Image courtesy of All Systems Go Computer Consulting

Last month I realised that my 3-year old desktop computer needed a serious upgrade; although it had 4 GB of RAM multitasking was becoming gradually slower and the processor was not quite up to scratch. Not only that, my PC was enormous, taking up about one third of my desk. It was also very loud. Working alongside something that sounded like an aircraft taking off was distracting.

I had the option to upgrade some of the PC’s parts, but once I started to tot up the costs, I realised (with a little help and persuasion from fellow translators on Twitter!) that it was time to buy a wholly new desktop. Many of the PC’s parts were already over 5 years’ old, as it has been built and rebuilt over the years.

I did quite a bit of research about which new computer would suit me best. But you may be surprised to hear that switching to a Mac desktop and OS wasn’t initially in my sights.

My main priorities were:

1)   8 GB of RAM, for faster multitasking

2)   Small form factor, ideally an all-in-one, to avoid continuing a situation where my desk is dominated by my computer

3)   Peace and quiet!

4)   Reliability

I soon realised that if you want a powerful computer, you may have to compromise on size and noise. I looked at all-in-ones but after reading reams of reviews it seemed that they weren’t necessarily the best option for business users, usually being less powerful. Most also seemed to be pre-loaded with Windows 7 ‘Home Premium’ rather than Windows 7 Professional, which suggested to me that they weren’t really designed for the sort of intensive use business users tend to inflict on their computers. There’s obviously an additional risk with all-in-ones too, since it’s likely to be more difficult to remove and replace the computer’s parts. However, what the reviews did tell me was that if you ‘re set on an all-in-one, the Apple iMac still stands out miles from the competition.

After deliberating over a couple more alternatives and not finding anything else that could combine performance + size + quietness so well, the iMac was the only computer through to the final round. I went for a 21.5” iMac (I use 2 screens) with an Intel Core i5 processor, a 1 TB Serial ATA Drive and 8 GB (2x 4 GB) of RAM. I customised the computer on the Apple website; it was pricey, but the final cost was not wildly different to that of a PC with the same specs, based on my online searches.

I have no plans to become an Apple cheerleader; I have no burning preference for Apple hardware and software and (perhaps unlike some other Mac users) in my opinion there’s nothing inherently wrong with PCs or Microsoft Windows. I don’t have an iPhone and these days my business laptop is a great little Lenovo ThinkPad.

But I have to admit that my new iMac has most definitely been a change for the better. I now have a high-performing computer that is virtually silent and has allowed me to reclaim a large section of my desk. This is a revelation in itself, aside from the benefits the computer itself offers. I have a small office and surface space is at a premium – this is now much less of a problem. This is important to me. With Parallels, I also have a way to continue using my Windows programs (such as my preferred CAT tool) – more on this in my next blog post, which will give some tips for making the transition as smooth as possible if it’s something you’re considering.икони на светциКартиниИдея за подаръкикони

Image courtesy of Wired magazine

The Institute of Translation and Interpreting will hold its General Meeting this Saturday (13 November). I urge all ITI members to attend if they can, or to vote by proxy if they haven’t already done so*. There are a number of important motions to be voted on, and I’m sure it will be a lively meeting. In my view, what many of these motions reflect is the need for greater professionalism and transparency in ITI as a membership organisation, which is a good thing. I want to be part of a professional body which represents real-life practising translators and interpreters, and which is represented by real-life practising translators and interpreters.

I intend to speak up at the meeting, but in advance of that I’d like to share some things I would like to see ITI introduce:

a) Greater transparency. The primary aim of this would be for ITI’s members, whose subscriptions sustain it, to have better knowledge of how their membership fees are being used.

b) Ensuring ITI’s leadership is similarly transparent, and that Council and Chairman are a visible team who members feel they can approach and who can be relied upon to represent their interests. Since the Chairman and Council represent members’ interests (without whom, of course, there would be no ITI at all), it is essential that they are able to interact freely with other ITI members as part of a two-way dialogue.

c)  Following on b), I’d like to see a permanently-available (perhaps on the website), clear  description of network coordinator, committee member, committee chairman, Council member and ITI Chairman roles. It doesn’t have to be lengthy, but should at least tell members what the roles involve, and how much time they would typically require. This would help members to decide whether to volunteer for them in future.

d) In order to ensure that these voluntary roles are performed by the best possible people for the job, drawing on the wide-ranging skills of ITI’s membership, I’d like to see a slightly more formal application process for roles, in addition to incentivising them (financially) where appropriate. This could involve advertising vacancies, for which a standard ITI application template could be distributed. This would seek to emulate the procedures used by other professional bodies, and I hope that with the new Equality and Diversity Committee in place, a new and transparent process will eventually emerge.

The ‘incentivising’ bit I sneakily slipped into my final point is a perhaps an audacious and controversial wish, but there is so much talent within ITI and I think it is currently underused and underrepresented. What proportion of that talent is unable to find a way to contribute because they are put off by the amount of uncompensated time they might have to give up? It’s not just that the roles (primarily that of Chairman) appear so cumbersome to members that’s the problem – I can’t imagine many freelance translators or interpreters earning a decent crust falling over themselves to sacrifice a large chunk of that income to act as Chairman, a vital and hugely time-consuming role, on a voluntary basis (or in return for ‘token’ money). I don’t think it’s money-obsessed to say this, it’s simply a practical observation based on the reality of the situation. I believe that practising translators can and should be able to be accommodated in order to sit on committees, on Council, and as Chairman alongside their normal work commitments. We should not rely on academic members and retired members to fill these roles. If proper financial compensation is what it takes to draw from a broad spectrum of the wisest people in the industry in this role, I believe that dismissing this idea altogether would be a serious misjudgement.

The topic of the role played by professional associations in their professional communities is so broad and open-ended that a single blog post will never begin to cover it. There is so much more to say, and I look forward to the discussions on Saturday! But for now my closing thoughts are these: what we as 21^st Century translation and interpreting professionals need is a professional association that accurately represents us, supports us in our careers, and projects a positive image of our profession. If we really want to promote and strengthen translation and interpreting as professions then we must walk-the-walk and talk-the-talk.

* 11 November (tomorrow) is the deadline for receipt by the ITI office of proxy forms.

Last Saturday I attended the CIOL Centenary Members’ Day in London. This was my first CIOL Members’ Day, despite having been a member for about 7 years. There were lots of great speakers, but the two talks that attracted me most were Professor David Crystal HonFCIL on ‘Languages: Past, Present and Future’ and Michael Benis FCIL on ‘Translators or Consultant Linguists?’

I’ve heard Michael touch on this idea of ‘consultant linguists’ before (and FWIW I think it’s something we should all be considering), but in this blog post I want to focus on an observation Michael made during his presentation: we have a talent leakage in the UK translation and interpreting industry.

As a profession we seem to lose a higher than average number of talented, hardworking people, at a time when translation needs are sharply increasing. It’s true that fewer people are studying languages at school and university right now, but I’d be surprised if the impact of this was already so apparent.

Why? Does it matter? Do we have an image problem? If so, how do we change it? We want the best talents to seriously consider a long-term career in our industry, don’t we? How can we stop them leaving, assuming we think there’s a good reason to get them to stay?

The first leakages might occur at undergraduate or postgraduate university level, or later on, after a stint as a project manager. Project manager frequently choose not to move into translation itself. What is clear is that they are finding their skills are better rewarded (financially or otherwise) in other/related industries.

One reason could be that there’s a lot of misinformation out there, and it often starts at school. Language students often decide to aim for a career outside the profession because a message filters through that studying language(s) is a ‘useful asset’, rather than something to base a career on. As Helen Campbell FCIL from the EC’s DG for Interpretation said in her talk (‘Training Translators and Interpreters in the Next Ten Years’) last Saturday, the very real shortage of high-calibre English mother tongue translators says otherwise. Even at university level the myth still circulates that there’s no real ‘career’ (or decent income) to be had in translation, so students start to think of a broader career portfolio.

But what about those who do make it as far as the beginnings of a career in translation? We accept that not everyone who starts out in translation and interpreting will want to stay forever and ever, but I think there’s a definite pattern emerging. In this talk, Michael suggested that these professionals feel that their talents and skills are not rewarded in the industry, and that there’s no clear career progression. Or perhaps they think the industry is not forward-looking or modernising enough to accommodate them? So they look to related professions, where they find exactly the same skills they used as translation professionals are much more highly regarded and remunerated.

How can we reverse this? We have 2 major professional associations in the UK, and they do their bit, right? If we take the example of the few client <-> linguist events that do exist, these are rather one-way, usually with a panel of translation companies at the front of a room taking questions from the floor (the budding/established freelance translators). We need to press for more visibility and a more active role for translators, not passiveness and invisibility (hence Michael’s use of ‘consultant linguist’), and this means being better communicators as a professional group and getting ourselves out there. Why don’t more translators and interpreters attend industry trade fairs, for example, to show the outside world what we’re made of?

I dare to suggest that perhaps there’s also too much inward-looking negativity out there in our industry. We often complain about how difficult it is to succeed as a freelance translator, how standards are falling, how so many translation companies pay unacceptable rates, how we’re the little guys against the big corporations. This victim mentality is not helpful, in my opinion, and it’s seriously off-putting to new entrants to the profession. We don’t want to deny that to make a living as a professional translator or interpreter requires a lot of hard work and dedication, but what career worth having doesn’t require a bit of hard graft?

Attendees of the event who are new to my blog may be interested in reading a little more about how I got into translation, as just one example of how a freelance translator begins their career. Well, if you’re wondering, read on…

For me, translating freelance was something I’d aimed for since starting my MA in Translation and Linguistics at Westminster University over six years ago. Completing the course 9 months later, I realised that freelancing lark would require planning, careful consideration and funds (not to mention paying off various bills and loans). So, quite early on I started looking for in-house translation jobs in London, eventually accepting a job as a full-time in-house translator in the public sector. My plan was to stay in this job for about a year, save up and then launch my freelance translation business.

I remember that I was fairly overly confident about my abilities as a translator at that stage, despite not having much real-world experience of it. Embarrassing to think about it now! A year passed quickly and I realised that I still had a long way to go before I felt ready to go it alone, both in terms of my translation skills and my ability to run a business. I still felt that I was much more suited to freelancing than to cubicle life in a rather uninspiring air-conditioned office, but the value of what I was learning was too great to just ditch it so quickly. I decided to set myself a target of at least 3 years in the job, and then to go for it freelance.

So, apart from translating diligently, squirrelling away my pennies, making my escape plan and daydreaming about a fantasy life as a freelance translator, what else was I doing during those years? Well, because I was serious about becoming freelance, and felt that if I put my mind to it and got support from the right people I could really make a go of it, I spent a lot of my evenings online researching how others were doing it, what sort of hardware/software/ancillary skills I might need for my business etc. Like many translators, I did regular voluntary translations in my spare time in order to hone my translation skills. I joined several ITI groups, and started reading the e-group threads after work. I attended steadily more ITI and CIOL events (networking is a long-term activity so I thought it best to get started on that ASAP), and I started a blog. I had been reading other translation blogs, and realised that I was gaining so much from reading about the experiences of other translators that I wanted to contribute something of my own. This led to more networking and becoming part of a dialogue with other translators in order to share our experiences.

Eventually, I felt the time was right to finally go freelance. If anything, though, I felt even more terrified at the prospect of freelancing at that point than I did when I graduated years before, when I was blissfully ignorant about what it involved! But I was still determined to do it, and resolute that in-house translation was not for me at that point in my life. I needed something to make me take the plunge, but I also needed a security blanket. So, I hatched another plan. I started attending a TESOL course for 3 hours each evening after work to qualify to teach English as a foreign language – a sort of back-up plan just in case freelancing didn’t work out, or if it took a lot longer than expected to get going. I also sat the ITI exam to become a qualified member (MITI).

Happily, I passed both the TESOL course and the ITI exam and no longer had any excuses to put off going freelance. The next thing I needed was the ITI’s Professional Support Group course, as after years in the public sector I was still seriously lacking any business skills. So, one week after leaving my in-house job for good I started the PSG course and was at my new desk in my home office. I got a short-term part-time teaching job in central London to help pay the bills, and also some locum teaching and private tuition in Business English. By October 2008 (6 months after going freelance), I was finding it too difficult to fit all this in with what was by then a full-time translation workload and felt secure enough to stop the teaching altogether.

I think it’s fair to say that each freelance translator will have taken a slightly different route, and the length of time it takes to get to the point where you’re earning a decent full-time income with regular, valued customers will vary considerably (depending on your language combinations, experience, marketing material, and often just sheer good luck). However, hearing how other people did it and how long it took them is one of the best ways of getting a realistic picture of what to aim for. I started my career in-house, and I’m not suggesting that’s what everyone ’should’ do. However, I do think that however you do it, careful planning is one of the best routes to a successful, sustainable freelance career. Running your own business is very fulfilling but can be scary, and so ultimately, the crucial qualities are determination and the ability to be brave when it’s needed!

]]> http://blog.philippahammond.net/2009/10/22/getting-into-translation/feed/ 1 http://blog.philippahammond.net/2009/08/21/contingency-planning-for-your-freelance-business/ http://blog.philippahammond.net/2009/08/21/contingency-planning-for-your-freelance-business/#comments Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:44:08 +0000 philippa http://blog.philippahammond.net/?p=419

Image courtesy of Compufix Online

Céline over at Naked Translations wrote a post yesterday about back-up systems for freelancers, and invited others to share how they guard their businesses against data loss. Céline, if you’re reading, this post is my answer!

I actually have what some might call a fairly paranoid approach to how I back-up my work, and have a few solutions. It took me a long time (too long) to fully realise just how important it is to make sure important documents can be recovered in the event of computer failure/other business disaster. I’ve never experienced the anguish of losing a humongous translation hours before a deadline, but last week I did experience major data loss. I think we can all identify with how it feels at that moment you realise something important has just gone ‘poof!’ and disappeared into thin air.

My first solution, similar to Céline’s Dropbox solution, is to use online syncing. I use Sugarsync. Essentially, as I’m typing, each document is then automatically backed-up on their servers, meaning I can access all my updated files from any computer that is connected to the internet (whether it’s a PC or a Mac). I can do this remotely via my profile on the Sugarsync website or via the downloadable Sugarsync file manager. Sugarsync also offers a number of advanced features, including an intriguingly named ‘magic briefcase’ and a secure ftp location for sending large files. For anyone worried about data security and backing-up in ‘the cloud’, files are encrypted with 128-bit AES – can you say that about email?

I love Sugarsync, but it’s certainly not my only solution. I also use a more traditional back-up and storage tool called ZenVault that stores my important files at a remote location. The data loss I experienced last week illustrated exactly why I use back-up as well as syncing: as soon as I managed to lose the crucial files on one computer, that change was automatically synced across all my computers, so there was no chance of recovery. However, instead I was able to go into my ZenVault terminal and recover the documents from previous back-ups. So, I have a way of taking a static snapshot of all my documents and past documents, as well as a way of making the latest versions of my documents available across all my computers.

Another key back-up for me is having alternative computers to work on in case my main PC fails. I also use the über-traditional method of backing up to an external hard-drive on my desk, which is the preferred option for most freelancers. At this year’s ITI conference, there was a lot of chatter about using ‘the cloud’ to store data, but people seemed to assume that storing it in offline was automatically more secure. What would you do if your home was burgled or burned down and your one and only back-up solution was inside? Is that really any more of a secure solution than using an encrypted online back-up service to store important files at a remote location?

The possibilities really are endless for the paranoid, and my view is that these contingencies are not likely to happen at the same time. However, it’s really does pay to be too careful when you’re freelance (i.e. without IT support on hand).  Essentially, the only (almost) fail-safe solution is to have more than one contingency planning solution.

To learn more about online back-up and syncing, have a read of this article.  Warning – the review is rather long, but if you can scan it and pick up the salient points it’s a good starting place for contingency planning. The key message is not to rely on just one solution.

The response to our presentation has been really positive, with many people wanting to learn more or see the slides again, so we decided to take our little 2 person roadshow online for the big wide world to see. We are now pleased to unveil a stripped down, re-recorded version of our presentation available at Slideshare.net. You can view the show within this post (below) or by following this link to Slideshare if you have problems hearing or viewing the embed.

After a delightful evening meal at the library of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (the main conference venue), we reconvened early the next morning for another day of presentations, chat and lots of coffee. I felt that there was a perceptible shift on the second day towards the more practical, day-to-day aspects of translation and interpreting, with the emphasis on technology, work-life balance and professional development.

The day started with yours truly – co-presenting with Sarah Dillon. We’d done a lot (and I mean A LOT – see Sarah’s write-up) of preparation and research for our presentation, and it was both terrifying and exhilarating to finally be able to share it with our professional community in this way. We basically offered a whistlestop tour of the concepts behind social media and web 2.0, the type of online tools available, and how language professionals might best use them. Sarah did a demo of some novel uses of LinkedIn and Tweetdeck which appeared to be new to many delegates.

We had a small technological hitch along the way, with our remote presentation tool throwing a wobbly halfway through. Although it had worked fine in our tests, we had foreseen this happening, so managed to remain calm and carry on thanks to  our backup plan (a PowerPoint file containing screenshots). However, I think that our key messages still came through – that these tools are not scary or difficult to use, that they allow YOU to be in control of how much information you receive, that not every one of these tools will be right for you, and that’s OK, but that the online world is changing – big time. It’s almost a case of ‘find a manageable way to keep up, or get left behind’. I think these messages were fairly well received, and Sarah and I have been really, really excited to see more ITI members venturing onto Twitter, for example.

Watch this space for more news on our presentation, as we already have plans to make a recorded version of our presentation available at Slideshare and perhaps even to publish our research, thoughts and findings as an ebook via  Lulu. The ITI Conference website will also be uploading copies of every presentation early next week – go to  www.iticonference.org.uk.

Our session was followed by a panel discussion entitled ‘Where to draw the line?’ with Nick Rosenthal, Iwan Davies, Patricia Sommer and Paul Appleyard.  A few questions had already been sent to the panel in advance, focusing on the usual suspects such as how to chase late payment. We were reminded that it is important to operate a rigorous policy when dealing with late payments – don’t take any prisoners, and operate a zero tolerance policy, but remember to remain professional and courteous in all dealings with clients.

Next up was Dr. Steve Vincent from Leeds University Business School, on the subject of work-life balance for knowledge workers. Steve challenged the phrase ‘work-life balance’, suggesting that it was more an issue of ‘work-life conflict’ – this is a description that I also personally feel is more appropriate. Siobhan Soraghan, a business coach, ran the next session, again on work-life balance. Siobhan has personal experience of ‘burn-out’, and proposed that we check in with ourselves and our working/non-work habits and rationally analyse them.  We are all busy people, we all wonder how we’ll get everything done with just 24 hours in the day, so Siobhan suggested that in order to avoid burnout, in our daily tasks we should prioritise our endless lists of things we ‘need’ to do, by asking ourselves which of them are both important and urgent. The most important asset in each of our businesses is our health, and this needs investment through ’self-sustainability’ activities. To read more about Siobhan’s work, visit: http://www.active-insight.com

A truly original and inspirational presentation came next, by Phil Goddard on ‘Finding a work-life balance crossing America’. Some readers may already know about Phil’s 3000 mile walk across the USA for charity, but for those who don’t I urge you to visit http://anenglishmaninneworleans.blogspot.com and  www.nytola.com. Impressively, Phil found that he was still able to work on translation jobs while he was away, and often found himself delivering jobs from his laptop at random hours of the day or in unusual places – this really showed us just how ‘mobile’ it is possible to be these days if you really want to be.

Reinhard Schaler, founding editor of the Journal of Specialist Translation (JosTrans), and founder and director of the  Localisation Research Centre at the University of Limerick, presented a session entitled ‘Where is translation technology going?’. Reinhard started by stating a problem: there is more material out there online than translators can translate. Some examples: 40% of Facebook users are not using English, but Facebook’s mission statement is to make their product available in ALL languages. Their way of tackling this has been to crowdsource volunteer translators from within their existing user base – collaborative translation where users can comment on and update translations in order achieve a final version. This is a controversial practice among translators, and rightly so in some cases, but I am minded to agree that it is the most effective method for a product such as Facebook – after all, none of the language used on it is highly complex, and wouldn’t its users be best placed to understand the terms in context? The fact of allowing users to update other entries, Wikipedia style, would also go some way to resolving translation errors and stumbling blocks.

I attended the translation technology parallel session run by Ana Luiz Iaria. Ana is well known to be very knowledgeable on this subject, and took us through a run-down of productivity tools, back-up, tag verifiers etc. Look out for Ana’s presentation on the ITI Conference website to see the links to the tools she introduced us to.

And so the conference drew to a close, and there were a lot of tired but happy faces in the audience. To finish up, we discussed ways that the ITI is supporting the profession, with training courses and several new initiatives in the pipeline for the coming 12 months. Despite the feeling of tiredness I could sense we were all experiencing, I could also feel the unmistakable sense of renewed enthusiasm, new ideas and new contacts we so often come away with from conferences. At their best, conferences and any indeed any gathering of freelance professionals remind us why we’re in this profession, and help spur us on to develop ourselves and our businesses. I can safely say that this was one such event.

At the conference I attended last November, I decided to ‘live tweet’ from the event. But this time somehow the mood just didn’t take me, and I also knew that a few other delegates, particularly @nickrosenthal and @serenadorey would be tweeting updates, so I knew it would be well covered. Not to mention the fact that I was cripplingly nervous about my Sunday morning appearance as a speaker, so was rather distracted by that! So, I stuck to good old-fashioned paper notes this time, and here are my thoughts:

The conference had 3 key themes: ’sustaining the profession’, ’sustaining the professional’ and ‘moving with the times’; each  session being built into these. The Saturday morning began with the keynote speaker, Katerina Germanis from the FSC, describing the FSC’s work, and also giving a brief insight into its translation needs. This set the tone for the weekend very well. It seemed clear to me that the FSC are currently rethinking their translation ’strategy’ and assessing how best to proceed, so there may be some interesting developments there.

Next up was Helen Wolfson, international coordinator at Friends of the Earth, who gave a great overview of some of the work they do. Helen (clearly a very experienced and talented speaker) explained that FOE work with 3 official languages, and all their material needs to be available in each of these, meaning that their translation needs are huge. I was so impressed with the presentation, I decided to join FOE!

One of the most eye-opening sessions for me came up next: ‘Where have the translators gone?’, by Klaus Ahrend, Fiona Harris and Terry Clough of the DG Translation. I wrote a blog post a while ago about this, when the problem of sourcing talented into-English translators first arose in the mainstream British media, but I really had no idea that the problem had got so serious so quickly. About 1/3 of their staff translators are due to retire in the coming years. Some figures for you:

• In 2000, they worked with 10 language pairs and had 185 translators
• In 2004, they worked with 19 language pairs and had 222 translators
• In 2008, they worked with 22 language pairs and had 156 translators
• Their order volume has gone from €1.2m in 2005, to €3.8m in 2008.

As you can see, the general trend is fewer and fewer suppliers, against increasing (and wider) demand.  A particular problem is finding high standard English translators for the languages of the newer EU members. This is something Fiona Harris is seeking to address, namely by starting a MAJOR awareness-raising campaign (even using Youtube videos!).

According to Marcel Lemmens of Teamwork Vertaalworkshops, a similar situation is unfolding with the Dutch language. He explained there is a mismatch in the market in terms of Dutch>English translators. There is a major shortage, and only 2 universities in the UK offer translation courses where students are able to have Dutch as their source language. Marcel also emphasized one of the key take-home messages of the conference – that target language writing skills are the single most important skill in translation.

I really, really relished the next sessions – a series of presentations from recent MA in Translation students from assorted universities across the UK. They gave us a brief overview of their dissertations, which varied from translation gains in the international reporting of Chinese leaders’ speeches, to issues surrounding working as a sign language interpreter. You can read about some of the graduates in interviews on Sarah Dillon’s blog.

The conference then moved back towards an environmental theme, with a presentation by Cat Akana of Blue Planet Multicultural, a translation company specialising in the environment. I think our eyes were opened to just what a dire situation we’re in, in terms of the environmental challenges that lie ahead, and we were reminded of the need to take action now, before it’s too late. In fact, as Cat pointed out, climate change is happening NOW, and peak oil may already have happened, meaning that the ‘future’ we still assume to be far off may already arrived. Some of us may have noticed translating more and more environment-themed texts, and this is likely to continue to increase.

We were then treated to a fascinating presentation by Silvia Ferrero, owner of MediaLoc, on the games localisation industry. I’m not very familiar with this type of translation, but learned alot about what is involved, including a high degree of creativity and sometimes rewriting in order to achieve the best final result.

As we moved towards wrapping up the 1st day, we discussed contingency planning with a panel of experts. Questions from the floor included (paraphrased) ‘how safe is the internet?’, ’should I use online word processing tools?’ and ‘how often should I back-up my work?’. We were shown techniques in supporting mobility and flexibilty through folder and software syncing, how to boot from Linux in the event of a system failure, and how to link your main PC to others in your office. The main message from this session was that we should never just rely on ONE solution, contingency planning means preparing for several eventualities.

The final session was by Liz Robertson, Chair of the Association of Translation Companies, entitled ‘Sustainable relationships in a recession’. I really enjoyed Liz’s presentation, and particularly appreciated how well she set the tone for the 2nd day (and for our presentation). Her key points were that translators and translation companies are usually seen as 2 separate groups, that there was a lack of mutual recognition. Instead we should be focusing more on working in cooperation, since we already share a common goal. Her take-home points were: 1) know your client, 2) understand yourself and 3) ask for feedback, and welcome it when it comes.

Here’s a little progress report on the targets I set myself:

• Desk stretches: thanks to @bonnjill, a translator I had the good fortune to meet via Twitter and the blogosphere, I have discovered Workpace. This neat little (fairly unobtrusive) program that reminds you to take regular breaks from your desk and prescribes a series of exercises you can do (best thing about working from home: only the cat can see me do these .  I usually obey Workpace and now take regular 5 minute breaks every hour or so. Gold star! Thanks Jill!
• Sitting position: well, not much of an improvement. My tendency to sit cross-legged at my desk has been my default setting for so long that it may take a lot of time and persuasion to change that…but still, at least I’m actually moving about more now (see above).
• Getting daylight: hmm, another one I need to work on. Work has been very busy lately and sometimes there literally isn’t time to get out while it’s light, but I do try to at least get out into my garden (especially to water the herbs and rocket leaves I optimistically bought a few weekends ago)
• Water: all good in this department I think. Gold star.
• Lunch: plenty of tasty food eaten, yum. Away from the desk? Not so much…that’s the problem of having too many interesting blogs to read   Today, even though I ate my food at my desk, I did manage to get to the gym beforehand, so that must count for something. Half a gold star.
• Working late: hmm, a difficult one for a freelancer. My hours are not set in stone, so sometimes I will work later because it suits me. It’s hard to judge exactly how long my hours are each week, in that sense. A lot of time is still spent on the PC, but if I’m going to use a computer in the evenings or weekends, I’ve begun to make serious efforts to limit this and to use my laptop in a different room in order to offer some time away from the four walls of my office.
• Holidays: this has been the funnest target of all! I’m off to Portugal next week for a bit of R&R, and I’ve also booked my other half and I into a guest house for a night away from the city for our wedding anniversary shortly afterwards, and I’m currently compiling reams of bookmarks for places to go in the summer*.  I’m resolute that none of these holidays will involve me working, as we remember how that went last year. Two gold stars!

One of the first things cubicle-bound people normally ask me about freelancing is whether I find it hard to resist the temptations of daytime TV. After I ask them whether they’ve actually seen what’s on offer on daytime TV these days, I tell them that actually the biggest problem for me is resisting the temptations of my office, crazy as it sounds. I actually NEED programs like Workpace to be told to get up from my desk every now and then. So, I was relieved to read today that I’m not the only person who has this problem, Paul Boag wrote an inspiring guest post today on Ramblings of a Remote Worker called The Reality of Home Working.

I thought that Paul’s helpful hints about a homeworker’s workspace were spot on, especially about the importance of having a separate space to work in, if possible. I have a separate room in our flat where I can work with a nice big desk (upgraded recently – very good move) and proper office chair.

Sarah Dillon also wrote two great posts about this very recently on her blog, in which she asked readers to share pictures and descriptions of their home offices. Fascinating to be able to peek at other people’s offices! Everyone really does have a working style that suits their particular lifestyle and needs.

My next target is to try to put the ‘free’ back in my freelance lifestyle and being to work on a slightly more mobile basis. After a recent crisis with my wireless internet connection I decided to purchase a mobile broadband dongle so that I can do this more. I also decided that, even though I have quite enough space, that didn’t mean I needed to clutter it up with paper and machines. For example, I have a web-based fax service for that reason, rather than for reasons of not being tied to my office. In in all, although there are many ways for me to work away from my fixed desk now without it necessarily affecting how I work, like Sarah I still find that that working from a fixed home office for the majority of the time suits me best right now.

* On a separate note: In the interests of frugality (buzz word of the year already), our holidays this year will mainly be camping ones. Sites like Cool Camping show that you don’t need to spend a lot of £ to go on holiday in comfort and style.

“Arse, poo and widdle.” With this unholy trinity of coy expletives, Stephen Fry introduced us to the joys of Twitter earlier this month

By far the most disappointing report on Twitter that I’ve witnessed was on Newsnight yesterday evening. Apprarently Baroness Greenfield has piped up and said that communicating online is contributing to a rise in autism and is increasing the social isolation of children. Paxman had a couple of ‘experts’ on the show to discuss this. Watching this discussion felt a bit like watching the blind leading the blind, since nobody really seemed to have actually used Twitter or any other social media tool, despite professing to be experts on the matter. My favourite quote from one of them was “Children could be writing to people in another country who they’ve never met before”. Shock! Horror! Damnation! As someone who works at the global interface, I couldn’t quite understand why it would be such a terrible outcome for children to communicate with other children in different countries/cultures, provided that is done in a safe environment (remember internet parental controls?). My other half, equally bemused by the discussion, said to me “What about at school when we all had penpals abroad?”.

In reality, however, it’s not actually children who are using Twitter.  I’ll do my best to try to dispel that myth and others about Twitter here:

• Twitter is just for kids/teenagers/people under 25. Stats show that Facebook is still mostly used by the under 35s, but heavy users of Twitter are in fact more likely to be in the 25-45 age bracket. There is even a sizeable number of over 65s using it. I would (as have others) suggest that this is because the majority of Twitter users are on Twitter because they are mainly using it in connection with their work.
• Tweeters just send text messages to themselves to tell Twitter what they’re doing all day (I actually heard this description last week). Anyone who does that too much is pretty much an instant ‘unfollow’ for me – the most productive aspect of Twitter is that it helps people share news and information about their fields of interest or their occupation, with the occasional anecdote about their personal lives thrown in to show that they’re human.
• Twitter stops people from going out into the world and socialising in a normal way, and destroys peoples’ social skills. As with any new-fangled, revolutionary device, there is an initial ‘craze’ period, and a period where everyone scratches their head and worries that it signals the end of civilisation as we know it. I wasn’t alive at the time, so you’ll have to do your homework on this one, but sources tell me that people were worried about this when the telephone was invented too.

Twitter can help people build a ‘community’ of like-minded people, yes. This is a ‘community’ in the traditional sense of the word, nothing more sinister than that. That ‘community’ is a very valuable virtual water cooler for those of us who work freelance. I’m not sure how others working in open plan offices, for example, use Twitter. Perhaps they use it to reach out to virtual ‘colleagues’ beyond their immediate co-workers. That’s what it’s all about, folks. COMMUNICATION. BUT you still can’t beat socialising in person, and I’m pretty sure that most ‘normal’ Twitter users still do that. Perhaps even with someone they initially met on Twitter and found they had a lot in common with. There have always been reclusives,  and there always will be, with or without social media.

Feel free to share any other myth shockers you’ve come across, or even ones that you believe to be true.