ProZ.com report to members, 2016
Thread poster: Jared Tabor
Jared Tabor
Jared Tabor
Local time: 17:03
SITE STAFF
Oct 18, 2016

Dear members,

Here is an update on recent news and advances at ProZ.com.

Work

Job flow through the site has remained steady in 2015 and 2016. To date, an estimated one billion USD in work has been passed through ProZ.com. This includes all channels for passing work, with the directory and direct profile contact being the most common ways clients connec
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Dear members,

Here is an update on recent news and advances at ProZ.com.

Work

Job flow through the site has remained steady in 2015 and 2016. To date, an estimated one billion USD in work has been passed through ProZ.com. This includes all channels for passing work, with the directory and direct profile contact being the most common ways clients connect with translators on the site. New channels for promoting your services and for client contact are being opened (more about this below).



In April, the acquisition of TM-Town was announced. TM-Town, established in 2014, is a site that serves translators by providing tools that they can use to manage their linguistic assets, and the opportunity to meet clients whose translation needs precisely match their areas of expertise. If you are a ProZ.com member, think of TM-Town as an optional additional channel through which client contact can come to you. You may have already seen them around the site, but welcome Kevin and Nate to the ProZ.com team! In conjunction with the announcement of TM-Town joining the ProZ.com network, all ProZ.com members were offered a free "Starter" membership at TM-Town. As of the writing of this report, over 14,000 translators have signed up at TM-Town.




Software and training

Translator Group Buying (TGB), which allows translators access to translation tools at significant discounts by teaming up to purchase, has been serving around 2,000 translators a year as they invest in new translation software and upgrades.

Free webinar weeks are being held regularly, which allow translators on the market for new software to check out tools for free, ask questions and get help in deciding what to buy. If you have recently starting using a new CAT tool, these are also good webinars to attend to pick up tips and tricks from the vendors themselves.

In translator training, 901 training sessions have been given since the last report, to 17,704 different attendees. Overall, 35,044 translators have taken training at ProZ.com to date.


The translation center



The Translators without Borders translation center, powered by ProZ.com, has seen more than 36 million words translated to date, with the support of 3,614 generous translator volunteers.

A big thank you to all the translators involved in initiatives like this, and to those who also made donation drives such as the Nepal earthquake relief, the annual Giving Tuesday drives and Training for charity events possible.


The translation center for companies



The translation center, a translation project management platform which was originally designed for Translators without Borders, has been made available for free to ProZ.com corporate members, and continues to evolve to meet the needs of commercial translation project management. The platform allows users to efficiently manage and track projects, coordinate with providers and clients, handle purchase orders and invoicing, with more features on the way. Just short of 15 million words in commercial work have been delivered so far through instances of the platform already in use by companies.

If you are on the market for a translation project management platform for your company, be sure to check this one out, at http://www.proz.com/proz-translation-center.

Some other recent improvements for Corporate members include:

  • A Search by email tool to help with identity verification (risk management, scam prevention)
  • Job notification improvements (based on languages in which services are offered)
  • Improvement of the non-payment report resolution policy through the Blue Board

    Corporate membership is now known as Business membership. More about what you can do with Business membership can be seen at http://www.proz.com/business-membership


    ProZ.com goes mobile



    A mobile version of ProZ.com was the most highly-requested feature among members. The new ProZ.com app allows you to network, check jobs and the Blue Board, participate in term help, and more, from your mobile device. Improvements and new features are being added based on member feedback. If you haven't tried ProZ.com Mobile out yet, please consider doing so.


    Share what you do and track your project history



    In July, some members of the ProZ.com site team met together for five days in Syracuse for a hackathon. Out of this came the new "What I am working on" feature, which allows freelance translators to share they types of projects they work on and track their project history over time. This feature is one of the first to span the current ProZ.com network, and can be seen and/or posted to from ProZ.com, TM-Town, ProZ.com Mobile, and the translation center. It is even possible for developers of other software tools to enable their users to view and post to "What I am working on" -- so far this has been implemented by one CAT tool vendor (CafeTran). Just over 3,000 projects have been shared so far. Some client contact is also happening through this feature, as clients search entries for keywords related to new work and are matched with the professionals reporting projects in those specific fields of expertise.




    Service agreement tool

    The ProZ.com service agreement tool allows you to create, send and track service agreements online, providing a formal document that outlines in detail what is expected from any client-service provider relationship.

    http://www.proz.com/service-agreement/


    Responsive and design upgrade (ongoing)

    Updates to site design are ongoing, and different parts of the site have already been made "responsive" to make it easier to navigate the site regardless of whether you are on a computer, tablet, phone, or other device.


    Other news

  • The 4th edition of the ProZ.com community choice awards were held this year, to recognize outstanding persons and resources in translation and interpretation. ProZ.com community choice awards
  • The 8th annual class of ProZ.com site moderators began activity in August. Thanks goes out to all the hundreds of professionals who have taken a tour as site moderator so far. They are key in welcoming and guiding new site users and keeping forums and term help results-oriented.
  • An easy drag-and-drop option for adding images to forum posts or your profile was added.
  • A new ProZ.com site staff member was added to the team at the La Plata office, Paula Durrosier. You may have already run into her in the support system or as she coordinated the ProZ.com community choice awards.
  • Evelio Clavel Rosales is the latest web developer to join the ProZ.com team, from Syracuse. He has worked on, among other projects, ProZ.com Mobile and the ongoing upgrade to responsive site pages.
  • In the Mentoring program, 10 new mentors have joined in the last year, for a total of 64 mentors. So far, 195 mentor-apprentice pairings have been made.


    Events
    ProZ.com virtual events
    On September 28th, 29th and 30th, the largest gathering of translators on the planet took place through the free 8th annual virtual conferences in celebration of International Translation Day, with over 10,000 registrants. If you attended even part of the events, all content from those events are available to you in full for at least 90 days, at http://www.proz.com/virtual-conferences/group/28

    Two in-person ProZ.com conferences have been held this year:

  • Stockholm, Sweden -- http://www.proz.com/conference/683
  • Curitiba, Brazil -- http://www.proz.com/conference/686

    A third conference in Matera, Italy -- http://www.proz.com/conference/695 -- will be held on October 22nd.

    ProZ.com also supported the first annual conference for APTRAD, a translator organization co-founded by ProZ.com member, participant of the Certified PRO Network, and organizer of three successful ProZ.com events Paula Ribeiro.

    290 powwows have been held so far in 2015 and 2016, with 2,240 attendees in 141 cities in 41 countries. See more upcoming gatherings of translators or propose one in your area »


    Behind the scenes...
    Matt and Lucía check in on some ProZ.com servers
    Hardware upgrades have been made, and additional resources allocated to systems administration to help ensure continuous, fast delivery of the ProZ.com site.

    Pictured right: Matt and Lucía check in on some ProZ.com servers. Click for a larger version.


    Membership: more choice



    Finally, if you are a ProZ.com member, or are considering becoming one, more choice has been built into your ProZ.com membership. You can now choose between two service packages for membership, depending on your needs:

    1. The Standard service package includes all of the benefits and services you already enjoy if you are currently a full ProZ.com member. The pricing has improved, especially if you use the automatic subscription option (no more worrying about expirations or renewing dates).
    2. A new Plus package will be released on November 15. This package, designed with the needs of full-time professional freelancers in mind, will include everything in the Standard package PLUS certain extras. Special pre-registration pricing is available for this service package until November 15.

    See what each service package includes and compare features »

    A promotional campaign is being launched to introduce the new service packages. Significant incentives are being offered, so you may want to consider renewing your membership at this time. Please note that you do not lose any of the remaining value of your current membership when renewing early.

    If you are not yet a ProZ.com member, now is the best time to join.

    ProZ.com Founder and President Henry Dotterer spoke about the new choices in membership recently, at the virtual conference celebrating International Translation Day.

    See the presentation on the new options for membership »




    Appreciation

    Many contributed to the items listed here, and to many other changes and improvements that are being made to the site. In particular, I would like to thank the following members for community activities, suggestions or feedback that have influenced activities since the last report:

    Joanna Dobson, Erin Lyons, Isabel Vidigal, Sheila Gomes, Dina Ostuni, Oleg Rudavin, Irina Lebedeva, Anna Kolomiitseva, Alina Belobra, Anna Ivanchenko, Suzanne Deliscar, Gwenydd Jones, Maksym Kozub, Irene Koukia, Anneta Vysotskaya, site localization teams, ProZ.com site moderators, the members who are volunteering as ProZ.com mentors, and ProZ.com trainers.

    Special appreciation goes out to some ProZ.com members who left us too soon, and whose contributions will be missed:

    Sian Cooper passed away this year. Sian was a member of the Certified PRO Network, a volunteer for Translators without Borders, winner in this year's ProZ.com community choice awards in the category of Mentoring.

    Chris Irwin, also known as "Textklick", was a long-time member, one of the first members of the Certified PRO Network, Translators without Borders volunteer, and an all-around outstanding contributor and mentor.

    Ruth Wöhlk was on the KudoZ leaderboard for German - Spanish, part of the Certified PRO Network, and a thoughtful contributor on and off the site.

    Rolf Kern was a Certified PRO, and is on the KudoZ leaderboard for both French to German and English to German, as well as having made frequent contributions to the forums.

    Giles Watson was also one of the first Certified PROs, and started using ProZ.com back in the year 2000. A prolific helper in the forums and in KudoZ, he is well-known for the Watson's Wine Glossary. You can read about the initiative to maintain this glossary here, on the Translator T.O. blog.


    On behalf of the ProZ.com site team, thank you to all ProZ.com members for investing in your business and for supporting ProZ.com through your membership.


    New site area archiving reports to members

    You can read this and past reports to members in a new site area: http://www.proz.com/reports-to-members



    Happy translating,

    Jared
    Member services
    ProZ.com



    Not yet a ProZ.com member? A ProZ.com membership campaign, called the Open Road, is running until December 31, 2016. If you have been considering advancing your business as a freelance translator, ProZ.com membership is one small investment you can make with big returns. See what ProZ.com members have said about their experiences with membership »






    If you are a translator or you work with translators, the ProZ.com mission statement explains how the site works for you: By providing tools and opportunities for you to network, expand your business, improve your work, and have more fun. If you have questions about membership, or need answers or help regarding anything else at ProZ.com, do not hesitate to contact staff through the online support system.
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    Soonthon LUPKITARO(Ph.D.)
    Soonthon LUPKITARO(Ph.D.)  Identity Verified
    Thailand
    Local time: 03:03
    English to Thai
    + ...
    corporate members pay more Oct 18, 2016

    translators payment potential is lower than corporates' and proz.com activities are busier toward such payers, I think so.

    Soonthon L.


     
    Jared Tabor
    Jared Tabor
    Local time: 17:03
    SITE STAFF
    TOPIC STARTER
    Thanks Soonthon Oct 18, 2016

    Hi Soonthon,

    Soonthon LUPKITARO(Ph.D.) wrote:

    translators payment potential is lower than corporates' and proz.com activities are busier toward such payers, I think so.


    I'm not sure if I understand. Corporate membership fees are higher than those for freelance translator membership, while still being a negligible amount for a business investment. The overwhelming majority of ProZ.com paying members are freelance translators, though. All activity the ProZ.com team carries out is geared towards helping freelance translators expand their businesses and improve their work (while networking and having fun). Efforts to meet that goal come from many different directions, of course, but it would be erroneous to assume the team does not focus first and foremost on freelance translators, as always.

    Jared


     
    Óscar Curros
    Óscar Curros  Identity Verified
    Spain
    Local time: 21:03
    Portuguese to Spanish
    + ...
    Desing needs to be updated, not only regarding responsiveness Oct 19, 2016

    Hi,

    I find Proz useful, but I am longing for a complete redesign. I'm sorry to say that the user interfaces seem so old and that the aesthetics could be much cleaner. We have so few options to build our profiles, and there are always these dominant yellow or green colors...


     
    Mónica Algazi
    Mónica Algazi  Identity Verified
    Uruguay
    Local time: 17:03
    Member (2005)
    English to Spanish
    A note of appreciation Oct 20, 2016

    Just a note to say I appreciate your ongoing efforts to make this site the best online community of translators of all times.

    Kudoz, Proz.com team!

    Rowers-animation


     
    Ashutosh Mitra
    Ashutosh Mitra  Identity Verified
    India
    Local time: 01:33
    Member (2011)
    English to Hindi
    + ...
    SITE LOCALIZER
    धन्यवाद (Thanks) ProZ! Oct 21, 2016

    I have learnt a lot from ProZ, and I am extremely satisfied to be a part of it. It has given me a chance to pay back to the society, with my skill via TWB. I am not very tech friendly, but gradually I am picking up and enjoying the features on the site.

    ROI on the membership of ProZ is simply the best.

    My sincere thanks to the entire Proz team. _/\_

    Thanks again,

    सादर (Regards)


     
    Ruslan Samoylyuk
    Ruslan Samoylyuk  Identity Verified
    Ukraine
    Local time: 22:03
    Member (2010)
    English to Russian
    + ...
    Server Room Photo Oct 23, 2016

    Photo from the server room is just awesome!

     
    Atef Elsayed
    Atef Elsayed
    Egypt
    Local time: 22:03
    English to Arabic
    + ...
    Appreciation Jan 2, 2017

    I have learned a lot from this site such as tools, tchniques and different views from around the world. I am grateful to be part of it.

    Best Regards
    Atef


     


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