pkm for professional translators

The second workshop on Personal Knowledge Management, PKM2010 will take place on September 12th, 2010 in Duisburg in the course of the German HCI Conference Mensch und Computer 2010. This workshop is “about Understanding, Supporting, and Evaluating the Management of Personal Knowledge, Information and Data”. I will give a short presentation on how professional translators (can) manage their personal knowledge and how this connects with their social interaction on the web. Depending on the progress of my research, I will also present the results of my pre-tests to demonstrate the methodology my scientific work is based on. Like always, the slide deck and the paper will be made available to you here, on vokabelaustausch.

travel journal: leipzig international conference on translation studies – LICTRA 2010, day 1

„LICTRA 2010 is the continuation of a tradition that began in 1965 and has since regularly drawn researchers from all over the world to the University of Leipzig to discuss and exchange ideas on fundamental issues concerning Translation and Interpretation Studies.
Its combination of continuity, range and high standards makes LICTRA unique in Germany as an event promoting and developing T&I Studies, and the conference proceedings are milestones in the field. (…) about 200 T&I researchers, practitioners and students have registered for LICTRA 2010. They come from 30 nations all around the world (…).
(…) the New York Times ranked Leipzig in 10th place in its list of ,The 31 Places to Go in 2010‘. (…) We believe that LICTRA 2010 offers you something for the senses as well as for the mind, and so we hope that you have a thoroughly enjoyable and successful conference.“

This short summary of the warm welcome to the LICTRA 2010 participants by Prof. Dr. Peter A. Schmitt, director of the Institute for Applied Linguistics and Translation Studies, IALT of the University of Leipzig, hits the nail on the head when it comes to explaining the vibes to all those who (poor you!) couldn‘t make it to the conference.

The familiar yet international atmosphere at the event taking place in a beautiful modern university building in the middle of a historical city, and covering topics ranging from ancient translation theories to future visions for T&I Studies and the translation business was very delightful and only within a few hours I had forgotten that this was my very first time in Leipzig and that (except for my supervisor and one of my fellow doctoral students) I only knew most of the other attendees’ names from the university library’s bookshelves. Indeed, reading the badges dangling from peoples’ necks was like flipping through the table of contents of the standard references of translation studies.

I will blog about some interesting sessions and discussions asap. For now, you can find the slides of my presentation on “synergies in coopetition. an analysis of professional translators’ social networks.” here.

Enjoy!