Design of a groupware for solving inconsistency in collaborative translation

Abstract

The advancement of Internet has created a working environment where place no longer matters significantly. However, because current web technology is insufficient to support collaborative works among dispersed project members, there exist needs for tools to support collaboration effectively. The collaborative translation process is one of the examples where more sophisticated support for collaboration is needed in a web-based way. In traditional translation process, each translator’s work is separated in space and time and translators tend to have different translation patterns respectively. These can bring about inconsistency among translation results. To address this problem, this thesis introduces a collaborative translation support system. First, a conceptual groupware model to support collaborative translation and its process coordination in a virtual groupware environment are presented. Second, for solving inconsistency, inconsistency alarm about word-to-word mapping by the system and collaborative discussion mechanism through structured coordination message are suggested. A prototype of the collaborative translation support system is implemented based on the suggested model.