Terminology Special Interest Group

SIG Mission and Charter

The LISA Terminology Special Interest Group comprises a group of industry terminology specialists who work together to promote terminology management as an essential part of the content development, globalization, internationalization, localization and translation processes.

The mission statement of the Terminology SIG is as follows:

• Provide guidelines on terminology management.
• Educate LISA members about the role of terminology in the globalization, internationalization, localization and translation (GILT) processes.
• Represent users of terminology standards and tools.
• Determine and promote the economic value of managing terminology.

SIG membership is open to LISA members.

Download the Terminology SIG Mission and Charter document.

TBX Basic

In partnership with OSCAR, the LISA Terminology SIG, the LISA Terminology SIG has completed the review phase of the TBX-Basic Data Category Specification. The specification has been submitted to the OSCAR Steering Committee, which will develop it into a formal XML standard. The TBX-Basic Data Category Specification will also be included in the forthcoming ISO version of TBX, as an example of a TBX implementation.

Terminology Management Information

The following links are useful in understanding various aspects of terminology management and the motivation for managing terminology:

Terminology Management Bibliography [PDF] - list of recommended books and online resource on Terminology Management.

Presentations

• EuroTermBank: Multilingual Terminology Sharing Portalstats [PDF] - Signe Rirdance, of Tilde, gave this presentation about the EuroTermBank to the LISA Terminology SIG, The EuroTermBank is a significant project to consolidate terminology into a single portal for European languages.
• Translation Memory and Terminology [ZIP] - a presentation on the current status of translation memory tools from the terminology point of view.
• Sloppy Terminology: The Sky Won’t Fall, Will It? [ZIP] - a presentation on the importance of terminology management
• Introduction to the TermBase eXchange (TBX) Standard

White Papers and Reports

• Terminology Matters [PDF] - whitepaper by SDL International.
• Terminology Management Survey Report (2005)
• Terminology Management - A Comparative Study of Costs, Data Categories, Tools, and Organizational Structure (2003)
• LISA Terminology Survey Results (2001)
• LISA Terminology Survey for the Localization Industry

Articles

• My 5 Tips for Intelligent Terminology Management
• IP vs. Customer Satisfaction: EuroTermBank and the Business Case for Terminology Sharing
• Why Manage Terminology? Ten Quick Answers
• LISA Promotes Terminology Standards in Beijing
• TBX-Basic News
• Terminology as a Key Driver in Business Communications
• A Terminology Standardization Initiative for Arabic
• Terminology: Getting Down to Business
• The Terms of Business - Saving Money Through Terminology Management
• Terminology Management - A Comparative Study of Costs, Data Categories, Tools, and Organizational Structure.
• Terminology: An Introspection - 2003
• News from the Terminology SIG - 2002

Audio Recordings (Podcasts)

• How Can Terminology Help China Go Global?
• Terminology - The DNA of Globalization and Localization

SIG Members

The members of the SIG represent a balanced spectrum of large corporations, service providers, clients, and tools developers:

Hanne Smaadahl, SAP (Chair)

Hanne Smaadahl is a Senior Terminologist at SAP responsible for terminology management strategy and vision. Prior to SAP’s merger with Business Objects, Ms. Smaadahl held the same position at Business Objects where she developed the company’s terminology management strategy and infrastructure from the ground up. Before joining Business Objects in June 2006, Ms. Smaadahl spent eight years with Microsoft Corporation. During her last five years with Microsoft, she worked as a terminologist and was instrumental in developing a corporate terminology infrastructure, taking the company from a file based, bilingual glossary format to a multi-lingual, concept-based terminology management system. Ms. Smaadahl has a degree in Technical Translation with a minor in Business Administration, and post-graduate work in linguistics and teaching English as a second language. She has extensive experience as a terminologist, language specialist, and program manager in the software and localization industry.

Kara Warburton, IBM

Kara Warburton is a terminologist for IBM Corporation, where she defines terminology strategy to support product development and GIL (globalization, internationalization and localization). She is currently heading the development of a corporate terminology database and is responsible for terminology strategy to support the end-to-end production process. Prior to this position, she was a software information developer and translation planner.

Kara has a BA and an MA in Translation and Terminology from Université Laval, Québec, Canada. She is involved in evaluating terminology standards, as a Canadian delegate to the ISO TC 37 (terminology committee). She feels that the Terminology SIG could complement the standards groups by giving direction on standards implementation, which would facilitate terminology exchange.

Ulrich Wachowius, SDL International

Ulrich Wachowius has more than 15 years of experience in the localization industry. He serves the European SAE J2450 committee as Secretary to the Chairman. For the German professional association for technical communication tekom, Ulrich is working as an expert and consultant for terminology management. At SDL Multilingual Services in Stuttgart, Germany, as Senior Business Manager for Global Information Management he concentrates on consulting and business development for IT and automotive customers.

Nicole Sévigny, Translation Bureau of Canada

Nicole Sévigny is Director of the Standardization Strategies Division in the Terminology Standardization Directorate of the Translation Bureau of Canada. A certified translator and a member of OTTIAQ (the association of certified translators, terminologists and interpreters of Quebec), she occupied a number of positions at the Translation Bureau over the years, from translator to director of translation services. Nicole’s involvement in the terminology field at the national level includes heading the Terminology Standardization Secretariat, chairing the Canadian Advisory Committee to ISO TC 37 and sitting on a number of Canadian terminology and standardization committees and groups, such as the Federal Terminology Council and the program for Promoting Access to Justice in Both Official Languages (PAJLO). At the international level, she serves as Secretary of ISO/TC 37 Subcommittee 2 and is active in many networks and organizations, including the Agence intergouvernementale de la Francophonie, the Union latine and the Inter-American Languages Management Seminars.

Martin Kok, Scriptware

Martin Kok is a senior editor and language engineer at Scriptware, a medium-sized language service provider based in the Netherlands. His day-to-day work focuses both on the content side of the translation process (terminology management, quality assurance), and on its technology component (tools and workflow).

Martin graduated in Slavic languages at the University of Amsterdam, and also studied in Moscow and St. Petersburg. After college, he lectured Dutch at St. Petersburg State University and founded a private language school specializing in Dutch. Upon returning to the Netherlands, Martin worked at a dictionary publisher, and later switched to the localization industry, where he immediately felt at home. In total Martin has about 15 years of professional language-related experience in various positions, including author, translator, editor and trainer. As a strong believer in the concept of ‘better understanding through accurate communication’ and an avid collector of rare and antique dictionaries, Martin sees himself as a true terminology & lexicography aficionado.

Christine Hug, Canadian Government Translation Bureau

Christine Hug is a Senior Terminotics Specialist of the Terminology Standardization Directorate of the Translation Bureau (Canada). She is responsible for providing training and technical assistance to terminologists for various terminology software applications, as well as for identifying and testing new terminology tools. Christine holds a Bachelor’s degree and Master’s degree, both in Translation, from the University of Ottawa. There she also taught a graduate level course on computers and translation. She has authored articles on the terminology workflow.

Signe Rirdance, Tilde

Signe Rirdance has over 10 years of management experience in localization, technical writing, terminology and translation. She is Director of EuroTermBank, a recently launched multilingual terminology sharing portal, hosted by Tilde, the leading Baltic IT company specializing in language technologies, multilingual and Internet software, and localization.

Previously, Signe developed Tilde’s localization business from a single project to a prosperous business line with offices in 3 countries. As Director of Localization, Documentation and Training in Exigen Latvia, the software development center of the global Exigen Group, headquartered in San Francisco, US, she set up and directed the production cycles and teams for localization, technical writing, and training of Exigen products.

She has been involved in a variety of linguistic projects, including the development of Microsoft Style Guide and terminology for Latvian, and numerous translation, validation, and editing assignments. Signe is a member of the ICT Committee of Terminology Commission of the Latvian Academy of Sciences. She volunteers as a guest-lecturer on translation stylistics and localization at the University of Latvia.

Dee Stribling, SAS Institute

Dee Stribling has over 30 years of experience in information technology development and research. Throughout her career, she has applied her expertise across several areas, including health care and emergency management research (Duke University and the Research Triangle Institute). However, managing software development and publications projects (and bridging the business culture gap between the two) has been the focus of her 20-year career at SAS. Her publishing technologies experience includes content management, XML-based authoring, text mining, and ontology development. She is currently the project leader for the SAS Corporate Terminology Management initiative. This continues to be an exciting area as terminology management extends far beyond text-based material (documentation, collateral) and into message text, user interface labels, and software code, across more than 20 languages. Her interests also include facilitating and managing change in business processes within corporate environments and global publishing. Stribling has authored and presented papers primarily via SAS User Group conferences. She will be representing SAS on the LISA terminology special interest group. Stribling earned her Ph.D. in Medical Geography from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Norma Emery, Alcatel-Lucent

Norma Emery holds a BA in English from Hood College, Frederick, Maryland, and is currently completing graduate work at the Hood College graduate school. She has more than 30 years of experience in content and document development with an emphasis on content reuse and quality assurance. As a senior consultant for standards, process, and quality assurance at Alcatel-Lucent, Norma is involved in technical writing and editing, research, analysis, and project management. Norma’s primary professional focus is the development of writing, content, and terminology standards for Alcatel-Lucent.

Seija Suonuuti, Nokia

Seija Suonuuti is manager of the Nokia Language and Terminology Development unit and a member of the board of directors of the Finnish Terminology Centre TSK. She has 30 years of experience in terminology. Her responsibilities at Nokia cover creating the language and terminology long term plans, providing language style guidelines and terminology guidelines, such as the Nokia termbank and the user interface terminology, and providing language and terminology tools for Nokia employees and subcontractors. Seija has taught terminology and terminology management both within Nokia and in workshops and university courses.

Hector Hernaez, World Bank

 

Ioannis Iakovidis, Interverbum

Ioannis Iakovidis is the general manager of Interverbum Technology in Sweden. Interverbum is one of the leading providers of terminology management systems. As founder of Nescit Systems he was instrumental in the development of the TermWeb software. Ioannis Iakovidis holds a M.Sc from the Institute of Technology, Linköping, Sweden.

Michael Wetzel, SDL International

Michael Wetzel, M.A. (German linguistics, French linguistics, and Computational Linguistics) is Product Manager at SDL International, the leader in global information management (GIM) solutions. Joining TRADOS in 1997, he began working as a Program Manager for the Translator’s Workbench and WinAlign applications. In 2000, he became the Product Manager for Terminology Management, looking after applications such as MultiTerm and MultiTerm Extract. With the corporate merger of SDL and TRADOS in 2005, Mr. Wetzel is now responsible for the SDL Terminology product portfolio as well as the SDL Global Authoring Management Solutions.

María Ellis, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications

María Ellis is Terminology project manager at UI Localization, Sony Ericsson in Lund, Sweden. She joined the company in 2005 after nearly 20 years’ teaching in four countries, and has lived and worked in Sweden since 1992.  She is responsible for the corporate terminology database, chairs a company-wide language advisory group and is project manager for the introduction of new languages.

Kristina Roseden, Xerox

 

Raquel Silva, Traducta

Raquel Silva is a terminologist and works for Traducta for some years now. She isresponsible for terminology management. Traducta is a linguistic service company specialising in translation, software and website localisation, terminology management and interpreting. Raquel Silva has a MA in Lexicology, Lexicography and Terminology from Universidade Nova de Lisboa and currently prepares her PHD in Terminology at the same university where she works as a researcher.

Petr Oklestek, Avaya

Petr Oklestek is Localization Project Manager at Avaya. He is responsible for following industry standards in localization process together with using the latest localization and workflow tools such as SDL TMS, SDL Trados, Passolo and Multiterm and its maintenance. He has 10 years of experience in the localization industry especially in game and software localization.

Petr has Master’s degree of Information Science from University of Economics in Prague with focusing on Project Management.

Dino Ferrari, CLS Communication

Dino Ferrari is a senior terminologist at CLS Communication, a leading LSP based in Switzerland. He is in charge of the standard and proprietary terminology management and extraction tools and processes. He also delivers terminology training and consulting and develops termbases for clients.

Dino has more than 14 years of experience in the terminology industry, previously with a global reinsurer and a multinational insurance company. He holds an M.A. in translation and terminology from the University of Geneva. He is a member of the Swiss professional association ASTTI and of the Deutscher Terminologie-Tag e.V. (DTT).

CLS Communication’s terminology team provides solutions for its customers and translators in the finance, insurance, life science, telecom and other areas.

 

In addition to these SIG members, Professor Alan Melby of BYU participates in the SIG as an advisor in the area of TBX.

As their biographies below demonstrate, all the SIG members have generously made a personal commitment to achieve the common goal of improving terminology management, and they each have strong contributions to make based on their knowledge and experience.