http://disqus.com/by/Charlotte_M/enFri, 19 Jun 2009 21:13:39 -0000http://www.matthewbennett.es/1084/linkedin-infuriates-professional-translators-10-big-questions/#comment-11489796<p>I wish they'd posted the survey questions because I honestly don't get the level of "outrage" this supposedly spawned. Not because I think professional translators should provide free work, but because we live in an age of DIY and wikipedia for goodness sakes, not to mention the Open Source movement.</p><p>I've been in marketing communications for 18 years, and I've worked with many translators from all over the world, as well as photographers, videographers, graphic artists and other providers of marketing services... it is EXTREMELY COMMON to be undervalued and low-balled for your services when the value isn't understood.</p><p>Social media is just another new type of service that hasn't reached its level of value to the end user yet. Everyone freaks out when they have to pay for anything these days, but the real value is actually the service application... I don't see anyone feeling sorry for Linked In/Facebook/mySpace /etc because they aren't charging for their services. Would you rather pay to use Linked In (granted Linked In and other social media do charge more for above baseline services, but the point is they offer everyone free access... they don't run for free you know) or would you rather have them explore creative ways to use crowdsourcing (or whatever) to make the application widely available to everyone.</p><p>In the end you pay for what you get - on both sides.<br></p>Charlotte_MFri, 19 Jun 2009 21:13:39 -0000