LOCALIZATION April/May 2009 GGETTINGETTING SSTARTEDTARTED: Guide

Localization: The Global ® Pyramid Capstone

Local Websites ® for Global Brands

The Emerging Role ® of Machine Translation

Building Quality into ® the Localization Process

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Getting Started: People often ask what localization is. The short Localization explanation would be something along the lines of taking any product or service created in one Editor-in-Chief, Publisher Donna Parrish Managing Editor Laurel Wagers locale and making it relevant to the local culture in another. Longer explanations run Assistant Editor Katie Botkin the length of entire articles, which is what you can expect in this Localization Getting Translation Department Editor Jim Healey Started Guide. News Kendra Gray Localization is typically part of a larger process, as Richard Sikes explains, and to Illustrator Doug Jones match his hefty globalization overview he has a paragraph-long localization defi nition Production Sandy Compton of his own embedded in the article. Ben Sargent adds marketing savvy to the global Editorial Board Jeff Allen, Julieta Coirini, goal with a plethora of tips and examples on localizing global brands in websites. Alex Bill Hall, Aki Ito, Nancy A. Locke, Yanishevsky gives a summation of machine translation’s emerging role in localization, Ultan Ó Broin, Angelika Zerfaß and Eva Müller fi nishes things off with a discussion on quality and pragmatics — that Advertising Director Jennifer Del Carlo

is,CONTENTS pragmatically, it makes sense to localize, especially if you’re doing so with enough Advertising Kevin Watson, Bonnie Merrell pizzazz to catch the eye of the local market. Webmaster Aric Spence The Editors Technical Analyst Curtis Booker Data Administrator Cecilia Spence Assistant Shannon Abromeit Subscriptions Terri Jadick Localization: The Global Pyramid Capstone Special Projects Bernie Nova page 3 Richard Sikes Advertising [email protected] www.multilingual.com/advertising Richard Sikes has been immersed in localization since 1989. 208-263-8178 He is a freelance localization management trainer and consultant. Subscriptions, customer service, back issues [email protected] Local Websites for Global Brands www.multilingual.com/subscribe page 8 Ben Sargent Submissions [email protected] Editorial guidelines are available at Ben Sargent is a senior analyst and content globalization strategist with www.multilingual.com/editorialWriter Boston-area research and consulting fi rm Common Sense Advisory, Inc. Reprints [email protected] This guide is published as a supplement to The Emerging Role of Machine Translation MultiLingual, the magazine about language Alex Yanishevsky technology, localization, web globalization and page 12 international software development. It may be Alex Yanishevsky is senior solutions architect at PROMT Americas. downloaded at www.multilingual.com/gsg

Building Quality into the Localization Process page 14 Eva Müller Eva Müller is a senior information developer and operational planner at Rockwell Automation.

The No. 1 independent technology for the linguistic supply chain.

Across Systems, Inc. Across Systems GmbH Phone +1 877 922 7677 Phone +49 7248 925 425 www.across.net [email protected] [email protected]

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GGETTINGETTING SSTARTEDTARTED:GuideLOCALIZATION Localization: The Global Pyramid Capstone

RICHARD SIKES

everal years ago, I was called by a they responded with a list of 1,600 issues! localize the five manuals may have been recruiter to interview for a job with a I found this to be somewhat overwhelm- appropriate for some target locales, it Smajor Canadian manufacturer of air- ing, so I tried to focus in on prioritization. most certainly was not for Japan. In fact, plane components. It seems that the hiring Due to some factors outside the scope of the result was a double whammy. Not only manager had spotted the keyword global- this article, the prioritization effort took was dissatisfaction created, but a sub- ization in my online résumé, and because some time, so the next actual event in the stantial sum of money was wasted trans- the company was embarking on a global- lating unwanted manuals. As it turned out, ization initiative, he thought I might be the missing manual was the one and only an ideal candidate for the position. I went issue of importance; the remaining 1,599 to the interview. In short order, we deter- ven in our . . . identified deficiencies could have been mined that in their corporate universe, glo- E lived with, for one release anyway, if only balization meant imprinting the stamp of world of software the manual had been translated. how things were done in the mother ship This anecdote illustrates my point that organization on all associated organiza- localization, globalization must, to some extent at tions around the world. I quickly explained least, involve a degree of investigation that in my international software develop- substantial into what foreign markets require and, ment and marketing universe, globaliza- conversely, that international product tion meant reaching out to understand discrepancies exist development without globalization at its what users in cultures other than my own foundation is a recipe for failure. For this desired and then to evangelize incorpo- in what industry reason, globalization builds the bottom- rating those attributes in those markets. most and widest tier on the pyramid. But Needless to say, it was a short interview! participants globalization does not only consist of off- The attitude displayed by the hiring com- shore market research. Rather, it should pany may be useful in some situations, but understand about be considered more closely synonymous to me, it embodied much of what has given with overall corporate investment strat- globalization a bad name. It also pointed to how globalization egy. By this, I mean investment strategy in another issue that I have observed closer the widest sense of the concept — not only to home: even in our relatively knowledge- differs from investment in the financial sense, but the able and harmonious world of software investment of effort that employees make localization, substantial discrepancies exist internationalization. in everything they do. In other words, glo- in what industry participants understand balization should be considered a mindset about how globalization differs from inter- as much as a task set. nationalization, and how both of these two saga turned out to be a visit from two rep- I once was asked to prepare a consult- differ from localization. resentatives from the Japanese office to ing proposal to evaluate localization pro- our headquarters. cesses for a well-known and successful Globalization After we had gotten acquainted, they company in the telecom space. My pro- My definition of globalization stems asked, “The document set for this product posal was not accepted at the time, how- from an experience I had while serving consists of 24 manuals, correct?” “Yes,” ever, because the company decided to as director of globalization for a large I replied. “And you have localized five of purchase a content management system software company. When I took the job, the 24 books?” “Yes,” I again replied, “in for their English content prior to explor- one of the first things I was told was that order to keep costs contained, our product ing their localization practices. It never Japan was a problem. Exactly why it was management group decided that we would occurred to management that handling a problem was not clear to the hiring localize only those five.” “And the Refer- localized content and adapting to localiza- manager, since the company had recently ence Manual is not included in the five?” tion workflows might be critical, and thus completed a localization of the flagship they asked. “Correct!” I confirmed. “Why globalization was not in the forefront of product at great expense, and shouldn’t not?” they asked. “The Reference Manual the decision-makers’ minds as the com- the office be pleased? is the only one that we want in Japanese!” pany considered this investment. So, as one of my first tasks in my new It was immediately apparent to me Based on the notion that globalization is job, I set about contacting the Japanese that our product management team had a mindset, international market research is office to find out what was wrong with made a decision that was based on insuf- only one piece in a much larger mosaic and the product. After a relatively short delay, ficient due diligence. While the decision to should not be carried out in isolation or

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“thrown over the wall” to another depart- abroad. These offices are valuable sources also be applied to such tasks as allowing ment, as is sometimes done with program of information, but all too often, the infor- sufficient white space in source documen- code. Quite to the contrary, regional mar- mation flow is in one direction only: from tation for text expansion or architecting a ket considerations should be treated as headquarters to the field. This is counter- website so that localized content can be an integral part of marketing plans cre- productive. In a world where information easily added. ated by a centralized marketing organiza- is power, the globalization-oriented com- When performed proactively, interna- tion. Target locales should be grouped in pany liaisons extensively with resources tionalization is conceptually very similar tiers based on quantitative analysis, and all over the world, leveraging the informa- to a real option. A real option is the right a business case mentality must prevail, tion gleaned from that contact. or the ability, but not the obligation, to do especially in the case of emerging mar- The choice of representation in foreign something at some point in the future. One kets. This will promote product planning markets is also very much a part of global- purchases this future advantage through with diverse markets in mind. ization. There are many options; channel a current investment, and hence it has a Creating a business case for product strategy is a long-term decision with many calculable dollar value. Think of an entre- investment requires additional layers implications. One company that I know of preneur who purchases a plot of land of support in the finance or accounting has blithely opened and closed offices in alongside a country road where, some- departments. It has always amazed me to Japan multiple times based on short-term day, residential development will occur. learn how many companies do not track She builds a small service station and car their revenues with sufficient international dealership. She doesn’t invest too much granularity to know whether the criteria money in the current facility because set out in business case justifications are she doesn’t know exactly when actually met. In my experience, it is sadly the development will occur and, of typical that companies do not know how course, there is always some risk much revenue can be attributed to local- that it might not. But what she does ized products. At best, they may know how do is to buy an option to purchase a parcel much revenue comes from products sold of land next door at a predetermined price in certain regions, but there is no distinc- at some future date. This guarantees that tion between English and localized prod- she can expand the facility if she wishes, ucts sold. This simply is not tracked, nor but does not obligate her to purchase is there any infrastructure for tracking the land if the development does not or mining such vital data. Most com- materialize. panies either “fly blind” based on Within the context of product imperfect, unverified assumptions, development, proactive inter- or they employ the “localize for nationalization simply pro- whoever screams the loudest” vides the option for a company method of decision-making. to cost-effectively localize at some This is partly an offshoot of future time. Future localization is the practice of sales person- cost-effective because product com- nel being compensated by revenue rather results, apparently unaware that each vac- ponents do not have to go through a dis- than profitability, and it may be consid- illation in policy further undermines their ruptive and time-consuming retrofitting ered an unnecessary burden during peri- credibility with local partners. While com- process to support a decision to launch ods of robust business growth. However, panies presumably never enter markets sales in a new market. Turnaround time in leaner times such as we have as of this with the intention of failing, they frequently from decision to delivery is therefore sub- writing, it is a shortsighted policy. do fail to proactively consider an exit strat- stantially shorter, and revenue gains occur An additional attribute of the globaliza- egy in their up-front planning. Even this sooner. tion mindset is the conceptual treatment pessimistic, risk-oriented activity belongs Internationalization of software consists of English product offerings as a subset of to due diligence activities of globalization. of three basic task types, each supported a generic, locale-neutral product. This is a by numerous subtasks. The first of these is tough mental leap for most North Ameri- Internationalization the removal of cultural assumptions from cans to make, although there is hope on Internationalization, the act of making a software design. The second is architec- the horizon. The growing influence of the company’s products localizable, is some- tural separation of the presentation layer Hispanic population, for example, has times called localization engineering. This from the business logic layer. The third caused numerous US-based businesses latter term is unsatisfactory for several is implementation of support for global to consider Spanish as a language with reasons, most prominently because it norms such as character sets or account- an importance and personality of its own implies that the task set is different than ing procedures. approaching that of English. This, by defi- core development and, by extension, Removal of cultural assumptions is nition, requires a whole new level of aware- done by different people and, perhaps, somewhat easier said than done. Such ness on the part of strategic planners. at a different time. But it is also not broad assumptions are not made by software In the software world, target markets enough. Internationalization need not only developers out of malice but, rather, are generally farther afield, and compa- refer exclusively to coding practices as through understandable ignorance, albeit nies are represented by offices located localization engineering implies; it might also sometimes out of time pressure.

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Many North Americans are unfamiliar with An example of problems resulting from but it cannot cover all cases. Functional norms in other countries. For example, poorly internationalized transport mecha- requirements need to be derived from the developers trained at US institutions sim- nisms is another issue I recently encoun- globalization strategy, as previously des- ply may not realize that decimal separation tered. The product consisted of a Windows cribed, and then tested against during the is actually indicated by commas in much of client that drew its strings from a UNIX core code development process. the world. Unfortunately, few university back-end server and also used a similar One such example from my past involved computer science departments teach the UNIX server to store data. The developers 128-bit data encryption algorithms that principles of internationalization, so one failed to realize that there are character were built into a product my employer can hardly fault the graduates of those encoding differences between the two produced at the time. Among other mar- institutions. Another highly prevalent cat- operating systems. The code that trans- kets, the product was intended for sale egory of cultural assumptions are those ferred data back and forth between these in France. At that time, 128-bit encryp- surrounding generic linguistic issues. Lack two platforms therefore failed to properly tion was illegal in France, so internation- of understanding of text expansion is one convert strings pulled from the UNIX server alization in this case included building of these, as is how unresolvable gram- to populate the user interface, resulting in in the capability to suppress this feature matical paradoxes can be created by string a nonsensical user interface (UI). It also for French or English product builds ship- concatenation. failed to properly store and return data ping to that region. While this example is There is a plethora of issues here, entered by the user. Since some of the data somewhat exotic, internationalization of but for simplicity’s sake, let it be said core products may come up in many other that the goal of internationaliza- more mundane contexts, such as currency tion is to create a locale-neutral format support, date and time formatting, product. This is done by creat- business logic rules such as application of ing virtual “layers” of pro- value-added tax and a plethora of other gram code that are discrete things that have nothing to do with local- from one another. These ization in the linguistic sense. layers have different functions. It is highly disruptive, time consuming and The “presentation” layer is therefore expensive to go back and retro- that which the user sees and fit program code to be internationalized interacts with. The “business after a product is released. This gen- logic” layer is the area of code erally involves branching the code. that is the functional “guts” of One branch will contain devel- the program. In simple words, opments of new features and that’s where the program does bug fixes to currently avail- whatever it does. There may able versions, and may also be a “database” layer, not be internationalized. where data is stored and from The other branch contains where it is retrieved. In most changes to enable internation- programs, data is transferred alization support. back and forth between these layers, so it entered was the user’s password, logging Then, at some point, the code must be is not only the program code that defines on to the application failed when the user merged and regression tested. Many com- operations within these layers that is impor- name or password contained characters panies follow this pattern, as pressure tant, but also the transport mechanisms corrupted by the transport process. to release quickly to home-turf markets between the layers that require scrutiny for Fortunately, many of these kinds of func- supersedes longer-range vision. But this internationalization support. tional problems can be easily exposed is really akin to offloading development One problem occurs when these lay- by pseudo-localization. This technique debt to the future. A far better and, in the ers are not cleanly separated from one involves using software tools to simulate long run, less expensive and more flex- another. Symptomatic of this kind of prob- translation of presentation layer pro- ible practice is to accept a small amount lem is when localization of the presenta- gram code that is then sent for testing. of ongoing overhead to internationalize tion layer causes malfunction within the This brings up the subject of when, in the from day one in the development cycle. business logic layer. An example I once development process, testing for interna- This ensures two vital factors: flexibility encountered was the usage of the terms tional support should be carried out and to localize quickly at any time, and gradual high, medium and low from the presen- how extensive it should be. Many compa- lessening of the internationalization learn- tation layer, which contrasted with the nies push this into the functional area of ing curve as developers incorporate best volume settings of a modem that were localization, but it does not belong there. practices into their daily work. reported to the business logic layer using Even companies that do not localize may So far, we have discussed international- those same English words. One can easily wish to sell their products in non-English- ization primarily in the context of software imagine what happened when the presen- speaking locales. Therefore, the products coding, but a quick detour to other areas of tation layer was translated: the compari- should fully support the functional require- product development is worthwhile. One son test failed every time, resulting in the ments of those locales. that comes to mind immediately is allowing inability of the user to accurately deter- Pseudo-localization is one strategy to sufficient whitespace in documentation to mine or set the modem volume. proactively test for international support, absorb language growth without causing

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pagination changes. This is rather like UI material. I remember one graphic design the smallest. If globalization and interna- design. It is sometimes hard to convince product that had an extensive tutorial tionalization as previously discussed are technical writers that white space is their whose central theme was about creating thoroughly executed, then a foundation is friend, but it is definitely the friend of the a poster promoting aluminum can recy- built that ensures that the effort required localizer and the CFO. Desktop publishing cling. Our Nordic office had to completely for localization is minimized. But let’s look is expensive; a lot of time and money can replace this tutorial because aluminum at what localization is. I prefer the follow- be saved if translated documentation does cans were not sold in their region; hence ing definition: Localization is the process not require repagination. Not having to rep- customers would have no idea what the of adapting software and accompanying aginate can mitigate another unfortunate tutorial was about. Choice of a more inter- materials to suit a target-market locale phenomenon that sometimes occurs: the nationally generic central theme might with the goal of making the product trans- separation of screenshots from descrip- have saved the company, or at least that parent to that locale, so that native users tive text. In recent years, we have moved regional office, a substantial amount of interact with it as if it were developed away from extensive documentation sets, money. Then there is the whole area of there and for that locale alone. but in the “olden days” when I cut my local- advertising, whereby comparative ads Given that globalization defines a ization teeth, hard-coded page references are forbidden in some locales. Whether product’s requirements and internation- were a big problem. These always had to be this kind of issue falls into the category of alization makes a product localizable, double-checked and adjusted in the final internationalization or that of localization localization simply becomes a matter of localized books because language growth is less clear, and there are many associ- imposing regional context upon a locale- caused the original page references to be ated questions, not the least of which is neutral product. By definition, this usually inaccurate. Better authoring software and who owns corporate identity: headquar- involves translation, but it may not. For the migration to electronic documentation ters or the regional offices. example, the creation of Microsoft Money in recent years have largely eliminated this 98 for the Canadian market required problem in today’s localization arena. Localization authoring of content that was relevant And, finally, internationalization can This brings us to localization. It is no to Canadian wealth management, many be carried into such areas as collateral accident that this area of the pyramid is attributes of which are different from its American counterpart. In this context, con- tent creation was localization, not inter- nationalization, although no translation was involved. Internationalization was the product design that allowed effortless substitution of Canadian content in place of the original American content. Localization may involve imposing func- tional constraints on products. Earlier in this article I mentioned a case involving 128-bit encryption. The generic, interna- tionalized version of the product could have either 128-bit or 64-bit encryption enabled. The localized version had only 64-bit encryption available to the user, and most of the product shipped to the locale was also translated into French. The notion held by many a senior man- ager is that localization is excessively expensive. This is because cost genera- tion in the globalization and international- ization layers of the pyramid is not readily visible. But inefficiencies created by poorly executed upstream activities adversely affect those downstream, resulting in greater overall cost. If company manage- ment complains that localization costs are too high, then the first place to look is not at the localization activities or unit prices, but rather at the bottom and sec- ond layers of the pyramid. A pyramid does not balance well on its head. With a broad base of support and gently inclining walls, however, it can stand solidly and extend to the sky. G

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BEN SARGENT

So you speak my language, big deal. Tell local-language products. Besides this, most Beyond good technical translation, market- me something I don’t know. . . . consumers told us they would pay a higher ing a business application seems to require price for a localized product. minimal localization, if the websites of SAP n 2006 and 2008, Common Sense Ad- While consumers unequivocally say they and Microsoft are any indication. Compare visory conducted two large-scale in- prefer websites and products in their own SAP’s UK site (www.sap.com/uk) with Aus- Iternational surveys to reveal findings languages across a wide range of goods tralia (www.sap.com/australia), for instance, regarding language preference on the web. and services, the importance of local lan- and you’ll find the exact same copy. These For the first report, we surveyed 2,430 con- guage increases with a product’s complex- English-speaking countries speak different LOCALIZATION sumers in eight countries where English is ity. We call this the “informational effect.” dialects, use different currencies, and require not the primary language. For the second, The more information required to make the different business rules for communications we questioned over 350 business buyers, purchase decision, the greater the impor- and fulfillment on the backside of a website, also in eight non-anglophone countries. In tance of localization. Financial and travel but the company treats product marketing both surveys, the only thing that trumped services rank high on this scale, but tooth- as interchangeable. Another example is the language in importance for making pur- paste and music CDs rate low. Microsoft Dynamics websites. The templating chase decisions was brand. More than half While brand building arguably takes lon- structure allows for unique country-specific the consumers in most countries said they ger and costs more than translating a web- content, and the British site made a direct hit would purchase a global brand without site, doing one without the other leaves with UK visitors in January 2009 by fronting an localized information over a little-known market share on the table for competitors article on tax changes affecting businesses product with localized information (Figure — both local and global ones. The easiest in Great Britain at the start of the new year. 1). Business buyers gave us much the same websites to localize sell a standard prod- Otherwise, little other thought is given to the result, with buyers in all countries but Brazil uct in all markets, where the value prop- “local” in these examples of localization. expressing greater confidence in brand than osition remains constant regardless of Let’s analyze some of these overlooked in language (Figure 2). country, language or culture. Examples of vehicles for local message delivery. Notice Don’t let those numbers fool you. Both this are the product marketing websites for the four button-like links in the right col- groups of buyers still demand a local lan- customer relationship management (CRM) umn in the Microsoft Dynamics US and UK guage option when they can get it. Limited- or other business software. At the oppo- websites (next page): Evaluate, Experience English-proficient or non-English-speaking site end of the spectrum, websites selling and so on. The first two provide exactly con sumers are 4.8 times more likely to buy “squishy” products require more effort; the opportunity marketing teams should products offered and documented in their brand attributes for beauty products, for be using as a jumping-off point to tell the own languages. Even among respondents example, may vary significantly depend- brand story in a way that’s relevant to the who speak English, 65.5% said they favored ing on country, language and culture. local market. But that opportunity is lost in

Figure 1 (left): “I would pur- chase a global brand without product information in my language over a little-known brand with information in my language.”

Figure 2 (right): “I would pur- chase brand-name software without product information in my language instead of a little-known brand that does provide product information in my language.”

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teams in place already. Rather, we believe it’s a matter of purpose. Too many com- panies still operate as if they haven’t yet learned to use their website to tell stories. Local marketing people often don’t know how to get involved, don’t take ownership of the stories being told and don’t partici- pate actively in breathing local life into their global brand. Why? Because their compa- nies have not empowered these profession- als to add or edit pages on local websites. Over time, this must change. As local mar- keters gain the knowledge and skills of web publishing, we expect they will take an active role in shaping the online brand experience for their customers. Having a localized website should mean A comparison of the Lush Japanese displaying culturally specific, culturally rel- website (top — www.lush.co.jp) and evant content. Localization should mean the Lush UK website (www.lush.co.uk). The Microsoft Dynamics US website subtle or not-so-subtle references to the (top — www.microsoft.com/dynamics) foundational narratives of the target cul- include specific areas and process flows is quite different from the ture. These stories, of course, are best told for locally produced content, local lore and Microsoft Dynamics UK website (www.microsoft.com/uk/dynamics). by people who were raised in that culture local narrative in their global templates. and are still living in that place, or in that The concept of regional and local content this business-to-business (B2B) world. The context as mediated by the web, satellite is important if you operate a multi-country UK marketing team has simply accepted the television, internet radio and so on. Deni- website, such as Royal Caribbean Inter- global content, telling the story in a generic zens of a culture connect the dots without national does for Latin America and parts fashion with no local flavor. even thinking about it, if you empower of Europe. Natalie Bird, Royal Caribbean Contrast these B2B sites with the con- them to do so. Companies should thus business manager, states that “regional sumer commodity arena of bath and beauty product maker Lush. Here, the separate sites for each country customize look and feel to A checklist of brand-building goals such a great extent that they draw on a vari- ety of design templates. The company uses for a global product-marketing site logo, typography and color palette as the pri- • Technically perfect. At a code level your site can and should work flawlessly in all mary unifying elements. The Japan website major browsers, in all economically significant languages. looks very Japanese, complete with curious • Process efficient. An efficient localization process not only saves money; gener- quasi-English slogans. It’s busy and blinking ally, it will also allow you to publish a global website on time in many languages. and colorful like a Japanese youth-consumer • Smartly targeted. Take into account the total available audience and e-GDP values site should be. Even when English is used on of languages and countries to focus your spend on the larger, most-monied online popu- the Japanese site, it is not so much borrowed lations (see www.e-gdp.com to assess how well you are doing in this respect). from the UK, Australian or US sites. Instead, • Search engine optimized. Always test your multilingual keywords in global search it employs the unique variant of English used engines like Google. Keep in mind that local content should be showing up in local in Tokyo. Meanwhile, the UK site playfully search results, too. It must be somebody’s job to make sure. references the local economy’s banking cri- • CRM savvy. Prospects who register online should be captured in a country-aware sis — along with spoofing the album cover of CRM, not only to ensure compliance with consumer data privacy laws, but also to allow the Sex Pistols’ Never Mind the Bollocks. language and country-specific follow-up. Brand experience may begin on the web, but Like most visitors to websites, I want the it shouldn’t end there. marketers to tell me how their product would Finally, check the wider frame. Is each site telling your brand story from a local per- make a difference in my life — presumably spective? Need a test? Try to find a reference on your market sites to a unique cultural by telling me a story about how it has already story or artifact specific to a country or culture. If you can’t find one, you are looking at a made a difference in the lives of people I can translated site, not a local one. For global brands that can achieve local presence, local websites will deliver a return on brand-building spend even in “the worst of times.” The relate to. Sometimes a generic story in my brands that embrace the local approach are the brands that emerge from a recession in language will suffice, but most of the time control of their marketplace. that leaves me cold. Why not show me some- For localization professionals, we suggest that mastery means going beyond “techni- one who lives in my country? Why not con- cally perfect” and “process efficient.” Mastery also means being culturally adept and nect the product to the culture I live in? audience complete — in short, relevant. And that is the most important part of being We surmise that the reason companies global, in the end. That is what will keep your company alive — and thriving — before, don’t do this isn’t the cost, since most inter- during and after a shakeout. national companies have local marketing

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and local content are managed It’s possible to route the autonomously by the local best of these stories to a markets at which the sites are wider audience, backwards targeted — no one is better through the global publishing qualified for this role. The con- system and then out to other tent strategy enables us to be geographies. Global organiza- efficient and localize content to tions produce some of their the general needs of the region, best content at the fringes yet still allows us to localize con- rather than the center, and tent to the specific needs of one should build that awareness country within that region as we into their global workflow. require.” Companies that do the best She adds, “From the basics, French (left — www.lush.fr) and German job of managing global con- (www.lush.de) site content for Emotibombs. such as contact information, tent view their local content address, number, date and time not as the last link on a chain, formats right through to the subtleties of but as unique fibers that become woven making your website speak to and address into a larger corporate tapestry. your target market in their own language Lush gives many examples of local cre- — localization matters and it goes much ativity. One is from the French site, where further than translation. It’s crucial to the we find the memorable line Certaines success of your web globalization initia- contiennent même des pétales, confettis tive, and, it’s inevitable for companies that ou autres OFNI (objets flottants non iden- wish to have a successful web globaliza- tifiés) to describe the effects of melting tion strategy.” the company’s bath bombs in hot water. As an example, Bird points to Royal Carib- OFNI is a play on OVNI, the French equiva- bean market-specific strategies, which vary lent of UFO. Were this rendered in English from country to country, in line with local as “UFO (unidentified floating objects)” culture, legal requirements and the matu- the effect would be just as memorable. rity of the cruise market. As a result, the Wal-Mart China’s disaster relief page The only thing lacking in this case is the home page of each site is tailored to its mar- (www.walmartchina.com). systematic capture of strong copy and ket. For example, Latin America promotes effective creative for global recycling. No itineraries that do not necessitate a US have become the main goals of the corpo- UFOs appear on the US or UK site . . . yet. visa; “Weekend Getaways & Short Cruises” rate website. Rather than selling products, Capturing creativity from other geogra- are different by site (three-night Bahamas the site sells the company — not a bad phies is as easy as 1-2-3: cruises are not the ideal short cruise for a strategy. In fact, many corporate sites have 1. Start by honoring local creativity resident of Spain); the “New to Cruising” this as a key mission, especially among enough to open a space for it in the global and “Experienced Cruisers” landing pages conglomerates and brand management templates — and the global process flows. are different; and you’ll only find Asistencia companies. For those companies offering 2. Once you’ve solved the production en español and Política de precios on the multiple product lines, each business unit process well enough for local teams to Spain site or a 5% online discount on the or brand may have its own website focused contribute their own copy and creativity, UK/Ireland site. on product marketing, leaving the corpo- the next challenge is to detect exceptional Another company investing heavily in rate site to tell the big-picture story to pro- content. Consider setting up a monthly or web-based brand building is Wal-Mart spective employees, investors, suppliers, quarterly reward mechanism so the teams China. Wal-Mart recognizes its unique role the press and government officials. will submit their best work. in mainland China. Though the People’s But it’s also important to note that 3. When a local team does something Republic of China does not account for a big “narrative” does not require hundreds of that is not only spectacular, but also rel- part of the company’s revenue stream, the words. It’s possible to tell an entire story evant to other markets, the final trick is to country’s manufacturing base does serve with a simple slogan. Looking back at elevate that work into the global workflow. as Wal-Mart’s supply base. Good corpo- the earlier example from www.lush.com, For this you may need a new workflow to rate citizenship is a paramount concern for “Never mind the bankers” telescopes an get local content backed out to global the company in a still nominally Commu- entire novel into four simple words. Play- “source” status. nist state. Whereas most companies get ing off London’s front page news of the In the long run, we expect the web pub- by with a single page on social responsi- international banking crisis in 2008, this lishing systems that drive global experience bility, www.walmartchina.com dedicates a four-word “story” places the brand in the to become more fluid, with core content whole section to that topic, with separate topical context of the day. It’s a narrative moving outwards from the center and best pages for community feedback, caring for you can climb into, if you choose to act on of local copy moving from the markets children, support for education, environ- their suggestion, wink wink, and gleefully back toward the center. This is a recipe for mental protection and disaster relief. buy a bar of soap. Lush’s other country a strong and vibrant global brand. We hope At the Wal-Mart China site, we see that sites also use distinct campaigns that are you’ll pick up the challenge, and when you brand building and community relations tailored to their markets. do, please send us the results. G

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LOCALIZATION GETTING STARTED:Guide

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n De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly ISpheres), Copernicus posited a heliocen- The Emerging Role tric vision of the universe. Of course, people did not immediately cease to believe that of Machine Translation the Sun revolved around the Earth, but the pronouncement certainly signaled a para- ALEX YANISHEVSKY digm shift. The necessity for a paradigm shift also became clear in the localization industry with the advent and popularization of computer-aided translation (CAT) tools. by a scathing report from the Automatic ever, there is growing pressure to penetrate Currently, machine translation (MT), the Language Processing Advisory Committee global markets faster and cheaper, which harbinger for a similar change, is a valuable in 1966, which noted “we do not have use- points to automated translation solutions. technology for localization and arguably ful machine translation [and] there is no This is understandable. Whereas having even for global economies. immediate or predictable prospect of useful a human translate an inherently linguistic machine translation.” After this pronounce- product such as a novel is necessary, having History ment, funding for the development of MT a human translator use human capabilities MT has a long, complicated and some- systems became drastically curtailed. and time to translate product catalogues or whatLOCALIZATION checkered history. To appreciate how After languishing in relative obscurity for accounting information is extremely expen- far it has come and to what degree it con- about a decade and a half, the MT industry sive and can reasonably be equated to having tinues to succeed, it is worthwhile a neurosurgeon put first-aid bandages to understand its origins. We have on thousands of people a day. always wondered why we speak dif- MT provides a solution to the chal- ferent languages, particularly since lenges of both market cost-efficiency living in a society requires the ability and fast-paced information genera- to communicate. The idea of a univer- tion, allowing a higher throughput of sal language can be traced back to translation for a fraction of the price the Tower of Babel, and since Biblical of human translation. The readiness times, philosophers have pondered of MT for prime time, as it were, was how to most easily communicate with echoed by industry analysts at The the world at large. In the seventeenth Gilbane Group in July 2008 as well: century, René Descartes proposed a “Although available for decades, universal cipher to equate ideas in machine translation is now a viable, different tongues with mathemati- A brief history of MT in the United States. game-changing opportunity for com- cal symbols. Then in the late 1830s, petitive advantage by allowing orga- Charles Babbage, considered the father of re-emerged with renewed vigor due to sev- nizations to provide dynamic translation modern computing, put forth the idea of an eral factors. First, MT performance inevita- processes.” analytical machine that would be capable bly benefited from the staggering advances In fact, dramatically increasing the vol- of storing dictionaries. This notion was in hardware and software witnessed by umes of data available today has actually to MT what Leonardo da Vinci’s sketches the computer industry during the last two made new translation approaches possible. were to modern aeronautics. decades of the twentieth century. Second, Besides the genuine rule-based philosophy, During the twentieth century, MT experi- the consolidation of Web 2.0 increased the in which the text is processed according to enced a meteoric rise, an equally meteoric amount of data to be translated and even handcrafted linguistic generalizations that fall, and a resurgence continuing to the caused new translation needs to arise, fol- are based on statistical patterns observed present time. Warren Weaver mentioned lowing the dramatic proliferation of user- in human languages, quantitative methods the possibility of using computers to trans- generated content. The potential market for that actively take advantage of large data- late language in a 1947 memorandum. A industry and user-generated content com- bases have appeared. Whenever these con- mere seven years later, theory was put into bined has been estimated at close to $100 tain the same information in two or more practice during the celebrated Georgetown- billion. User-generated content, in particular, languages, a strict sentence-to-sentence IBM experiment. The “electronic brain,” as has several features that make it suitable for correspondence and in some cases on a it was called in the IBM press release, man- MT. On the one hand, it is produced in great more granular level, phrase-to-phrase aged to produce an intelligible translation quantities and is updated rapidly, which and even word-to-word correspondence of 60 sentences from Russian into English means that it requires on-the-fly transla- between the texts can be easily estab- using six grammar rules and 250 dictionary tion. On the other hand, it is also less likely lished. By merely determining which word entries. Professor Leon Dostert, a George- to be translated by human translators, due sequences in one text systematically cor- town language scholar, proclaimed, “[in] to its relatively ephemeral character. In other respond to words in the other, a machine five, perhaps three years hence, interlingual words, enormous bodies of information are can either match (statistical MT) or gen- meaning conversion by electronic process generated at unprecedented speeds and are eralize (example-based MT) equivalences in important functional areas of several lan- being increasingly lost behind language bar- in order to generate a translation. Since guages may well be an accomplished fact.” riers. Third, the market has been a driving the availability of this type of multilingual Unfortunately, this triumph was eclipsed factor in industry development. More than resource (known as parallel corpora) has

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grown by orders of magnitude during the words. Thus, content can run the gamut either charging differently depending on last years, this method has become a fea- from individually created words with sub- the category or charging per word or hour sible approach to providing adaptable, jective meanings as in literature to more for post-editing translation output, or some robust and even self-learned translation tightly controlled writing as in the aviation combination of both. software. industry or in auto manufacturing. Content Development of a new position, the post- Each approach has its own merits, but that employs freer, unfettered language editor, is also important. MT will drastically also its own shortcomings. For example, par- and uses figures of speech (similes, meta- change the language industry landscape in allel corpora must be reliable and must con- phors and so on) is a less suitable candidate terms of cost, throughput and workflow. tain voluminous units in a specific domain to for MT, as it is difficult for engines to dis- Once more, the comparison with the early propose a useful translation. Hence, the lat- ambiguate such rhetorical ploys. In enter- days of TM tools seems apt, since not only est technological development consists of a prises, marketing materials typically fall did translators not lose jobs because of CAT hybrid approach that integrates the advan- into this more literature-like category, since tools, but if anything, computerized tools tages of the above three, resulting in an even brochures frequently use figures of speech enabled them to satisfy the growing demand more accurate and relevant translation. As to tout their products. Conversely, content stemming from the increasing bulk of con- both sheer power and processing speed have that is repetitive, more restricted or even tent to be translated. The translators who improved with the help of more robust trans- strictly controlled is a good candidate for benefited the most were those who included lation engines, ideas of yesteryear about MT. In enterprises such content may include TM in their toolbox more promptly. Likewise, being able to translate languages on the fly knowledge bases, manuals and online the translators who promptly become famil- finally became a reality. Since then, online helps. Naturally, the expectations of the end iar with MT technologies will also be those translation engines and translation engines user should be fulfilled and balanced by the who will be able to meet the ever-growing embedded into Microsoft Office and market demand and will yield signifi- Open Office applications have become cant increases in throughput and cost so commonplace that experienced reduction, thus leading to a higher users cannot imagine their lives before return on investment and, therefore, translation software was available. obtaining a competitive advantage. The conceptual change in going from a This includes working with the MT monolingual scenario to a multilingual engine. It is widely accepted that there scenario can be equated to an over- is no such thing as a “perfect” transla- night transition from a monopoly to a tion. There can be as many translations free market economy. as there are translators. Consequently, an effective MT post-editor must leave Candidates for MT MT is best suited for language behind subjective opinions and spe- Clearly, this second time around, with both restricted vocabulary and grammar. cific stylistic considerations and must MT is here to stay. However, to be focus rather on addressing systematic fair, we must acknowledge that there is a localization budget. Frequently, knowledge phenomena and improving lexicographical particular type of content best suited to it. bases are machine translated without sub- entries. Rectif ying such errors is tantamount Although anecdotal evidence (translation sequent post-editing, but with a disclaimer to an economic investment, as it will lead to of les enfants et les femmes enceintes as alerting the user to the fact, whereas manu- further engine fine-tuning and exponen- pregnant children and women) and apoc- als and online helps require human interven- tially increase cost-efficiency. ryphal evidence (The spirit is willing, but tion. Success stories at Caterpillar, Boeing, The burgeoning interest in MT is evidenced the flesh is weak translated into Russian Microsoft, Océ and Symantec, to name but by more frank discussion of the subject by and then translated back as The whisky is a few, prove that a restricted source lan- clients themselves, as well as increased strong, but the meat is rotten) of mistrans- guage — English, in this case — coupled inquiries and passionate discussion at con- lations from MT engines are amusing for with MT can produce significant savings. ferences by localization service providers cocktail parties, critical considerations are Océ reduced costs by 60% by implementing (LSPs) and translators. Consequently, much not being taken into account. Either trans- an all-encompassing program that included like CAT tools in the late 1980s and 1990s, lation engines are provided with unsuitable MT, translation memory (TM), CE and eXten- MT solutions will become mainstays by dint text, relatively speaking, or people expect sible Markup Language (XML). of necessity. Human translators will never the engine to act like a human being. If any- cease to exist, but they will begin to post- thing, objectively it would be more just to Addressing the new paradigm edit more. Our task is to recognize the role fault human writers for writing poorly in the As with any new paradigm, implemen- MT will continue to play in the coming years first place since they, unlike an MT engine, tation of MT in a localization workflow or and prepare for the new challenges that we can actually do research. So what content is program requires re-evaluation of the sta- — clients, LSPs, technology companies and a candidate for MT? tus quo and the willingness to understand translators — will all face. Language barriers If we use English as an example, although and effect change. Four factors are crucial are merely a reflection of increasing human English has almost one million words, most to successful implementation, including diversity, and translating from one language technical communication requires only 1% education of all involved parties and new to another will always be a human need like or about 10,000 words, and documents cost schemas, namely, the question of the need for understanding. After all, until implementing the controlled English (CE) of which charges are appropriate for differ- Copernicus’ work was translated, the Earth Boeing or Caterpillar can use a mere 1,500 ent categories. Potential solutions involve only revolved around the Sun in Latin. G

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EVA MÜLLER

uppose you’re working in a software and you conclude that your requirements Checking quality company and your boss says to you, can only be fulfilled if the product has been A localized product should be capable S“We need translations of our prod- internationalized before localization. of running in any target locale without uct at low cost and high customer satisfac- You’re faced with the dilemma of how to restrictions, which will be verified by vari- tion.” You think to yourself, OK then. Your get everybody on board with this. There ous quality measures. Usually done by the boss carries on: “The final product should are several strategies, but it depends on product quality team, functional quality look and feel as if it has been developed your company and team structure. All measures need to verify that software or just for each target group.” You happily team members must be familiar with the online help are working properly. Linguis-

LOCALIZATION realize that’s the definition of localization, meaning and concepts of internation- tic quality measures, which are performed but you wonder why the product hasn’t alization and localization, to start with. by linguists, apply to localization, covering been internationalized yet. In short, your The internationalization and localization translation, terminology and data format- task is to ensure a high-quality localized requirements specific to your product ting. The common goal of all measures is product in a contradictory situation. should then be collected, prioritized and to achieve high quality in translation and Keeping translation costs low starts at approved, and the quality tests executed. in the product’s functionality — while the very beginning of the source language Acceptance criteria define whether each keeping the budget low, of course. (SL) product. You realize you need to com- requirement is fulfilled, ranging from non- Testing the product’s internationaliza- pile your documentation according to trans- compliant to partially compliant and fully tion has to be executed once per product. lation purposes and apply the single-source compliant. Thus, the execution of internationalization concept for printed documentation and l¢¢ Non-compliant: Defective prod- tests will significantly reduce the number online help. With user interface (UI) text as uct with critical error ¢ Correct the prod- of localization tests required. For exam- well, predefined terminology keeps trans- uct and repeat the test; product cannot be ple, if the date formatting changes when lation costs low. High customer satisfac- released switching from an American to a German tion is synonymous to high quality and can ¢l¢ Partially compliant: Defective locale, it will also change when switching to only be achieved by comprehensive testing product with non-critical error ¢ Log the France, Italy and many other places. Let’s and having a product prepared for localiza- error; product can be released assume you localize your product into five tion or internationalization. Since product ¢¢l Fully compliant: No error ¢ Prod- languages and there are ten internation- component documentation depends on uct can be released alization tests that should be executed. the UI, the translation sequence has to be The quality of localized versions highly Skipping the internationalization tests will taken into account. Therefore, the UI must depends on the level of internation- result in more work — 50 localization tests have been thoroughly tested before docu- alization in source code and SL docu- (5x10=50) in total. mentation can be translated. Otherwise, ments. Implementing internationalization Typical test tasks ensure that each UI ele- you will risk creating correction tasks for a requirements in the source code enables ment is internationalized and localizable, not-yet-completed translation and increas- less error-prone and less time-consuming including menus, field labels, buttons, ing costs due to document iterations. localizations of the product. The usage of tooltips, hotkeys, shortcuts, messages, At first glance, people merely fluent in a defined terminology, consistent wording combo boxes and icons. Support of left- your target languages (TLs) will be less and a “fit for translation” user documen- to-right/bidirectional/double-byte scripts expensive than qualified translators. How- tation also makes it easier to have a qual- and their specific layout should also be ever, for high-quality products, translation ity localized product and to lower costs. considered if you’re going to be publish- skills and experience are indispensable. Displaying date, time and number formats ing in Hebrew, Arabic or Asian scripts. Cooperating with a multilanguage provider according to the current locale is a must. “Foreign” number formats, locale-specific may be a cost-saver: suggest a teach-the- This also applies to calculations. Differ- punctuation, display of messages and trainer course for your product to their rep- ent digit grouping symbols must not lead online help systems should also undergo resentative. The representative will then to a different result. Localizing with sup- testing. train the translators and will be the first- port of translation memories (TMs) saves Localization tests covering linguistics level support contact for translators. time, increases consistency and results in must be performed for each language To ensure that not only texts are higher quality. However, the TMs must be independent of the internationalization adapted, but also colors, date formats, maintained in order to make them fit for test. Typical test tasks to be fulfilled are writing direction, number formats and so the current project. The effort for cleanup proofreading of translated objects such on, the product should be localized to vari- of TMs from older projects pays back in a as the UI and user documentation. The ous locale-specific settings. You know that higher match rate and higher consistency naming of menus, status bars, form titles testing each topic will exceed your budget, in the target language. and the wording of messages are usually

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Marketing Sales Usability Support Translation and Translation and adaptation costs for Translation costs for Out-of-pocket Engineering remediation adaptation costs for marketing materials FAQs, in-language to adapt transaction and owner manuals, FAQs expense for such as printed search, knowledge base operational systems and any online localization collateral, websites and and diagnostics assistance advertising

Local, regional and more localized international competitors gain share at your expense. You experience sudden loss of market share, and customers develop loyalties to a competing brand. Costs of not localizing Sales limited to those Bad reputation Frustrated customers Limited reach of who are comfortable for usability, brand and expensive problem marketing programs in the nuances of the damage and higher resolution through English language support costs call centers

The costs of localizing versus the cost of not localizing. Localizing may be tricky, but not localizing is too. Source: Common Sense Advisory, Inc.

defined in a style guide or localization kit. • Project setup: The base for the man- the missing SL style guide increases the All items must be named consistently and agement of a localization project is the pro- effort and may lead to translation iterations according to the specification in order to ject plan. Set up your project plan with due to imperfect consistency. build a user-friendly localized product, mile stones, time buffers and constraints. • Test of UI translation: To achieve your and uniformity between user documenta- Mile stones are localization-specific (UI own product requirements, it is essential tion and online help, for example. translation and test, documentation/help to thoroughly verify the localized versions Broader localization tests must also be translation and test, functional test of the of your software. A complete localization performed for each language. If all inter- localized product). However, there are no is only achieved if all controls — button nationalization requirements are met, no specific quality tasks for a localization pro- labels, tooltips, menus, field labels, sys- functional localization tests are required. ject plan. In our example the translation tem messages — are translated and the Most likely, however, not all requirements tasks must be available for five languages, system runs flawlessly. As we mentioned, will have been met, and those that are only and the four localization tests per language our internationalization requirements need partially fulfilled must be re-tested. This result from the internationalization require- to be re-tested per localization. Regard- will ensure, for example, that there are cor- ments that were only partially met. ing the linguistic quality tasks, the miss- rect links within web-based applications or • Translator training: Train the trans- ing SL style guide must also be taken into help files, and unique hotkeys and short- lators in the software to be localized to account. cuts are being used in the product. Except make sure they are familiar with the prod- • Documentation translation: When local- for Asian languages, the hotkeys and short- uct, the target group, your style guide and izing both the UI and the user documenta- cuts are adapted according to the terms the workflow they should follow. Provide tion, the completion of the former is a used in the target language. For example, a teach-the-trainer course for your multi- prerequisite for starting the latter. Each English computer users will type Alt+F(ile), language provider. In this instance, you modification requires the repetition of while Germans will type Alt+D(atei). have to conduct a single training for all testing the UI translation with all its Localization projects consist of several languages since you’re cooperating with a checks. Fortunately, the documentation in phases. Documents should be written multilanguage provider. our example is compiled using the single- for translation; SL terminology should be • Terminology definition: When you source concept. Again, the missing style defined and set in a style guide; and soft- start your translation with yet undefined guide increases the effort. ware should be internationalized. Missing terminology, the usage of a consistent ter- • Review of documentation translation: just one of the requirements will have an minology will only be achieved after vari- Your documentation requirements to qual- impact on the project’s scope, time frame ous cost-intensive iterations. Based on the ity and usability also apply to localized and cost. SL terminology definitions, the multilan- versions. The cooperation with a multilan- Say you have a software product (UI and guage provider compiles TL terminology guage provider ensures the consistency documentation/online help) that must be matches. Since the company specializes in in user documentation and a consistent localized into five languages. The product localization projects, it’s natural for them wording throughout the manual. was internationalized, but four of ten inter- to act this way. Thus, there’s no neces- • Lessons learned: This phase applies to nationalization requirements were only sity of reserving extra time for transla- every project and is not a characteristic just partially met and have to be re-tested. You tion iterations due to missing terminology for localization projects. Review your les- cooperate with a multilanguage provider definitions. sons learned log that was maintained during and all requirements are fulfilled except • UI translation: After defining the basic the project. Include all internal and exter- for the SL style guide. Your timeline would terminology you can start to localize the soft- nal team members in the review and derive go something like this: ware based on a style guide. In our example, improvements for upcoming projects. G

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his guide is a component of the magazine MultiLingual. The promoting your business or for conducting fully international e- ever-growing easy international access to information, ser- commerce, you’ll benefit from the information and ideas in each T vices and goods underscores the importance of language issue of MultiLingual. and culture awareness. What issues are involved in reaching an international audience? Are there technologies to help? Who pro- Managing content vides services in this area? Where do I start? How do you track all the words and the changes that occur Savvy people in today’s world use MultiLingual to answer these in a multilingual website? How do you know who’s doing what questions and to help them discover what other questions they and where? How do you respond to customers and vendors in should be asking. a prompt manner and in their own languages? The growing and MultiLingual’s eight issues a year are filled with news, technical changing field of content management and global manage- developments and language information for people who are inter- ment systems (CMS and GMS), customer relations management ested in the role of language, technology and translation in our (CRM) and other management disciplines is increasingly impor- twenty-first-century world. A ninth issue, the Resource Directory tant as systems become more complex. Leaders in the devel- and Index, provides listings of companies in the language industry opment of these systems explain how they work and how they and an index to the previous year’s content. work together. Two issues each year include Getting Started Guides such as this one, which are primers for moving into new territories both Internationalization geographically and professionally. Making software ready for the international market requires The magazine itself covers a multitude of topics. more than just a good idea. How does an international developer prepare a product for multiple locales? Will the pictures and col- Translation ors you select for a user interface in France be suitable for users How are translation tools changing the art and science of com- in Brazil? Elements such as date and currency formats sound like municating ideas and information between speakers of different simple components, but developers who ignore the many inter- languages? Translators are vital to the development of interna- national variants find that their products may be unusable. You’ll tional and localized software. Those who specialize in technical find sound ideas and practical help in every issue. documents, such as manuals for computer hardware and soft- ware, industrial equipment and medical products, use sophisti- Localization cated tools along with professional expertise to translate complex How can you make your product look and feel as if it were built in text clearly and precisely. Translators and people who use transla- another country for users of that language and culture? How do you tion services track new developments through articles and news choose a localization service vendor? Developers and localizers items in MultiLingual. offer their ideas and relate their experiences with practical advice that will save you time and money in your localization projects. Language technology From multiple keyboard layouts and input methods to Unicode- And there’s much more enabled operating systems, language-specific encodings, systems Authors with in-depth knowledge summarize changes in the that recognize your handwriting or your speech in any language language industry and explain its financial side, describe the chal- — language technology is changing day by day. And this technol- lenges of computing in various languages, explain and update ogy is also changing the way in which people communicate on a encoding schemes, and evaluate software and systems. Other personal level — changing the requirements for international soft- articles focus on particular countries or regions; specific lan- ware and changing how business is done all over the world. guages; translation and localization training programs; the uses MultiLingual is your source for the best information and insight of language technology in specific industries — a wide array of into these developments and how they will affect you and your current topics from the world of multilingual computing. business. If you are interested in reaching an international audience in the best way possible, you need to read MultiLingual. G Global web Every website is a global website, and even a site designed for one country may require several languages to be effective. Experienced web professionals explain how to create a site that Subscribe to MultiLingual at works for users everywhere, how to attract those users to your www.multilingual.com/subscribe site and how to keep the site current. Whether you use the inter- net and worldwide web for e-mail, for purchasing services, for

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