CONTRA: Concurrent Translation on Cloud-Based Collaborative Platforms

Summary

The project aims to investigate the experiences of translators who work with novel workflows and technologies on digital cloud-based translation platforms. The new workflow we will specifically investigate is called “concurrent translation” (CT). In CT, multiple participants (i.e. translators, editors, domain experts, project managers) work on the same document simultaneously, sharing a computer-assisted translation environment with tools for collaboration. This workflow differs from the traditional, more linear production process, where a text is typically translated by one person, then it is revised by another person and proofread by yet another. The new workflows and technologies are designed to address business requirements of translation buyers such as faster delivery of large volumes of translation, but they change, often fundamentally, the way translators work. This change has not been studied before and little is known about how it impacts the translation process, product and the translators themselves. The study will qualitatively investigate these impacts and will test some hypotheses derived from the pilot studies (Gough, Perdikaki 2018) regarding the general perceptions and attitudes of translators working on the platforms in concurrent mode. These include process aspects such as workflow configurations, social aspects such as isolation vs collaboration, psychological aspects such as motivation vs inhibition and other attitudinal aspects that may result from working in CT mode, which may, in turn, impact the overall experience of these workflows and ultimately, the overall production cycle and the quality of the final product.  

Overall, CONTRA has been launched to investigate the experiences of translators in more depth to uncover more details about translators’ experiences of working in this new way and what this means for the translation profession, for the translator education and more broadly, for the quality of multilingual communication around the world that is produced using new technologies.

Outcomes

A survey of 831 translators working on cloud-based collaborative translation platforms concurrently was carried out and initial insights were published in Translation Spaces.