The phrase “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink” emphasises the idea that you can offer opportunities or advantages to someone, but you can’t force them to take action if they’re unwilling. This proverb has deep historical roots, with its first recorded use in Old English around 1175, and it has been in continuous use ever since. It’s often used to illustrate the limits of influence and the importance of individual choice, making it applicable in various contexts, from personal relationships to business settings.
I’ve written quite a few articles in the last year or so on the use of AI in a localization setting, and in general as a tool to help you complete technical tasks you may not have been able to do without help until now. Certainly I’ve been making extensive use of this technology to simplify my life in many ways since I can now achieve in a few minutes things I could only wish I had time to learn until now. But I thought I’d share a little of the practical use of AI within a community setting as we’ve made great use of this technology to help our users in the RWS Community and I think it largely goes unnoticed.
Growing a product range, buying new companies, being bought yourself, adopting new technology, reorganising etc… all of this creates significant change across an organisation that often feels as though you’re on a merry-go-round where things change as you go around until you’re back to where you started and then it all changes again. I can only imagine that feeling applies to customers and employees alike as each revolution strives to be better than the last, easier to navigate, meaningful in its purpose and full of the promise of success once properly implemented… and yet slightly confusing at the same time!
What a horrible name… lurkers! It carries all kinds of negative connotations from science fiction monsters to the stuff of nightmares where we think of spying and being followed by something or someone we don’t like. Of course I’m not using this term in these contexts so I better explain. I’m talking about communities and user participation, or more specifically about users who read and observe but rarely contribute to the conversations at all.