PUBLIC MARKS from sbrothier with tags language & "instant messaging"

What does a business do to stay in touch and share documents with its people when those people – industry specialists based (in the target country) abroad– are spread across the globe? CINETIQUE Translations, a company that provides expert translation services faces just such a challenge and turned to Yuuguu to solve the problem. Founded in 2002 by Laurence Auffret, a biologist and translation lecturer at Manchester University, CINETIQUE Translations was set up to combine the two specialist skills of science and translation to produce a thriving business that specialises in offering translation services to the technological, scientific and engineering communities. CINETIQUE Translations’ work includes: websites and user interfaces; conference publications, presentations and training modules; installation, operating, and maintenance manuals; and patents, claims, EU compliance documentation and tender documents. All this kind of work requires the utmost accuracy but a key issue in terms of translation in general - and technological, scientific and academic translation in particular – is to generate translations that do not just do the job in literal terms, but are able to translate the exact sense, meaning, and phrasing of any work. In other words, all translations must mean precisely the same ‘thing’ as in the original document. In CINETIQUE Translations’ fields of expertise this means it is essential that translators are fluent, not just in the requisite languages, but also the information contained in the original documents, as well as how that same information needs to be communicated in the target market. To help achieve this, CINETIQUE Translations uses ultra-specialist translators, they live and work in their home territory and in the specific industry. It also researches any documents that it produces thoroughly, often running them past focus groups, which are themselves based in the target territory. That all means that effective sharing tools – like web conferencing – would be vital. But, they are also expensive, complex to set up and time-consuming. CINETIQUE Translations is using Yuuguu to contact its in-country consultants – and sample groups – simply. It also uses Yuuguu to share documents and enable live document editing and note-making through the screen-sharing and control features. The benefits, says Laurence Auffret, are obvious: “Our translations are done by industry experts who live in the country where the translated document is going to be used. Firstly, it’s really important for us to be able to discuss documentation as a team - publisher, client, translator, editor, project manager - in real-time”. “Also, team meetings always take place online and we need to share our views on certain aspects of the documents, in real-time. So, we screen-share and one person can add on another linguist’s work – it’s a great tool.”