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Translation Agencies FAQ What exactly is the Exttranet? [TOP] The Exttranet is a multilingual search system for professional interpreters and translators, that can be integrated on an unlimited number of third-party websites, in the appropriate language, so that visitors to those sites can locate and contact the professional interpreters and translators they need, in whatever field, language combination or location required. It is the externalised version of the Inttranet search system, the multilingual portal for professional interpreters and translators, compatible with the requirements of the ISO 9001 quality assurance standard. How can the Exttranet be displayed on an unlimited number of websites? [TOP] The Exttranet application consists of a line of HTML code, which can be sent by e-mail to any address, and integrated anywhere on any third-party website. When a net surfer clicks on the code, it opens the Exttranet application on the third-party website and links to the Exttranet database. Who developed the Exttranet? [TOP] The Exttranet is the result of one year of development by HTT:
What is the workload for our association if we adopt the Exttranet? [TOP] What is the cost of implementation of the Exttranet for our association? [TOP] There is no cost, for your association or for its members. The development, operation, management, hosting and updating costs of the Exttranet website and application are covered by HTT. What do you mean by "language-related projects"? [TOP] According to the proposal made by HTT, 20% of the flat fee charged to webmasters for including logo-links of business partners on the Exttranet page on their websites would be paid to language projects approved by interpreters' and translators' associations. Business partners displaying their logos on the Exttranet page of websites hosting the application also agree to pay a sum of their choosing to the language-related project of their choosing, from among the list of projects approved by interpreters' and translators' associations. According to the proposal made by HTT, language projects can be of any order, scope, size or location, provided they bear a relation to language(s), and are approved as such by interpreters' and translators' associations. Language-related projects can range from literacy projects to translation projects, school-building, language revival projects, language revitalisation projects, projects to preserve linguistic diversity, to maintain minority languages, to study native languages, training courses for interpreters and/or translators, translation technology projects, and so on (the list is non-exhaustive). A list of approved projects, per country and per domain, will be included on the Exttranet website. Associations and their members can submit new language-related projects / organisations for inclusion in the list. Which language projects can be financed by the Exttranet project? [TOP] Any project related to languages, approved by interpreters' and translators' associations, can be financed by the Exttranet. There is no limit to the projects in terms of size or location. The list of the projects is integrated on the site the Exttranet ( www.exttra.net). Who will benefit from the advertising revenue? [TOP] The advertising revenue will be shared equally between: How will this advertising revenue be generated? [TOP] The websites hosting the Exttranet application will be able to invite their business partners to place their logos on the page in question. A fixed management fee will be invoiced to the websites for each logo thus placed. The websites hosting the Exttranet application will be able to sell the advertising space on the Exttranet page to their business partners for a fee decided by them, given that the parties also agree to pay a sum of their choosing to the language project of their choosing, from among those approved by interpreters' and translators' associations. Why will websites want to display the Exttranet application? [TOP] Because offering access to all the professional interpreters and translators who are members of associations is a particularly useful community service at a time of unprecedented globalisation, immigration and emigration in the history of mankind. In addition, the service is free, and is designed to be a highly attractive and profitable advertising space for the business partners of the websites concerned, with a very high level of visibility, recognition and media coverage. Why will the business partners of websites integrating the Exttranet application want to pay to use the advertising space it creates? [TOP] Because of the potentially high, recurring number of users of the Exttranet search system, and therefore the high level of visibility, recognition and media coverage of the service. What websites are likely to want to display the Exttranet application? [TOP] (The list is non-exhaustive…) Who defined the financial proposal for the Exttranet, and on what basis? [TOP] HTT. To our mind the financial proposal is fair and effective, in that it provides a win-win solution for all the stakeholders: interpreters' and translators' associations, their members, the websites displaying the application, their business partners, and the users of the services of professional interpreters and translators. Is the financial proposal for the Exttranet definitive? [TOP] No. We are open to suggestions of any kind that achieve the same objectives. How many interpreters and translators are there on the Exttranet? [TOP] The number of interpreters and translators in the Exttranet database is indicated on the website ( www.exttra.net). How many websites currently display the Exttranet? [TOP] The number of websites using the Exttranet is indicated on the website ( www.exttra.net). Can we test the Exttranet before putting application on-line? [TOP] Yes. To do so, simply send your request to webmaster@exttra.net in order to receive the HTML code to insert on your website. Is the test free of charge? [TOP] Yes. Is there an operational prototype on-line of the Exttranet application that we can see? [TOP] Yes. The prototype of the Exttranet application (in various language versions) is available on the Inttranews website at www.inttranews.net Can we withdraw the Exttranet application from our website? [TOP] Yes, at any time. It should be noted, however, that the webmaster of your site is solely responsible for the business relations with any sponsors having placed their logo on your version of the Exttranet. Is the withdrawal of the Exttranet from a website free of charge? [TOP] Yes. Is there a geographical limit to the websites that can display the Exttranet of a given association? [TOP] No. If your association has partners in other countries than your own who which wish to display your version of the Exttranet, so much the better for your association. If the Exttranet search system is not available in our language, can we translate it? [TOP] Yes. What volume of translation is involved? [TOP] The Exttranet search system represents about 3,000 words. The Exttranet website represents about 10,000 words. The Inttranet website represents about 20,000 words. Do we get paid to do the translation? [TOP] No. We consider that since we have financed the rest of the project, and the direct beneficiaries of the project are interpreters' and translators' associations and their members, translating the Exttranet search system into their language if it is not already available is their contribution to the project. What is the background to the Inttranet? [TOP] During the launch of the Inttranet project by HTT in 2000, in addition to consulting interpreters and translators from 26 countries, we invited the heads of the translation services of four major institutions for which HTT was already a translation provider (UNESCO, the European Commission, the Council of Europe and the European Parliament), by submitting the specification for the Inttranet portal to them so that they could indicate their comments and observations. The heads of the translation services of the four institutions answered in person, with detailed suggestions concerning the search system, search criteria, quality control and other issues of the system. All these comments were taken into account during the development of the portal. At the request of Freelance Translation department of the European Parliament, a delegation from the department was received by HTT in February 2002 for a demonstration of the portal. In all the cases, the interest of the portal lay in its multilingualism, the fact that the CVs of the interpreters and translators are available in the language of the visitor (including almost all the European national languages), the direct and confidential contact between service providers and customers, the quality control of interpreters and translators admitted to the network, the fact that they can update their CVs on-line and in real time, and the fact that the system is compatible with the requirements of the ISO 9001 quality assurance standard. After the launch of the Inttranet in October 2002, UNESCO (Paris) organised a demonstration of the portal for all translation, interpretation and terminology departments of the Organisation in Paris in June 2004. A demonstration of the portal also took place for all the terminology, interpretation and translation departments of the Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union in Luxembourg in July 2004. The Inttranet was included in the Observatory on the Information Society of UNESCO in January 2006. How does the Inttranet work? [TOP] To give a detailed explanation of the operation of the Inttranet would be long and tedious: the portal required two years of development, involving some 112 technical specifications. Briefly: From the start, the Inttranet was designed to ensure that its members are professional interpreters and translators, and that the services offered by the portal meet their requirements and those of their customers. Its development required one year of ISO 9001 training for all the staff at HTT before drafting the specifications for the services provided on the portal. Its operation: provided that applicants meet the admission criteria of the portal (they must have at least 3 years of professional experience, preferably be a member of a recognised interpreters and/or translators association, have suitable academic qualifications and/or professional references…) any professional interpreter and translator can apply to join the Inttranet, by filling in an application form on-line, available to date in 33 languages. This form is automatically sent by the portal to 2 people for validation: to the Inttranet regional administrator appointed for the mother tongue/ country of residence of the applicant (the names of the Regional Administrators are indicated on the portal), and to the Inttranet webmaster for control and follow-up. The Inttranet regional administrator checks the qualifications/references of the applicant and accepts them or not. In the event of acceptance by the Inttranet regional administrator and validation by the webmaster, the applicant is admitted to the network, and their application form becomes their Inttranet CV, accessible on-line in all the language versions available on the portal. In the event of translation of the portal into an additional language, all the CVs also become automatically accessible in this version: it is this interoperability of the files in translation that made the development of the portal so expensive and so long. Inttranet members can update their CVs at any time on-line (except for their language combinations), the changes are taken into account at once in all the language versions. This basic service is free. For access to the advanced services, an annual contribution of €60 is required: Use of the Terminall terminological database (consultation is free of charge), compatible with the terminographic standard ISO 12616 FTP account Creation and hosting of a personalised website (20 Mb of disk space, choice of graphics, multilingual display…) “Bad payer” customer control Subscription to the daily Inttranews wire service… A complete description of the services is available on the portal. Has the Inttranet been checked by a recognised organisation? [TOP] All the services of the Inttranet back-office (used among things, to manage the changing status of applicants) were checked by the technical departments of the FIT in March 2005. The back-office as well as the integrated accountancy system are compatible with the requirements of the French taxation authorities, and were subject to a declaration (form D-235). A declaration to the CNIL (National Commission of Data processing and Freedoms) was made before the portal went on-line. The portal is included within the scope of the ISO 9001 v2000 certification obtained by HTT in March 2001. What are the tariffs of Inttranet members? [TOP] No information is given on the portal concerning the tariffs applied by members (apart from articles published in Inttranews): the latter are established on-line confidentially between customers and network members. Who are the users of the Inttranet portal? [TOP] The portal is used by translation companies in order to locate the professional interpreters and translators they need, by associations, translation companies and public services in order to issue advertisements, press releases, requests for quotes, invitations to tender and job offers. It should be noted that in January 2006, the value of the invitations to tender issued via the portal exceeded 100 million euros. How does the Exttranet function? [TOP] Each interpreter or translator wishing to join the network will have to indicate to which association they belong, by means of a drop-down menu in the Inttranet registration form. This form will be automatically sent by the portal to the association for control/validation/acceptance, the rest of the process being identical to the existing process. During a search using the Exttranet version of a given association on a third-party website, the members of that association are displayed first. How many people took part in the Inttranet survey concerning the Exttranet application? [TOP] 174 members of the Inttranet replied to the survey, over a period of 15 days. Where can we see the results of the survey on the Exttranet application? [TOP] To see the results of the survey on the Exttranet application, please visit: http://www.inttra.net/pages/sondage/associations/resultat_fr.html How many members does the Inttranet have? [TOP] Inttranet currently has some 1,785 members, located in 45 countries. We do not have any information concerning the number of “active” members, since the contacts between Inttranet members and their customers are direct and confidential. How much has the Exttranet cost to develop? [TOP] The Exttranet is the externalised version of the multilingual, multicriteria search system of the Inttranet portal. The portal has cost € 250,000 in development since its launch in 2000. This figure takes into account the cost of graphic design of the portal, the cost of development of the various services currently available, and the translation value of the various language versions of the portal (20,000 words in 33 languages) since the launch of the project in 2000. The project has been marked by four major stages: the 25 services of the initial portal (2002), Terminall, the terminological database of the portal (2004), Inttranews, the wire service for the portal (2005), and the Exttranet, the externalised version of the Inttranet search system (2006). All these services are multilingual. This figure does not take into account the cost of ISO 9001 training for one year of the HTT team required to manage the portal so that it is compatible with the requirements of the standard, nor the annual cost of renewal of ISO 9001 certification for HTT by BVQI, or the cost of the organisational design of the portal, nor the cost of drafting the 112 specifications concerned, nor the monthly cost of hosting the portal (professional hosting), nor the salaries of the personnel involved in managing the portal (1 webmaster, 1 secretary)…. Who is the owner of Exttranet database? [TOP] On the financial level, HTT s.a. is the owner of the website, the application and the Exttranet logo, since the company has covered the costs of its design and development, and will ensure the management, updating, hosting and later development costs. However, according to the proposal of HTT, on the practical level, the owners of the data are those who have contributed them to the base, i.e. the members of interpreters' and translators' associations, since: What controls are carried out to check the qualifications of applicants to the Exttranet? [TOP] The Exttranet will comprise more controls of the qualifications of its members than any other structure on the marketplace. From the start, the Inttranet was designed to ensure that its members are professional interpreters and translators, and quality the key concept. The Inttranet was designed to be compatible with the requirements of the ISO 9001 quality assurance standard (in the absence of another applicable standard). This standard requires, among other things, that a check can be made at any time of the members of the portal (their professional qualifications etc), feedback from customers concerning their services, and feedback from members concerning customers. The criteria for admission to the portal are among the highest in the profession, and were established in agreement with the institutions, interpreters and translators consulted during the development of the portal. One of the imperative reasons for developing the portal was to overcome the lack of control concerning the skills and qualifications of association members. In the case of the Exttranet project, the application form will be automatically sent by the portal to three people for checking before being accepted in the database: All in all, the Exttranet will involve more controls on the skills and qualifications than any other structure on the marketplace, and the CVs of its members are among the most detailed. Each member of the Exttranet must be a member of an interpreters' and translators' association, and in addition, must meet Inttranet admission criteria, this in order to harmonise the admission criteria adopted by various interpreters' and translators' associations. In addition, insofar as inclusion in the database is free, there is no financial incentive to admit an applicant who does not meet these various criteria. What is the interest of the Exttranet application for our association? [TOP] The interest of the Exttranet for interpreters' and translators' associations is considerable. Can you give an example of the operation of the Exttranet? [TOP] Any webmaster can request authorisation to integrate the Exttranet search system on their site. To those located in the same country as your association, the version of your association is proposed in priority. There is no geographical limit to the deployment of the Exttranet of a given association. Any person searching for a translator or an interpreter by means of the Exttranet of your association will see first of all the CVs of the members of your association, displayed in the search language used. Why should our association adopt the Exttranet? [TOP] In an age of globalisation, where the skills and knowledge of professional interpreters and translators are more useful and necessary than ever, it is urgent to offer a global, multilingual service enabling customers, wherever they are, to locate and contact the professional interpreters and translators they need, in whatever location, language combination or field required. At one time when Microsoft includes in its Office 2007 a translation service provided by only one company (World Lingo), with “4,500 interpreters and translators worldwide” without the least information about them, it is important that associations should react by improving the accessibility and credibility of the services of their members. That is the goal of the Exttranet. The Inttranet (the Exttranet being the externalised version of its search system) is the only genuinely multilingual portal compatible with the ISO 9001 quality assurance standard, capable of providing the Exttranet service. The use of the Exttranet is free for interpreters' and translators' associations, for their members, and the users of their services. The Exttranet can federate the skills of the members of all the interpreters' and translators' associations. Is the Exttranet not a competitor for our association? [TOP] It is in no case a competitor to the search systems developed by associations, but a tool that makes them multilingual, and their members omnipresent on the Web. What is the use of the Exttranet for the members of our association? [TOP] The application provides them with a CV, automatically displayable in as many languages as there are language versions available on the Inttranet (to date, 33 languages, representing 97% of all Net surfers), and therefore a potentially global customer base. In addition, customers can find their contact details via all the websites displaying the Exttranet application, in whatever the country the website is located, and in whatever language. It is a genuinely global service – and it's free of charge. How will the Exttranet be promoted? [TOP] A one-page press release will be written, then transmitted to interpreters' and translators' associations for validation and translation, then issued by all the stakeholders to the media in every country. Do you have any statistics to support your statements? [TOP] According to our on-line survey, 95% of Inttranet members are in favour of the project, and 70% of the latter are members of interpreters' and translators' associations. Concerning the utility of the application: a recent American study (see Inttranews Archives) found that medical interpreters are available in less than half of all emergency cases. Only 23% of the hospitals train its students to work with interpreters. A study of the hospitals in the New Jersey in July 2006 (see Inttranews Archives) indicated that only 3% provided full-time interpreters, that is to say one interpreter for every 235,260 patients. If no interpreter is available, they call upon the family or untrained medical personnel. A study of the medical errors due to interpreters indicated that 77% were caused by non-professional interpreters. Will the websites displaying the Exttranet application be checked? [TOP] Of course. A website wishing to display the application must make a request, and the contents of its site must meet standard criteria of propriety. Who is legally responsible for the contents of the Exttranet? [TOP] HTT, as manager of the website. Are other developments planned for the Exttranet? [TOP] Yes, in particular the adaptation of the search system so that it can be used by telephone. The application is already WAP-compatible. In practice, what is meant by the standardisation of admission criteria to interpreters' and translators' associations? [TOP] According to the proposal of HTT, each application form will be automatically sent to three entities for checking before being accepted into the Exttranet database: (This procedure complies with the requirements of the ISO 9001 v2000 quality assurance standard). This means each applicant must be a member of interpreters' and translators' associations and meet the Inttranet admission criteria (i.e. have at least 3 year professional experience, have the suitable academic qualifications and/or professional references…) in order to be included in the Exttranet database. Who defines this “standard”? [TOP] The Inttranet admission criteria were defined by the professional interpreters and translators, chiefs of the translation services of international institutions and translation companies consulted during the launch of the Inttranet project in 2000. It is obvious that not all the associations have the same admission criteria: one of the interests of the Exttranet project is precisely to encourage the adoption of common criteria, especially with regard to: What will be done with the members admitted before this standard is adopted?
[TOP] Will the Exttranet not have an adverse effect on translation agencies? [TOP] As a result, the Exttranet is extremely useful for translation agencies seeking professional sub-contractors, in order to provide quality services for their customers. |