Two years ago forty companies founded the TAUS Data Association to share language data in a secure and neutral framework. The platform went live last summer and membership has grown to sixty-four organizations and many more professional translators. Prior to the Association’s launch TAUS consulted with over two-hundred organizations and individuals across industry-sectors. We are once again seeking the market's collective wisdom to guide our next steps. We are aiming for all stakeholders in the industry no matter how big or small to get the most out of shared language data to make translation easier, better and faster for everyone.

1. TAUS Data Association Consultation: Strategic RoadmapApril-May 2010 Help plan the future of translation

2. TAUS Data Association Two years ago forty companies jointly established the TAUS Data Association (TDA), a non-profit, with the objective of making translation easier, better and faster for everyone. TDA developed a platform for sharing of translation memories. Membership has grown to sixty-four organizations and many more individuals. The database currently contains 2.5 billion words in 315 language pairs. These industry-shared resources can be used by everyone to help increase the quality and efficiency of translation. A great idea! No wonder it’s being followed by others.

3. TAUS Data Association It is natural that companies seek market dominance by trying to control either the infrastructure or the resources. Historically, whoever owned the translation memory software, ‘owned’ the customer. This ‘service lock-in’ model blocked innovation and put the brakes on fair competition in our industry. There is now a shift in focus from seeking control of technology to control of resources - anyone who controls the words (the ‘data’) can develop the translation engines of the future. History is repeating itself. A new ‘service-lock-in’ is taking shape.

4. TAUS Data Association TDA was established exactly for this reason: to avoid new and unfair constraints on the growth and innovation of the translation industry. You should know, legal ownership of individual translation units (segments) is hard to defend. If the original translated document cannot be recreated, the words and phrases are free (like entries in dictionaries) and may be used to support translators and automate translation. TDA’s mission is to share all the translated words in the world in a supercloud of TMs accessible by everyone. The words we translate are a natural resource that no single company should take control of.

5. TAUS Data Association A little ideology does not hurt: We strongly believe in our mission to “make the world communicate better“. To turn this mission into a great success for everybody involved in translation from translator to buyer, software developer, LSP, and user: We ask for 10-15 minutes of your time to contribute to the Strategic Roadmap Consultation and register for a free webinar on May 12 to review results and help decide the way ahead. We ask you to invite others to the contribute to this Consultation. Your response will help us build the future of the translation industry.

6. Complete the TDA StrategicRoadmapConsultationsurvey The surveyand webinarregistrationwilltake10 - 15 minutes. Deadline: Tuesday May 11, 2010. TAUS Data Association