TermWiki, a no cost/low cost tool for collaborative terminology management

1. strategy
TermWiki: A new collaborative
terminology management solution
The development of TermWiki provides organizations with an open-source, easy-to-use environment for managing
terminology. Uwe Muegge explains the benefits of this system and how it works.
Photo: marinini
2010
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2. strategy
The top five issues themselves. For instance, the hardware engineer-
ing department might have an Excel spreadsheet
project. Glossary translations are often provided
by professional translators who may or may not
with unstructured that lists the key terms the members of this team be familiar with the specific terminology of a sub-
terminology have agreed upon. Having such a glossary is a domain, e.g. a translator who is a medical doctor
valuable asset, as this word list can serve as a may be assigned to work on a highly specialized
management guideline for each member of the group who glossary of radiology terms. In many cases, trans-
might use his or her own preferred term in the lators don’t have access to the foreign language
Gaps in coverage/translation missing absence of such a resource. Maintaining a glossa- terms that have been used in the overseas sub-
While most organizations don’t have a chartered, ry is typically not found in many job descriptions sidiary of the client sponsoring the terminology
centralized terminology program in place, many or business objectives, the glossaries that exist project, because those terms have not been cap-
groups within larger organizations have created tend to be less complete than desirable. Busy tured in a glossary. So for multilingual glossaries
word lists and glossaries to address the need knowledge workers will find it difficult to continu- that have been created using external resources,
for standardized terminology usage among ously update these resources, and therefore these which is the typical case today, validation by
glossaries are typically highly incomplete: the in-country subject-matter experts is highly rec-
more recent a name of a feature or function, the ommended. The problem with in-country review
more likely it is that the term is missing. is that qualified bilingual resources are few and
Definitions far between. This means that the logistics of get-
Content distributed/ No complete ting glossary documents to the right person in
view of all available assets a foreign country, having that person review the
collaborative software In the absence of a central repository for ter- document and send it back can be a nightmare.
type of software that enables work on a common minology data, Excel spreadsheets residing on Which is why in the document-centric environ-
project by several concurrent users that may be individual disk drives or buried in a network file ment, many glossaries have never been validated,
geographically distributed system are the typical answers to the corporate which in turn means that the reliability of the
terminology challenge. In this type of fragmented translated terms is questionable at best.
glossary environment, where various groups within an or-
collection of words that have special meaning in ganization maintain their own termbases for their Content not integrated in processes
a project own purposes, the vast majority of employees such as editing, review
in the organization does not benefit from these Many, if not all, corporate communication proc-
term glossaries at all since they have no knowledge esses benefit from the availability of a well-main-
word that has a special meaning in a given sub- that these assets even exist. tained terminology collection, e.g. writing, editing
ject field and reviewing of technical documentation; writ-
Inconsistencies across terminology ing, editing and reviewing of marketing collateral;
termbase collections translating, editing and reviewing of technical
database that contains a collection of words that Let’s assume that the communicators in the documentation; etc. With glossary documents
have special meaning in a given subject field various units of an organization do the right thing in various stages of approval floating around in
and not only maintain glossaries but also do so the organization, it is difficult, to say the least,
terminology in a team environment, i.e. each contributor is to design a workflow that provides approved
collection of words that have special meaning in aware of the other’s efforts. Now the challenge terminology to the various types of communica-
a given subject field is to normalize these collections. If each owner tors when they need it.
of a glossary maintains a separate document –
terminology management
effort to control the usage of words that have
and it doesn’t matter if it’s a simple word list in a
comma-separated format, an Excel spreadsheet,
The benefits of a
special meaning in a given subject field or a terminology database – there will always be centralized, wiki-
terminology management system
inconsistencies between these collections. And
these inconsistencies, if undetected and uncor-
based terminology
type of translation software that enables users to rected, will result in terminological inconsisten- management solution
efficiently collect, process, and present terminol- cies between marketing collateral and product
ogy labeling, user manual text and illustrations, or Terminology management in the cloud
user interface items and online help. And that’s a The biggest difference between a traditional
wiki big problem. documents-based terminology management
type of collaborative software program that approach and TermWiki’s centralized web-centric
typically allows web pages to be created and col- Content outdated/not validated paradigm is the fact that with TermWiki, e-mailing
laboratively edited Translating terminology typically adds a layer Excel documents back and forth between termi-
of complexity to a terminology management nology stakeholders is a thing of the past. Any
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3. strategy
Noun, and Other to speed up data entry and to
term that a user enters into the system is available browser. This makes TermWiki a truly universal ensure consistency across entries.
to all other users in the entire organization. And terminology management tool. And not only
the value of giving visibility to all terminology
assets an organization owns by storing them all
are all terms visible to every employee in the
organization (depending on their user privileges),
TermWiki editing
in one place cannot be overemphasized: Central- but everyone works on the same data set and in environment
ized management of terminology ensures that all real time. With TermWiki, organizations can use
internal users (e.g. employees) and external users glossaries as the powerful, comprehensive knowl- Complete audit trail
(clients, partners, and service providers) of termi- edge bases that they are. While TermWiki is a tool that makes collabora-
nology have easy access not only to the complete tion among large and geographically distributed
dataset, but also to the latest version of it. Predefined data categories teams as easy as possible, that doesn’t mean there
support consistency are no checks and balances in place. In fact, the
Instantly familiar user interface TermWiki has been designed by members of opposite is true. With the history feature, the sys-
As one of the goals of the TermWiki project was CSOFT’s engineering team. CSOFT is the largest tem creates a permanent record of when a term
to make the user experience of this new termi- language service provider in Asia, and therefore, is added or changed and by whom. And since
nology management system as intuitive as pos- these developers are intimately familiar with each transaction is logged, it is easy to undo edits
sible, building on the proven MediaWiki platform the language needs of global organizations and to revert to a previous version – regardless of
was an obvious choice. Users of TermWiki are large and small. This is why TermWiki goes far how long ago an edit was made. Also, supervisors
immediately familiar with the wiki interface that beyond the simple word pair model used in can track the quantity and quality of individual
features a task-oriented layout where all major many glossaries that often leaves open more contributions. Likewise, the information available
items are in plain view and immediately acces- questions than it answers. At the same time, the under the history tab can be used as an objective
sible. In TermWiki, any user will be able to make a developers of TermWiki also wanted to create source for rewarding team members who have
valid contribution within minutes of their first use. a system that doesn’t require its users to have a made outstanding contributions to their corpo-
Ph.D. in linguistics. This is why TermWiki offers a rate termbase.
Access terminology from any computer small number of predefined data categories that
With TermWiki, it doesn’t matter if users have a have been carefully selected for their relevance Simplified validation of terms
PC, MAC, Linux or other operating system, and to global communication projects, e.g. Definition, Only a validated term is a good term! As the
there is no need to install and maintain any Part of Speech, Usage Status, Company, Product, review of termbase entries by a subject matter
special software. The only software required for etc. Many of these data categories even have pick expert has traditionally been a soft spot in many
searching, entering, editing, translating, approv- lists for users to choose a value from, e.g. Part of corporate terminology management systems,
ing, and downloading terminology is a web Speech has Noun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb, Proper offering better validation support was high on the
2010
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4. strategy
priority list for TermWiki. Fortunately, it is very easy investment by offering a simple data migration using CSOFT’s development and hosting services.
to implement a validation process in a web-based path. Open Source, community, and hosted edi- CSOFT is offering various packages that include
system. Since subject matter experts have easy tions give organizations of any size the professional software hosting, data migration, additional mod-
access to terminology, just like any other user of terminology management solution they need. ules (e.g. notification module, data import/export
TermWiki, the only special features needed for modules, etc.), and consulting/training services.
validators were a) a mechanism for rating entries, Free open source edition is fully
and b) a forum for providing feedback/soliciting
additional information. The rating mechanism
customizable
TermWiki is designed to meet the terminology
The bottom line
was implemented as a picklist for Usage Status, i.e. needs of large organizations, and the functionality TermWiki is an innovative answer to an old and
the validator simply selects the appropriate value of the standard edition of TermWiki is probably persistent question: How to provide a struc-
from a picklist of statuses such as New, Preferred, more than adequate for many if not most corpo- tured environment for managing terminology
Admitted, Obsolete, etc. If the validation process rate users. However, if an organization should have in organizations that typically don’t have a high
should require an exchange of information, each special requirements, such as the need for different level of linguistic expertise? TermWiki offers the
entry has a discussion page associated with it, or additional data categories, the architecture of powerful multilingual management and tracking
which terminology stakeholders can use to inter- TermWiki is flexible enough to allow for easy modi- features large organizations require and yet is so
actively debate the validity of an entire entry or fications of the source code. It is also possible to easy to use that anyone with the most rudimen-
parts thereof, provide supporting documentation, develop additional features that are currently not tary computer skills will be comfortable with this
and maintain a record of the process for future available in the standard edition, such as automatic system within minutes. And now that there are
reference. notification of subject matter experts/reviewers free open source and instantly available com-
when new terms are added. And since TermWiki munity editions, TermWiki is probably not only
Rich media experience is an open source project, users of TermWiki can the most flexible but also the most cost-effective
The old adage that a picture is worth more than a either have their own internal IT resources perform web-based terminology management system
thousand words certainly holds true in a terminol- this type of development work, or outsource it to available today.
ogy management environment. A photo of an CSOFT, the developer of TermWiki. To access the
item can easily be the most informative part of
a termbase entry. With digital images being so
open source download page for TermWiki, go to
the following link: http://www.csoftintl.com/solu-
References
easily available from so many sources, e.g. internal tions_termwiki_download.php • DEPALMA, D.A. TermWiki Lowers the Barrier to
corporate media repositories, collections of Terminology Management. Global Watch-
royalty-free work such as Creative Commons, and Community edition gives freelancers a tower [online]. 2010, no. 14 January 2010.
commercial collections such as Corbis, Fotolia, and powerful terminology management tool Available from World Wide Web:<http://www.
iStockphoto, adding an image to an entry is easier The easiest way for individuals or groups of globalwatchtower.com/2010/01/14/csoft-
and cheaper than ever. In TermWiki, all it takes to language professionals to manage and share termwiki/>.
upload an image is clicking a few buttons. And by terminology, is to use the community edition • MUEGGE, U. Disciplining Words: What You
the way: TermWiki also supports uploading audio of TermWiki, which is available free of charge at Always Wanted to Know About Terminology
files. This is a helpful feature if you wish to assist www.termwiki.com. Using the community edition Management. tcworld, 2007, vol. 2, no. 3, p.
users with the pronunciation of a new or unusual of TermWiki, anyone with an interest in terminol- 17-19.
English term or any foreign-language term. ogy management has immediate access to a
structured environment for storing, sharing, and contact
Support for standards ensures finding terms, definitions, and related information.
easy data exchange Best of all: The community edition of TermWiki Uwe Muegge is the Direc-
TermWiki supports key terminology standards is not only free like the open source edition, but tor of MedL10N, the life
such as the LISA termbase exchange standard there is not even any software to download and science division of CSoFT.
TBX, CSV and MultiTerm XML, the XML localization install since the community edition is a hosted, He is currently a member
interchange format XLIFF, and the ISO standard for web-based service. The community edition of Ter- of TC37 at the International
terminology data categories ISO 12620. TermWiki’s mWiki is the right platform for people who want organization for Standardi-
standards compliance enables terminology users to launch an individual or group terminology zation (ISo) and teaches
to integrate this terminology management solu- project without having to commit any financial graduate courses in
tion into their existing IT infrastructure: TermWiki and/or IT resources to that project first. Computer-Assisted Translation at the Monterey
plays nice with authoring tools, content manage- Institute of International Studies.
ment systems, and of course, translation memory Value-added services available
and translation management systems. And for Organizations that are looking for a customized uwe.muegge@medl10n.com
those organizations that have invested in an older solution or additional functionality, complete www.medl10n.com
proprietary terminology management system, privacy of their data, short deployment time, www.muegge.cc
TermWiki preserves the financial and intellectual and ensured maintenance, have the option of
20 2010