Trusted Translation Services

Abstract

Administering multilingual Web sites and applications reliably, involves interconnected and multipart tasks, where trust in the involved parties and content translation sources is paramount. Published Web sites may reflect content from databases, content management systems and other repositories to manage related Web content. But a Web site mirrored wholly or selectively onto a target language version requires streamlined trusted processes. Traditionally, files are translated and transferred via FTP, e-mail, or other communication means. Similarly, translation instructions are communicated between involved parties through verbal instruction, e-mail, and instruction files lead to a variety of inconsistencies and lack of trust in the translation process. This paper proposes a Web service approach to streamline the translation processes and an integration of trust properties in the proposed translation Web services. Web Services have been instrumental in handling problems inherent to systems integration, allowing web-based systems to converse and communicate data automatically. The OASIS Translation Web Services Technical Committee has released a standard way for Web Services to serve the translation and localization business. This article proposes a framework to centralize translation services at a reputable source providing a workflow and a mechanism to quantify service trust. An implementation of the framework is also described in the context of a localization case study.