Mobile apps and translation crowdsourcing: the next frontier in the evolution of translation

Abstract

Mobile translation represents the new frontier in the translation industry enabled by constant developments in connectivity, apps and micro-task crowdsourcing workflows. It involves a brand new approach to professional and volunteer translation that has not been explored to date. This article analyzes the intersection of crowdsourcing and its micro-task approach and smartphone apps, and also charts how the relationship between apps and translation has evolved during the last decade. Basic notions such as mobile translation, mobile human translation, translation crowdsourcing and online community translations are defined, and the different stages in the evolution of mobile translation are described. The paper ends with a description of initiatives that have relied on cell phone SMS or smartphone apps to translate, ranging from initiatives such as TxtEagle to industry innovators such as Unbabel and Stepes.Keywords: Crowdsourcing, volunteer translation, mobile translation, mobile human translation, community translation, SMS translation RESUMLa traducció mòbil representa una de les àrees més dinàmiques de la traducció a causa dels constants avenços en connexió, aplicacions i fluxos de microtasques de traducció col·laborativa, que representen un nou enfocament a la traducció professional i voluntària. Aquest article analitza la intersecció de la traducció col·laborativa en la seva dimensió de microtasca i les aplicacions de telèfons intel·ligents per tal de traçar l'evolució de la relació entre les aplicacions i la traducció. S'hi defineixen les nocions bàsiques de traducció mòbil, traducció col·laborativa i traducció comunitària, i es descriuen les fases de l'evolució de la traducció mòbil. Paraules clau: traducció col·laborativa, aplicacions mòbils, traducció mòbil RESUMENLa traducción móvil representa una de las áreas más dinámicas de la traducción a causa de los constantes avances en conexión, aplicaciones y flujos de microtareas de traducción colaborativa, que representan un nuevo enfoque a la traducción profesional y voluntaria. Este artículo analiza la intersección de la traducción colaborativa en su dimensión de microtarea y las aplicaciones de teléfonos inteligentes con el fin de trazar la evolución de la relación entre las aplicaciones y la traducción. Se definen las nociones básicas de traducción móvil, traducción colaborativa y traducción comunitaria, y se describen las fases de la evolución de la traducción móvil.

Users’ quality expectations and their correspondence with the realistic features of translation applications

“…For example, speed, digital content, crossplatform, translation quality, MT approaches, and cost were the six factors that could affect the development of MT based on the market demand (Sreelekha et al, 2016). Moreover, globalization and the growth of artificial intelligence helped to minimise the cost of translation, and translation applications emerged as the "new frontier" (Jimenez Crespo, 2016).…”

“…Exploring user expectations has been one of the factors involved in the evaluation of translation quality (e.g., Kurz (1993) and Tommola (2003)). Moreover, the Industrial Revolution 4.0, empowered by the exponential technological advancement in this digital age, has ushered the translation industry to its next wave of innovation as smart gadget users around the world increase daily to stay connected within multilingual societies (Chen;Acosta;Barry, 2017;Jimenez Crespo, 2016). The emergence of translation applications has also made travel abroad less burdening, as no language is foreign any more thanks to these excellent instant translation applications.…”

“…A "bad" translation application quality can cause frustration or inconvenience for the users, for example, due to its speed or accessibility. Although translation applications with different "architectures" (Jimenez Crespo, 2016) are provided in Google Play Store and Apple App Store, there is rarely any application rated "perfect" by the users. It means there is always room for improvement in terms of service quality expectations.…”

译员客户匹配方式的颠覆：众包平台和人力项目经理的对比

“…This article focused on just one aspect of the current changes in the industry, i.e., translator-client matching, but it is important to recognise that the way translation is produced as well as translation itself will keep transforming through a combination of technologies. One such case is the simultaneous use of translation memory with a machine translation post-editing function on a crowdsourcing platform via a mobile app (Jiménez-Crespo, 2016). In this environment, the practice of translator-client matching may receive further changes made by other technologies.…”

Issues in Machine Translation

“…Miguel A. Jimenez-Crespo (2016) has made research into mobile apps and translation crowdsourcing, which revealed that smartphones have occupied the place of desktop computers. The goal of mobile translation apps "is to deliver flexible, dynamic and quick translations of varying degrees of quality" (Jiménez-Crespo, 2016).…”