tutorials that focus on how to solve a particular problem using OO.o. Their tutorials look really helpful and you can choose between text-only or Flash mode (thank you!). The only drawback is that there are tutorials for Impress (OO.o’s presentation program) and Calc (spreadsheet), but not for Writer, which is the application that most translators are likely to use.

The official OO.o website has a tutorials page, with lessons written by various contributors. The topics are a bit random since they’re contributed by volunteers and most of the tutorials require you to download a file, but these are definitely worth a look.

A very helpful site is VnTutor, which has a lengthy list of tutorials for Writer, Base, Impress and Calc and allows you to view them right on the site. The tutorials also have lots of pictures to make their points clearer.

Although it’s not specifically a tutorial, my pick for online OO.o information would be Solveig Haugland’s blog, and you can use the Categories menu on the right to find the topic you’re interested in.

[First published in Corinne McKay’s blog Thoughts On Translation.]