It’s getting crowded! A critical view of what crowdsourcing can do for terminology as a discipline Barbara Inge Karsch - BIK Terminology VII EAFT Terminology Summit. Barcelona, 27-28 november 2014

1. It’s getting crowded!
A critical view of what crowdsourcing can
do for terminology as a discipline.
EAFT Barcelona 2014
Barbara Inge Karsch

2. 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

3. 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
• …

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

6. Terminologists and the crowd
• No change
• Terminology work has never been a
solitary endeavor.
• Change
• The type of people we work with has
changed.

7. 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.

8. 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
• …

9. 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)

10. Needs
• We need input.
• We need it fast.
• We need it from different audiences
(experts <-> users).

11. EXAMPLES

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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.

15. Example

16. 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.

17. TOOLS

18. What do TMSs need?

19. What do TMSs need?
• Commenting features
• Voting features
• Statistics and evaluation
• Polished!
• Terminologists deal with dozens of entries
a day.

20. Conclusion
• Push for new functionality in TMSs
• Awareness for terminology issues
• Access to input
• Be adamant that a terminologist be part of
the process