07 December 2012

Insourcing Boom (in industry)

The Insourcing Boom by Charles Fishman in the December 2012 issue of the Atlantic is remarkable in many respects. Among other things, it highlights the power of even erroneous group think over just about everything, including deep, comprehensive analysis (I refer to the efforts of the handful of people who saw the errors inherent in outsourcing long before others).

Inspired by this excellent article, I would like to hazard a three quick and highly optimistic predictions:
1) The day will come when more companies will realise that sincere, honest, simple messages can achieve more than hype.
2) That these companies, and hopefully others too, will realise that texts presenting such messages that need to be translated, deserve the attention of professional translators and consistent client-translator relations.
3) That these companies, and hopefully others too, will realise that document production can benefit from the comprehensive analysis of methods, workflow and accounts in the very broadest sense, not just in terms of word rates.

Predictions or daydreaming? Time will tell. But the fact that the insourcing boom is now taking place leaves more room for hope.

ChatGPT, a drafting aid for translation by emulation

On 17 October 2011, I published the first of two posts summarising my general approach to the type of translation/adaptation services I was ...