Information Highways

Peculiarities of the translation of personal names

admin — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:07:21 +0000

At first sight it may seem that the translation of the personal names into Russian is not difficult enough. The Russian translation can be rather provisional, because private names are usually translated with the help of transliteration or transcription. In modern linguistics personal names are often defined as denominative lexical units unlike the nominal words that are defined as indicators. In other words personal names have the main nominative function in order to differentiate the objects of the same type unlike the nominal names, which have the main function of naming the meaning of the word that is to connote it. Moreover naming people and geographical names are not the primary lexical units in their origin as they are formed on the basis of the nominal units.
In every day communication and any other context where personal names perform their usual functions, their inner form is not accepted. It is neglected. Even if the sense of this form is clear enough it does not have any characteristic and merit functions as their potential evaluation is always preserved. Inner form remains the part of the word structure itself that is used, as it was mentioned above, to name some concrete objects, but not to define them by means of their notion and lexical meaning. That is why from the theoretical point of view the semantic Russian translation of “usual” personal names, which have their own denominational “twins”, can lead to considerable informative text wrench; and from the practical point of view it could lead to great confusion in the toponimy first of all.

So, if the inner form of the word is not taken into account, personal and geographic
names are translated into Russian with the help of some new and old rules of transcription or traditionally.

Traditional equivalents are presented in the dictionaries. For example: Moskau – Москва. The special layer of traditional equivalents is biblical names. Diminutive names are translated into Russian with the help of transcription: Gretchen – Гретхен; Коля – Kolja (translation from Russian). There is one older tradition of substitution of German diminutive suffixes chen, -lien into Russian: Hanschen – Гансик.

The nicknames of people are historical and do not depend on the context; the nicknames of the characters in the literary texts, which are used to describe the characters preserve the semantic of the root morpheme while translation into Russian: Карл Лысый- Karl Bald (translation from Russian), Филипп Красивый –Philip Handsome, Карл Великий Karl the Great. The pen-names are translated with the help of transcription except those cases when they are charactonyms.

The names of animals (zoo names) are translated into Russian in the case if their inner forma are clear. In other cases they are transcribed. International names are transcribed on the basis of the original text: Рекс-Rex, Джек-Jack.

There are no certain rules, but some precise traditions while Russian translation of geographical names. The biggest part of the names is transcribed despite of the charactonym nature of the inner form. For example: the mountain Jungfrau.
But for the translation of the names of seas, lakes and big bays into Russian, traditional Russian translation of separate components is used. For instance: Ладожское озеро – Ladoga Lake.

Microtoponyms that are the names of the streets and squares are transcribed as usual, for example: Postgase – Постгассе. There are also traditional translation equivalents in Russian, such as Champs Elyses – Елисейские поля.

The names of public places and organizations are transcribed as well as the names of shops, hotels and trade names: Volkswagen – “фольксваген”.

The names of ships and spacecrafts are transcribed; the exotic coloring of the name that points the priority of people in the sea or in space is on the first place while translation into Russian, but not the image itself: Voyager – Вояжер.

Trace your career path

admin — Thu, 18 May 2006 08:51:50 +0000

UpClose: Rafat Ali

PaidContent.org’s founder on blogging for the content industry

By Sue Bowness

Rafat Ali is the founder and editor of PaidContent.org, an independent blog for digital media and technology executives that provides the latest news and resources on all aspects of content from wireless to broadband. Using the Moveable Type blogging software, Ali started PaidContent.org in 2002 and by 2003 was awarded the European Online Journalism Award for News Weblog of the Year. Besides being a leading technology blogger, Ali is also at the forefront of the open source journalism movement, with a blog that is both a reliable news source and a viable business.

IH: Trace your career path.

RA: I did my undergraduate degree in New Delhi, then I went to the US to do my masters in Journalism. I moved to New York in 2000, and worked at Inside.com until October 2001, then I worked at the Silicon Alley Reporter as a staff writer, and became managing editor of that publication. I am not a US citizen, and I had a lot of problems with work visas, so I moved to London. I started PaidContent.org in June 2002 as a way to raise my profile as a journalist, and went full time in February of 2003.

IH: Why did you decide to start PaidContent.org and what feedback do you get about your blog? Do you have a sense of your readership?

RA: I’ve been blogging since 1999. I maintained a media blog while I was at Silicon Alley, and a lot of the stuff I was reporting on at the time was in the content field. I started PaidContent.org after that. The business actually has two parts: the site and the email newsletter. The newsletter has grown more in terms of prestige, it’s read by a lot of media and entertainment executives, mainly in the US but also in Europe. Quite a few Canadians too.

IH: You recently moved back to the US, to Los Angeles. How do you think your business and coverage will change as a result of your new location?

RA: I’m trying to expand. My audience is based here; most of my advertisers are based here. I’m closer to the stories I’m covering. Hopefully I’ll be able to do more coverage, meet more people, go to more conferences.

I want to do more and more US coverage but I don’t want to miss out on the wireless coverage from Europe. Or broadband content. I want to keep covering at least those two areas in Europe.

IH: What are the big issues now in North America and what do you see as the difference between the North American and European markets?

RA: Wireless is becoming bigger in the US, it’s just taking off. Broadband penetration is reaching a critical mass. Online video, online music services are also beginning to take off.

Dynamics are different to the extent that the cultures are different. In some areas the US market is ahead of the European market — online publishing, broadband. In wireless we are still catching up. In terms of paying for content, somehow Europeans seem to be more open than the US. I’m not sure exactly what the reasons are, I guess historians could try and figure it out.

IH: You just launched a new publication called European Digital Media Weekly. Do you have plans to launch other publications in the future?

RA: I have tons of other things in mind. My expansion plan is to launch more niche newsletters/blogs/Web sites, but that plan is contingent upon being able to hire more people because at this point I’m completely spread out. I have absolutely no free time. But I do want to launch different things. What I’m trying to do is launch monthly reports on different topics and try and sell those. Last month I wrote this mobile music report covering things like ring tones and it sold decently well. I was quite surprised. That was my first effort trying to sell something directly online. I’m going to continue on these niche topics and reports.

IH: Beyond developing a niche of expertise in the field of content, you’re also known for being one of the first journalists to turn blogging into a successful career. What are the challenges of blogging for a living?

RA: Well, the entry to blogging is very accessible. Since everyone can be doing it, I have to stay steps ahead of everything. I do a lot of original news, break a lot of stories, focus on being a journalist. I embrace the blogging community too, I get a lot of traffic from there. I think there’s money in focused trade blogs — for specific areas blogging makes a lot of sense.

IH: You attend a lot of technology conferences, do you think they’re addressing the most important technology issues?

RA: It’s a fact of life that you never learn anything at conferences. At most of the conferences you end up networking; if I’m covering the conference it’s content for my site. I’m quite disappointed by the same format repeated over again — the same topics, the same panel discussions in which five people talk about the same thing for half an hour and nobody can get into any kind of depth.

IH: Do you think there is a solution to that problem?

RA: I don’t know how it could be fixed, maybe making it more in-depth. I think a lot of these analysts don’t talk about the real issues in their industry — either they’re on the record so they’re afraid to talk off the record, or they have secrets they don’t want to share. But these things are true for any kind of conference, not just conferences in our industry. I don’t know how it can be solved, maybe a more intimate setting.

IH: As a journalist focussing on the content industry you’re in a unique position to recognize its problems. If you could give any advice to the content industry as a whole, what would it be?

RA: Take your head out of the sand and see what’s happening. The whole industry is in a crisis. I tell people, go and look at what your kid is doing, look at how your kid is reading content — how they’re consuming, where they’re consuming — and take that ten years down the line. You’ll see how dramatically everything’s going to change, if it exists. That’s what scares me and excites me. Things are changing so rapidly. Look at wireless content and kids in Europe, all kids do is stare at that two-inch square of space on their mobile and send text, and download ring tones. Then if they come off that they’ll be on videogames or IM or chat. That’s how content is being consumed by the younger generation. And that’s what the content companies need to figure out, how to look at the longer term. It’s good to look at the trends but look at the big picture.

IH: What do you think the content field will look like in ten years?

RA: Internet access as a discrete activity will cease to exist and it will become omnipresent. There will be computers but probably in a much different shape and size than we know now. Ultimately I think TV will win out in terms of the whole media entertainment centre as opposed to the PC. I don’t know if newspapers will exist, they will in some shape or form on a tablet PC. They’ll have a print copy but things like print will become optional.

Electronic records as documentary evidence

admin — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 09:04:59 +0000

Canada is working towards the development of a national guidance and standard for managing electronic records to meet evidentiary requirements in courts of law. Known as the Electronic Records as Document Evidence Standard it is slated for final and formal release in the coming weeks. The underlying philosophy of the new standard is to provide a framework for organizations to manage electronic records in a manner that will �maximize the probability of their admissibility as evidence in court.� What impact does the standard have on records and document management practices and corporate governance and risk mitigation? What is its relationship to PIPEDA and other privacy and evidential statutes? What does your enterprise need to know? Join our panel of experts as they share their perspectives on the standard and its practical implementation.

Speaker(s): O Shea, Michael, The Information Professionals
Beelby, Patricia, Trac Records

Information lifecycle management: Driving security & compliance for data-rich business

admin — Wed, 18 May 2005 09:03:41 +0000

Comparing simple data storage to Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) is like comparing a single bus is to a city’s public transportation system: one is a component that serves a purpose and the other is a comprehensive system that delivers tangible, controllable results throughout the lifecycle of the user. ILM controls how data is taken in, stored, used, shared, and eventually discarded by an organization. The data held by Canadian organizations is increasingly regulated by government, and the legal and financial value of secure corporate and personal information is forcing companies to develop a holistic methodology for information management. In this presentation, Wayne Hogan will address some of the common ILM issues for Canadian organizations. Learn about the technical structure of ILM, such as the assessment, classification, and automation of data, as well as receive an overall view of the topic. Wayne will support his presentation with compelling analogies and real-world ILM examples from the Canadian marketplace. Gain valuable insight into how your organization will benefit from improved management of information.

Intelligence & innovation from narrative & networking

admin — Mon, 18 Apr 2005 09:04:23 +0000

Knowledge management initiatives are often directed towards incomplete objectives. They sometimes lack key input ingredients and, too often, they fail to balance technology with human behaviour, motivation and corporate culture. Join Alan Breakspear, President of Ibis Research Inc., for this dynamic, interactive presentation/workshop and explore ways to improve the communication and implementation of KM strategies. Learn about achievable KM outcomes, in terms of Intelligence (future-oriented strategic decision support) and Innovation (new processes, discoveries, products, services), in ways that employees and other stakeholders can readily adopt. Using case studies, he will discuss new approaches to social network analysis; the role of narrative (story and anecdote) in storing and transferring knowledge in an organization; and the interaction of people in organizations and communities as complex adaptive systems.

Order out of chaos: Creating and valuing taxonomies

admin — Mon, 18 Apr 2005 09:03:15 +0000

With the advent of regulatory and governance directives and the burgeoning quantity and range of materials today’s enterprises are newly challenged to get a grip on the organization, management and retrieval of their critical corporate data and records. How can appropriate taxonomies, file plans and classification schemes overcome these challenges? How should records and document managers begin thinking about taxonomies? What is the relationship between taxonomy and metadata? Join Denise Bruno as she answers these questions and offers tips and tricks on the methodology and process behind the creation of taxonomies and comments on their value for enterprise document management.

Are taxonomies worth the paper they are printed on?

admin — Wed, 06 Apr 2005 09:21:48 +0000

There is nothing like a debate over the design and utility of taxonomies to get people’s blood moving at the end of the day. One side will argue that taxonomies are old fashioned, expensive to create and unnecessary given today’s search technology. The other camp believe that taxonomies are more critical than ever given the huge volume of information that requires context to be valuable. In the tradition begun last year, of the end of conference “bun fight”, we have assembled a panel of opinionated, passionate and articulate members of both camps to debate this current and divisive issue. What’s your opinion? Librarians, be sure to bring your buns!

Moderator: Howarth, Lynne
Panelists: Morgan, Huw, Gordon, Cindy, Vine, Rita, Taylor, Sheila,

Cybermapping the enterprise: Cybercartography, visualization and information management

admin — Wed, 06 Apr 2005 09:21:12 +0000

For cartographers, maps and mapping are more than just tools for location finding and street addresses. Cybermapping examines how �maps� are created and used in the new information era and economy to efficiently harness the exponential growth in available information. In this unique and forward thinking presentation Dr. Fraser Taylor and Brian Eddy of the Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre (GCRC) will explore how cybercartography may be a useful technology and method for filtering and making sense out of large volumes of information while helping enterprises visualize and understand their complex organizational structures and business processes.

Speaker(s): Eddy, Brian, Carleton University, Geomatics Cartographic Research Centre
Taylor, Fraser Dr., Carleton University, Geomatics Cartographic Research Centre

The power of information & knowledge: Fuelling change and service delivery in the Ontario government

admin — Wed, 06 Apr 2005 09:20:41 +0000

Information and knowledge management play a large and evolving role in the both the public and private sectors. Governments, like their private enterprise counterparts, have embraced technology to improve the delivery of existing services. Building upon this early experience, emerging innovations have also greatly enhanced the role that information and knowledge can play in transforming what governments and private enterprises can potentially do to interact with citizens, clients, stakeholders and partners. With the increasing levels of sophistication required to implement e-Government initiatives, it is important for public sector managers to understand the drivers for these changes as well as the changing public policy environment.

Nilam Bedi, Manager, Strategic Business Services of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing will lead an informative and multifaceted panel presentation involving information and knowledge management strategists from the Office of Chief Corporate Information Office, Community Services I&IT Cluster and the Ministry of Municipal Affairs & Housing.
Presenters will draw upon examples from the Ontario Public Sector to illustrate:

- Trends in information, knowledge sharing and collaboration
- Factors that are driving innovative approaches to service delivery, citizen engagement and public policy.
- Policy and strategic issues around IM/KM in the public sector
- The use of information to fuel collaboration with the partners in public and private sectors.

The afternoon will be rounded out with a panel discussion where participants will outline the role of knowledge and information in their particular organizations and respond to questions from the audience.

Speaker(s): Langhout, Rose
Bilyk, Walter
Moderator: Bedi, Nilam, Strategic Business Services, Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing

Using e-content to conduct competitive intelligence quickly and effectively

admin — Wed, 06 Apr 2005 09:19:55 +0000

Many content and information professionals have responsibilities for providing research and insight on competitors, customers, markets, technologies and the regulatory environment to their clients. The remarkable rise of e-content – in terms of quality, quantity and diversity – means that users of the web and information-based services can provide faster, better response to their clients.Since the inception of the Information Highways Conference, the Toronto Chapter of the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals [SCIP] have jointly presented seminars and plenary sessions that explore and explain how leading practitioners are leverage e-Content as an effective tool for iproviding a myriad of different types of competitive intelligence. Information Highways and SCIP are pleased to present this dynamic and practical program devoted to current, up-to-date techniques and trends in using e-content to conduct competitive intelligence – quickly and effectively

Moderator: Lithwick, David
Panelists: Morley, Susan, Mathur, Sharad, Modjeska, Natalia,
Association Sponsor: SCIP