Revising translated documents in a document storage system

1. A method comprising:

creating a first document in a first language;

translating the first document into a second language, thereby producing a second document;

revising the second document directly in the second language, thereby producing a third document; and

maintaining by an information handling system a document storage system, the maintaining including:

storing the first, second and third documents; and

storing in a computer memory data representing that the third document is a revision of a translation of the first document and that the second document is a translation of the first document.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

designating a document in the first language of the document storage system a source document;

translating the source document into a second language, thereby producing a first translated document;

revising the source document, the revised document remaining a source document in the first language;

automatically translating the revised source document into the second language in response to the revising, thereby producing a second translated document; and

automatically superseding by the document storage system the first translated document by the second translated document based upon the revised source document remaining a source document and based upon the translating.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the document storage system comprises a Knowledge Centered Support (KCS) document storage system;

the revising the first document comprises updating the first document as a result of processing a first service call; and

the revising the second document directly in the second language comprises revising the second document directly in the second language as a result of processing a second service call, wherein parties to the second service call communicate in the second language.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising translating the first document into the second language by a second method of translation, thereby producing a fourth document.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising assigning a priority to the fourth document over the second document, the priority based upon the two translation methods.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein:

the method further comprises translating the first document into the second language by a third method of translation;

the first method of translation comprises machine translation (MT);

the second method of translation comprises human translation by a human not well-versed in subject matter of the first document (HT);

the third method of translation comprises human translation by a human well-versed in subject matter of the first document (AT); and

the priority ordering gives higher priority to AT than to HT or MT and higher priority to HT than to MT.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining that the third document contains useful content not otherwise contained in the document storage system;

designating the first document as a source document;

updating the first document, thereby producing an updated first document;

automatically translating the updated first document into the second language in response to the updating, thereby producing a fourth document; and

not superseding the third document with the fourth document, based upon the determination that the third document contains useful content not otherwise contained in the document storage system.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising designating the third document as a source document.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

translating the third document into a third language; and

automatically superseding a document in the third language with the translated third document.

10. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

translating the third document into the first language;

designating the translated third document in the first language as a source document; and

removing the designation of the third document in the second language as a source document.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the designating comprises automatically designating the third document as a source document based upon a policy.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the designating comprises automatically designating the third document as a source document based upon frequency of use.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the designating comprises automatically designating the third document as a source document based upon effectiveness.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein:

the third document contains information on dealing with a technical support issue; and

the designating based upon effectiveness comprises designating the third document as a source document based upon one or more of the following criteria:

a ratio of service calls on the technical support issue successfully handled based upon the third document to total service calls on the technical support issue attempted to be handled based upon the third document;

a reduction in a number of parts sent as part of a field service as a result of service calls on the technical support issue handled by the third document; and

a ratio of:

people who view content of the third document online and then engage in phone support within a fixed number of business days for issue resolution to

total people who view content of the third document online.

15. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

updating the updated first document, thereby producing a twice-updated first document;

automatically translating the twice-updated first document into the second language, thereby producing a fifth document; and

merging the third document with the fifth document.

16. A method comprising:

creating a first document in a first language;

translating the first document into a second language, thereby producing a second document;

revising the second document directly in the second language, thereby producing a third document; and

maintaining by an information handling system a document storage system, the maintaining including:

storing the first, second and third documents; and

storing in a computer memory data representing that the third document is a revision of a translation of the first document and that the second document is a translation of the first document;

translating the first document into the second language by a second method of translation, thereby producing a fourth document; and

assigning a priority to the fourth document over the second document, the priority based upon the two translation methods.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein:

the method further comprises translating the first document into the second language by a third method of translation;

the first method of translation comprises machine translation (MT);

the second method of translation comprises human translation by a human not well-versed in subject matter of the first document (HT);

the third method of translation comprises human translation by a human well-versed in subject matter of the first document (AT); and

the priority ordering gives higher priority to AT than to HT or MT and higher priority to HT than to MT.

18. The method of claim 16 , further comprising:

determining that the third document contains useful content not otherwise contained in the document storage system;

designating the first document as a source document;

updating the first document, thereby producing an updated first document;

automatically translating the updated first document into the second language in response to the updating, thereby producing a fourth document; and

not superseding the third document with the fourth document, based upon the determination that the third document contains useful content not otherwise contained in the document storage system.