Translators - what are you working on now? TM-Town has a new feature wherein TM-Town Starter and Professional members can conveniently share descriptions of the projects that they are working on. Translators are already using it to share interesting projects, thereby letting colleagues and potential clients know the type of work they do, while establishing a track record of the projects they have done. Check out some of their posts here.

Give it a try and let us know what you think in the comments below. We have a lot more planned. For example, we hope to have a "My WIWOs" page where you will be able to track your personal project history including word counts, etc.

The background on this new feature.

As you may know, back in April of this year, TM-Town was acquired by ProZ.com. This past month Nate and I had our first chance to visit the ProZ.com headquarters in Syracuse, New York. It was a very fun, interesting, and rewarding trip. As part of our stay, we participated in a "hackathon" of sorts. The idea was to work with the ProZ.com team to build a new feature that would work across the ProZ.com network.

What is the ProZ.com network?

ProZ.com used to be just a single destination site. If you wanted to use ProZ.com services you would go to ProZ.com in your web browser. Recently though, that is expanding. ProZ.com now provides a means -- called an "API" -- for outside companies and tool vendors to access and make use of ProZ.com services and data.

What is an API?

An API (Application program interface) basically allows different applications to "talk" to each other. In other words, application developers from other companies or services outside of ProZ.com can integrate parts of ProZ.com in their own application. A good example is TM-Town. Not only does TM-Town use ProZ.com's API, TM-Town also has its own API that allows our SDL AppStore plugin to "talk" to TM-Town securely through the TM-Town API.

While many translators still go to ProZ.com in their web browser, many are now able to benefit from ProZ.com tools and opportunities in other places (in their own CAT tools, on other web sites, etc.). With this in mind, we knew that this new feature would have to start with an API as its base.

As a start, CafeTran has already integrated the "What I'm Working On" feature. We hope other CAT tool vendors will consider incorporating this and other (free) ProZ.com services into their tools for the convenience of their users. If you are interested in getting the API early, please reach out to us and we can give you more info. The API will also be published soon on the ProZ.com website.

Happy translating and let us know what you are working on.