TinyTM - Open-Source Translation MemoryThe Idea An open-source translation memory, free for all!TinyTM is open-source software and developed by an open-source community and (currently) licensed under GPL V2.
Open for business, as well!
The translation sector is small and with few open-source players. So we need commercial vendors to participate in this project as well. This is what’s in for them:
— Integrate TinyTM with commercial applications:
We encourage commercial vendors to integrate TinyTM into their applications. We will design the TinyTM infrastructure in order to make integration as easy as possible and to avoid any "contamination" of closed-source code with the GPL.
— Build commercial extensions
The open-source community usually isn’t very good at producing user-friendly application GUIs. So we would encourage commercial vendors to build extensions around the protocol.>
Objectives Long-term objectives— Provide translation agencies, freelance translators and other translation organizations with free and standardized translation memory tools.
— Provide translation organizations with innovative translation workflow applications
— Spread the use of TMs and workflows to new areas such as content management and helpdesk applications
Many "mature" IT markets are today dominated by open-source product including web browsers (Apache), application servers (JBoss), content management (Typo3, Plone and Drupal), Databases (mySQL) etc.
We believe that the market for translation memories is ready for such a development approach. Recent consolidation in this field further suggests a community approach.
Who is behind TinyTM?TinyTM has been initiated by Frank Bergmann from ]project-open[. The project has been inspired by FOLT and its TMOSS project (please see Frank's paper on FOLT) and in particular by a conversations with Manuel Hanen from Hexx during Tekom Spring 2008 in Friedrichshafen, Germany.
Relationship with ]project-open[
Organizational relationship
It is correct that the founder of TinyTM is also the founder of ]project-open[. However, TinyTM has been designed as a completely independent open-source project. We expect that TinyTM will develop its own dynamics with its own contributors and community structure. FOLT or a similar organization would probably the best option to provide an organizational framework for TinyTM. (Please contact Frank if you think that your organization would provide a suitable framework).
We hope that the experience of the ]project-open[ team (~500 installations in the translation sector) will provide TinyTM with the credibility that it needs in order to attract industry support and a powerful community. However, Frank will hand over TinyTM leadership to an elected body such as FOLT as soon as this option becomes viable.
Technical relationshipThe TinyTM data model has been designed for easy integration with authoring, content management and translation management applications. A first such integration exists between TinyTM and ]project-open[ (]project-open[ TinyTM Integration).
However, it is important to see this integration as a starting point and proof of concept, and not as an exclusive relationship. The TinyTM licensing has been designed to encourage the integration even with closed-source applications, so we expect more integrations to appear with time.
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