It’s getting crowded!

A critical view of what crowdsourcing can do for terminology as a discipline.

EAFT Barcelona 2014

BarbaraIngeKarsch

Scenario

• IT industry

• Strong focus on tools/functionality

• Documentation in a TMS

• Controlled language

• Translation processes

• Prescriptive approach

• Vs. terminology work to drive, e.g. SEO

Terminology work

• What can the crowd do?

• Help with coining new terms or names

• Vote on term/name suggestions

• Comment on terminological entries

• E.g. making definitions more precise

• …

WHAT’S OLD, WHAT’S NEW, WHAT’S OUR NEED

Terminologists and the crowd

• No change

• Terminology work has never been a

solitary endeavor.

• Change

• The type of people we work with has

changed.

Expert

• A subject matter expert:

• Has a documented history of working in the

area for which they are an expert;

• Has done the work;

• Exhibits the highest level of expertise in

performing a specialized job, task, or skill

within the organization;

• Has in-depth knowledge of the subject.

• Has bona fide expert knowledge about what it

takes to do a particular job.

• Understands a business process or area well

enough to answer questions from people in

other groups.

Experts et al

• Who are the folks that we need to involve in the terminology work for a software program?

• Yes, subject matter experts

• Product managers

• Users

• …

Terminologists and the speed of change

“We used to manage about two concepts

a day because we had to go on field trips

to see our SMEs.”(Hendrik Kockaert, former EU Terminologist)

Needs

• We need input.

• We need it fast.

• We need it from different audiences (experts <-> users).

EXAMPLES

Harvesting subject matter expertise

• System: J.D. Edwards terminology management system

• When: Created in 1998

• Medium: TMS had integrated commenting and workflow functionality

• Outcome: Feedback from experts in subsidiaries and others

Coining new names

• Product: Microsoft Windows Vista (2006)

• What: German names for new games

• Medium: SharePoint site

• Participants: German native speakers, MVPs who had special technical knowledge, but also knew the audience

• Outcome: 85% of the final names originated from participant ideas

Finding target language equivalents

• Product: Windows 8

• What: Names/terms

• Medium: Microsoft Terminology Forum

• Participants: Open to anyone

• Problem:

• Terminological data not prepared well

• Outcome: [Some] crowd input wasn’t useful.

Example

Hype gone wrong!

• The crowd needs to be provided with correct and useful input.

• A terminological definition

• Mandatory terminological data

• Each project needs a specific crowd.

• The crowd cannot do prescriptive terminology work.

• User interface can’t do it all, but it is important, too.

TOOLS

What do TMSs need?

What do TMSs need?

• Commenting features

• Voting features

• Statistics and evaluation

• Polished!

• Terminologists deal with dozens of entries

a day.

Conclusion

• Push for new functionality in TMSs

• Awareness for terminology issues

• Access to input

• Be adamant that a terminologist be part of the process