SDL is excited to announce that our Chief Scientific Officer, Daniel Marcu, will be sharing his vision for automated translation at the TAUS Asia Summit in Tokyo and Beijing.

In this session, Daniel will talk about what is required to transition MT from a component into an ecosystem - one where MT is touched by numerous products and platforms and becomes an integral part of each and every communication.

If your company is just getting started with automated translation, or if you have been using it for years, TAUS events are always a great source of knowledge, best practices and interesting conversations.

If you are interested in learning more about these events or registering, details are below: Hosted by Oracle Japan, Translation in the 21^st Century takes place in Tokyo from April 19-20, 2012. Attendees are encouraged to enjoy an open exchange about language business innovation and translation technology throughout the two day event. This will mark the second TAUS meeting in Japan and is expected to be a fantastic event!

For further information on Translation in the 21^st Century in Tokyo, click: http://www.translationautomation.com/executive-forums/taus-tokyo-executive-forum.html

Language Business Innovation will be held April 24-25, 2012, in Beijing. The event looks to address real language communication challenges both in Asia and across the globe. This open forum is sure to be a can’t miss event for anyone in the area.

To find out more about Language Business Innovation, see: http://www.translationautomation.com/conferences/taus-asia-translation-summit.html

SDL / Language Weaver is looking for outstanding PhD students for summer internships with our research team in Los Angeles. Interns will work one on one with a mentor on a three-month NLP research project.

Our projects are centered around machine translation and natural language processing. The exact nature of the project will depend on the interests and background of the intern.

If interested, please send an email to Stephanie Cardona <scardona@sdl.com> by February 20, 2012, with "2012 Internship Application -- applicant name" in the subject. Please include your CV and a statement that describes your research interests and experience. U.S. citizenship is not required.

SDL Language Weaver is the first company to bring a statistical translation system to market.  Its R&D team solves large-scale NLP problems with the goal of increasing MT's commercial impact.

In both technology and business, cloud is a hot topic.  At SDL, things are no different and we are expanding cloud offerings to support a more dynamic, versatile translation environment.

As part of the release of SDL Trados Studio 2011 SP1, translators can now take advantage of SDL BeGlobal – the industry’s first cloud platform for trusted, automated translation – with a free SDL BeGlobal Community account.

Today, SDL has launched Elevation Center - the Localization Industry’s First Briefing Center for Cloud Computing.  Globalization and Localization professionals are invited to participate in an industry-wide conversation to drive innovation and advances in the cloud for our industry.

Elevation Center will expand over the next several months and will include a series of presentations, educational seminars, live chat sessions, forums, product demonstrations and podcasts - all delivered through innovative cloud platforms.  Localization professionals can meet peers, network with others in the center, learn about cloud computing, participate in conversations on topics of interest to the industry and explore ways to work together.

Join today to be part of this industry-wide conversation. Sign up to gain access to Elevation Center

Post by Mark Tapling, CEO, SDL Language Technologies

Eight months ago, I was given the opportunity to lead the Language Technologies Division at SDL, and I have felt fortunate to be in this role at a time when there is so much opportunity for the localization industry. Today, it is easier than ever to connect with people all over the globe, but accelerating the way the world communicates requires great language skills. Language is it is at the center of global business, and with the ease of communication across new channels, language matters to a much wider community within a company. While English may have emerged as the common lingua franca, the introduction, engagement, and evaluation cycles that lead to an English based transaction, are all done in local languages.

Last Thursday I presented an online webinar called “Real Time Translation can be useful, but how accurate is it?”.

Automated(or Machine) Translation is right now one of the most talked about topic in the localization industry. Some localization companies are offering Automated Translation to their clients, and buyers of localization services need to educate themselves not only on the services offered, but on the results that can be expected, so to be able to make decisions that best suit their company’s goals.

Going “global” has been a theme for companies in recent years with the rise of internet users to over 2 billion people online. Companies are pressed to think outside the box and market outside their comfort zone of local customers. This is no easy task and at BizReport, Kristina Knight interviewed Claude Walton, Director of Product Marketing at SDL Language Weaver, to discuss the key things to consider before going global.

In this interview, Knight gets the 411 on international market trends and what are the key recommendations to engage with a multinational, multilingual audience.

Read more on Why Online Translation will be Important in 2011,  click here or visit: http://www.bizreport.com/2010/12/why-online-translation-will-be-important-in-2011.html

The beginning of every year, we look back to 2010 and recap on accomplishments & areas to improve. Past experiences guide you through 2011 with an open mind to new ideas and practices to achieve success. To help you with your New Year’s resolutions, 1to1 Magazine interviewed more than 50 industry observers and insiders on what customer trends to keep your eye on in 2011. “Customer Strategy Trends to Watch 2011” cover:

Happy New Year to all and let the 2011 planning begin! Now, more than ever, customer satisfaction & engagement are on the radar for companies big and small. We all have heard this before - “the customer is always right!” With this new social revolution, customers are not only right, but they telling everyone they know (and don’t know) of what they think and feel about companies and their products… on the internet… across several social channels! Customers have become the influencers and companies are falling one step behind these new web savvy “publishers.“

It’s up to you to be ahead of the curve and provide your customers with what we call “Self-Service Nirvana.” This includes self-service strategies that proactively reach out to customers and empower them to not only find information they are searching for, but also engage with companies across various channels. Swamy Viswanathan, VP of Products at SDL Language Weaver, has outlined 10 steps to achieve “Customer Self-Service Nirvana.” These steps will guide you on how to deliver better self-service, plus steps on what to consider in evaluation tools for self service strategies.

To read more about “10 Steps to Customer Self-Service Nirvana” in CRM Buyer, click here or visit: http://www.crmbuyer.com/story/10-Steps-to-Customer-Self-Service-Nirvana-71571.html

A Happy New Year to you all as we start 2011. I thought I'd start this year with a look back at machine translation in 2010! This was undoubtedly the year when interest in machine translation reached new heights. So looking back, what have we learnt or what happened to machine translation in 2010?

1. Consumer Acceptance
Google really brought machine translation to everyone's attention. The inclusion of automatic translation of web pages within the Chrome browser continues to generate significant traffic on Twitter even 12 months after it first appeared. It is also driving increased consumer acceptance of machine translation as a genuinely useful technology for breaking down language barriers across the internet.

2. Technology Change
Statistical machine translation usurped the traditional rules-based machine translation as the technology of choice for many. While rules-based technology is now over 50 years old, statistical is the 10 year old upstart with a bright future and support for many more languages.