Rebecca, crowdsourcing is definitely an interesting concept in translations and localization. There are certain types of translation environments where crowdsourcing might make some sence - games for smartphones, for instance. Those types of applications are very small, and the translation quality, while it ideally should be very high does not need to be in order to maintain the health and wellbeing of consumers of that product.

Within the Medical and Life Sciences world, however, crowdsourcing would be at best a very difficult way to maintain any sort of quality standards when translating. At worst, the translations would be potentially dangerous.

Clients who do business within regulated industries, such as FDA-regulated companies, need to have a very clear idea who is doing what at all stages of product development, and that definitely includes translations/localization. Many of ENLASO's medical and life sciences clients require translation certification, and that requires, in turn, that we know what the qualifications of our linguists are.

When translation is done in a crowdsourcing model, that is almost impossible to control. There are many other aspects of the project flow that would also not be controlled in a way that would be anywhere near adequate to FDA-regulated, or EC-regulated, clients.

So, while crowdsourcing may be okay for things like small phone-based applications, for any content on whose quality end users' lives depends, it's just not a solution that would work.

Thanks!!

dhdunn