ProZ.com
Encyclopedia
ProZ.com is a business-related social networking site
for translation
. Founded in 1999, it is mainly used for professional networking. Several important language industry
companies advertise their products there. , ProZ.com reports more than 500,000 registered users, spanning more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.
The site is available in more than 45 languages and is being localized in 35 other languages, the default setting being English. QuantCast reports ProZ.com has 220k monthly unique U.S. visitors.
, USA, and it has offices in La Plata
, Argentina
and Kharkiv
, Ukraine
.
The site features a virtual community of translators and offers a wide range of resources, registered users are able to broadcast their professional identity as translators on the internet and receive job offers in the mail with the appropriate language combinations. Registration is required for most services. It also provides discussion forum
s and online glossaries. Although much of the website requires paid membership in order to be used, and the website receives income from paid advertising, the site has been developed with the help of unpaid volunteers. One remarkable feature are its terminology questions, asked and answered by users; more than 2 million term translation questions have been answered via the site.
The website features reputation system
s: WWA for translators and the BlueBoard for outsourcers.
Inc. Magazine rates the service as "a helpful resource for small translation projects" but because only paid members could see the going rates, "non-members may have trouble figuring out how much to offer.". (That rate information has since been made public.)
. It also cooperated with non-profit Ashoka
, and has sponsored events held by the American Translators Association
and others in the past.
On September 30, 2009 the site organized a virtual conference
that attracted a large number of attendees.
Social network service
A social networking service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people, who, for example, share interests and/or activities. A social network service consists of a representation of each user , his/her social...
for translation
Translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
. Founded in 1999, it is mainly used for professional networking. Several important language industry
Language industry
The language industry is the sector of activity dedicated to designing, producing, and marketing tools, products, or services related to computerized language processing...
companies advertise their products there. , ProZ.com reports more than 500,000 registered users, spanning more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.
The site is available in more than 45 languages and is being localized in 35 other languages, the default setting being English. QuantCast reports ProZ.com has 220k monthly unique U.S. visitors.
Features and information
ProZ.com is based in Syracuse, New YorkSyracuse, New York
Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States, the largest U.S. city with the name "Syracuse", and the fifth most populous city in the state. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170, and its metropolitan area had a population of 742,603...
, USA, and it has offices in La Plata
La Plata
La Plata is the capital city of the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and of La Plata partido. According to the , the city proper has a population of 574,369 and its metropolitan area has 694,253 inhabitants....
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
and Kharkiv
Kharkiv
Kharkiv or Kharkov is the second-largest city in Ukraine.The city was founded in 1654 and was a major centre of Ukrainian culture in the Russian Empire. Kharkiv became the first city in Ukraine where the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed in December 1917 and Soviet government was...
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
.
The site features a virtual community of translators and offers a wide range of resources, registered users are able to broadcast their professional identity as translators on the internet and receive job offers in the mail with the appropriate language combinations. Registration is required for most services. It also provides discussion forum
Internet forum
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived...
s and online glossaries. Although much of the website requires paid membership in order to be used, and the website receives income from paid advertising, the site has been developed with the help of unpaid volunteers. One remarkable feature are its terminology questions, asked and answered by users; more than 2 million term translation questions have been answered via the site.
The website features reputation system
Reputation system
A reputation system computes and publishes reputation scores for a set of objects within a community or domain, based on a collection of opinions that other entities hold about the objects...
s: WWA for translators and the BlueBoard for outsourcers.
Inc. Magazine rates the service as "a helpful resource for small translation projects" but because only paid members could see the going rates, "non-members may have trouble figuring out how much to offer.". (That rate information has since been made public.)
Sites with comparable features
Proz.com leads its major competitors in the segment of translation websites, such as TranslatorsCafe.com, Aquarius.net, GoTranslators, Trally, BabelPort, and Langmates in two major metrics, volume of activity and registered users.Cooperation with non-profits
ProZ.com has contributed programming services and a work platform, and access to its database of translators to the non-profit group Translators Without BordersTranslators Without Borders
Translators without Borders, is a US non-profit association, which provides free translation services for humanitarian non-for-profit organizations...
. It also cooperated with non-profit Ashoka
Ashoka: Innovators for the Public
Ashoka: Innovators for the Public is a nonprofit organization based in Arlington, VA, supporting the field of social entrepreneurship. Ashoka was founded by Bill Drayton in 1981 to identify and support leading social entrepreneurs through a Social Venture Capital approach with the goal of...
, and has sponsored events held by the American Translators Association
American Translators Association
The American Translators Association was founded in 1959 and is now the largest professional association of translators and interpreters in the United States with more than 10,000 members in 90 countries....
and others in the past.
On September 30, 2009 the site organized a virtual conference
Virtual translation conference
A virtual translation conference is a virtual event for translators and other professionals in the language industry.The first virtual translation conference was held on September 30, 2009, International Translation Day. It was a twelve-hour event, organized and hosted by ProZ.com, using the...
that attracted a large number of attendees.