Trust the network - it probably knows more than you do

Social media and blogs enable us to easily focus on the latest news and trends on terminology, providing us with regular updates. 

This is the most important aspect emerged at the EAFT Terminology Summit, organised by TERMCAT, the Catalan Terminology Organisation in Barcelona, last November. The topic for 2014 was: How does social networking affect terminology work?

In recent years social networks have burst into life, and into terminology work, too. Terminological work and its dissemination are no exception. This is why the international terminology community opened a debate about the impact of social media on all spheres of terminology work, from research all the way through to dissemination.
According to Anita Nuopponen's presentation:

• Social networks, if properly used, can be effectively used to find terminological resources.
• Blogs are useful to provide own opinions, reflections and for being an optimal environment for discussing different points of view.
• Twitter allows us to disseminate information, get visibility, link to useful information, follow interesting conferences we cannot attend through live-tweeting updates.

Related to Anita Nuoppen's presentation, there was a moment of great fun for me: she was listing the most reliable resources for terminology reseach and this list included, among the others, me!! I blushed and felt so honoured that she mentioned me as an excellent example of Twitter usage for terminology! 

#EAFTSummit2014 OMG!!! 😍 I'm quoted by @ANuopponen in her presentation!! ☺️☺️😊 blushing!! pic.twitter.com/nNuqJYMGJk

— Maria Pia Montoro (@WordLo) 27 Novembre 2014

Back to the conference, in brief, lessons learned:

• Let's share knowledge! Disconnected experts are invisible to the network and irrelevant to the system (@ictlogist).
• Let’s leverage the power of blogging! Blogs are usually more timely than newspapers in discussing new topics and concepts and crucial to raise awareness on the importance of terminology (@terminologia).

I provided a more detailed information about the Terminology Summit on the post: People have the power: the crowd-powered terminologist on the TermBloggers Lounge.

If you like this topic, you can find a lot of interesting suggestions in this post: Social media tips for translators and interpreters, by +Gala Gil Amat, where she explains her fresh and innovative approach to communication, that one that only ‘millenials’ have as natural talent.

For best practices on how to get the most from social networks as a translator, I invite you to read also:

• Why blogging for other translators can be worth your while by +Else Gellinek  
• Social media strategies by +Catherine Christaki

Both post are on +Caroline Alberoni 's blog: Carol'sadventures in translation, a valuable resource providing tips and tricks for translators.

Terminology is the new black

Hi word lovers and happy New Year! it is never too late to wish you to have all the fun you can and a wonderful year ahead! After being inactive on this blog for almost two months due to much work - Christmas holidays - job change in progress (wish me luck!) and a hairdresser that messed up my hair (she made me blonde!!), I'm finally back (and black again)! :D 

First of all, thanks for making this blog great and for following me on Twitter: I almost reached 2200 followers!

Second, new Year's resolutions: I want to catch up with my blog, I have so many draft posts pending, new tools to add to the terminology tools page and maybe a new layout!

My last post was about the Terminology Summit in Barcelona: I was just announcing that I was going to attend it and then I just live-tweeted it. Since the conference was so great, it deserves more than tweets. I will provide you as much information as I can about what I learned, both on this blog and on the TermBloggers Lounge.

What is the TermBloggers Lounge?

It is an informal platform hosted by Termcoord for anyone who is passionate about terminology, likes to share their insights and expertise, and wants to raise awareness of terminology work, terminology quality or just getting familiar with terminology.

Why is terminology the new black?

Terminology has a key role for successful communication. Check for example this abstract from this post: Looking back on 2014 by Massimo Ghislandi (SDL): 

One surprise for me in 2014 is the popularity of terminology. For all the innovations, one of the oldest topics which is guaranteed to attract interest is terminology. Is it because there is increased quality focus? Or is terminology seen as way to improve the speed of the overall translation process (cutting down on those review cycles!)? I am not sure. All I know is that for all the content and activities we have generated in 2014, terminology has been at the top of the chart. From the webinars with Kara Warburton to the terminology eBooks, infographics and OpenExchange apps, terminology seems to continue to attract an incredibly high amount of interest.

Read also this abstract from the presentation of the conference: Quo vadis, Terminologia?

“Terminology work seems to us to be very close to translation, in that both are, like Flaubert’s author “everywhere to be found, nowhere to be seen”. Like translation, the history of terminology is similar to the history of the nation: language survival and language construction both depend on the capacity of language to name all of the objects of its reality (Michel Serres). Everybody does terminology, and everyone uses terms, even if this is often done unknowingly in an act of carefree naivety or perhaps even careless denial”. 

I also invite you to read this post: Terminology matters everywhere by Termcoord.

Another reason for that success is to be found, in my opinion, in terminology as being part of web content management and SEO. Bad quality terminology in web content and UI means no visibility on search engines, no visitors accessing websites, and user frustration.

Another trend is that LSP providers are putting more effort in terminology management and terminology research. They are starting to embed terminology tools directly in their translation workbenches, thus preventing translators from leaving their workbench for searching online.

TermCoord (TermCoord), Patricia Brennes (InMyOwnTerms) and Licia Corbolante (Terminologia etc.) have carried out many initiatives - blogs, publications, presentations, workshops, linking and showcasing authors and resources, interviews to terminologists and much more - to raise awareness on the importance of terminology.

Now it’s your turn! Tell us what you think about terminology!

Drop us an email, a post, and article, a tweet, a comment blog, or write about terminology in your own space (Facebook, Tumblr, Google+ etc.), then let us know about it (including anything you might have already published on the topic in the past), by linking to it in the comments below the post on TermBloggers Lounge or emailing: dgtrad.termcoord@europarl.europa.eu .

The editing committee (Me, Licia Corbolante, Patricia Brenes and Termcoord) will publish a round-up of all relevant contributions and any other useful links.

More details on:

• TermCoord
• In My Own Terms
• Terminologia etc.