Dear MT User,

AMTA, the Association for Machine Translation in the Americas will hold its biennial conference August 8-12, 2006 in Cambridge, MA, USA (http://amta2006.amtaweb.org). This time, the conference will feature a special continuous program track of presentations by and for users of MT. The AMTA 2006 User Program Team solicits proposals for conference sessions that will help users to advance their own goals in working with machine translation, and communicate priorities to the research community, commercial developers, and integrators. The conference provides a forum to share your experience working with MT, and learn from others. Below are some areas targeted for their high relevance to MT users today. Proposals on other topics are also welcome.  

 

Proposals accepted through May 7, 2006. Please request a submission form from Focalpoint@amtaweb.org or download from the conference website (amta2006.amtaweb.org). Proposals, should be directed to: Focalpoint@amtaweb.org with the subject line: AMTA 2006 - User Session Proposal

 

Targeted themes on using MT:

 

  1. Technically – how to integrate MT and other components to accomplish goals in translation and information processing; And how to optimize – whether for information gathering or publishing.
  2. Time, Cost, and politics – how to calculate and explain the value of MT, or automation, within the organization
  3. Human Factors – resistance to technology/change/MT, and dealing with user/consumer expectations and reactions to MT output

 

Targeted topics/applications:

  1. Information gathering/extraction/data mining pipelines
  2. Integrating MT into production translation – with Translation Memory, terminology databases, etc.
  3. How useful is MT output? – Identifying quality thresholds for usability in postediting or information gathering
  4. Postediting
  5. Current MT Technology – pros and cons of various approaches (Statistical, rule-based, example based, hybrid combination); Projects that illustrate the strengths weaknesses of particular approaches.
  6. MT for different kinds of applications (information assimilation, publication – user documentation vs. literature): how do requirements differ?
  7. Generic MT (using an MT engine the way it came from the vendor) vs. customized

 

The type of content that will be most valuable: Practical, specific, first hand accounts of what has been done, how it worked, how user and funder concerns have been addressed.

 

Please forward this invitation to MT users you know!