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Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Ireland's Localization Business Hasn't Changed At All

I got a good laugh when I heard that a picture of myself downloaded from the Facebook Microsoft WPGI Alumni group was used as part of a presentation given at a localization conference to Dublin today to help explain how Ireland’s localization business has changed and what it will look like in the future.

I should tell those presenting and in attendance that, except for changing my hair color to reflect that of the local culture, I haven’t changed at all since that photograph was taken of myself in 1993, and I’ll look just as young in another 15 years.

Unlike some. I must get on to my agent.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Google: 1500 localized products

Taken from the Google Official blog, today: Google have 1500 local-language versions of various products. 

Amazing growth. A testament to the pervasiveness of the Google message, but also Unicode.

Fantastic.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

More Global Accessibility: WebbIE 3.6.10 Available - Language Versions Too

We’ve had a couple of articles written in Multilingual on the subject of internationalization and global accessibility requirements: The first by myself on the leverage points between accessibility enabling and internationalization, and the other by Libor Safar on what’s required and available worldwide for the user with visual impairment*.

Continuing the latter theme, I draw your attention to the new release of WebbIE - which is also available in French, Spanish, Estonian, Polish and Greek. WebbIE is a free browser for users who have visual impairments or are completely blind.  It’s a a free web browser, and pod-catcher, podcast downloader, accessible version of the BBC’s iPlayer (note that you need to be in the UK to get certain programs), Gutenberg Library, BBC’s Listen Again Player, Web Directory, accessible PDF reader, RSS reader, and a bunch more.

Check it out.

* However, JavaScript is not inaccessible. This myth is shattered by this book; a resource I encourage all interested parties to read.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Centre for Next Generation Localisation (CNGL) in Ireland

You may have missed this. Dublin City University in Ireland has hosted the inaugural convention of the Centre for Next Generation Localisation (CNGL). This included the signing of an Intellectual Property Framework agreement, opening the way for 14 million Euros in industry funding for research into the area. 

The DCU folks tell us:

NGL is a Centre for Science Engineering and Technology (CSET) established with funding of €16.8M by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI). The centre brings together thirteen different partners spanning international industry, including IBM, Symantec, Microsoft and Dai Nippon Printing, local SMEs and Irish universities. The industry contribution will bring the total value of the centre to over €30M over 5 years.

Good job DCU! Delighted to see this development, inaugurated by me old mate from Trinity College Dublin Dr. Ferdinand von Prondzynski. And thank you for keeping that word “Globalization” out of the name.

The list of industry partners, according to DCU includes: IBM, Microsoft, Symantec, Dai Nippon Printing and Idiom Technologies* and Irish firms Alchemy*, VistaTec, SpeechStorm and Traslán.

Ah, see how fast the industry changes?

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Web Globalization Lessons for the EU: "Where's My Stuff?" and WEEE

The European Consumer Centres network, by way of the European Online Marketplace Report, tell us that non-delivery of goods, purchased over the internet, accounts for half of all their consumer complaints.

The centre in Ireland says that:

"While shopping online offers tremendous choice and value to Europe’s 500 million consumers, problems persist, particularly with delivery of goods.”

This, of course, is important for you Web Globalization folks. Make sure you can deliver to the countries you are selling to or if you can’t the say so.

Be aware of the Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE) Directive - which means that distributors of new products must accept the old equipment being replaced. Some companies are citing the lack of clarity around the WEEE Directive as a reason for non-delivery.

So, go clarify it then, and explain it on your website and whether you will ship or not.

Read the report here: http://www.eccireland.ie/news/whats_new.html

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Another Blog of Interest: T&I Business

Check out Adam Wooten of Elanex’s T&I (Translation and Interpretation) Business blog.

Adam tells us it’s a blog “for the Business & Technology of Translation, Interpretation, Localization, & Other Related -tions.”

Adam also outlines the main findings from the Alternatives to SDL/Idiom session at the Localization UnConference, which he moderated.

T&I Business is a link well worth adding into your Blog Roll.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

First Localization UnConference A Big Success

The first Localization UnConference was held in San Mateo, California on 14-March-2008. About three dozen attendees contributed to a wide range of discussion topics, including community translation, alternatives to SDL/Idiom GMS tools (see Adam Wooten’s blog posting for more details of this), and the localization challenges of Agile development - in a spirit of collaboration and openness.

The UnConference was free to attend, so a big thank you to the salesforce.com folks for the use of their facilities and for the lunch AND to the attendees who were the real experience.  There was no reports of PowerPoint Karaoke outbreaks, though much writing on whiteboards with sharpies was in evidence…

I’ll have a more detailed report and some pictures published when I get Saint Patrick’s Day festivities out of the way. Let’s see some more of these events in the near future. An Internationalization UnConference would be very promising… any takers?

You can read more about the organization of the Localization UnConference here.

Saturday, February 09, 2008

End of PowerPoint Karaoke: The First Localization and Internationalization UnConference

Yes, the first Localization and Internationalization UnConference is being held next month in Silicon Valley. Very Web 2.0.

Building on the Mashup Camp experience, Ultan O’Broin of Oracle and Shawna Wolverton of salesforce.com are bringing a localization and internationalization UnConference to Silicon Valley on March 14, 2008.

It’s free, lunch and facilities kindly provided by salesforce.com, and an electronic voting system will allow everyone to suggest topics and vote on topics for discussion. Final decisions on topics the day of the conference.

It’s being held at the salesforce.com San Mateo campus.

If you think this sounds like something you’d like to join then sign-up details are here.

Watch out for more blog coverage...

Monday, November 12, 2007

And This One Time, At Mashup Camp Dublin ...

I was very impressed with the UnConference section of Mashup Camp, held in the Guinness Brewery Storehouse in Dublin. The format offers great potential for sharing of knowledge, and a challenge to the more traditional conference formats. 

Mashup Camp consisted of an initial 1.5 days of Mashup University, which, to be honest, was similar to many other conferences in our industry, mixing non-specific marketing and sales pitches with more brazen product promotion. I did learn a lot about Yahoo!’s developer network and what they offered, and loved the presentation by AOL delivered without any audio. However, the bulk of the balance had a sameness that was all too familiar. The presentation by Salesforce.com prompted some interesting questions about internationalized and localized mashups (’though er, no-one knew of any examples), but other than that, such topics remained well off the radar at the University section of the event. Furthermore, the contributions from AOL, IBM, Microsoft et al had problems relating mashup use cases to Irish scenarios, and we were left to ponder the localized possibilities of the demoed xamples relying on ZIP codes and NYPD crime reports, 3D virtual maps of London, iPhones (still not available in Ireland), and so on.

The selling and pitching over, we then moved into a more interesting format where the participants proposed topics they were interested in exploring (suggestions taped to a wall in a very non-technical way), and participants were free to attend what appealed to them.

A full list of the different discussions held over the 1.5 days of the Camp proper is here.

I prepared an ad hoc presentation on global mashup usability - including such areas as user experience, localization, internationalization, and accessibility. The gathering of about 20 that it attracted provided for a lively, candid exchange of experience, tips, ideas, and resources. I’ve captured as much as I can in the final presentation, now available online (Google Docs Presentation format).

Other events including speedgeeking (I declined), mashup competitions, and a social evening downtown. There is more blog coverage here.

So whatever about the promise of mashups (there is, but there are many issues, a lot of which - legal, security, quality, accessibility, internationalization - even making money - are not new), I think there is great promise for the UnConferencing approach. Will someone dare do a complete localization conference this way?

That said, the business challenge of funding such an event and participants obtaining travel authorization from a boss for a camp with no agenda fixed in advance remains another challenge.

Monday, November 05, 2007

Localization UnConference Please

Heard about UnConferencing?

Or Mashup Camp?

Who is going to be the first to try this in the Localization space?

Strikes me that the sum of intelligence of the people in the audience is always greater than that of those speaking.

You can hear an Irish radio broadcast about UnConferencing at: http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/1105/drivetime.html ("The Chatter")

Will anyone rise to the challenge?

PS: I’ll be attending Mashup Camp Dublin and will let you know my thoughts....

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

IMUG: How Acquisitions Affect I18N and L10N Teams: A View from the Client Side

I thought I would give a plug to my newly er, acquired Oracle colleague, Carrie Fischer, who will be speaking at the August 16th International Macintosh Users Group meeting in Cupertino about “How Acquisitions Affect I18N and L10N Teams: A View from the Client Side”.

Given the amount of consolidation we’re seeing on the client side, I’m surprised that this topic isn’t covered in the localization forums (conferences and publications) more often. Instead, we’ve already had too much written about consolidation on the vendor side.

I did touch upon the issue in my “Taking Care of Global Business” in Multilingual Technology and Computing (see the “Due Diligence: Translatability and Localizability Checklist” ), but I haven’t seen much else written. Carrie’s presentation is very welcome and should be well worth attending.

The IMUG ("A Forum for Multilingual and Multiscript Computing") is also a valuable resource for industry people in the Bay Area. Details.

Note: my opinions and thoughts expressed on this blog are not official Oracle ones.

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

YouTube and Localization

Plans have emerged for YouTube localization, with plans for sites for Ireland, Brazil, France, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the UK.

According to the press release on ENN, this “localization” means the sites will be:

...translated fully, with local homepages and search functions. Over time, an entirely ‘local’ experience will be added that will allow for country-specific video rankings and comments, as well as country-specific Video, Channel, Category and Community sections.

I’d imagine that the the UI of other language versions is a natural candidate for social translation, with the bulk of the localization actually coming from user-provided content.

On a related point, it has also recently been announced that Internet TV operation BabelGum is to set up HQ in Ireland, with former Oracle and Microsoft localization head Michael O’Callaghan as COO.

Meanwhile, the European Union, have stolen a march on events, and gone ahead with the Web 2.0 e-government approach of EUTube on YouTube.

Watch this space.

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