confs : translating and the computer 20 aslib , the association for information management http : / / www . aslib . co . uk / conferences / index . html supported by : iti bcs eamt and iamt present : translating and the computer 20 - conference and exhibition thursday 12 - friday 13 november 1998 at one great george street , westminster , london , sw1 this will be the 20th translating and the computer conference and exhibition and to celebrate we invited past delegates to submit papers . at last year 's conference , which attracted an international audience , a number of delegates made suggestions for the following year 's event . the response to our call for papers was overwhelming . i hope you will find the programme has : - a greater number of contributions from actual users than ever before - a number of papers showing new developments / applications from both developers and users - opportunities to network with others and to look at the latest products , including those talked about in the papers , in the exhibition area if you have any questions , or want to find out how you can exhibit at this year 's exciting conference , please contact me , nicole adamides , manager of pdg at aslib , on + 44 ( 0 ) 171 903 0030 or email her nicole @ aslib . co . uk . key issues : evaluating mt systems improving translation at the source - controlled authoring and author memory how to make mt more user - friendly machine translation trends in europe and japan how to organise a translation service to maximise efficiency relocating mt in education and training how companies have customised current mt systems and developers produced new products day one : 12th november 1998 09 . 00 registration 09 . 50 introduction by the chair - chris pyne ( international communications europe , germany ) 10 . 00 twenty years of translating and the computer - john hutchins ( eamt ) since the first of the t&c conferences in 1978 the field of machine ( - aided ) translation has seen many changes : - from mainframe computers to personal computers and the internet - from a mainly academic research pursuit to a competitive commercial field - from discussions of ' future possibilities ' to discussions of actual uses - from a translation profession largely antagonistic to automation to one making cost-effective exploitation of computerised translation tools . this presentation will look at the major changes and developments in both research and commercial systems in the last 20 years and consider what has been learnt ( or forgotten ) . 10 . 25 evaluating mt systems : testing and researching the feasibility of a task - diagnostic approach - michelle vanni ( us defense ) in the spirit of new directions in mt evaluation ( mte ) proposed in hovy ( 1998 ) , this paper describes an approach taken at the us department of defense which is appropriate to a particular information processing ( ip ) environment , the needs of which are determinant of the features which characterise the methodology . the approach consists of : - selecting ip tasks for which the mt output is to be used - selecting specific features to be handled by each system - comparing the scores for each system 11 . 00 coffee 11 . 30 organising a translation service to maximise efficiency and quality - ian jones ( supreme headquarters allied powers europe ) what are the overall functions of a translation service and how can it be organised to best effect ? - the objectives - the tasks - the resources - the future this paper will examine various aspects of the above elements and will also refer to the nato terminology standardisation programme . 11 . 55 post - editing service for mt users at the ec - dorothy senez ( european commission translation service ) machine translation is freely available , via the internal electronic mail system , to all staff working in the european institutions . the machine translation help desk supplies a number of back-up services to a growing population of users . this paper looks specifically at the post-editing service ( per ) : - balancing quality and speed - rapid post-editing for short lived documents and end users responsible for quality control - the way forward at the commission . 12 . 25 dimitrios theologitis - european commission 12 . 50 discussion 13 . 05 lunch with an opportunity to visit the exhibition and network 14 . 30 introduction to afternoon session by chair - professor ruslan mitkov , university of wolverhampton , uk 14 . 35 from testbench to workflow : relocating mt in education and training - professor dr klaus schubert ( fachhochschule flensburg , germany ) and professor tony hartley ( university of brighton , uk ) the arrival on the market place over the last three years of relatively high-quality , low-cost mt and tm will lead to a greater demand in skills and expertise that also take into account the user and the requirements of the organisation 's workflow . this paper will look at initiatives of university of brighton and fachhochschule flensburg to give their students first-hand experience of evaluating a system in situ . this is achieved through : - the provision of an in-house mt service for interested end-users - the design of scenarios for inter-site collaboration - the introduction of elements of human - computer interaction . 15 . 00 some reflections about the pedagogy of mat - pascaline merten ( haute ecole de bruxelles - institut superieur de traducteurs et interpretes ( isti ) ) cat tools are of interest to both researchers and translators . they are being increasingly integrated in the education of future translators . this gives rise to two issues : - in education of translators : is experience of these tools enough , or is it important to understand the underlying concepts ? - computational linguistics is far from the empirical approach of the translator , and this does not facilitate the introduction of new tools this paper will look at how the integration of cat tools in the translation process is a good mean to conciliate the practice of the translator and the reflection of the computational linguist . 15 . 25 discussion 15 . 35 tea 16 . 00 improving translation at the source - dawn murphy ( multilingual technology ltd . , uk ) improvements in the quality and efficiency of translation can be effected at the time of authoring . this paper will examine : - the concepts of controlled authoring and author memory and the supporting technologies - the benefits that such techniques provide for the author , the translator and the translation manager - the processes involved in developing such techniques within an organisation . 16 . 25 lcc - the language consulting centre - language consulting in cyber space - jeannette orsted ( danish association business language graduates ) lcc is a project supported by the european commission . the project is a partnership between teleport sachsen - anhalt gmbh ( de ) , centre for language technology ( dk ) , erhvervssprogligt forbund ( the danish association of business language graduates , dk ) and gesellschaft fur technische kommunikation e . v . ( de ) . the objective of the project is to support small and medium sized enterprises in optimising their production and management of multilingual information . the paper will concentrate on : - language strategy as an integral part of company policies - language technology as a tool for language strategy - an overview of the lcc project and its services 16 . 50 discussion 17 . 00 close of day one 17 . 15 20th anniversary reception in the great hall aslib reserves the right to make changes to the programme without prior notice day two : 13th november 1998 09 . 15 registration 09 . 55 opening remarks by the chair - daniel grasmick ( sap , germany ) 10 . 00 horses for courses - the key to mt becoming a commonplace technology is acceptance - steve mclaughlin ( lernout & hauspie ( gms ) , germany ) user perception of machine translation is the decisive issue , and mt must be seen - not as a universal translation solution , but as one of several potential tools - not in isolation , but within the context of the user 's work processes what does this mean for machine translation vendors ? - mt should not be offered in isolation - products must be scaled to the user 's purse and environment - it must be easy to access and use mt - mt must be available when and where the user needs it , whatever the application 10 . 25 kielikone mt takes user - friendliness seriously - kaarina hyvonen ( kielikone ltd . , finland ) kielikone mt has produced a commercial mt product , transmart , which is in use in several major finnish corporations . in this paper , we examine how transmart has been adapted to meet the needs of individual end-users through four special features : - user-friendly interface - ability to preserve document formatting - facilitation of post-editing - document-specific translation lexicons 10 . 50 discussion 11 . 00 coffee 11 . 30 eptas - a client / server based translation support system - klemens waldhor ( ep electronic publishing partners , germany ) eptas is a translation server system which allows the integration of different translation components and various support tools . it contains a sophisticated linguistic database system and uses an advanced html based unicode document format . the main advantage of this system is that it allows the simultaneous usage of different translation methods , like tm and mt in parallel , which is controlled by a sophisticated process management system . this paper will examine the system and its translation tools that can be incorporated from other vendors too . 11 . 55 promt 98 - the current state - svetlana sokolova ( project mt ltd , russia ) promt 98 is the latest version of the mt software stylus . it is a family of different applications with the same mt kernel inside . the interface solutions are intended for different kinds of end users : - promt internet kit - promt home - pocket promt - promt professional 12 . 20 multilingual language technology in automotive documentation workflows - joerg schuetz ( iai , germany ) multidoc is concerned with the design and implementation of a new translation-centred approach to technical documentation in the field of automotive service and repair . the project is entirely geared by the needs and requirements of the industrial users who are fully integrated in all stages of the project . among the users there are bmw , bertone , volvo , renault and rolls - royce from the automotive side ; star and itr from the translation orientated side . the project is technically coordinated by volvo together with iai . 12 . 45 discussion 13 . 00 lunch with an opportunity to visit the exhibition and network 14 . 25 introduction by chair - tony hartley ( university of brighton , uk ) 14 . 30 machine translation trends in europe and japan - sophia ananiadou ( umist , uk ) this paper will examine the conditions in each geographical area that have given rise to mt systems and associated aids , in order to shed light on the functionality of systems from japan and the extent these can respond to european requirements . the examination will be based on : - types of user profiles - the role of mt providers - the use of translation aids , terminology management systems , bilingual / multilingual translation memories , etc . 14 . 55 fully integrated machine translation - logos gmbh , germany the corporate world has been slow to accept mt because , in the past , mt systems have acted in apparent isolation . this will all change when mt becomes a component of an integrated suite of tools that addresses the whole process . this paper will look at the process and describe an offering which begins with : - a terminology management tool and a writer-friendly authoring tool - a translation memory component tightly coupled with mt - a smart post-editing environment it will not be easy integrating such a suite of translation tools , but once in place , then rapid , good quality , lower cost translation will become a reality . 15 . 20 discussion 15 . 30 tea 16 . 00 towards a multi - language multi script web based reference & terminology system - olaf - michael stefanov ( united nations , vienna ) the united nations office in vienna ( unov ) has possibly the first database containing reference and terminology in multiple scripts and is accessible via the internet . unov will use it to support work in all six official un languages . this paper will look at the evolution of unov : attaining consistency in terminology and references via a mainframe adding arabic and chinese to the workload resulted in unov looking for a customised replacement system , using windows - nt as a platform controlled query / update via application run in web browser 16 . 25 paper to be confirmed 16 . 50 discussion 17 . 00 close of the conference fees two days : 395 ( members ) ; 485 ( non members ) one day : 245 ( members ) ; 285 ( non members ) academic institutions : two days : 285 ; one day : 155 this includes coffee / tea , buffet lunch , documentation and the conference proceedings . half day : 125 ( members ) ; 155 ( non members ) this includes coffee / tea , buffet lunch and documentation . please note : conference proceedings are not included . members fees apply to aslib corporate members and members of aslib ttg , eamt , iamt , iti and bcs . accommodation hotelscene , in conjunction with aslib , have arranged special discounted rates at selected hotels for conference delegates . full details will be sent on receipt of your booking form or you can contact kiran or amanda at hotelscence , 8 the broadway , barnes , london , sw13 0br , fax : + 44 ( 0 ) 181 876 1313 or tel : + 44 ( 0 ) 181 876 0404 , quoting aslib tanslating and the computer 20 . cancellation in the event of cancellation , there will be a charge of 50 to cover administration costs . the full fee will be charged for non-attendance and for cancellations received less than 10 working days prior to the start of the conference . aslib will accept substitutes for confirmed delegates , providing we receive notification of the substitute two working days before the conference . proceedings additional copies of the proceedings for this event can be ordered for 32 . 50 from portland press by fax : + 44 ( 0 ) 1206 799 331 . further details from : nicole adamides , aslib , the association for information management , staple hall , stone house court , london , ec3a 7pb tel : + 44 ( 0 ) 171 903 0030 fax : + 44 ( 0 ) 171 903 0011 email : nicole @ aslib . co . uk www : www . aslib . co . uk nicole adamides , manager , professional development group aslib , the association for information management , staple hall , stone house court , london , ec3a 7pb tel : + 44 ( 0 ) 171 903 0030 fax : + 44 ( 0 ) 171 903 0011 www : http : / / www . aslib . co . uk /