SDL today announced an update to Trados Studio, a new edition for freelancers, and an open application programming interface (API) for Trados. The freelancer version and API respond to longstanding demands in the marketplace for lower-priced translation memory (TM) software and a more open global information management (GIM) ecosystem.

Five years ago, Common Sense Advisory began advocating a change to the pricing paradigm for computer-aided translation tools from one of high-end, professional technology costing US$1,000 per seat to that of a productivity tool at US$99 (see “Beyond Global Websites,” Mar05). In the early 1990s, that price point made desktop software such as Word and WordPerfect ubiquitous, expected aids for the productivity and knowledge worker. The translator deserves no less, and gmail-like translation tools priced at desktop productivity tool levels have slowly become part of the pitch from companies such as Across, Kilgray, Lingotek, Lionbridge, and, of course, Google (the creator of gmail).

What SDL is offering “occasional translators” and freelancers is the Trados Starter Edition, a pared-down version of Trados Studio 2009 at a monthly subscription fee of €8 (we figure on US$10 or so per month in the States). This edition limits the number of languages and size of the local translation memory, but it does allow translators to do their own projects and participate in a GIM supply chain involving SDL’ s TMS and WorldServer. For the Professional edition, SDL added a range of new and expanded features, including the ability to use automated translation from Google, Language Weaver, and its own MT software.

While this 100-euro-per-year offering was noteworthy, what most grabbed our attention was SDL’s announcement of its OpenExchange offering, a program that will open the Trados 2009 API to third-party developers. With the release of Trados Studio in June 2009, SDL took the first step in recasting its translation memory to be a less proprietary database. Opening the API has the potential to actually turn Trados into the GIM ecosystem that SDL pitches, with third-party components adding valuable features and functions. If SDL designs and markets the program correctly, OpenExchange has the same potential to create an energetic community around Trados such as Microsoft built around Visual Basic and third-party components in the 1990s. That initiative ultimately led to server-based COM and .NET from Microsoft.

OpenExchange presents a vision of open platforms for translation. The big question is whether SDL will actively develop, support, and enhance the documented API, not just for Trados but for its translation management systems products as well. Opening these solutions to third-party developers could spawn long-overdue innovation in the language technology sector.