| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9] > | We need a tool and a system: proposal to create a cooperative of freelance translators Thread poster: Felipe Gútiez Velasco
|
|---|
Felipe Gútiez wrote:
I could take the 6000 X 100= 60.000 from a bank or an investor angel from Silicom Valley. I have already received some offers.
...
But they are not 20.000 Top translators.
6000 x 100 is actually 600,000, Felipe - if you've really managed to convince someone to lend you this much, more power to your elbow.
And if you manage to get 20,000 Top Translators (TM) to invest, you'll be laughing all the way to the bank - that'd be 120,000,000 if I haven't got my noughts wrong! A tasty little sum in anyone's book, unless we're playing with Monopoly money in cloud cuckoo land.
[Edited at 2008-09-18 16:38]
| | | | | First hiring decision | Sep 18, 2008 |
Before you do anything else, secure a good accountant (or someone who can do simple math), because otherwise you'll be in serious financial trouble from the start.
| | | | | You´re right :-) | Sep 18, 2008 |
Marie-Hélène Hayles wrote: Felipe Gútiez wrote:
I could take the 6000 X 100= 60.000 from a bank or an investor angel from Silicom Valley. I have already received some offers.
...
But they are not 20.000 Top translators.
6000 x 100 is actually 600,000, Felipe - if you've really managed to convince someone to lend you this much, more power to your elbow. And if you manage to get 20,000 Top Translators (TM) to invest, you'll be laughing all the way to the bank - that'd be 120,000,000 if I haven't got my noughts wrong! A tasty little sum in anyone's book, unless we're playing Monopoly in cloud cuckoo land. [Edited at 2008-09-18 12:01]
The most important thing to create a project is enthousiasm and a good idea.
I have both.
Money is irrelevant. It will come sooner or later.
| | | | | You are wrong... | Sep 18, 2008 |
Felipe Gútiez wrote:
The most important thing to create a project is enthousiasm and a good idea.
I have both.
Money is irrelevant. It will come sooner or later.
Sorry Felipe, but once more you are wrong in my opinion. Enthusiasm and a good idea are not enough. We all have that many times a year. What you need is A PLAN and very hard working to pull it through no matter what. Enthusiasm and a good idea are not enough as history has proven so many times.
| | |
|
|
|
| Money not important? | Sep 18, 2008 |
Felipe Gútiez wrote:
The most important thing to create a project is enthousiasm and a good idea.
I have both.
Money is irrelevant. It will come sooner or later.
If money is so irrelevant, then why are you asking everyone to cough up €6000?
I could get a really good 2nd hand car or a massive plasma TV system for that!
| | | | | Financial News | Sep 18, 2008 |
You can hardly pick up a newspaper or turn on your TV right now without reading/hearing about companies in trouble, but oddly enough nobody mentions that they got in trouble due to enthusiam. Seems they were plenty enthusiastic about making decisions on their investments, but sadly the wrong ones (let's push mortgages until the cows come home, this bubble will never burst!).
| | | | | Can't you see... | Sep 18, 2008 |
Orla Ryan wrote: If money is so irrelevant, then why are you asking everyone to cough up €6000? I could get a really good 2nd hand car or a massive plasma TV system for that!
Oh Orla, this was so mundane! Can't you see the potential in this idea? Are you really discarding a bright future for us all just because you fancy a new TV set!!??
| | | | | I've no (tele)vision :) | Sep 18, 2008 |
Tomás Cano Binder wrote: Orla Ryan wrote: If money is so irrelevant, then why are you asking everyone to cough up €6000? I could get a really good 2nd hand car or a massive plasma TV system for that! Oh Orla, this was so mundane! Can't you see the potential in this idea? Are you really discarding a bright future for us all just because you fancy a new TV set!!??
I'm far too boring and sensible to be a good brainstormer, alas I just want a big cool TV like one of those rich rappers from MTV Cribs... that's all the vision I need
| | |
|
|
|
Andy Watkinson 
Spain
Local time: 23:05
Member
Catalan to English
+ ...
| Please! Orla, Tomás and others | Sep 18, 2008 |
I am deeply disappointed with your recent posts!!
Can we please get back on topic?
i.e. How to make Felipe incredibly wealthy so he can brainstorm to his heart's content in the Bahamas.
Andy
| | | | | Please stay on topic | Sep 18, 2008 |
and please refrain from making a joke out of things.
Thanks for your understanding,
Evert
| | | | | Thank you Evert | Sep 18, 2008 |
Evert DELOOF-SYS wrote:
and please refrain from making a joke out of things.
Thanks for your understanding,
Evert
The topic was:
what tool and what system would be good for a system, similar to Logoport, BUT, in which decisions are taken democratically by the members of a cooperative who have paid a certain amount of money to become members.
If I have understood the general feeling, many could join AFTER some investment has been done, not BEFORE. Ok, I can live with this. There should be no problem at all to find an investor or a Bank to make the previous investment.
And now back to the tool and the system.
What ecommerce system? XTL? Has Microsoft something? Is there something open source?
What TM tool? Across? MemoQ? A mix of all the tools?
What taxonomy/autoring system? What format compatibility?
What extra advantages for members? What electronic dictionaries? What macros?
What server system?
What voting system? What "idea-to-reality" system?
What accounting system? Any experience about online accounting system? I know ABAC, from the European Commission, any experience from corporations? Any open accounting system?
What security system?
What payment system? Paypal? EC-card? Credit card? A new one?
When open the system from 20 Euro Cents (first phase), to 10, 5 and 1 Euro Cents? It should be translations A, B, C and D. A 20 Cents. B 10 Cents, C 5 Cents and D 1 Cent. Many clients can start with translations D and go on with C, D and finally A. We can take part in the growth of our clients, but also help them to grow. May be other cooperatives? I hope so.
[Editado a las 2008-09-18 18:32]
[Editado a las 2008-09-18 19:50]
| | | | | I must insist once again.... | Sep 18, 2008 |
After two Proz topics about the matter, as far as I can see there hasn't been a big interest in the idea. Maybe the approach you are taking it not the good one to catch our attention and make us feel interested? Making questions to the sky does not seem to have attracted many potential cooperativists.
Felipe, please do write a general plan, a structure. Propose that structure and general goals in a few words in another topic, grab some people's attention, get in touch with them ove... See more After two Proz topics about the matter, as far as I can see there hasn't been a big interest in the idea. Maybe the approach you are taking it not the good one to catch our attention and make us feel interested? Making questions to the sky does not seem to have attracted many potential cooperativists.
Felipe, please do write a general plan, a structure. Propose that structure and general goals in a few words in another topic, grab some people's attention, get in touch with them over email, discuss things generally, choose the people who have your same goals, dreams and mindset, and then ask all these questions within the team.
I will be glad to examine your proposal and might be interested in joining you in a proper meeting. Until that moment... this "brainstorming" you insist in trying to push along feels rather uninteresting to me... Nevertheless, I wish you all the luck with whatever "route to success" you may follow. ▲ Collapse
| | |
|
|
|
mediamatrix (X)
Local time: 17:05
Spanish to English
+ ...
| No plan? - No answers... | Sep 18, 2008 |
Felipe Gútiez wrote:
...
What ecommerce system? XTL? Has Microsoft something? Is there something open source?
What TM tool? Across? MemoQ? A mix of all the tools?
What taxonomy/autoring system? What format compatibility?
What extra advantages for members? What electronic dictionaries? What macros?
What server system?
What voting system? What "idea-to-reality" system?
What accounting system? Any experience about online accounting system? I know ABAC, from the European Commission, any experience from corporations? Any open accounting system?
What security system?
What payment system? Paypal? EC-card? Credit card? A new one?
When open the system from 20 Euro Cents (first phase), to 10, 5 and 1 Euro Cents? It should be translations A, B, C and D. A 20 Cents. B 10 Cents, C 5 Cents and D 1 Cent. Many clients can start with translations D and go on with C, D and finally A. We can take part in the growth of our clients, but also help them to grow. May be other cooperatives? I hope so.
At this stage in your project, Felipe, all those questions should be addressed to specialist advisors in the respective fields. With one (possible) exception, those fields are e-commerce, web hosting, IT, technical authoring, accounting and global business management. Although some people here are well qualified to translate such stuff, there are few, I imagine, who would stick their necks out to the extent of giving you free professional consulting services. And the professional advice you need will only become available if you can present your project to your advisors in a coherent manner. You will be paying those people for their services - you will reduce your up-front costs significantly if you approach them with a clear explanation of what you want to do.
BTW, I see no questions there in the legal field - maybe an oversight? Maybe an expensive one - for example, if your cooperative will be pooling copyrighted TMs...
The (possible) exception is 'What TM tool?'. And there, Felipe, you are putting the cart before the horse (again...) since you cannot possibly make a meaningful assessment of the suitability of any tools until you have formulated a clear understanding of your objectives and the working environment within which you plan/hope to attain those objectives.
Tomás has made valiant attempts to convince you of the need to prepare a PLAN. If you intend to take his advice on board, then I wouldn't expect to see you back here in the forum for at least the next four to six weeks; that is the time it will take you to carry out a full review of available and relevant information here on the Proz.com forum, and elsewhere on the Web, as a preliminary to drafting your PLAN.
At the end of the day, Felipe, this is your project. You, so far, are the only member of the cooperative, thanks to your 'automatic' membership credentials. It's time for you to go away and do some serious research. And when you have your PLAN, that will be the time - perhaps - to come back here and seek other peoples' opinions.
Go for it, Felipe!
MediaMatrix
| | | | | Mediamatrix, thank you for the critics | Sep 19, 2008 |
mediamatrix wrote: Felipe Gútiez wrote:
...
What ecommerce system? XTL? Has Microsoft something? Is there something open source?
What TM tool? Across? MemoQ? A mix of all the tools?
What taxonomy/autoring system? What format compatibility?
What extra advantages for members? What electronic dictionaries? What macros?
What server system?
What voting system? What "idea-to-reality" system?
What accounting system? Any experience about online accounting system? I know ABAC, from the European Commission, any experience from corporations? Any open accounting system?
What security system?
What payment system? Paypal? EC-card? Credit card? A new one?
When open the system from 20 Euro Cents (first phase), to 10, 5 and 1 Euro Cents? It should be translations A, B, C and D. A 20 Cents. B 10 Cents, C 5 Cents and D 1 Cent. Many clients can start with translations D and go on with C, D and finally A. We can take part in the growth of our clients, but also help them to grow. May be other cooperatives? I hope so. At this stage in your project, Felipe, all those questions should be addressed to specialist advisors in the respective fields. With one (possible) exception, those fields are e-commerce, web hosting, IT, technical authoring, accounting and global business management. Although some people here are well qualified to translate such stuff, there are few, I imagine, who would stick their necks out to the extent of giving you free professional consulting services. And the professional advice you need will only become available if you can present your project to your advisors in a coherent manner. You will be paying those people for their services - you will reduce your up-front costs significantly if you approach them with a clear explanation of what you want to do. BTW, I see no questions there in the legal field - maybe an oversight? Maybe an expensive one - for example, if your cooperative will be pooling copyrighted TMs... The (possible) exception is 'What TM tool?'. And there, Felipe, you are putting the cart before the horse (again...) since you cannot possibly make a meaningful assessment of the suitability of any tools until you have formulated a clear understanding of your objectives and the working environment within which you plan/hope to attain those objectives. Tomás has made valiant attempts to convince you of the need to prepare a PLAN. If you intend to take his advice on board, then I wouldn't expect to see you back here in the forum for at least the next four to six weeks; that is the time it will take you to carry out a full review of available and relevant information here on the Proz.com forum, and elsewhere on the Web, as a preliminary to drafting your PLAN. At the end of the day, Felipe, this is your project. You, so far, are the only member of the cooperative, thanks to your 'automatic' membership credentials. It's time for you to go away and do some serious research. And when you have your PLAN, that will be the time - perhaps - to come back here and seek other peoples' opinions. Go for it, Felipe! MediaMatrix
But, please, don´t discourage people from sharing their knowledge, proposals.
I have already given a lot of proposals for free.
I try to make a cooperative.
Why should people refrain from giving advice?
You know, I don´t care at all if you make critics to Felipe. This is just a name. I can also make a lot of critics on Felipe, no problem at all.
The important thing is the project. And an essential part of the project is the collaborative one. I truly believe in collaboration. And a forum give us a wonderful tool for collaborate. I have many ideas, but everybody has them. If I don´t share my ideas, then the others don´t have them. If they don´t share their ideas, then, only they have them. And it is quite possible that many of these "individual" ideas could complement each other.
The other question is money. In business, and in the world politics there is a lot of insane situations because of money. I think that things should be logical and rational, and not just "to make money". The Irak war is a good example. And there are a lot.
Money is "Just" necessary, not more, not less.:-)
A global TM is a good idea, money is "just" necessary to make real this good idea.
Capitalism is a very bad system. The other systems are "just" worse. W. Churchill about democracy, I think.
One more think (sorry in Spanish for Mediamatrix).
Y, en serio, mano al pecho, ¿qué empresa de consultoría puedes recomendarme mejor que este foro para este proyecto? Si yo pago a los consultores, ¿Se atreverán a decirme libremente todo lo que está mal, como hacen aquí?¿Me aportarían algo?
[Editado a las 2008-09-19 06:47]
[Editado a las 2008-09-19 06:49]
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 23:05
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
| The answer is simple, actually | Sep 19, 2008 |
Felipe Gútiez wrote:
The topic was: what tool and what system would be good for a system, similar to Logoport, BUT, in which decisions are taken democratically by the members of a cooperative who have paid a certain amount of money to become members.
Thanks for finally asking the question you wanted us to answer. You're not asking really about a cooperative, but about that global TM thing again.
Here is my answer: In order to integrate any CAT tool with an online system, you need access to its formats, and I don't think you'll get it from the larger CAT tool people. The large CAT tool people will expect you to implement the online system of their choice, over which you'll have little or no control. I think Idiom is/was an exception to this, but who knows for how much longer Idiom will remain functional now that Trados is in control of it.
You best bet would be to design your own system. This means designing an online system *and* designing a new CAT tool that you'll force everyone to use. In my opinion, you're facing an uphill struggle, and that is why I suggested (in the other thread) a methodology that allows translators to use whatever CAT tool they prefer.
You can say to translators in the cooperative, "we all use Trados" but that won't help much because you'd still have to design the online collaboration system that works with Trados, and Trados is not an open system, so your design will be hack.
1. What ecommerce system? XTL? Has Microsoft something? Is there something open source?
One can only determine this once you've determine what your needs are. Different tools provide for different needs. Different tools have different strengths and weaknesses. First define your needs, then look for the tool.
What TM tool? Across? MemoQ? A mix of all the tools?
My suggestion is that you design the system independently of the CAT tool, so that any CAT tool can be used (within reason). You might appoint someone to test the CAT tools to determine which of them are suitable for what kinds of workflows, and then limit your members to those who use those tools. Another way is to do it may be to limit each job individually to certain CAT tools that are suitable for it. Folks using weird CAT tools will simply get less job notifications (or they'll be given a fair share of preference for the jobs that can be done in those tools).
What taxonomy/autoring system? What format compatibility?
I don't think taxonomy should be an issue. As for formats, the more formats you support, the better. You can either design a workflow that is the same regardless of the format (eg convert all files to XLIFF), or you can design a system that works differently based on format (eg all DOC files are sent directly to translators, but HTML files are converted to XLIFF).
What extra advantages for members? What electronic dictionaries? What macros?
There is no single dictionary for all languages, so you'll have to be sure that you don't disadvantage the smaller languages by offering added value only to the larger languages. But sure, if you can strike a deal with Oxford to give members exclusive access to one of their monolingual dictionaries, that'll be something.
What server system?
What voting system? What "idea-to-reality" system?
I suggest you get someone to design a voting system from scratch, or use some opensource system that can easily be adapted to your needs, as they arise.
What accounting system? Any experience about online accounting system? I know ABAC, from the European Commission, any experience from corporations? Any open accounting system?
Design it yourself. After all, it would have to integrate with the rest of the system, so it's better to get a fulltime designer or four to implement the system as needed.
What security system?
What payment system? Paypal? EC-card? Credit card? A new one?
Different systems depending on the client and the translator. Your system should designed to work with all of these.
When open the system from 20 Euro Cents (first phase), to 10, 5 and 1 Euro Cents? It should be translations A, B, C and D. A 20 Cents. B 10 Cents, C 5 Cents and D 1 Cent. Many clients can start with translations D and go on with C, D and finally A.
I honestly have no idea what you're talking about here.
| | | | | Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9] > | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » We need a tool and a system: proposal to create a cooperative of freelance translators | Anycount & Translation Office 3000 | Translation Office 3000
Translation Office 3000 is an advanced accounting tool for freelance translators and small agencies. TO3000 easily and seamlessly integrates with the business life of professional freelance translators.
More info » |
| | Protemos translation business management system | Create your account in minutes, and start working! 3-month trial for agencies, and free for freelancers!
The system lets you keep client/vendor database, with contacts and rates, manage projects and assign jobs to vendors, issue invoices, track payments, store and manage project files, generate business reports on turnover profit per client/manager etc.
More info » |
|
| | | | X Sign in to your ProZ.com account... | | | | | |
Login to reply/comment 
Translation news
