Between 2000 and 2008 I gave an annual short course on 'Technical communication in English for multinational product development teams' as part of a seminar on Product Design for final year engineering students at the Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon, Portugal. The seminar attract more candidates than could be accommodated. My modest contribution was also well received to the point of attracting senior members of faculty staff.
To ensure that my short course met the students' needs I attended the entire two-week seminar on a number of occasions.
This contributed directly to my awareness of issues confronting engineers and technologists, not least disruptive innovation.
I learned a great deal about case studies and their impact on everyone engaged in developing, producing, delivering and using products and services affected by technological innovations.
I have also closely monitored technological innovation in the translation industry since, I guess, with the dictaphone and elctronic typewriter in the 1970s.
Today, a flurry of developments and the fact that a number of colleagues now associate the terms 'translation' and 'disruptive innovation' suggests we may indeed have reached a tipping point.
