October/November 2009

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Language | Technology | Business October/November 2009

IIndustryndustry FFocus:ocus: IInternationalizationnternationalization DDevelopingeveloping strategiesstrategies forfor internationalizationinternationalization I Iff aandnd wwhenhen toto internationalizeinternationalize I Internationalizingnternationalizing wwebsitesebsites fforor ssearchearch ssuccessuccess I In-housen-house llocalizationocalization aandnd iinternationalizationnternationalization C Chinahina localizeslocalizes oonlinenline ggamesames fforor ggloballobal pplayerslayers CClient-vendorlient-vendor lessonslessons fromfrom i iStock’sStock’s llocalizationocalization pprogramrogram LLocalizingocalizing sstructuredtructured ccontentontent

GGettingetting StartedStarted Guide:Guide: WWritingriting forfor TTranslationranslation

0011 CCoverover ##107.indd107.indd 1 99/24/09/24/09 99:01:09:01:09 AMAM Know-how for Global Success

Santa Clara, California, October 20-22, 2009

The conference Global Business Best Practices for global business know-how. Want to venture into new international markets? Experienced business people will provide practical insights and advice Fifty informative sessions on global business best practices, to give you confidence on the global playing field. international marketing, global ad campaigns, Managing Global Websites HR management, global websites, localization and translation management. Need to take your company’s website global? Learn from companies that have outstanding web presences: representatives Large exhibit hall with service and technology vendors. offer their expertise for launching and maintaining your site.

Advanced Localization Management Keynote speakers Are you already involved in localization, but would like to learn more? Industry experts provide the latest information on trends, processes, October 21 — Learnings From the Real World technologies and influences that shape the world of localization. Dave Luhr, COO, Wieden+Kennedy During his 20+ years with Wieden+Kennedy, Localization Core Competencies Dave has touched nearly every piece of agency Do you need to localize, but don’t know where to start? business, including Nike, Microsoft, Miller This introductory track provides fundamental principles and arms you with Brewing and Coca-Cola. But his deepest impact the knowledge to take your first steps. has been felt in his current capacity as chief operating officer, where he’s helped expand the company from just one office to the largest Meet professionals from these companies and many more. independent network in the world. See their presentations. Learn from them. Discuss.

• Apple • Google • SAI Global October 22 — via live broadcast from New York • Boston Scientific • Intel • SalesForce.com Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief, Wired magazine • CaridianBCT • iStockphoto • St. Louis University As editor-in-chief of Wired magazine, • Cisco • Linden Lab • The World Bank Chris Anderson is one of the most insightful, • Common Sense Advisory • Microsoft • VeriSign knowledgeable and articulate voices at the • Dell • Philips • VMware center of the new economy. Author of • Facebook • Plaxo • Wieden+Kennedy The Long Tail and Free, he has identified • The Gilbane Group • RTMAsia • Yahoo! important new trends in the economy and described new business models for seizing the opportunities they represent. Sponsored by

www.lionbridge.com www.across.net www.localizationworld.com

002-032-03 AAdsds 107.indd107.indd 2 99/24/09/24/09 9:07:229:07:22 AMAM assertio

HLNA Technical Translations B.V

LANGUAGE LTD BeatBabel LINK UK The Art of Localization The SDL LSP Partners

All SDL Language Service Provider Partners demonstrate commitment to optimize the quality and value of the service they deliver through the skilled utilization of SDL Translation Technology, including the newly launched SDL Trados Studio 2009.

To choose an SDL LSP Partner please visit: www.lspzone.com/partners

002-032-03 AAdsds 107.indd107.indd 3 99/24/09/24/09 9:07:299:07:29 AMAM Across Systems is growing!

Do you want to grow with us?

Across Systems has adapted the concepts of Business Intelligence for a new generation of translation management software. Volkswagen and hundreds of other leading global organizations have already migrated to the Across Language Server – the all-in-one and end-to-end solution for enterprises of all sizes, as well as for language service providers. After capturing the leading position in Europe, we are now at the point of increasing our market share in the US markets tremendously. To expand our US sales force and consultancy group we need additional team members for Across Systems, Inc., headquartered in Glendale, CA.

We have several vacancies to ﬁ ll, such as:

Sales Manager As a seasoned sales professional with some years of experience in the localization and translation industry and a proven track record in sales, you will help us to switch additional enterprise customers to Across technology. If you can demonstrate success in enterprise software sales, Across will provide extensive growth opportunities for you.

Technical Consultant With a solid technical background you will help our customers with training, consultancy and workshops. You will support the implementation and customization of our products, the integration with third party products and the migration from legacy software. Skills in XML, MS SQL and some basic programming knowledge are prerequisites.

If you are interested in joining the No. 1 independent software vendor for the linguistic supply chain, don’t hesitate to contact us now. Please send your resume and cover letter to [email protected].

Across Systems, Inc. Info-Hotline +1 877 922 7677 [email protected] y www.across.net

Across_StellenAZ.indd004-054-05 AAcross-Contentscross-Contents #107.indd# 1107.indd 4 10.09.200999/24/09/24/0913:12:12 9:11:219:11:21Uhr AMAM u ti ingua M l L October/November 2009l Language | Technology | Business #107 Volume 20 Issue 7

■ Up Front ■ Feature Articles ■ 6 www.multilingual.com ■ 7 Post Editing ■ Industry Focus 26 Developing strategies for ■ News internationalization — Claudia Galván ■ 8 News 29 If and when to internationalize ■ 15 Calendar — Daniel Goldschmidt ■ Reviews 32 Internationalizing websites for 16 Across Language Server v5 search success — Motoko Hunt — Reviewed by Richard Sikes 36 In-house localization and

■ Columns and Commentary internationalization — Jeffrey Klein Up Front 22 Off the Map — Tom Edwards 40 China localizes online games for global players — Xiaochun Zhang 24 World Savvy — John Freivalds 62 Takeaway — Tex Texin ■ Business 46 Client-vendor lessons from iStock’s localization program — Michael Smith & Gary Muddyman 50 Localizing structured content — Peter Mork

■ 53 Basics

■ 55 Buyer’s Guide 61 Advertiser Index

About the cover A Parisian vendor at a sidewalk antiques market in the Marias offers this tray of individual wood-block printing letters for sale.

www.multilingual.com October/November 2009 MultiLingual 5

Across_StellenAZ.indd 1 10.09.2009 13:12:12 Uhr 004-054-05 AAcross-Contentscross-Contents ##107.indd107.indd 5 99/24/09/24/09 99:11:22:11:22 AMAM on the web at www.multilingual.com

FREE downloadable resources MultiLingual MultiLingual “Getting Started Guides” at #107 Volume 20 Issue 7 October/November 2009

WRITING FOR TRANSLATION Editor-in-Chief, Publisher: Donna Parrish October/November 2009 GETTING STARTED:Guide www.multilingual.com/gsg. Choose screen-quality PDFs for slower connections or print-quality ﬁ les Managing Editor: Laurel Wagers Assistant Editor: Katie Botkin

® 1MBOOJOHBOE8SJUJOH GPS5SBOTMBUJPO for best reproduction. Invaluable resources for

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® &MFNFOUTPG4UZMF clients, novices and professionals in need of GPS.BDIJOF5SBOTMBUJPO News: Kendra Gray ® 0QUJNJ[FE.5GPS )JHIFS5SBOTMBUJPO2VBMJUZ refresher courses. Printed copies of some guides ® $POUSPMMFE"VUIPSJOH UP*NQSPWF-PDBMJ[BUJPO Illustrator: Doug Jones are also available (contact subscriptions@ Production: Sandy Compton multilingual.com). Cover Photo: Laura Brandon Webmaster: Aric Spence Technical Analyst: Curtis Booker Data Administrator: Cecilia Spence Assistant: Shannon Abromeit Subscribe online at www.multilingual.com/subscribe Circulation: Terri Jadick MultiLingual comes in two great formats: print and digital, and you Special Projects: Bernie Nova can subscribe to either online at www.multilingual.com/subscribe Advertising Director: Jennifer Del Carlo Advertising: Kevin Watson, Bonnie Merrell MultiLingual, the print magazine, is mailed Editorial Board nine times a year (eight issues plus an Language | Technology | Business September 2009 Jeff Allen, Julieta Coirini, annual resource directory/index) for just Bill Hall, Aki Ito, Nancy A. Locke, $58 and includes full access to MultiLin- Ultan Ó Broin, Angelika Zerfaß gual, the digital magazine — delivered Advertising in a new, interactive format with special [email protected] Language Focus: Arabic features that allow you to read it ofﬂ ine. A The challenges of Arabic MT www.multilingual.com/advertising Website globalization for the United Arab Emirates digital-only subscription is available for $28. Linguistic myths about Arabic 208-263-8178 Reviews Google Translator Toolkit Subscriptions, back issues, Subscribe today and start keeping up with SDL Trados Studio 2009 customer service one of the fastest-growing industries on the [email protected] planet. www.multilingual.com/ subscriptionInformation Submissions, letters [email protected] Editorial guidelines are available at www.multilingual.com/editorialWriter Stay in touch Reprints: [email protected] Keep up to date with all the news, thoughts and trends with MultiLingual Computing, Inc. MultiLingual. Current news is available at www.multilingual.com/news, 319 North First Avenue, Suite 2 Sandpoint, Idaho 83864-1495 USA and the free biweekly newsletter, MultiLingual News, delivers this information to your inbox. [email protected] www.multilingual.com Want to hear the latest ruminations from our editorial board and © MultiLingual Computing, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. For reprints and e-prints, please staff? Blogos (www.multilingualblog.com) is the place to look. e-mail [email protected] or call 208-263-8178. MultiLingual (ISSN 1523-0309), October/November 2009, is And, newest on the list, you can follow us on Twitter at www.twitter published monthly except Jan-Feb, Apr-May, Jul-Aug, Oct-Nov for US $58, international $85 per year by MultiLingual Computing, Inc., .com/multilingualmag 319 North First Avenue, Suite 2, Sandpoint, ID 83864-1495. Periodicals postage paid at Sandpoint, ID and additional mailing ofﬁ ces. Better yet, let us do the work! You can subscribe to rss news feeds from POSTMASTER: Send address changes to MultiLingual, 319 North both our news items (www.multilingual.com/updateNews/rssNewsItems.xml) First Avenue, Suite 2, Sandpoint, ID 83864-1495. and Blogos (www.multilingualblog.com/index.php/weblog/rss_2.0). MultiLingual is printed on 30% post-consumer recycled paper.

6 | MultiLingual October/November 2009 [email protected]

0066 MMasthead&adasthead&ad #107.indd#107.indd 6 99/24/09/24/09 99:12:17:12:17 AMAM Katie Botkin Post Editing Culture morphing

Internationalization. Stare at the word long enough, and you’ll begin to see why the abbreviation i18n, which exudes all the heady personality of an internet password, is preferable to some folks in speech as well as writing. The meaning is semi-transparent: take inter, plus national, describing the Icross-trade of nations, and add the bureaucratic sneeze -ization, and there you have a cultural adjective that has slapped on a verb suffi x and then transformed into technical noun; a binary wizard that defi nitely needs the stalwart support of multiple-byte encoding. Breaking down the term is probably just as complicated as pinning down what it has come to mean. In this context, most usually, it refers to the fact that at some point, culture-specifi c formatting needs to be stripped or adapted from the original of whatever product you need to localize; often, in this case, software. Before anything in the programming world may be spirited into something new culturally or linguistically, the programming bugs that will inevitably arise from the metamorphosis should be worked out. Alternately, and the technical writers among us may take issue with this, the term may just refer to anything having to do with getting something into an international market. In which case, nearly everything in this industry is internationalization, I suppose, so the technical writers may be correct to protest. For real descriptions on the subject, however, read on. You could start with Claudia Galván’s piece on internationalization strategy, hinting that it’s best to internationalize from the start, or you could start with Daniel Goldschmidt’s, hinting that it all depends. If you’re thinking of internationalizing a website, Motoko Hunt has some tips worth looking at. If you’re thinking of doing internationalization in-house, Jeffrey Klein’s case study might be of interest. For an example of something that is international from the start, Xiaochun Zhang offers a look at the current Chinese games market. For further information on going international, take a look at Michael Smith and Gary Muddyman’s advice gleaned from iStockphoto’s international adventures. Peter Mork’s explanation of DITA comes next. In commentary, Tom Edwards covers the management of government expectation, and John Freivalds describes what can happen on an international fl ight when cultural communication styles collide. Richard Sikes reviews v5 of Across Language Server, and Tex Texin rounds out the issue with a Takeaway on industry best practices. Still want more on going international? Maybe a bit more language-oriented? Then we’ve included a Getting Started Guide on Writing for Translation, just for you — if nothing else, at least translation has relatively few morphemes to ponder and should give the time-pressed linguist less to fret over. The Guide doesn’t really present the international front in a less technical way, however. If anything, it’s about making the extremely complex (natural language) fi t the slightly less complex (controlled language) so translation is more like programming and less like writing a novel from scratch. Translation culture has changed. But it’s also gotten a lot bigger, and faster, in the process. ✷

www.multilingual.com October/November 2009 MultiLingual | 7

0077 PPostEditingostEditing ##107.indd107.indd 7 99/24/09/24/09 99:14:22:14:22 AMAM Facebook applies for community translation patent

No offi cial comment yet Of course, Facebook didn’t in- on how patent will be used vent crowdsourced translation, Facebook’s somewhat controversial and thus “it’s up to the patent of- community translation application has fi ce to decide if the techniques been submitted to the US Patent Offi ce, employed by these other sites will according to Gus Sentementes of The represent prior art that would Baltimore Sun. The patent was applied nullify Facebook’s patent. And you for in December 2008, though it only can be sure that’s what many

News recently found its way online, where people are hoping for — it would Sentementes apparently stumbled upon be highly frustrating for social it. This has sparked discussion as to networks down the line if they whether Facebook intends to try to can’t leverage their own commu- patent community translation as such, nities the way Facebook has,” Ja- or even whether a new for-profi t tool is son Kincaid wrote on TechCrunch. in the making. One industry blog title “The way Facebook has” is the key recently asked “Will Facebook Own phrase here, though it just so hap- Crowdsourced Translation?” pens that Facebook has come up Facebook spokeswoman Elizabeth Linder clar- with a good way to get accurate ifi ed to Sentementes on his Baltimore Sun tech- and appropriate translations from nology blog that the patent applies to the existing its community, at least according translation tool, which Facebook has been suc- to them. In business terms, it cessfully using over the past year to get the site Figure from Facebook’s patent might behoove the social net- translated around the world. application explaining its voting process. working giant to start expanding “The translation app has been available on its offerings. our site since we fi rst introduced Spanish, and has been instrumen- Speculation as to whether Facebook intends to make money off tal in enabling us to translate Facebook quickly and effi ciently: it its crowdsourcing experiment is not new, though Facebook’s Ghas- calls on the collective expertise of our users around the world to san Haddad indicated at Localization World in Berlin last June that translate Facebook, so that the site feels comfortable for everyone, Facebook’s specifi c application did not have a wider audience at no matter what language they speak,” Linder said. that point. Facebook’s public relations people confi rmed in Septem- The Facebook application allows users to offer translations of ber that a patent had been applied for, but they did not have further a phrase or term and vote good or bad translations up or down, comment on the current situation. and the patent application is limited to the particular mechanisms The patent application was available at press time at http://tinyurl invented by the developers at Facebook. .com/mgtrxh Language skills go to bat against Alzheimer’s disease

Neurology of memory without age-related cognitive impairments elderly patients who had spent their lives continues to raise questions later in life, including two with asymp- speaking more than one language began Good news for language geeks: a study tomatic Alzheimer’s disease and six con- showing cognitive impairment approxi- recently published by D. Iacono et al. (“The trols, had expressed a signiﬁ cantly higher mately four years later than the ones who Nun Study: Clinically silent AD, neuronal number of ideas for every ten words in the only spoke one language, which according hypertrophy, and linguistic skills in early essay than did the one patient with mild to the report is a difference unmatched life” Neurology September 2009) indicates cognitive impairment and the ﬁ ve with by pharmaceutical intervention. that language ability may protect against Alzheimer’s disease. How language could lower the risks of the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. The Although studies like this don’t really age-related cognitive impairment is not study linked early language ability to larger prove anything concretely, “the notion of clear, but the complexity of language may and more active neuron cells later in life, recommending language acquisition as a provide a sort of exercise to various regions which could indicate that these neurons kind of mental exercise that might lower of the brain similar to the exercise of the were growing, repairing themselves or one’s risk for Alzheimer’s disease follows body that physicians recommend to stay making new connections to compensate logically,” commented Samuel Gandy, MD, physically healthy late into life. On the for any damage, even when the disease of Mount Sinai Alzheimer’s Disease Research other hand, the cognitive abilities that was present in the brain. Center in New York on Medpage Today. allow someone to express a high number of Researchers analyzed essays 14 Roman Bilingualism has also been linked to ideas per sentence or to jump quickly from Catholic women, all born before 1917 and slowed cognitive impairment. For exam- one language to another may possibly just part of a long-running study, had written ple, in 2007, researchers at the Baycrest be innate, as some have argued, and these as they entered a convent when they were Research Centre for Aging and the Brain genetics may spill into mental longevity as in their late teens and early 20s. Women in Canada published a study stating that well as proactivity.

8 | MultiLingual October/November 2009 [email protected]

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Business will be integrated into the CLS entity. memories (TMs). Advanced leveraging tests CCLSLS CommunicationCommunication AGAG were undertaken by three companies. Each Janus opens third offi ce in Russia [email protected] used the same data set, industry-shared Janus Worldwide Inc., a provider of trans- www.cls-communication.com corpora, as used for a previous study by lation, localization and linguistic consulting SScandinaviancandinavian TTranslatorsranslators A/SA/S the Centre for Translation Studies (CTS) at services, has opened a new offi ce in St. www.scandinaviantranslators.com the University of Leeds, UK. This previous Petersburg, Russia. The offi ce is the compa- LLexi-techexi-tech IInternationalnternational study showed that even with no TM data of ny’s third in Russia and the sixth worldwide. www.lexitech.ca their own, up to 19% of the segments were JJanusanus WorldwideWorldwide IInc.nc. fi nding a 80%-100% match from TDA’s [email protected], www.janus.ru GlobalDoc opens London offi ce industry-shared TM. GlobalDoc, Inc., a provider of translation One of the three companies reran the Global Communications Business and communication services, has expanded its CTS test to confi rm the repeatability of the Group opens for business operations into Europe by opening an offi ce initial study and provide contrastive metrics. The Global Communications Business Group in London. In addition to language services, It reported a leverage of 75%-100% matches (GCBG) has announced its formal opening as the company also provides direct fi nancial on an average of 31% of segments in three of June 2009 with headquarters in Singapore. assistance, employee gift matching opportu- source documents for companies with no TMs. GCBG provides a range of localization, trans- nities, and support for employee volunteerism Two companies used a weighted word count lation, language education and multimedia efforts to charitable organizations through a approach for their analyses and reporting. services by bringing together and combining program entitled GlobalDoc Cares. This approach provides a more commercially the resources of worldwide experts in the fi eld GGlobalDoc,lobalDoc, IInc.nc. relevant and time-accurate indication of the of communications. [email protected], www.globaldoc.com possible translation effi ciency gains than the GGloballobal CCommunicationsommunications BBusinessusiness GGrouproup original benchmarking approach. Advanced [email protected], www.gcb-group.com Lido-Lang opens offi ce in Portugal leveraging of shared TMs led to an aver- Lido-Lang Technical Translations, spe- age 43% word count reduction across all CLS buys companies cializing in translation into all Central and scenarios and documents before translator CLS Communication AG, a multilingual Eastern European languages, has opened an assessment. communication services provider, has bought offi ce in Porto, Portugal. Hugo Costeira will TTAUSAUS DataData AssociationAssociation Scandinavian Translators A/S in Copenha- manage the Portuguese branch. [email protected], www.tausdata.org gen, Denmark. The partners of Scandinavian LLido-Langido-Lang TTechnicalechnical TTranslationsranslations Translators A/S will retire from the company offi [email protected], www.lidolang.com ‘Top 10 Ways to Accelerate after an initial transition period, while the Language Access’ report employees will be integrated into CLS. Resources Language-related legislation is a con- CLS has also acquired Lexi-tech Inter- stant concern in multilingual societies, but national, a provider of translation and TDA pilot projects results many language service providers (LSPs) fail language services. In the Canadian market, The TAUS Data Association (TDA) mem- to actively support legislation promoting the company will operate under the name bers recently conducted pilot projects to greater access to the services they sell of CLS Lexi-tech. All Lexi-tech employees analyze the benefi ts of sharing translation — legislation that ultimately would help

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their businesses grow. approaches for building statistical machine medical tourism and ways in which a profes- The report “Top 10 Ways to Accelerate translation (SMT) engines. The fi ndings sional translation service could be helpful. Language Access” shows LSPs how they can indicate that signifi cant improvements in AAvantpagevantpage contribute to the successful passage and machine translation quality can be achieved [email protected], www.avantpage.com implementation of laws that require the with smaller pools of shared, clean data. very translation and interpreting services For the purposes of the experiment, People they provide. three TAUS member companies in the same CCommonommon SSenseense AAdvisory,dvisory, IInc.nc. industry domain provided sets of training Recent industry hires [email protected] data. Each company was a multinational ■ spanishbackoffi ce SA, a translation, www.commonsenseadvisory.com software organization. Asia Online per- desktop publishing and project manage- formed extensive analysis on the data and ment provider, has hired Gabrielle McLellan BioLexicon incorporated created a total of 29 separate SMT engines as vendor manager. into ELRA catalog by combining the data from the three ■ IMTT, a translation and training com- Together with the European Bioinformat- companies in various confi gurations. It pany offering solutions for the English, ics Institute, Istituto di Linguistica Com- then performed comparisons of the output Spanish and Portuguese languages, has putazionale-Consiglio Nazionale Ricerche, quality of all 29 engines using the BLEU hired Natalia Medrano as project manager. and the National Centre for Text Mining, and the F-Measure metrics. ■ CSOFT International, Ltd., a provider the European Language Resources Associa- AAsiasia OOnlinenline PPortalsortals ((Thailand)Thailand) CCo.,o., LimitedLimited of localization, testing and outsourced tion (ELRA) has signed a language resources www.asiaonline.net software development, has added to its distribution agreement for BioLexicon — an business development team with the hir- English-language terminological resource in Reports from Avantpage ing of David Camici for the UK offi ce and the biomedical domain. On behalf of ELRA, Avantpage, a language services provider, Alfonso Rutigliano for the Berlin, Germany, ELDA will act as the distribution agency has released a report called “Translation offi ce. by incorporating BioLexicon into the ELRA 411: A Quick Guide to the Services You sspanishbackoffipanishbackoffi ccee SSAA Language Resources catalog. Need in the 21st Century Global Economy.” www.spanishbackoffi ce.com EELRA/ELDALRA/ELDA [email protected], www.elda.org The report was written as a service to help IIMTTMTT www.imtt.com.ar organizations better understand the termi- CCSOFTSOFT International,International, Ltd.Ltd. Study on the impact of data nology and the necessities of the globaliza- http://csoftintl.com consolidation and sharing for SMT tion process. Asia Online Portals (Thailand) Co., Lim- Avantpage has also released a report in Financial ited, an international web portal company, response to the linguistic challenges that in cooperation with the Translation Auto- medical tourism presents. Part one of “Medi- SDL unaudited interim results mation User Society (TAUS), has conducted cal Tourism: A Linguistic Approach” deals with SDL, a provider of global information an experiment to determine the optimum the considerations associated with outbound management solutions, has announced that its unaudited interim results for the six months ending June 30, 2009, were in line with expectations. The company reported a net cash position of £32.9m. SSDLDL [email protected], www.sdl.com

Transit Products and Services Context-sensitive translation platform for intelligent translation EuroTermBank terminology panel for Microsoft Word and terminology reuse. Tilde, a language technologies services provider, has created an add-in providing a EuroTermBank terminology panel for Micro- GRIPS soft Word with instant access to the over Product knowledge two million terms and over 100 collections

Transit management for dynamic and databases. Tilde hosts and develops data reusability throughout EuroTermBank, a multilingual terminology globally distributed, portal, in cooperation with the international GRIPS cross-functional operations. EuroTermBank Consortium. TTildeilde www.tilde.lv

CrowdSight STAR Group – Welocalize, a provider of integrated glo- Your single-source partner balization services, has launched its second

for corporate product communication www.star-group.net/casestudies open-source product CrowdSight, a crowdsourcing application that is fully integrated

10 | MultiLingual October/November 2009 [email protected]

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with the GlobalSight open-source translation updated status and fi nance reports; and all to be compatible with Windows 7. Keyman management system. The CrowdSight plat- accountable orders of a selected customer Desktop 7.1 enables text input in any Win- form facilitates collaboration within a com- combined to a collective invoice. dows application in over 600 languages. munity by providing simple workfl ow options PPlunetlunet GGmbHmbH TTavultesoftavultesoft PPty.ty. LLtd.td. [email protected] that incorporate a proper level of translation [email protected], www.plunet.de www.tavultesoft.com review and approvals. WWelocalizeelocalize Conversis launches medical website Google Docs [email protected], www.welocalize.com Conversis, Ltd., an international business Google, Inc., has included its translation consultancy and provider of translation technology in the Google Docs offi ce suite Rhonix online medical and localization services, has launched a for the instant translation of documents into translation community website — Conversis Health — to serve the 42 languages. Google Docs is designed to ENLASO Corporation, a developer of needs of its translation and localization cli- allow users to create and share work online. enter prise language solutions, has created ents in the pharmaceutical, medical device GGoogle,oogle, IInc.nc. www.google.com Rhonix, a new social networking forum and biotech industries. Conversis has a net- dedicated to helping improve the quality work of medical translators based in more MemoQ 3.6 in medical and life sciences translations. than 50 countries worldwide. Kilgray Translation Technologies, a devel- Rhonix is powered by ENLASO’s Language CConversis,onversis, LLtd.td. [email protected] oper of translation productivity tools, has Technology Center and consists of a discus- www.conversisglobal.com released MemoQ 3.6. The new version includes sion board, a resource center, a job center support for two new fi le formats — DOCX and and an events center. The forum is open to Keyman Desktop 7.1 PDF — and is now compatible with all mod- customer-side localization and translation compatible with Windows 7 ern Windows operating systems. Upgrades professionals, their affi liates, subject mat- Tavultesoft Pty. Ltd., a developer of key- also include usability improvements geared ter experts, industry associations, linguists board mapping software, has announced toward translators. and other professionals involved in the that Keyman Desktop 7.1 has been tested KKilgrayilgray TTranslationranslation TTechnologiesechnologies translation and localization of medical and to meet all of the technical requirements [email protected], www.kilgray.com life sciences content. EENLASONLASO CCorporationorporation [email protected], www.translate.com

Globalyzer 3.0 Lingoport, Inc., a provider of software internationalization tools and services, has Succeed Globally. announced the release of Globalyzer 3.0. Designed to measure, report and ﬁ x inter- Partner with the full-service experts nationalization bugs over a product’s life cycle, the tool supports a wide variety of in Localization and Translation. programming languages, database scripts and monitors and enables software development at the source code level. LLingoport,ingoport, IInc.nc. [email protected], www.lingoport.com

Vasont 12.1 Vasont Systems, a provider of component content management solutions, has developed Vasont 12.1. The interim version of the content management system includes component-level translation, project man- Strategic Global Alliance agement for modular content and workﬂ ow enhancements. One call connects you to VVasontasont SystemsSystems worldwide support [email protected], www.vasont.com China - Argentina - Russia Plunet BusinessManager 4.4 Thailand - Belgium - UK/US Japan - Czech Republic Plunet GmbH, a provider of business management software for translation services and agencies, has delivered version 4.4 of BusinessManager. New functions and 30 Years of Localization and Translation Expertise enhancements include direct connection www.PTIGlobal.com |+1 503-297-2165 to the request and registration dialogue;

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LangCommLingo addition to the Free Online Language Trans- (CMS). Safeguard automatically scans compa- Transatlantic Translations LLC, a provider lator, Language Weaver software will also be nies’ websites to expose any issues with search of translation services, has introduced Lang- integrated into WorldLingo’s desktop and engine optimization, usability, accessibility, CommLingo, a telephone interpreting service enterprise offerings. legal and brand standards. designed for travelers. The service provides LLanguageanguage WWeavereaver [email protected] SSDLDL TTridionridion CCorporateorporate SServiceservices BBVV round-the-clock access to a network of inter- www.languageweaver.com [email protected], www.tridion.com preters in over 150 languages. WWorldLingoorldLingo [email protected] TTransatlanticransatlantic TTranslationsranslations LLLCLC www.worldlingo.com Author-it partners with Syrinx [email protected] Author-it Software Corporation, a devel- www.transatlantictranslations.com Harley-Davidson contracts oper of software for authoring, content with arvato loyalty services management, publishing and localization, Clients and Partners arvato loyalty services, a global services has partnered with Syrinx Consulting to provider, was selected by Harley-Davidson provide a single-click publishing applica- Informatica chooses SDL XySoft to set up a multilingual contact center tion from Author-it directly into Microsoft SDL Trisoft, developer of component con- designed to help with the sales of its autho- SharePoint. Syrinx is a full-service informa- tent management (CCM), has announced rized motorbike rentals, tours and training tion technology consulting company that that Informatica Corporation, a provider of courses across Europe, the Middle East and specializes in large-scale application devel- enterprise data integration software and Africa (EMEA). Speaking in English, Ger- opment using Microsoft .NET and SharePoint services, has selected the SDL XySoft CCM man, Spanish, French, Dutch and Italian, technologies. software to help manage the company’s arvato’s trilingual agents will handle online AAuthor-ituthor-it SSoftwareoftware CCorporationorporation technical documentation. XySoft is the and telephone-based bookings from EMEA [email protected], www.author-it.com recently merged business unit of XyEnter- consumers. prise and SDL Trisoft. aarvatorvato lloyaltyoyalty sserviceservices SDL selected by Continental Airlines SSDLDL TTrisoftrisoft [email protected] [email protected] SDL, a provider of global information www.trisoftcms.com www.arvatoloyalty.com management solutions, has been selected by Continental Airlines to translate Con- Language Weaver, WorldLingo SDL Tridion CMS tinental’s web content, including highly form strategic partnership integrates with Safeguard sensitive information on travel safety, into Language Weaver, a software company SDL Tridion Corporate Services BV, a profi ve languages. developing enterprise software for the vider of global web content management, SSDLDL [email protected], www.sdl.com automated translation of human languages, and Magus ActiveStandards, a provider of has entered into a strategic partnership website quality monitoring solutions, have NCS translates for G20 Summit with WorldLingo Translations, a provider of partnered to integrate Safeguard with the NCS Enterprises, LLC, a translation agency, integrated, online translation solutions. In SDL Tridion web content management system has been selected by the Allegheny Confer- ence to provide translation services for the G20 Summit held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on September 24-25, 2009. NNCSCS EEnterprises,nterprises, LLLCLC Enter [email protected], www.ncs-pubs.com Eastern Europe Announcements Fastest-growing US translation companies on Inc. list Inc. magazine has released its 2009 ranking of the fastest-growing private compa- Localization nies in the United States. At least a dozen translation companies made the list (www Translation .inc.com/inc5000/2009/the-full-list.html). Quality Assurance The Inc. 500|5000 is ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2005 Project Management through 2008. To qualify, companies must DTP have been founded and generating revenue by the fi rst week of 2005. IInc.nc. MMagazineagazine www.inc.com +7 (495) 913 6653 www.janus.ru, [email protected] Domestic violence interpreting Russia x Ukraine x Kazakhstan x Germany certifi cation development ISO 9001:2000 certified In Every Language, a language services provider, has joined the Kentucky Domestic

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Violence Association’s (KDVA) council for MEDAR Knowledge Base 2 survey directory of experts, projects and language the development of domestic violence NEMLAR (Network for Euro-Mediterra- resources related to Arabic HLT. Those inter- interpreting certifi cation. Currently, there nean LAnguage Resources) has established ested in becoming part of the global direc- is no interpreting certifi cation available the MEDAR project, supported by the Euro- tory can take an online survey (http://survey specifi cally for domestic violence in the pean Commission ICT program, as a network .elda.org/index.php?sid=15471&lang=en). United States. Led by the KDVA, the Inter- of partner centers of best practice in Arabic The collected information will be available preter Certifi cation Project hopes that its dedicated to promoting Arabic HLT (human through a knowledge database. certifi cation model, once complete, can be language technologies). Within this frame- NNEMLAREMLAR used to qualify or certify domestic violence work, the organization is working on a global [email protected], www.nemlar.org interpreters in other states. IInn EveryEvery LLanguageanguage [email protected] www.ineverylanguage.com Translation services: Technical translations, Internationalisation and localisation, Terminol- ogy management, Country coordination, Multilingual layout, Publishing – Information pro- LIT celebrates 20-year anniversary duction: Technical documentation, Technical editing and proofreading, Technical illustration, Lloyd International Translations (LIT), a Medical Writing, Writing for translation, Documentation and document analysis – Global in- provider of technical translation and soft- formation management: Information analysis and structuring, Documentation processes, In- ware localization services, is celebrating its ternational standardisation, Information lifecycle management, Software development, Project 20-year anniversary. Founded in 1989, LIT’s management and quality assurance – XML documentation applications: Consulting, design translation expertise spans across a portfo- and implementation, Document type defi nition (DTD), Document management systems (DMS), lio of projects, languages, technology and Product information management (PIM), Data conversion, Database publishing – Medical fi elds: media in vertical markets, including automation, automotive, electronics, electrical Medical technology and diagnostics, Regulatory affairs and pharmaceuticals, Dental medicine, and mechanical engineering, fi nancial ser- Chemistry – Translation services: Technical translations, Internationalisation and localisation, vices, health care and life sciences, infor- Terminology management, Country coordination, Multilingual layout, Publishing – Information mation technology, process manufacturing production: Technical documentation, Technical editing and proofreading, Technical illustra- and telecommunications. tion, Medical Writing, Writing for translation, Documentation and document analysis – Global LLloydloyd IInternationalnternational TranslationsTranslations information management: Information analysis and structuring, Documentation processes, [email protected], www.lloyd.co.uk International standardisation, Information lifecycle management, Software development, Project management and quality assurance – XML documentation applications: Consulting, design Rosetta Foundation aims and implementation, Document type defi nition (DTD), Document management systems (DMS), to end global information poverty Product information management (PIM), Data conversion, Database publishing – Medical fi elds: The University of Limerick, the Centre Medical technology and diagnostics, Regulatory affairs and pharmaceuticals, Dental medicine, for Next Generation Localisation (CNGL) the medical information company Chemistry – Translation services: Technical translations, Internationalisation and localisation, and Welocalize have joined together to support the launch of the Rosetta Foun- Terminology management, Country coordination, Multilingual layout, Publishing – Information dation, a not-for-profi t organization with production: Technical documentation, Technical editing and proofreading, Technical illustra- the aim to advance the rights of individuals tion, Medical Writing, Writing for translation, Documentation and document analysis – Global to access life-critical information in their information management: Information analysis and structuring, Documentation processes, native languages. With planned European International standardisation, Information lifecycle management, Software development, Project and North American launches in fall 2009, management and quality assurance – XML documentation applications: Consulting, design the Rosetta Foundation invites all to par- and implementation, Document type defi nition (DTD), Document management systems (DMS), ticipate in the inception, development and Product information management (PIM), Data conversion, Database publishing – Medical fi elds: endorsement of a program to end global Medical technology and diagnostics, Regulatory affairs and pharmaceuticals, Dental medicine, information poverty. Chemistry – Translation services: Technical translations, Internationalisation and localisation, The European launch took place at the Terminology management, Country coordination, Multilingual layout, Publishing – Information AGIS ‘09 conference held in Limerick, Ireland, on September 21-23, 2009. The production: Technical documentation, Technical editing and proofreading, Technical illustra- North American launch will take place at the tion, Medical Writing, Writing for translation, Documentation and document analysis – Global Localization World Silicon Valley conference information management: Information analysis and structuring, Documentation processes, in Santa Clara, California, on October 20-22, International standardisation, Information lifecycle management, Software development, Project 2009. A preconference workshop will provide management and quality assurance – XML documentation applications: Consulting, design an overview of the organizational structure, aims and objectives, and strategic plan. UUniversityniversity ooff LLimerickimerick Values bring people together – Quality makes the difference. [email protected], www.ul.ie CCentreentre fforor NNextext GGenerationeneration LLocalisationocalisation [email protected], www.cngl.ie WWelocalizeelocalize www.mt-g.com [email protected], www.welocalize.com

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Awards and Certifications Blogos Bits — www.multilingualblog.com Standards certifi cations ■ iDISC Information Technologies, S.L., Don’t sleep, there’s a good book a multilingual communication and web Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes is a fascinating book by Dan Everett detailing living, solutions provider, has received EN15038 studying language and observing culture among the Pirahã people of the Amazon certifi cation. jungle. . . . ■ CSOFT International, Ltd., a provider of multilingual localization, testing and soft- Whiffl ing away ware development, has earned ISO 9001: The Wonder of Whiffl ing by Adam Jocot de Boinod explores “extraordinary words 2008 certifi cation. in the English language.” He has now started a blog on the topic, and also tweets regularly. The blog website also has several pages of pages from the book. . . . ■ Idem Translations, Inc., a localization company specializing in the medical, legal — Entries by Donna Parrish and hi-tech industries, has been upgraded to ISO 9001:2008. Technology Company in Silicon Valley Applies for a Patent ■ Palex Languages & Software, a pro- The details, fi led with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Offi ce, aim to patent the vider of translation services and software much-vaunted social network translation process we hear so much about: where testing, has been awarded ISO 9001:2008 Facebook “volunteers” contribute freely-provided translations, which are then “voted” certifi cation. on as being appropriate or not. . . . iiDiscDisc IInformationnformation Technologies,Technologies, SS.L..L. www.idisc.es Translation Party CCSOFTSOFT IInternational,nternational, LLtd.td. If you’ve nothing to do because Twitter and Facebook are broken again, then amuse http://csoftintl.com yourself for hours this way. Translate phrases backwards and forwards between English IIdemdem TTranslations,ranslations, IInc.nc. and Japanese using Google Translate until you reach a state of “equilibrium.” Or your www.idemtranslations.com boss appears. . . . PPalexalex LLanguagesanguages & SSoftwareoftware www.palex.ru — Entries by Ultan Ó Broin

American Translators Association Ways to Save

5 th Annual Conference Register at the early rate New York City October 28-31, 2009 New York Marriott Marquis by September 25

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The ATA Annual Conference is the essential event for translators and interpreters, providing professional development and networking opportunities specific to your needs.

Choose from 150 educational sessions Connect with over 1,800 translators Reunite with friends and colleagues, covering more than a dozen languages and interpreters from throughout the U.S. enjoy food and drink, listen to music and a variety of specializations. Speakers and around the world. Take advantage of and dance. Spend time socializing from all over the world will share their a multitude of opportunities to promote at the many special events and experience and expertise. yourself and your services. activities offered.

Visit www.atanet.org/conf/2009 to learn more.

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October 20-22, 2009, in San Jose, California USA. November 10-13, 2009, in Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. Calendar Localization World Ltd., www.localizationworld.com November 18-21, 2009, in Braga, Portugal. November 24-27, 2009, in Brussels, Belgium. IV Scientifi c and Professional TREMÉDICA Meeting The Institute of Localisation Professionals October 22-24, 2009, in Málaga, Spain. [email protected], www.tilponline.org/clp_level_1 TREMÉDICA, [email protected] www.tremedica.org/jornadas-conferencias/malaga2009.html Global Sourcing Forum+Expo November 11-12, 2009, in New York City, New York USA. Lost in Translation OutsourceWorld LLC, http://gsfe.outsource-world.com October 24, 2009, in Leicester, UK. University of Leicester, www.le.ac.uk/ee/news/translation.html 3rd Workshop on Example-Based Machine Translation LavaCon 2009 November 12-13, 2009, in Dublin, Ireland. October 24-27, 2009, in New Orleans, Louisiana USA. CNGL, EAMT, SFI, http://computing.dcu.ie/~mforcada/ebmt3 LavaCon, Inc., www.lavacon.org The World in Crisis — And the Language Industry? TILP Certifi ed Localisation Professional Level One November 13-14, 2009, in Geneva, Switzerland. October 26-29, 2009, in Cairo, Egypt. IALB, ASTTI, FIT Europe, www.ialb-astti.org/en The Institute of Localisation Professionals [email protected], www.tilponline.org/clp_level_1 ELIA School for Language Service Providers November 17-18, 2009, in London, UK. TAUS User Conference 2009 ELIA (European Language Industry Association Ltd) October 27-30, 2009, in Portland, Oregon USA. www.elia-association.org/Event_S4LSP_home.htm TAUS, www.translationautomation.com/meetings The Role of Translation in Civilization Dialogue – II 50th ATA Conference November 18-19, 2009, in Nablus, West Bank, Palestine. October 28-31, 2009, in New York City, New York USA. An-Najah National University American Translators Association, www.atanet.org/conf/2009 [email protected], www.najah.edu/index.php?event_id=3619 KATS International Conference Translating and the Computer 31 October 30-31, 2009, in Seoul, Korea. November 19-20, 2009, in London, UK. Korean Association of Translation Studies Aslib - the Association for Information Management [email protected], www.kats.or.kr/ENG/html/eng_sub03.asp [email protected], www.aslib.com/conferences Mediterranean Editors and Translators Meeting Machine Translation: Twenty-Five Years On October 30-31, 2009, in Barcelona, Spain. November 21-22, 2009, in Cranfi eld, UK. Mediterranean Editors and Translators BCS-NLTSG, [email protected], http://nltsg.bcs.org/mtconf2009 www.metmeetings.org/index.php?page=metm09_call XIII International Translation November and Interpretation Conference November 28-29, 2009, in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Workshop on Free/Open-Source Mexican Organization of Translators, International Book Fair Rule-Based Machine Translation [email protected], www.omt.org.mx/congreso.htm November 2-3, 2009, in Alacant, Spain. Universitat d’Alacant, http://xixona.dlsi.ua.es/freerbmt09 December tcworld 2009 — tekom Gilbane Conference Boston November 4-6, 2009, in Wiesbaden, Germany. December 1-3, 2009, in Boston, Massachusetts USA. tekom, www.tekom.de/conference Lighthouse Seminars, LLC, [email protected] http://gilbaneboston.com 9th Portsmouth Translation Conference November 7, 2009, in Portsmouth, Hampshire UK. ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN 2009 University of Portsmouth, [email protected] December 2-4, 2009, in Berlin, Germany. www.port.ac.uk/research/translation/portsmouthtranslationconference ICWE GmbH, [email protected], www.online-educa.com DotNetNuke OpenForce ‘09 Impact of Media and New Technologies on Languages November 9-12, 2009, in Las Vegas, Nevada USA. December 7-9, 2009, in Minya, Egypt. DotNetNuke Corp., www.openforce09.com Minya University, http://alsunconference.scienceontheweb.net

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R e v i e w is is translation hadn’t already madethatpatentlyobvious. its crosshairs, asifrecent full-pageadvertising in more complexsystem. This clearlyimpliesthatAcross hasSDLin although itobviously requires desktop nodesaspartofabigger, its beingadesktop product intheindividualstandalonesense, SDL TMS.Inotherwords, theimpliedemphasis is awayfrom populated primarilyby products suchasIdiomWorldServer or egory thatonemighthave previously thoughtofhavingbeen very least,scalability. This placestheLanguageServer inacat- thinks ofenterprises, onedefinitelythinks large scaleor, atthe vidually. Thefirst word inthemonikeris | T language —usually English inNorthAmerica—as“just another locale-neutral, linguistic mosaic. Suchtreatment positions thesource munication andthesubsystems required tosupportitare partofa translation. Byextension, this awakens the impression thatcom- teracts thetrivialization sometimesunfortunatelyassociatedwith language ingeneral. This subtlebutimportant distinction coun- per se implies thatweare notlookingatasystem tomanagetranslation,

# 1 MultiLingual Language Server from itspeers inseveral ways. new positioningstatementbecause itdifferentiated the their launchheadline.This wasaninteresting ployed “Enterprise LanguageIntelligence”as with thenewlyreleased v5,thecompanyem- Language Server product line,and,concurrent of brainpower intoarchitecting itsﬂ The secondword is fascinating.Notetheabsenceofword Let’s dissect thestatement by examining thethree words indi- Language 0 Reviews 7 . There is nodoubtthatAcross hasputalot i n d , butrather a broader-based management system thatserves d

1 6 . Instead, thecentral word ofthepositioningmessage . Alongwiththeproduct name consultant andCertiﬁ He isafreelancelocalizationmanagement trainer, positions atindustry-leadingsoftware publishers. since 1989andhasheldseniormanagement Richard Sikeshasbeenimmersedinlocalization coe/oebr20 [email protected] October/November2009 makes strongmarketentry Fully featuredlanguagemanagementsystem Reviewed byRichardSikes Across LanguageServerv5 ed PASSOLO Trainer. Enterprise Language Server agship MultiLingual . Whenone and RAMvarywithinstallation. Hardware, processorspeed MS WindowsandSQLServer. System requirements Price varieswithinstallation. Across LanguageServerv5 , this

sion ofSQLServer is recommended. Server 2005Express Edition;forlarger implementations, afullver- dard delivery outsideofthesystem. LanguageServer ships withSQL LAN, offlineworkwithonlinepickupanddelivery, VPNand stan- implemented inavariety ofways; these canbeonlinewithina munication betweentheclientapplications andtheserver canbe associated system managementfunctions (crossAnalytics). Com- (crossAuthor andcrossAuthor Linguistic), asetofAPIs, andother management capability(crossCheck), source authoringassistance a project andworkflowmanagementsystem (crossProject), quality port includeaformat-independenttranslation editor(crossDesk), networking withAcross; othermodulesfortranslation project sup- server platform.TheLanguageServer itselfis thebaseproduct for and terminologymanagement(crossTerm) onacentral database server system thatconsolidates translation memory(crossTank) ing wastefulhumaninteraction withautomationwherever possible. reuse, enhancingexisting assets, andpromoting efficiencyby replac- deficiencies, providing transparency toaccumulatedvalue, facilitating the enterprise level. Sohere is atoolthataddresses suchstructural mentality thatassigns adollarvalue tolanguageare allprevalent at funding formaintenanceoflinguistic assets, andeven absenceofa the applicationofintelligence.Ignorance ofbestpractices, lackof will agree thatlanguagemanagementis frequently executed without in v5.InfairnesstoAcross, weshould pointout thatthis will be turn before describingsomeoftheotherproduct enhancements expansion ofprevious technology. Wewill lookateachofthesein crossMining, withcrossAuthor Linguistic beingarepositioning and The three new modulesare crossAnalytics, crossAutomation, and Across nowputsfront andcenterin theirpublic-facingdemos. tioning message is largely containedinthree offourmodulesthat Server since v4, butthefunctionalitythatjustified thenewposi- There have beenmanysmaller imp So whatis theLanguageServer underthehood?Itis aclient- most likelyassumewithareasonable degree does notrequire intelligence, onecould Without wishing toimplythattranslation desired by translation professionals. language,” anegalitarianviewpointlong of safety thatmosttranslation professionals And finally, wecometo rovements intheLanguage Intelligence 99/24/09 9:28:57 AM / 2 4 / . 0 9

9 : 2 8 : 5 7

A M Reviews

Figure 1: crossAnalytics overview. Figure 2: crossAnalytics crossTank Growth. Figure 3: crossAnalytics Project Analysis.

a high-level overview; there is a 49-page “What’s New” document crossMining available from Across that goes into much greater detail. With a name coined from the more common term data mining, the new feature dubbed crossMining could be likened to a “statistical crossAnalytics dictionary” whereby terms can be harvested from existing linguistic Completely new, and arguably the most important new function assets. Princeton University’s WordNet defines data mining as “data in the context of enterprise language intelligence, is crossAnalytics, processing using sophisticated data search capabilities and statistical a module that provides operational decision support for managers algorithms to discover patterns and correlations in large preexisting of language projects, linguists, and technical infrastructure used in databases; a way to discover new meaning in data.” By the same language asset management (Figure 1). A wide range of information token, crossMining enables owners of linguistic assets to extract more is systematically collected and reported by this module, all available value from existing assets on an ongoing basis. from one convenient area of the product user interface. It includes This functionality conforms with the industry trend towards bet- data that can be used for resource planning, reports on timeliness, ter and better incorporation of subsegment analysis and match- translation memory (TM) growth, resource workload history and other ing that we have increasingly seen in competitive products — for functional areas. Reports can be exported to PDF and CSV, among example, MultiCorpora’s MultiTrans, SDL Trados Studio 2009, other formats. KCSL’s NoBabel products and others. Like some Monitoring TM growth is an other competitive offerings, the crossMining func- especially important feature for tion is a frequency-based statistical algorithm and companies with larger TMs that works bilingually. There is no automated rule-based may need to expand their techni- or linguistic analysis performed on the subsegments, cal infrastructure — for example, but results can be substantially refined through to move the crossTank and cross- pruning of the crossMining data by iterative “train- Term databases to a separate or ing” that relies on complex mathematical analysis of more powerful server (Figure 2). the probability relationships between subsegments Managers will also be inter- and word pairs contained therein (Figure 4). The ested in the workload history, result of this training is the creation of a “statisti- which reports the status of current cal dictionary” or, as it is sometimes referred to, a projects and the extent to which “statistical lexicon.” This is not a dictionary in the the capacity of individual human usual sense but, rather, a compendium of resources is being utilized. Given that the probability of matching relationships workload history reporting is a new feature that exist between certain source words in v5, it follows that the required metadata is and certain target words. Across views this only available to the system beginning with “dictionary” as a data basis for numerous this version. However, projects that have been types of applications; the first two imple- created in v5 can be deleted without deletion mentations are “Term Harvesting” and of the corresponding list data that makes up Figure 4: crossMining and Term Harvesting. “Autocomplete.” the historical report. One first creates the statistical diction- Transparency is also created for such valuable data points as savings ary. This process includes one run-through of the crossTerm and achieved through the usage of TM or throughput volume per supplier crossTank databases, respectively, and then three “tuning” passes. or per language (Figure 3). Subsequently, one chooses to either supplement existing terminol- Across offers custom reports for more users with specialized wishes ogy entries or to create entirely new entries. Several parameters can through its Professional Services team, and the company intends to be set, including whether to sort terms by how many occurrences expand the standard report set in future product releases as customer the candidate term appears in the TM database from which the wishes and reporting trends become better known. statistical dictionary was created or by the calculated probability

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By making use of crossAutomate, Language Server can automate repetitive workflows (Figure 6). This aids overall enterprise efficiency by adding process consistency and reducing human error, as well as time spent by human resources on tasks that can be performed automatically. Under the hood, crossAutomate consists of two components. One is the Host Manager, which is a kind of “engine” that waits for certain trig- gering system events to transpire and then routes them through a workflow chain. The second component is a workflow design module that enables Figure 5: Adding a term to the crossTerm database. creation of workflows through an uncomplicated drag-and-drop inter- that a particular source term was translated as a particular target face. No programming is required to term. One also sets a probability threshold (expressed in percent) create the most typical workflows, under which candidate term pairs are to be ignored and a mini- and crossAutomate is capable of call- mum of occurrences under which candidate terms will not be sug- ing crossAPI scripts to execute more gested for inclusion. complex workflow designs. Advanced options are also available, for example, how many For present, at least, crossAutomate matching iterations should be run for phase one and phase two. will remain strictly in the hands of the Figure 6: crossAutomate. The default values are those which Across has determined to be Professional Services team. But it will optimal through experimentation, but users can alter these set- allow that team to quickly and easily create automated workflows tings if desired. An output threshold can also be set. This rep- on behalf of Language Server customers. resents a lower limit on the match possibility percentage under which entries will not be included in the statistical dictionary. The crossAuthor Linguistic count threshold is another lower limit that equates to the mini- The crossAuthor Linguistic module is an add-on to the Language mum number of appearances of a term in the source language Server that must be purchased separately. This module provides source under which the candidate will not be included. Finally, one can authoring support by generating feedback about usage of style, gram- specify the number of translation units (TUs) to be processed. mar and terminology. It is much more than a simple checking tool After training the engine on a chosen TM, one then steps through (Figure 7). It is a full linguistic analysis engine that was developed in the output manually and chooses whether or not to add a particular cooperation with the Institut für Angewandte Informatik (Institute for term to the crossTerm database (Figure 5). Applied Computer Science), a branch of the University of Saarbrücken. In addition to Term Harvesting, crossMining contributes to the Making use of a range of algorithms commonly called CLAT (con- “predictive text” autocomplete feature, providing content that can trolled language authoring technology), crossAuthor Linguistic not serve as suggestion candidates. The mining engine is built for high only applies linguistic rules in checking for clarity and comprehensibil- throughput; Across claims that it can parse through approximately ity, but it also incorporates synonym recognition and other supporting 100,000 TUs in some seven minutes on an “average” machine. My linguistic analysis techniques. test Language Server installation is running on a 64-bit, single CPU Because the full palette of potential rules is extensive, Across rec- version of Windows Server 2003 with four gigabytes of RAM avail- ommends implementing a subset of rules in conjunction with advice able; this is a fairly good computer, but no super powerhouse server from a consultant from Across Professional Services. After analyzing by today’s standards. As test data, I downloaded the English-German a customer’s needs, the consultant will recommend a set of rules to TM from the European Union and populated my crossTank with create a solution that is uniquely tailored to the individual situation. some 150,000 TUs. Indeed, the total processing time took about While the crossAuthor product that shipped with v4 can be used nine minutes. with any language, as of this writing the much more sophisticated This raises the question of how often the mining should be carried crossAuthor Linguistic is available for English and German. Accord- out. Across recommends three options: any time a large TM import is ing to Across, French and Spanish will be available soon. carried out, as part of project wrap-up at the end of large projects or The crossAuthor Linguistic is an add-on that can be used in on a regular basis such as monthly. conjunction with the wide variety of available file formats within the authoring environment. These include Microsoft Word, Adobe crossAutomate InDesign and FrameMaker, PTC Arbortext, Just XMetal and MadCap In designing the crossAutomate feature, the Across Professional Flare. Of special note in this context is that through the integra- Services organization observed many different types of custom tion within the editing environment, writers have access to partial automations at customer sites to see what worked and what didn’t and full matches from the TM, terminology database and output work and then took those that were deemed to be useful and suc- generated by CLAT. This provides segment-by-segment flexibility for cessful and built an engine to make them easy to implement. decision-making about whether TM conformity or agreement with

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CLAT rules should be given priority. New file format support: File for- Although crossAuthor Linguistic can mat support has been expanded with run in real-time during the writing direct import of Quicksilver, InCopy, process, many authors prefer to run it PPTX and XLSX formats. Use of inter- in batch after a section is completed. mediate filters is no longer required. Both modes are supported. Also, if Visual Localization: The Language the target language in a translation is Server’s capability to read and visually one of those currently supported by render software resource file types has crossAuthor Linguistic, the software been expanded and improved. New can be used as a tool for additional editing features such as easier align- quality control. ment of a group of controls on a dia- With crossAuthor Linguistic, Across log or automatic adjustment of label is stepping deeper into the enterprise fields to accommodate text length universe by raising the bar in the area growth have been added. of source language quality control, While Across has a long way to especially in the context of integrated Figure 7: crossAuthor Linguistic. go to match market leaders Passolo language solutions. To date, the and CATALYST in this area, these leading player in this field has been acrolinx separate instances are maintained within the improvements to Across’ visual localiza- GmbH, although this is a dedicated applica- single crossTerm database for companies tion capabilities do extend an additional tion. It will be interesting to see how manu- such as VW, Audi, Skoda and Seat, so that competitive threat to some of the lower- facturers of large-scale integrations react to they can be drawn upon as needed. end visual localization tools. This is an the gauntlet that Across has thrown down. Enhanced crossTerm Filters: The Lan- important addition to the palette of guage Server’s capability to perform granu- functionality that is required by many Other features lar searches within a termbase has been enterprise customers and may be greeted and enhancements improved. Filters can also now be grouped positively by corporations that are allergic Aside from the four flagship features by using parentheses around the filter names to purchasing numerous individual, dedi- upon which much of Across’ current cus- or cascaded, for example, from strict to loose cated tools. Although both Passolo and tomer-facing communication is focused, v5 criteria. Filter sets can also be stored and CATALYST interact well with other desktop contains a large number of less dramatic but recalled. TM products, having an integrated solu- highly useful new additions that have been Custom layouts for crossTerm Web: tion that seamlessly serves both user inter- incorporated in response to user feedback. Support for custom layouts for the crossTerm faces and flowing text documents such as Some of these are listed and described in the Web terminology management module has manuals from a single, unified data base following paragraphs. been enhanced. New layouts can be created may be deemed advantageous by custom- Enhanced use of attributes: Language by Across’ Professional Services group. ers who don’t need the more sophisticated Server users can now create and assign their own system attributes to TM units. Addi- tionally, unique penalties can be assigned to these user-defined attributes. Also, multiple attributes can now be assigned to projects (previously this was limited to one). crossTerm Instances: It is now possible to have “virtual” termbase instances within the crossTerm terminology base, and these virtual termbases can even have structures that differ from one another. This differen- tiates the Across termbases from “linear,” file-based termbases and adds a huge degree of flexibility to draw upon terms from diverse sources. Additionally, it is now possible to have discreet terminology lists in one crossTerm database. For example, these might be term lists that are customer-specific, and should therefore not be used for projects for other customers. One interesting real-world example of the usage of crossTerm instances is the way it is being applied by Across customer Volks wagen (VW). Although the Across implementation at VW serves the corporation as a whole,

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bells and whistles that traditional visual Reporting: Anyone who has evaluated localization tools offer. the Language Server has probably been Preview synchronization: Improvements knocked off his or her chair after the first have been made in the synchronization viewing of the Master Data Report. This is of the preview of translated documents. If a project report that lists the attributes and a translator opens a preview when a TU is metrics of a project in excruciating detail. selected, then the preview will jump to that It is long, complicated and so information- location. The opposite is also true; if the rich that one can really have trouble finding the key indicators. Across has now seen Figure 9: Report conﬁ guration. that less can be more, and offers the ability to configure data columns as “visible” or not (Figure 9). The underlying XML export actually remains the same as always, but the columns are shown or hidden through usage of varied XSLT stylesheets to transform the XML data to HTML for the reports as desired. Another useful report detail that has been added is a more granular breakdown of

Figure 8: Task Prioritization. Figure 10: New fuzzy repetition details.

environment. This includes project man- translator selects a paragraph in a preview, repetitions into 100%, fuzzy repetitions and agement, reporting, translation, proofread- the editor will jump to that paragraph. no-match repetitions (Figure 10). ing, reviewing and delivery (Figure 11). Task Prioritization: When assigning a set crossWeb enhancements: Across has now Installation: Installation of Across proof tasks to a resource, an icon indicating added a project module to the crossWeb ducts has never been a trivial affair. This is the priority level can be added to the list functionality. This is especially relevant for partly because Across depends on an SQL (Figure 8). Although this is really a “little” geographically distributed project man- Server Light version, a third-party product feature, over time it could be a real effi- agement. Enablement extends to check-in, that is increasingly ubiquitous but still ciency enhancer for project managers, as it check-out and reporting functions and is cannot boast of having the most coop- would reduce the necessity to write e-mails available to users whose profiles contain erative and thorough installer/uninstaller. to accompany task assignments. Sometimes the Project Manager role. Prior instances of the SQL Server, even such small usability improvements can have All phases of the translation process when ostensively uninstalled, can some- a large impact on an aggregate basis. can now be executed within the crossWeb times leave a legacy footprint on a system that mucks things up. That said, dealing with SQL Server Light will probably be less of an issue for customers in the enterprise segment that Across is targeting with v5; these customers will both need and have full-blown SQL Server installations and the IT staff available to manage them. For the purposes of this article, I chose to completely uninstall my previous instance of the v4 Language Server. This worked until I got to the SQL Server section of the install process, but then I ran into issues connecting to the legacy SQL database. Going into the SQL Server Manager console and changing my password resolved the problem. Had I been a “normal” user with existing projects in production and a large repository of TM and terminology in crossTank and

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crossTerm respectively, I would have increased emphasis on the Professional been wise to proactively engage the Services in lockstep. It appears that the Across Professional Services team prime directive at Across today is to nip to help with the migration from v4 away at SDL’s soft underbelly, which, to v5. In this case, a lower-impact in the light of SDL’s recent release of a upgrade installation path could have strong new desktop product in the form been followed under the watchful of Studio 2009, would appear to be the eye of Across’ experts. large-scale enterprise core for which Documentation: Across provides SDL currently can only deliver plans and extensive documentation, some of promises. which is shipped and installed with With the Language Server v5 and the product, and a great deal more the Professional Services offering, that is available at the Documenta- Across has issued a strong challenge tion Center on the Across website. to SDL. Time appears to be on Across’ These include QuickStart guides for Figure 11: crossWeb and Project Wizard. side; at the very least, we should see the Language Server and for the an evening out of the playing field Personal Edition (an Across version for free- the Across Language Server is going boldly with the two most prominent players lancers), manuals for crossAuthor and other where no man has gone before. Nevertheless, being Across and SDL. But there can be no various product modules and versions, as v5 has clearly crossed the boundaries into the doubt that SDL will respond with a potent well as a helpful overview of Across usage enterprise universe. Across’ marketing com- counterchallenge some months from now. for those who migrate from other CAT munication has visibly leveraged timing of Will Across continue to gain adoption and tools. There are also a number of tutorials this fully-featured, mainstream release — in conversion in the intervening time? How that new users can watch to learn how to comparison to nemesis SDL’s next enterprise far will it get? How will SDL respond? use various areas of the Language Server’s product release — to the company’s advan- These are fascinating questions, and only extensive functional offering. tage. This is a bold step for Across, and we see time will tell. M By and large, the Across documentation is well written and easy to understand, although, because there are frequent links to other documents, it is sometimes a little difficult to get fully satisfactory informa- Multilingual tion about any given subject in one place in one document. I am not a huge fan of and Multicultural the iconography used by Across throughout Every year, we translate hundreds of millions of words of content into more its documentation and, indeed, the product than 100 languages to help companies user interface. I find it a little “cartoony” as reach their clients, wherever they are, opposed to elegantly businesslike. But that’s whatever language they use. We help our customers get off the starting just my taste. It definitely is distinctive and block so they can reach local markets gives the Language Server and related prod- fast, and serve their worldwide clients, preserving and developing the cultural uct modules a personality of their own. identities of billions of people. In any Documentation regarding the new fea- language, for any culture. tures crossAnalytics and crossMining is currently quite thin, mostly referring customers to the Professional Services team. At first, I found this to be somewhat surprising, given the emphasis in Across’ introductory webi- nars touting the new feature set. After some thought, though, I decided that the type of customers who would benefit most from these features probably are those who would engage Professional Services for migration help anyway. I expect that we’ll see some tutorials and user guides appear on the Doc- umentation Center in the coming months, and I have been told by Across that updated online help is already available and will be included in the next patch release. Going boldly . . . With the possible exception of crossMining moraviaworldwide.com AMERICAS EUROPE ASIA and crossAnalytics, one cannot yet say that

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E d w a r H d | decides toallowacertaintypeof informationintoitsterritory, it guarding itsmarketsandconsumers. Thus,whenagovernment It’s justamatterofhowsteadfastgovernment choosestobeabout pable, thereality isthatanythingcanberestricted onthe locallevel. seem liketheubiquityofglobalbrands wouldbeentirely unstop- products andservicesare guestsinaparticularcountry. Whileitmay principles forframing sucharelationship. ous interaction withlocalgovernmentsandpropose afewbasic look athowcontentdevelopers andlocalizers managethetenu- within thecountry. Withthatinmind,I’dliketotakeacloser government, whichusuallycontrols themeansofdistribution buying contentthatisoffensive,thereal powerrests withthe consumer canlikewiseexercise the“pocketbook”rightofnot the governmentbecomesaware ofproblematic issues.Whilethe crucial role in thisprocess asoneofthekeymethodsbywhich consumer audienceisn’timportant.Theoftenhasa to aspeciﬁ cern how, whenandwhyagovernmentmightreact negatively alization ingeneral isapreemptive, anticipatoryexercise todis-

s Column

# MultiLingual First andforemost, it’s criticaltokeepinmindthatacompany’s So atitsheart,thepractice ofgeopoliticalreview andcultur- with thatspeciﬁ possible damagetothecompany’s relationship revenue inthatlocale,butalsonegativepress and This notonlyresults inanobviouslossofpotential mate nightmare thatacompanymightexperience. against aproduct’s contentisperhapsthepenulti- because thethreat ofgovernmentintervention that locale?We oftenhearabouttheseincidents, der orotherwiserestricted from beingreleased in another country, onlytobeblockedatthebor- happens whenaﬁ 1 0 7 Have youeverwondered aboutwhatreally . i n d Off theMap d

2 c typeofcontent.Thisisn’ttosaythattheintended 2 government expectations Managing local coe/oebr20 [email protected] October/November2009 c government. nished product isrolled outto

far toomanymultinationalcorporations actasiftheyare thegiftto graphic hasbeen openedforacompany’s products. Sadly, I’veseen should beconsidered somethingofagift.Anentirely newdemo- as itsseniorgeopoliticalstrategist. He previouslyspent13yearsatMicrosoft asageographerand consultancyforgeostrategic contentmanagement. Seattle-based Tom Edwardsisowner and principalconsultantofEnglobe,a potential misunderstandings willbeeasiertomanage,should forging asolidrelationship withalocalgovernmentsothatany Many companiesexpendagreat dealoftimeandmoneyin a foreign company’s assets,whichrepresent anextreme loss. business. Insomecases,governmentshaveevennationalized down theoffendingcompanyentirely from conductinglocal the offendingproduct permanently ortemporarily orevenshut to imposerestrictions on abusiness,perhapsrestrict salesof offi tically anythingcanbeobtained,butI’drather focusonthe of gray and blackmarketsinmanynationsthrough whichprac- of contentwithintheirboundaries.We recognize theexistence tain someformoftotalornearcontrol ofthedistribution when goingonassignmentinanewcountry. should beprepared inthesamecareful mannerasadiplomatwould impression the localgovernmentandconsumers willreceive. Thus,it to aspecifi about internationalizedcontentasacompany’s best“ambassador” these localcommunitiesinsomeway. Intheend,it’s helpfultothink to notonlyaccountforlocale-specifi criticism inthelast20years orso,andmore companiesare trying been slowlychangingforthebetterinwakeofmuch-publicized little aboutlocalpreferences andconcerns.Fortunately, thishas contributes toaperception ofarrogance thatmultinationalscare phones orclothingwhateveritmaybe.Suchanattitudealso if thelocalmarketisprivilegedtoreceive theirsodapopormobile the emerging marketandcarrywiththemanairofentitlement,as Secondly, asmentionedpreviously, mostgovernmentsmain- cial processes. Atanytime,alocalgovernment canchoose c countryorregion, and,assuch,itwilllikelybethefi Tom Edwards c preferences butgivebackto rst rst 99/24/09 9:37:40 AM / 2 4 / 0 9

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they arise. However, depending on the fall outside the core function or expertise of a government will be highly sensitive, offense, there is absolutely no guaran- of a company’s personnel, it’s prudent starting primarily with maps. Maps of tee that any amount of diplomacy and to utilize a credible resource. In other countries and/or regions often have the goodwill will avert the consequences words, base your reasoning on an external, propensity to infl ame deep-seated nation- of a problematic piece of content. For authoritative source to which you can alism if the boundaries or full extent of some locales in particular, there’s not attribute your actions. This is not passing local sovereignty isn’t clearly recognized. only no guarantee but also a high degree the blame, but rather demonstrating your Being visual devices, maps can be a fl ash- of unpredictability in terms of how one proactive diligence in having consulted point for governments that can and will customs offi cial might react to some- with knowledgeable expertise. One might identify any perceived errors. If you intend thing compared to another. In reality, be surprised how many times I’ve seen to utilize maps as part of your product’s and I’ve directly witnessed this on more a company be able to address a govern- content portfolio, your localization plan than a few occasions, it can take just a ment’s concerns by simply being well must carefully account for the possibil- single negative event to undo years of prepared to answer the tough questions. ity of these subjective variances that are positive relationship building. So, it’s Some companies still falter with responses present in each intended market. Such critical to respect the authority that along the lines of “We did it because we local subjectivities will often appear only governments have over their geography. think it’s cool” or “We did it because it in maps produced within that locale, so This doesn’t mean a company has to be works well for us.” A government offi cial it’s important to verify against these local totally complacent and perform actions won’t blink at such a response and will sources. For example, the Chinese govern- that are counter to its corporate values, not hesitate to punish willful ignorance. ment maintains strict policies regarding but it does mean a company may have But when confronted with evidence of a the maps of its territory and has taken to make crucial choices about where it well-researched and thoughtful rationale, action against companies and organiza- should and shouldn’t release its products. it takes the government interaction out tions that neglect its local expectations. Thirdly, the all-important issue of intent of the punitive level and into a more Similarly, India has long reinforced its must be kept in mind when releasing constructive dialogue where it could be territorial perspective via maps with strict content to new locales. Even if you take willing to forgive (but never forget). rules about cartographic depictions. all the proactive steps to become aware As one might surmise from this general There is a good reason why many of local government expectations, there advice on dealing with governments, the larger companies have a dedicated remains the powerful force of local real key to managing the relationship is the government relations department with market perception — a fact that’s common fundamental attitude a company takes to people well versed in political nuance. across all transnational businesses from its content distribution. If it’s an attitude of While it may seem like overkill to some the petroleum industry to IT to entertain- respect, proactive understanding and even to worry so much about the local gov- ment. 99% of geocultural errors I’ve seen a degree of humility, then it is much more ernment perspective about the content are completely unintentional. However, likely that the company will fi nd success, in a piece of software or perhaps a video the local market perceived the errors to be even if negative backlash issues arise. game, there can be no risk exposure completely intentional on the part of the But beyond just having the right frame left unaddressed when operating in this content developer. Governments will often of mind for engagement, a company needs information economy. The gap between raise questions such as “Why did your to consider the types of content that it reality and perception continues to company do this to us?” and “How could a will be offering to the local government be signifi cant in some countries; thus, huge multinational company possibly get and consumers. Without the space to fully taking a proactive approach to how the this wrong?” Taking these comments in explain the content sensitivity hierarchy in local government perceives your content the context of the age-old differences this installment, I can at least mention that and intent will aid in avoiding potentially between world views, it’s a natural any content that depicts the sovereignty catastrophic results. M reaction. However, while functioning in today’s interconnected digital world, the affected company can’t fall back on the historical excuse of a lack of information. It might have worked in another century, but it’s not all that credible in the twenty-fi rst. Ultimately, responding to the government’s perception of your company’s intent is the key to resolution. Lastly, it should be implicit in any company’s plans to localize and distribute that it has the ability to defend any and all content decisions to government inquiry from an authoritative, informed position. All decisions regarding potentially sensitive content must have a rationale based on solid, informed and authoritative decision-making. On subjects that

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F r e i v a l | what ifwedon’t?It’s pitchblack outsideandpouringrain.” we willbreak outofthecloudsintimeto seetherunway. But no backupplan,andtheweather outsideisterrible.You thinkthat of ”You (thecaptain)have committed ustoavisualapproach with the fi now a during astorminAugust1997.Inthefascinatingbook captain ofaKorean Airjetbefore itcrashed intoahillsideinGuam fi all, theyengageinwhatistermed“speechmitigation.” subordinates are afraid tospeaktheirminds,andiftheyat to tellthecaptainifsomethingiswrong. Yet inmanycultures and needseveral peopletofl ically more advancedthaneverbefore, are extremely complex The Netherlands,Ireland, SwedenandNewZealand). crashes than countrieswithalowPDI(suchastheUnitedStates, Korea, Morocco, MexicoandthePhilippines) hadstatisticallymore high?” Thus,thecountrieswithhighPDIs(suchasBrazil, South ture. Want simpler?Whenthebosssays“Jump!”yourespond “How (PDI), whichinsimpleEnglishisatop-downcommunicationsstruc- crashes ofairlines from countrieswithahighpowerdistanceindex d W

Column rst ofﬁ s

MultiLingual # “Don’t youthinkitrains more? Inthisarea, here?” iswhatthe Why thePDIisimportantthatairplanes,thoughtechnolog- More interestingly, there isahighcorrelation betweenthe other, orbothpeoplewillingtoparticipate.” works bestwhenyouhaveoneperson checkingthe be operated bytwopeople,andthatoperation that “thewholefl for manyyears chiefsafetyoffi compounded ontopofoneanother. EarlWeener, — butusuallyaseriesofseveral smallmistakes seldom amajorfailure —likeanenginefallingoff company attemptstofi 1 0 rst offi Whenever acommercial airlinecrashes, the 7 . i n New York Times World Savvy cer ofaKorean Airfl d d

2 cer wasreally tryingtosaysomethingalongthelines 4 Culture crashes coe/oebr20 [email protected] October/November2009 bestseller, MalcolmGladwellexplainsthat ight-deck designisintendedto ight wasoverheard sayingtothe y them.Andcrew members need nd outthecause.Thisis

cer atBoeing,notes Outliers , fi John Freivaldsismanagingdirectorofthemarketingcommunications being said.Butwhenafullyloadedjetishurtlingtotheground, many settingswhere thelistenerhastimetofi the front ofthelinetolandorweare goingtocrash!” strength tosay“Listenup!We’re outoffuelandneedtobeputin running onfumes,butthefi been heldupinholdingpatternsbecauseoftheweatherandwas land withtheirfueltanksempty, notfull.TheAviancaplanehad all landingjetsare runningoutoffuel—planesare designedto to conveyairtraffi happened withFlight052in1990.TheAvianca’s fi most congestedairspace andisconsequentlyonthecurtside,as air traffi due toitsfrequent delaysandcrashes. would alwayscallAvianca as doctorbecauseIwaseducated.We volunteers inColombia verlo (Please havethegoodnessofsittingdown)or Colombia, andtheysaythingslike Colombians are extremely courteous.IwasinthePeace Corpsin of fueldidn’tgetthrough totheNewYork airtraffi fi delayed hoveringabovemore thanoneNewYork airport,the PDI aswellitsrates before bookingafl to landatanairportwithabroken glideslope.” airline cockpitonastormynightwithanexhaustedpilottrying it isinappropriate. AsGladwellnotes,“itdoesn’tworkinan stand everythingoverlayingaculture thatmightprevent them planes andspeakaviationEnglish,butthenyouhavetounder- rm JFAandthemarketingrepresentativeforhis nativecountry, Latvia. rst offi This ishierarchical communicationatitsfi The conclusionhere isthatyoucantrain peopletofl So imagineapoliteColombiantryingtocommunicatewithan In anotherinstanceofanAviancajetthatcrashed after This thenraises thequestion:shouldyoucheckoutanairline’s (What amiracle toseeyou)andpeoplewouldaddress me c controller inNewYork, whoguidesairlinesinthe world’s cer’s inability toconveythemessagethattheywere out c control thatheisrunningoutoffuel.But Ave Nunca rst offi John Freivalds cer didn’thavethecultural Tenga labondad desentarse (thebird that neverfl ight? nest, anditworksin gure outwhatis Que milagro de rst offi c controllers. cer tries y air- ies) 99/24/09 9:39:43 AM / 2 4 / 0 9

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from fl ying a plane safely altogether. At that point the airline was under the company, you had to be fl uent. Gladwell Korean Air realized this only after one overall control of the conglomerate the puts it this way: “Greenberg wanted to Korean Air jet after another went down. Hanjin Group. In a March 2002 article, give his pilots an alternate identity. Their Its decline started in 1983 when Flight The New York Times noted that “Hanjin problem was that they were trapped 007 strayed over Russian territory and has drawn criticism in the past for plac- in roles dictated by the heavy weight was shot down by Russian Migs with 269 ing profi ts above safety.” Making matters of their country’s cultural legacy. They people aboard. From 1988 to 1998 the worse, the newspaper noted that most needed an opportunity to step outside “loss” rate for the American carrier United Korean Airline pilots were Korean Air those roles when they sat in the cock- Airlines was .27 per million departures, Force veterans with a strong authoritar- pit, and language was the key to that which meant that it lost a plane once in ian streak. Senior pilots tended to ignore transformation. In English, they would every four million fl ights. The loss rate for advice from copilots, especially those be free of the sharply defi ned gradients Korean Air in the same period was 4.79 who had been their subordinates in the of Korean hierarchy: formal deference, per million departures — more than 17 Air Force. Junior pilots were discouraged informal deference, blunt, familiar, times higher! As a result, Delta and Air from speaking up. Given that a commer- intimate, and plain. Instead, pilots could France ended their fl ying partnership with cial airliner is intended to be operated by participate in a culture and language Korean Air, and the US Army, which sta- at least two people, what a mess! with a very different legacy.” tions thousands of troops in Korea, forbid Where did Greenberg start? First of An entire cultural system is not its personnel to fl y with the airlines. all, he said that English would now be something that everyone feels comfort- Korean Air fi nally said enough is the offi cial language of the airlines. Not able being uncomfortable with, though enough and brought in an outsider, only was English the language to be Gladwell asks why the fact that each of David Greenberg, from Delta Airlines in used in speaking to air traffi c controllers, us comes from a culture with its own 2000. The deaths caused by the crashes which is mandatory around the world, strengths, weaknesses and predispositions allowed Greenberg to change a corporate but in the cockpit itself. Thus, the new is so diffi cult to acknowledge. In other and cockpit culture without the usual language of Korean Air was English, and words, being global savvy means knowing squeamishness. if you wanted to remain a pilot with the where you are coming from. M

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224-254-25 FFreivaldsreivalds ##107.indd107.indd 2525 99/24/09/24/09 9:39:459:39:45 AMAM Developing strategies for internationalization Claudia Galván Industry Focus

Despite having worked at many global soft- that included our products support the switch to the euro. Given ware companies, I am always surprised by how a large cross-company effort, we were able to implement Uni- many common pain points they each share when code support on time. The euro example helps emphasize the importance of internationalization to a business and the ben- Dit comes to developing international software. efi ts of being able to react to the many challenges and demands Everybody has been working on the same prob- of the global marketplace. lems for many years. How do we enable the soft- Today, requests to add specifi c languages and market sup- ware to work in all of the different languages? port continue to be random. From my own experience in many companies, a visit from the executive team to a subsidiary could How do we automate our localization process? result in a list of international requests, or we could have some- How do we handle international requests? one in a specifi c market pushing back his or her own list of feature needs. Requests may also result from competitors suddenly When handling international requests, most companies lack adding support for a large number of languages or markets. a process or global strategy to determine the appropriate level During my years at previous companies, these requests were of investment in a market. As a result, ad hoc market and cus- often thrown over the fence to the engineering teams, leaving tomer requests drive these decisions. product teams with little knowledge of how the requests were Let me take you back to the middle of 1996, which is when I sourced or prioritized — and even less of an idea of the return fi rst started working on internationalization. Those were excit- on investment (ROI) of implementation. ing times. It was the year when evidence of possible life on Mars was found, when Hotmail was launched, and it was the Internationalization as a business process year when I fi rst started working on Unicode. At that point, the You seldom see a formal business process for handling inter- pressing concern at the company I worked for was the imminent national strategy. Most companies focus on technology alone. launch of the euro in 1998. Even though we supported over 200 In recent years we have started to see product or program man- encodings, none of these supported the euro symbol (€). agers looking at the international business requirements and What followed was a large and time-constrained effort, as it attempting to set a strategic direction for global expansion. But was critical that the European Commission’s back-end systems these product managers often get absorbed by US needs or end up focusing on a few countries or regions. It is important to develop a global strategy despite competing priorities. Doing so can remove uncertainties and increase Claudia Galván leads the international your sense of direction, predictability and accountability as to program management group in the Microsoft whether to implement a request. Silicon Valley campus. She has an MA A good place to start is by defi ning internationalization degree in program and project management as part of your existing business process. You can divide the and a bachelor’s in computer science. international business process into three main pillars. A global

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strategy establishes your language and market roadmap, pro- specifi c locale, you can evaluate it against your global strategy vides a basis for evaluating requests against the roadmap, drives to help determine the “go” or “no-go” decision. If you decide “go” or “no-go” decisions, and guides how you measure suc- to proceed, you will have clarity on what level of investment cess. The infrastructure pillar covers organizational structure, you should commit to. This is critical because once you enter a project management, backbone technologies and governance. market, it is almost impossible to get out without incurring bad And fi nally, a local strategy deals with market-focused activi- press or customer escalations. ties, including the development of local features, understanding How do you measure whether you are on track to achieve competitors and the voice of the customer, marketing and sales your goals in a market? Success can be based on timeframe, strategies, and building communities. revenue, market share, brand recognition, or press coverage, among other measures. You may want to establish a process for Setting the global strategy measuring your level of investment in a market as part of mid- With more than 6,000 languages in the world and approxi- year and annual reviews and adjust your investments as neces- mately 195 countries, you need to choose where to go shallow sary. Many times, decisions are based on the cost of translation or deep in your engagement. You also need to be strategic in alone when in fact the end-to-end costs of deploying to a new defi ning what you will not be doing. As with many resource market greatly outweigh the cost of translation (think testing, investments, you can spend 80% of your efforts to get just 20% building infrastructure, marketing, local feature investments, of the gains if you’re not careful. customer support and so on). Most companies cannot cover all languages and markets. In Once you have decided to move forward with an interna- the Unicode case I mentioned earlier, the company supported tional request, what does it really take to add a language or hundreds of encodings but only localized into a small subset. feature or to fi x a bug? It all depends on the maturity of your Other companies leverage user communities to expand their business process and technology. Large global companies have language coverage. Some have chosen to go deep in certain developed these systems over many years. In the case of Micro- markets, making strategic investments in Asia, for instance. soft, the company worked on these systems throughout several Having a language and market roadmap can help manage ad versions of various products to develop a single binary that hoc requests. Companies prioritize their language and market would run in all the different languages and to build out the tiers using a variety of factors, including gross domestic prod- global infrastructure needed to scale to over 100 languages and uct (GDP), number of users, revenue, potential partnerships and markets. In other circumstances, such as in an acquisition, you geopolitical or expanding presence footprint. Some companies may be required to close a language/market gap as soon as work from the notion of classifying languages into tiers. Others possible, for example, to match the roadmap of the acquiring bucket their markets based on high-level classifi cations such company. as Top 5, Depth, Developing, Emerging and Presence. The clas- Unfortunately, smaller or startup companies usually focus sifi cation aspect is basically semantics. The critical point is that on developing Version 1.0 products for the English US market you need to have a clear understanding of what markets you only. This makes scaling to additional languages later on a long are in and why. and expensive process and can preclude companies from taking As an example, to determine your language/market roadmap, advantage of international opportunities. This is not to imply you could start by establishing “must-have” markets — those that companies need to invest the time and money in this regard with the largest business opportunity. You may also want to from the outset, but building the right infrastructure to enable select strategic markets where an early presence may help you internationalization is key to success, no matter what the size tap a future growth opportunity. of the company. The next step is to determine your level of investment: full or partial. A full investment strategy in a market includes develop- Developing the infrastructure ing end-to-end infrastructure and processes. These range from Infrastructure covers a broad range of things, from estab- prioritizing market requests to developing feature and quality lishing the organizational structure and processes for handling parity with the United States and setting up in-market market- international projects to product enablement, tools, technolo- ing and customer support services. For strategic markets, you gies and governance. may choose partial investments, determining the appropriate level of product enablement, localization, and in-market support. Creating a language/ market roadmap matrix that includes the level of investment in each area helps you visualize gaps and Product A your strategic direction (Table 1). In-market In-market Major global companies devote a lot of resources marketing Feature parity

to performing market research to determine their Full localization Language/market customer support language/market roadmap. If you are in a small Internationalization company, you can leverage some of these efforts Version 1.0 5/10YNNNN as a starting point for creating your own roadmap. Setting up criteria based on your own situation is Version 2.0 15/30 Y Tier 1, 2 Tier 1, 2 Tier 1 Tier 1 critical. Version 3.0 25/45 Y Tier 1-4 Tier 1-4 Tier 1, 2 Tier 1, 2 The next time you get an international request to expand into new markets or expand a feature set to a Table 1: A language/market roadmap matrix.

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226-286-28 F GalvanGalvan #107.indd#107.indd 2727 99/24/09/24/09 9:44:159:44:15 AMAM Industry Focus

It is critical to start by setting a clear completely rewritten in subsequent ver- proven successful for a number of com- strategy on organizational structure for sions to support additional languages. panies in competing with local offerings. handling international projects. Interna- A backbone infrastructure of tools and The importance of acting locally depends tional teams can be centralized, decentral- technologies to automate repetitive tasks on the nature of the service or product in ized or both. In deciding which approach is crucial as the number of languages question. Some that are editorially driven is best for your company, ask yourself the grows. Review existing offerings before will succeed or fail based on their ability following questions: Who should handle building your own, since a number of to be locally relevant versus others where the international requests — the product tools are available off the shelf that can having a fi ne degree of granularity is not team or an international team? Can the get you started right away. Tools for so benefi cial. product team manage international deliv- handling repetitive international tasks For regional offi ces to be successful, erables and resources? Can the product include user interface resource extraction, they need to be fully integrated into the team take ownership of international localization hand-offs and hand-backs, overall business process from planning quality? Does the product team have suffi le management, glossary management, to launch. Clear communication on own- fi cient domain expertise? translation reuse and translation memo- ership of deliverables, as well as empow- Many factors are involved in choosing ries. This infrastructure will allow you to erment of the regions, is also critical for the right model. Advantages of central- scale and maximize your resources in the success in local markets. ized international organizations include long run. Regional offi ces provide eyes and economies of scale, process standardiza- ears on the ground for the latest trends, tion, domain expertise, establishing local competitors and customer requests. More vendor relationships, and driving gover- If you have implemented often than not, they provide great insight nance through vigilance regarding geo- into new trends that can be applicable for political compliance. Disadvantages are your application or service all markets. Regions can determine the list that centralized groups can be isolated, and priority of requirements for their mar- bureaucratic and expensive. to scale, the effort of ket and in many cases take ownership for Decentralized international organiza- adding a new language developing and testing the local features. tions, on the other hand, allow for the Regional offi ces can also drive local integration of international processes as or market is reduced marketing activities, evangelization and part of the main development cycle. Dis- customer service, all important success advantages include possible duplication signifi cantly. factors in growing local market share of efforts and inconsistencies. A mixed and increasing brand recognition. model can include a small international To successfully integrate the regional team to handle common processes, tools, Last but not least, it is necessary to set teams, start by including regional re- vendor management, geopolitical com- up an infrastructure to proactively man- sources as part of the extended product pliance and domain expertise, while the age political, cultural and geographic team communications. Include these teams execution of international deliverables is policies across services to ensure com- in ongoing product development activities owned by the product team. pliance with local markets. Always keep including planning, feature prioritization, Whichever direction you choose, in mind your long-term strategy and the spec reviews, bug triage and post mortems. make sure that roles and responsibilities ability to replicate your model as your Use reliable technology for voice and are clearly defi ned. global outreach increases. video conferencing and plan for face-to- Once you have determined your face meetings at least once a year. organizational structure, it is important Acting locally Let’s talk briefl y about running the to integrate international processes into Global strategy and infrastructure are business. From planning to launch, a num- the product development life cycle. For focused on overall product reach and ber of day-to-day activities are key to example, plan to develop a fully enabled scalability, allowing you to go shallow driving the international strategy forward, product or service that can support any across multiple locales. Acting locally from setting and measuring success fac- language; integrate international user is a more granular approach that is tors to prioritizing global requirements scenarios into functional specs; include appropriate for markets where you need and resources. These activities can be international milestones such as user greater depth. driven by the international product/pro- interface freeze and localization mile- If you have regional offi ces, you can gram management organization, but this stones into the main product schedule; leverage them to identify local require- organization needs to be accountable for and ensure international quality. ments, develop local features, understand meeting the overall international business Product enablement is a complete topic local competitors, channel the voice of the goals for the service or product. on its own and not the focus of this dis- customer, drive local marketing and sales When developing your business pro- cussion; however, you need to understand strategies, and build local communities. cess, make room for including interna- the cost of adding a new language and If you don’t have regional offi ces tional strategy from the start. Develop a market. If you have implemented your yet and you are releasing products or global and local strategy and invest in application or service to scale, the effort services into international markets, you a scalable infrastructure to support your of adding a new language or market is need to start planning to develop a local international growth for years to come. reduced signifi cantly. Otherwise, it can be presence in order to be fully effective. It takes a bit more planning upfront, but costly. I have seen Version 1.0 products Going in-depth in local markets has the ROI will make it worthwhile. M

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Industry Focus 2 / 99/24/09 9:46:52 AM xed on the xed MultiLingual ts are clear. A single code ts are clear. rst, just at a higher cost. Interna- rst in North America and only six xed on all other versions too, as did xed From this example we learn a product can be localized even Imagine if Microsoft had to release security updates for Win- Imagine if Microsoft had to release security because of duplica- Development was made more complicated modern localized products have the same code base and Today, if it is not internationalized fi reduces costs and the localization easier, tionalization makes Microsoft made the right decision because increases the quality. of oper- goals to lead the market sense with Microsoft it makes ating systems worldwide. dows 95 at the same rate it does today. Would it be acceptable to it be acceptable Would dows 95 at the same rate it does today. release the security update fi answer for that is, obvi- months later in the rest of the world? The difference, in terms of internation- no. So what is the main ously, for example? XP, alization, between Windows 95 and Windows languages, there isWhere both operating systems support many the later one has onlyone major difference which is the fact that (language) Windows 95 one code base. For each target market from version to ver- had a different binary; the code was different had a lot in common, yet the the different versions sion. Clearly, from the Hebrew one. Japanese version was a different product more complicated thantions. Maintenance of the code base was the maintenance of the shipped product. A rigorous functional testing needed to be done on each version. A bug fi English version had to be fi when releasing patches. On top of that, a localized version didn’t the localized one: the Japanese support other languages except version couldn’t display Hebrew documents and vice versa. It is the same product. The operating system with same binary. a Russian UI can handle Chinese text and vice versa. The only differences between the versions are the language packs that are installed with the product. The benefi base and a single product can be developed, tested and maintained. of the localized versions is limited by the trans- The time to market lation, but not by any engineering work. version that was released to the markets was the English one forversion that was released to the markets version was “enabled” North America. After a few months, the run software in The enabled version could released to other markets. (UI) was only in English.the target languages, yet the user interface were released too, withA few months later the localized versions the target language.the operating system UI fully translated in rst ts. #102), #102), MultiLingual If and when to If and internationalize Daniel Goldschmidt

Daniel Goldschmidt, principle consultant and is a Technologies, cofounder of Localization Flow senior software engineer and professional in globalization of software and content with extensive experience in internationalization and localization of large-scale enterprise applications and projects. 9 2

d d n i .

7 0 1 The internationalization of software is a prereq- The internationalization of software #

t d i Why internationalize our products from day In an ideal world, internationalization is undertaken Let’s travel in our time tunnel and go back to the days we had internationalize our products and sometimes it isinternationalize our products and a process. better to wait before starting such is anThe main conclusion is that although internationalization alize our products?” and “In the cases in whichalize our products?” and “In the ourwe do decide to go on and internationalize life cycleproducts, at what stage of the product answers may beshould we start the process?” The always need tosurprising. It is not clear that we uisite for creating global products. As discusseduisite for creating global products. in a previous article of mine ( infrastructureinternationalization sets the needed and cul- in order to deal with different languages to discuss like tures. The questions that I would we internation- here are “In which cases should nition, through the design and implementation. Yet as we nition, through the design and implementation. Yet m h c s www.multilingual.com October/November 2009 Windows 3.11 or Windows 95 installed on our machines. The fi or Windows 95 installed on Windows 3.11 one of the product life cycle — from early stages of requirements defi do not live in an ideal world, in many cases products are not internationalized from an early stage, and an internationalization in order to localize the product. place project needs to take engineering process, the implementation of internationalization in a software product is a pure business one: cost versus benefi TT d l o G

1 3 - 9 229-31 F Goldschmidt #107.indd 29 Industry Focus

Now, let’s emerge from our time tunnel as Unicode Normalization, adding support where internationalization is part of the back to reality. for GB18030 supplementary characters and product features. All internationalization so on. requirements can be fulfi lled with this What does it take to ■ Second layer: Usage of locale–safe approach, and there will be one code base. internationalize your products? functions for collation, sorting, date/time/ On the fl ip side, the return on investment is The fi rst stage is to identify the inter- currency/numbers formats and so on. not guaranteed here. nationalization requirements and defi ne ■ Third layer: Setting an infrastruc- It may also begin during develop- them. Is multilingual support needed? ture for string externalization, external- ment, which allows for the ability to What multilingual operations (such as izing the strings and other resources, work with the engineering team and search, displaying) should be supported? building a fl exible graphical user inter- make changes in the code where needed, What are the target markets? Once the in- face that can accommodate various lan- though on the other hand they are work- ternationalization requirements are well guages and so on. ing on a “moving target." There may also defi ned, we can run a gap analysis be- It is not enough to set the internation- be redundancy in testing and diffi culties tween the current status of the product alization infrastructure. The engineering merging the main code base with the and the desired result. Using the gap teams need to be trained and be aware of internationalized one. analysis, an internationalization strategy internationalization to ensure full support. Lastly, internationalization may be can be placed and a project can be Internationalization evangelism is a topic done on existing product. Here, there is no planned. for another article. Once the project plan need to work on a “moving target." The In the article in MultiLingual #102, I is set and approved, the project can start design and the code base are stable, and described the three-layers approach. Using as a usual software development project. no major changes are expected. The prod- that methodology, we can easily identify uct features are known, and so are exist- the internationalization-related issues in What is the cost? ing bugs and restrictions. Usually there is different stages of the products, using It is diffi cult to answer that question as no need to merge with the newest code. three categories: there are many parameters to determine the On the other hand, you may experience Data transport layer: Taking care of all cost such as: delay between the “normal" version of of the text data, which is handled in the ■ What are the requirements? the product and the internationalized one, application. ■ At what stage of development should and it is diffi cult to make changes in the Application layer: Doing operations the internationalization be done? code where needed. Let's drill this down in with text data such as search, indexing, ■ What technologies are being used? some examples. casing, dealing with date/time/currency/ ■ How big is the gap between the ■ String externalization: In the case numbers and so on. desired products and the current status? that all strings and messages of the appli- Presentation layer: The UI. ■ What are the costs of testing of the cation are hardcoded (strings and mes- To internationalize a software product, existing product? sages are hardcoded in the code of the an infrastructure should be set in place to Let's focus on one parameter that can application), there is a need to scan the support all three layers: affect others: the timing of development. code and externalize them. The scan can ■ First layer: Implementing Unicode Internationalization can start in the require- be done manually, but this is tedious and representation and Unicode algorithms such ment phase, which is the cheapest solution, prone to human errors. The scan can be

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229-319-31 F GGoldschmidtoldschmidt #107.indd#107.indd 3300 99/24/09/24/09 99:46:52:46:52 AMAM Industry Focus

done using automated tools quickly and The cost of internationalization (time, might be recommended not to interna- with higher quality. money) in the seed stage is too heavy tionalize in case of small companies in ■ String representation: In legacy C/ and the return on investment (ROI) is not their early stages of development. C++ code, the inner representation of guaranteed. The cost of internationalization varies strings is usually by a data type called Company B: A medium-sized company between the different stages. The later you “char*" which doesn't support Unicode that is 20+ years in the market develop- internationalize your product, the more but only a limited set of characters. Con- ing medical devices. Most of the efforts expensive the process gets. Yet there are verting the data type to “wchar_t*" data are invested in research and in hardware other aspects to consider while doing type, for example, might be an expensive development. Software development is internationalization, such as ROI, whether and tedious job. Once again, using auto- an important effort but not the major the company is a startup or a mature orga- mated tools can ease the process. focus. The company starts to develop a nization, and what the target market is. ■ Code merging: In case of interna- new device from scratch. The company is Think about Google and Yahoo! in tionalization of a product that is currently a global one and wishes to sell the new their early days. They had no interna- in development, there are two “live" code product in many markets. tionalization at all. Even the search was bases: the one of the product and the one In this case, internationalization should working practically only in English. Only of the internationalized product. Those start on day one: in the last years, as mature companies, two code bases need to be merged from ■ Quality is a crucial factor in health have Google and Yahoo! international- time to time for consistency. What would care devices. ized their products step by step. be the cost of merging the two code bases ■ The cost of internationalization is There is no strict answer as to whether in case of internationalization of an ear- minor compared to the other costs of you should internationalize your product lier version? development. and when. It is, at the end of the day, a The internationalization project of ■ The ROI is guaranteed. pure business decision. To decide if and an existing code base can be a big one, From these examples we learn that when to internationalize, one needs to requiring dozens of months of human internationalization from day one would understand where one is in the product effort, if not more. Based on that, we be the cheapest option in most cases, but life cycle and then check other related learned that it is cheaper to internation- it has its own costs. For those reasons it parameters. M alize the code as early as possible. Yet it is not clear that this is the right decision in all cases. Let's check the following two companies: Company A: A small startup software company based in North America, developing a web-based product for social networking. The founders believe that the product is a revolutionary one, and they would like to get to the markets as soon as possible. The primary market identifi ed is North America. The funding of the startup is limited, mainly self-funded with some help from angel investors (seed money). The team has many constraints: short time to market, restricted funding and the need to focus on one major market. The team would like to validate the product before the next round of fi nancing. Should the startup internationalize the product? The answer in that case is no. The reasons are: ■ The initial main market is North America. ■ The resources are limited (money, time). ■ Time to market is important for achieving the right impact. Any delay will have a negative impact on the product. If it is a success, the startup will have another round of fi nancing and will be able to invest in internationalizing the product.

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229-319-31 F GoldschmidtGoldschmidt #107.indd#107.indd 3131 99/24/09/24/09 9:46:539:46:53 AMAM Internationalizing websites for search success Motoko Hunt Industry Focus

When the internationalization of a website is As you can imagine, integrating search engine-friendly best mentioned, the fi rst thing that comes to the site practices after the website has been localized and launched would be a project management’s nightmare, akin to ripping owner’s mind would probably be localizing the up the asphalt on Main Street because someone forgot to put in Wweb content. It is a huge improvement since many sewer drains. On the other hand, you could save time, money, site owners used to think that internationaliza- pain and suffering simply by planning ahead and integrating tion meant having a website in English and a few the following into the workfl ow. other languages. However, companies need to start Linguistic challenges thinking about the next evolution and start inter- Targeting multiple markets means your business and its web- nationalizing their websites for search success. sites must be prepared to handle different languages, cultures, business rules, behavioral patterns and, of course, keywords. A According to a January 2009 comScore report, the global inter- critical linguistic problem we face is that the search language net audience has surpassed one billion users, with more than 41% of our customers does not often sync with the language of the of these users coming from the Asia-Pacifi c region. Even more stag- website describing the same products or services. The essence of gering are the nine billion searches done every month on Google, search marketing is simply creating intersections between our with 70% of them being done from outside the United States. content and those people looking for that sort of information. Many businesses, large and small, have noticed this data By speaking your customers’ language, you uncover oppor- and realized Google is their new home page and need to take tunities to fi nd new customers or better serve existing ones. the steps necessary to be one click away from unprecedented How do you know what language your customers are speaking? direct-to-consumer market access that we would not have even Keyword research is the practice of mining various sources of dreamed of a year ago. Companies are already trying to maxi- data, mixed with intuition, a little brainstorming and a dash of mize this opportunity by spinning out local language websites guesswork. This is especially true when the target market uses with content not only translated but also localized for each of the multiple characters, as do the people of Japan. To fi nd the opti- targeted markets, including separate websites targeting different mal phrase may take extensive keyword research of the writing English-speaking markets. However, creating linguistically cor- patterns that will bring greatest exposure for your website from rect content is only a part of the internationalization process, search engines. which many site owners fi nd out after the fact when they are For example, the phrase baby carriers is translated into the invisible to the masses on results pages of the mighty Google. Japanese phrase ベビーキャリア. Our keyword research shows We need to segment this new set of challenges into three this iteration has approximately 1,600 searches in a given distinct pools: linguistic challenges, technical challenges and month. Digging further, you’d fi nd that there are actually a few organizational challenges. other words that represent the same product. Unfortunately, in Japanese the word can be written in four different ways. Each of the four variations comes with different search demands: 抱っこ紐：12,100 抱っこひも：6,600 Motoko Hunt, president and search marketing だっこひも：2,900 strategist at AJPR LLC, is the chairperson of the だっこ紐：1,300 Search Engine Marketing Professional In this case, the Japanese word with 12,100 searches should Organization (SEMPO) Asia Committee. be used as the translation choice for baby carriers. By virtue

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332-352-35 F HHuntunt ##107107 3232 99/24/09/24/09 111:36:511:36:51 AMAM Industry Focus

of it being the most frequently searched, many searches for each iteration of the (ccTLD). However, for many companies, this can potentially bring the most expo- phrase was done in the previous month, maintaining multiple sites is cost prohibi- sure to the site. globally as well as in the country/language tive. They often go without precious traffi c Using the word with greatest searcher combination you selected. from local search engines to save money demand is the fi rst goal in any search Beyond just the obvious task of sel ect- on hosting and server management. engine optimization (SEO) project. I have ing the highest demand keyword phrases, Many site owners complained about seen far too many localized websites that you can research market trends and this, especially large multinationals, of were nowhere to be found in the search opportunities in new markets. Many com- which 85% favor subdirectories over results simply because the translator used panies are starting to use this data to ccTLDs. Google listened and now offers a linguistically correct though not most help prioritize translation and interna- site owners the ability to designate spe- popular phrase for the transition. This is tionalization work focusing on products cifi c sections of their sites as country common for many companies. They use and site segments that have the highest specifi c using their geographical target- phrases that are internally popular but are searcher demand in each of the target ing tool. far from what a potential consumer would markets. If you have not already started For example, if you maintain all of use to look for their products or services. integrating this step into your projects, your UK content in a /uk directory of your The objective of your keyword strategy you may want to start thinking about website, you can log into your Google is to identify, prioritize and map a com- doing so. At least ask if the marketing Webmaster Tools account and set this plete set of keywords that best matches teams have done it, since it is the fi rst feature so that everything under the /uk the business objectives of your company. step of any search marketing program. directory is exclusive to the United King- More importantly, they should match the dom. Once this is set, Google will then treat terms searchers are using to fi nd you. Technical challenges your /uk directory the same as it would This process consists of a number Beyond the linguistic and interna- if the content were hosted in the United of steps, each of which is designed to tionalization challenges one faces when Kingdom or sitting on a .co.uk domain. make the case for or against a particular adapting a site for a new or multiple For more information on the geographic keyword by gathering and examining languages, a host of technical ones must target tool, review Google’s support page a variety of data. Look at the demand be addressed as well. at www.google.com/support/webmasters/ volumes provided by the search engines, As companies start to create new bin/answer.py?answer=62399&hl=en your currently paid search program, con- country or language versions of their Content management systems (CMS) version metrics, the content you have, web sites, the question of how to host make life easier by offering the ability your on-site search engine database and them arises. Should they register the to make a change to a master template, your competitions’ websites. Most impor- local domain or just add the content to a which can then be deployed to all coun- tantly, conduct searches in the local subdirectory? Search marketing profes- try variations, thereby making global search engines to see how many pages sionals have always recommended the search optimization exponentially more containing those phrases are currently adoption of the local top-level domain effective by eliminating problems on a indexed. You should develop these lists both in English and the local language or languages. In many markets with certain global products, the locals may even use the English variation, a phonetic version or one of many local dialect versions of a word. In many cases you can get ® a head start if the translators developed tmmix a robust glossary of the key terms from your content. Keyword research tools are now The lossless TMX-engine offered by search engines to assist marketers to research topics, identify • Legacy translation data to standard TMX search-volume data, and fi nd additional • Easily switch translation tools and vendors permutations of their “root keywords.” • Preserves all existing metadata The most popular free tool, aptly named • Enriches TMX with new metadata Google Keyword Suggestion Tool (https:// • Embeds existing conversion processes adwords.google.com/select/KeywordTool • Prepares data for SMT External), is provided by Google. This is • Reduces 90% of processing time fairly straightforward to use. You simply 05 select your country and language and add a keyword phrase in the keyword fi eld, then click “get keyword ideas.” mix Google will return all of the variations For more information about tm visit grafidata.nl of your phrase and an estimate of how

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332-352-35 F HuntHunt #107#107 3333 99/24/09/24/09 11:36:5211:36:52 AMAM Industry Focus

Company Region/Language URL effi ciently. But the real problem is that search engines may interpret those www.acer.cz/acer/home.do?LanguageISOCtxParam= Czech Republic/ multi-element parameters as a session cs&ctx2.c2att1=4&CountryISOCtxParam= Acer Czech ID, assume that it is not truly unique and CZ&ctx1att21k=1&CRC=1107676413 fail to include it in the database, thus Caterpillar Middle East/Arabic middleeast-africa.cat.com/cda/layout?m=81926&x=20 resulting in large sections of the local language site not being indexed. Oracle Germany/German www.oracle.com/lang/de/database/index.html Another problem caused by global Oracle Turkey/Turkish www.oracle.com/global/tr/index.html expansion is the creation of site segments Symantec Poland/Polish www.symantec.com/pl/pl/index.jsp to target a region broadly while the local market content is being developed. This is Table 1: URLs of major companies refl ect the choice of language for their sites. common with Latin America, where companies launch a Spanish language section global scale rather than requiring indi- It is important to take these features into of the site they hope will cater to all of vidual country-level remediation. consideration when selecting a CMS tool the Spanish-speaking countries. While this Many of the major commercial and provider. works for the site, it will actually hamper open-source CMS tools offer the ability In order to properly assemble the ranking well for any individual market to integrate key SEO functionality into content for the local language, most CMS since there are no signals to indicate appli- them at all levels of the site. Often these tools leverage parameters in the URLs. cability to any specifi c country. The geo- are built into the site or in the form of These parameters are used to call the spe- graphic target tool described previously plug-ins or modules developed to solve cifi c language content segments from the will not work, since there are no countries the most common problems inherent database or point to a specifi c subdirec- named LatAm, APAC or EMEA. You may, with the CMS not being search friendly tory where the local content is stored. however, pick a single destination and map out of the box. A CMS should allow for Companies that opt to use language the regional content to a single country. at least the following: parameters in their URL structures often This may be your best option if you are ■ local language content integration overcomplicate the URL or add too many better equipped to do business in Argen- ■ ability to use unique country and parameters. You can see in Table 1 that tina than Chile. You will gain traction in language meta tags there are various ways the countries and this dominant country while you develop ■ ability to use custom title tags languages have been set for these major content for the rest of the region. ■ ability to use custom and dynamic companies. I know what you are thinking: we will meta tags In the Acer example, half of the replicate the Spanish site multiple times ■ ability to use custom H1 tags characters of the URL are doing nothing and put them into unique country direc- ■ ability to create search friendly URLs more than setting country and language tories. This is an all too common occur- ■ ability to customize hyperlink text codes, which can be handled much more rence for companies wanting to target the 400 million native Spanish internet users. Looking beyond the obvious legal, cultural and linguistic problems with this approach, the search engines will penalize you with a “duplicate content penalty.” The geographic target tool does help minimize this problem, but it only works for Google. The only real solution is to spend the time and effort to make content that is unique and relevant to each target location, and you will reduce your duplicate content exposure. We have tackled the linguistic challenges of fi nding the right words and getting them into the optimal locations on the site, and the technical issues of setting up the CMS and making it easy for search engines to index and score our content. Now comes what many believe is the biggest challenge of all: getting your organization to come together and play nice for the greater good of Google traffi c riches. Organizational challenges Sad to say, the organizational challenges are the biggest of all. The localization and

34 | MultiLingual October/November 2009 [email protected]

332-352-35 F HuntHunt #107#107 3434 99/24/09/24/09 11:36:5311:36:53 AMAM Tools Showcase

Aligning Authors and Trusted Windows Translators Software Translation Tool AlignFactory Leaders in technical documentation bring you MadCap Lingo, a fully integrated translation Translate your Win32, Microsoft .NET, Java memory (TM) and authoring solution. and XML software files into different languages Complement your existing TM and quickly and easily with RC-WinTrans, used by full-text search software with this powerful Combined with MadCap’s industry-leading authoring applications, MadCap Lingo is successful businesses worldwide since 1993. alignment tool. enhanced in all areas to provide maximum Complete localization environment supports Start aligning with speed and accuracy translation reuse, reduce project cycles and costs, WYSIWYG display and layout editing for and increase the performance of your and improve your time to market. Win32/.NET files; dictionaries; automatic existing tools. translation and related operations; quality New Version 3 includes: assurance checks; source file changes indication • Project Packager: streamline and manage and preview; secure project database update; • AlignFactory your translation files regardless of the TM external translation accessories plus many other • AlignFactoryLight tool used features and functions to make your software • AlignRobot • TermBase Editor international and expand your market. • And more Free 30 day trial available! Schaudin.com Terminotix Inc. MadCap Software, Inc. Gross-Zimmern, Germany Ottawa, Ontario Canada La Jolla, California USA Seattle, Washington, USA [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] • www.schaudin.com www.terminotix.com www.madcapsoftware.com

internationalization community is all too companies has been adding search mar- beyond their borders to partake of the familiar with the challenges of getting the keting expertise to internationalization riches of our ever-fl attening world. We disparate marketing and technical sides and web development teams. By being have also established that simply launch- from the same organization to come part of the team, the search marketer will ing a local language website and submit- together to create a fi nished product that prevent the search crises you live with ting it to Google do not guarantee the hums and sings to local audiences. There is today by collaborating with the extended rightful share of traffi c from nine billion no one-size-fi ts-all organizational model search team to maintain proper page tag- monthly searches. for managing a search program. You might ging, avoid technology “downgrades,” Traffi c hits are only assured when have to experiment to see what works for head off ill-fated navigational designs, as you are ranking well in Google with a your organization. well as dozens of design and infrastruc- description that is more relevant and For each of the typical search market- ture problems that could be debilitating compelling than those of your competi- ing functions, you need to look at each to your inclusion and ranking well in tion. Only then will the searcher click the task and the ownership in each country, search engines around the world. link, visit the site to review the relevant then decide whether to centralize them or Through standards sharing and best information and start the buying cycle. give them to the extended team. When practices training, you can raise the level There is more we have to do, and to be deciding which tasks to centralize, the of knowledge of your local teams. By successful, site owners and international- most important guideline is whether integrating search best practices directly ization teams must accept this challenge the task is new for your organization or into the ongoing translation, copywrit- of understanding the most appropriate, whether you already have a team that ing and content management workfl ow, highest revenue generating keyword performs it — or should perform it. Much you will create economies of scale lead- phrases, deploying keyword-rich, action- in search marketing requires changing the ing to unparalleled success from one of oriented, local language content that way someone’s existing job is done, such the most effective marketing tactics ever has been tuned for the unique ranking as a copywriter adding keywords to page used in business. attributes of the search engine’s complex titles or an information architect making algorithms. Conquering these challenges template changes. Those tasks usually Summary will result in signifi cant new revenues belong with your extended search team. We in the globalization community for the organization and unparalleled The single most successful search mar- have clearly established that signifi cant success in this new level of consumer keting best practice deployed by global opportunity exists for businesses to reach engagement. M

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332-352-35 F HHuntunt ##107107 3535 99/24/09/24/09 111:36:531:36:53 AMAM In-house localization and internationalization Jeffrey Klein Industry Focus

Whether you are part of a large multinational company or work in a smaller-sized company, continue the learning experiences and future iterations will allow you to tailor the process better for your specifi c needs, allowing the process of translating software doesn’t have you to reduce schedules and costs and increase quality. Wto be a fearful experience with prohibitive costs and burdens to your schedule. Neither should Globalization business requirements unfamiliarity with what needs to be done cause Defi ning the requirements for your project should be at the very top of your list. A set of poorly defi ned or incomplete you to outsource the entire process to consul- requirements will more than likely produce a product that tants or vendors. With some familiarization of misses the mark. In order to complete implementation, develop- the three primary phases of a software transla- ers will fi ll in the blanks with their understanding of what is tion, knowledge of your own business processes, wanted, which more than likely will not be what marketing and the customers wanted. Is this the developers’ fault? No, the and perhaps with small amounts of targeted project management’s fault! help from outside sources, you will be able to Too often, though, companies rush through the requirements put into place a process for getting your soft- phase, concentrating on domestic customers and features, giving little, if any, attention to global markets. The scope of the ware translated. As with any new process, future requirements for foreign markets should not just cover software iterations will allow you to learn and improve features, but should also take into consideration the customers’ on what you initially put into place, but having needs with translated manuals and support, as well as special- control of this process will allow you to reach ized locale-specifi c requirements. It is important to understand how your global market require- your maximum potential for effi cient schedules ments are defi ned. Is it by a US-based marketing representative and reduced costs with fewer resources than you who has visited the desired market a few times, or is your com- may have originally thought was possible. pany actively pursuing input from your local global offi ces? If such offi ces don’t exist, perhaps the information can be gathered But where do you start? How long will it take? Who else needs through strategic customer relationships, questionnaires or sur- to be involved? What do I need to know and do in order to be veys so that critical advice can be integrated as requirements for successful? To answer these questions, just knowing the primary the product you hope to sell in the specifi c market. It is necessary keys is a good start. The four keys to having a successfully trans- to have a mechanism to provide input for each released local lated software product are the completeness of your globalization business requirements, the quality of your internationalized software, the accuracy of your localization, and the effi ciency of the process you utilize to complete each of these phases. If you are new to these efforts with perhaps only a few projects Jeffrey Klein is responsible for managing the under your belt, understand that the process you put together efforts of developing and releasing the now will be based on your experiences and knowledge to this international versions of Siemens Healthcare point. It will probably get the job done, but taking the time to Diagnostics Microbiology platform of products.

36 | MultiLingual October/November 2009 [email protected]

336-396-39 F KKleinlein ##107.indd107.indd 3366 99/24/09/24/09 99:54:41:54:41 AMAM Industry Focus

product. Who knows the market best? Do you want to spend all check your work. What time would be necessary to develop your time, money and resources giving a locale something that tools to assist in the process vs. the cost of existing tools on the won’t sell or misses its potential because you didn’t take the time market. Whichever method you decide upon, a good method to obtain input? to ensure quality will be to have a code review with multiple developers of any changes made prior to the software modules Internationalization being checked into the source code control system. The next primary phase is the internationalization of your As part of the code analysis, it is recommended that you keep software and database system. Internationalization covers all a record of all modules being examined and the types and num- activities during the development process, which makes it possible ber of violations found in each module. This information will be to adapt a product/program to a variety of different countries and necessary for determining the type and amount of work you have cultures. Within the internationalization phase, certain elements to complete as well as be helpful for providing reports to supervi- should be considered by your project team to ensure a successful sors or management involved or interested in the project. internationalization effort immediately, but also to ensure future software and projects are internationalized from the start. Management reports First, know the background of your system and business. Why are these hours being billed against this project, yet Knowing how your current system was developed and which there doesn’t appear to be any work being completed on the developers were involved would be helpful to know. Do any new features? Knowing your management and to what degree requirements and design documents exist that may provide it will need or want to be involved with both understanding the details to the goals for the original development? Do any coding need for the internationalization work and receiving progress guidelines exist to standardize the development? What levels of reports is another important ingredient for a successful inter- management should be involved and provided regular reports on nationalization phase. Determine the frequency of the report- the progress, and are you internationalizing a static software sys- ing and work from the charts or tools created during the code tem or one that is changing with updates on a frequent basis? analysis to keep track of the work completed. Next, draw up the blueprint — an initial attack. If you haven’t What are other interests or concerns that the management brought yourself up to speed on the types of coding issues that are team may have? It may be necessary to have a meeting with involved with an internationalization effort, this needs to be done the team and explain the necessity of internationalizing the fi rst so that you are able to effectively lead and train your team. software code, making it even so obvious as to say without A set of established guidelines and working with your developers it, the localization or actual translations can not be completed who were involved in the system’s original development are key to because there won’t be any access or visibility to the software this entire phase. When working with the developers, understand phrases that need to be translated. that more than likely the business schedule and requirements didn’t Questions about risk and new processes are probably also high allow them the opportunity to develop a properly internationalized on the list of areas of interest. Complete the necessary risk analy- version of the product originally. Rather than indicating they failed sis and quantify the potential risks and mitigations. Present these in their fi rst implementation of the system, plan to work with them to the management team as well, and probably most importantly this time around so that they are part of the solution to the inter- is for them to understand that the internationalization efforts nationalization work that needs to take place. are being conducted all within the framework of your already Plan to work with the developers, taking to them the new established quality processes. Yes, there are changes necessary to problems that the system faces and seek to have them provide the software; however, these changes are not being made outside input and solutions to solving the noncompliant international- of your existing processes. Companies that have invested in stan- ized software code. Work with them in creating specifi c solu- dard operating procedures (SOPs) to ensure quality through the tions to the variety of specifi c internationalization coding issues entire project’s process will want to be assured that the current and get these issues and solutions documented. This document work is being completed within this process. Companies that may will serve as a tool for training the other developers on staff, but not have invested yet can begin pointing to the new internation- also can be used or combined with existing coding guidelines so alization guidelines or coding guidelines as a means to ensure that everybody is aware of what is necessary when developing quality during this effort, but also in future development. software so that the next phase of localization is made easier. Don’t be bashful sharing the positive benefi ts coming out of a properly internationalized software system moving forward. Code analysis Your organization and development group will experience What parts of your software system are not internationalized reduced costs and schedules in releasing translated products and will need to be addressed? Based on what you fi nd, how versus those not internationalized — as well as higher quality much work will be involved and who will be needed to com- and consistency in applied translations, all meaning you will plete it? Obviously, the next step will be for a careful analysis to experience fewer risks trying to translate or localize a product. be completed against the guidelines you created in the previous step. Depending on your approach, goals and constraints, this Keeping your software code internationalized can be accomplished in a variety of different ways, from manual Nobody wants to see efforts and time completely ignored or reviews using tools developed in-house to making use of soft- undone when the next project is started. Thus, have your efforts ware tools already existing on the market. What method is best documented and integrated into either new guidelines or exist- for your organization is for you to decide. Take a module or two ing SOPs. Having completed these will get the responsibility that may be representative of your overall system, complete a off of your shoulders in trying to enforce the new perspective manual review and extrapolate the total effort. Have somebody during the development phases.

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336-396-39 F KleinKlein ##107.indd107.indd 3377 99/24/09/24/09 9:54:429:54:42 AMAM Industry Focus

Don’t assume people will read and understand the new guide- 1. Clarity and completeness of your requirements for the lines. Plan to conduct several training sessions in which you can specifi c regions you are localizing for introduce the other developers and staff to the new topics/issues and 2. The accuracy and quality of the internationalization of your work to help them understand the reasons for the new guidelines software and solutions for each internationalized issue that was addressed. 3. The process that is used to localize What third-party software tools does your group utilize? Do 4. The accuracy of the translations used in the software they meet the new guidelines? In consideration of third-party 5. Management support for face-to-face visit for complete tools in the future, an evaluation of their own internationaliza- screen reviews tion preparedness should not be forgotten. 6. Management of the various resources being localized Something else that should be used to help ensure your software — which tool or method to use? code stays internationalized is to complete code reviews for the Requirements should have been defi ned for the software fi rst several modules that each developer submits. This will be your features included with the system, but equally important is the closure to ensure that everybody really understood the concepts set of requirements specifying the localization needs. Is it safe from the training. Each of these steps takes time to complete; how- to assume that all English terms should be translated to the ever, taking the several hours now will save ten times the effort target language? Or instead, might the end customers prefer to later when you fi nd yourself having to retrain or redesign a mod- keep some of the technical terms of your specifi c business in ule because the points of internationalization were not completely English, since those English words may have already penetrated understood or were simply forgotten by the development team. their markets through other products? What elements of the You should also take a lead role during project meetings, local regional settings should be considered and to what degree requirements meetings, defect review meetings and so on to might any images, glyphs or buttons have to be modifi ed for raise questions such as “How does this affect our foreign mar- the desired market you are targeting? A variety of specifi ca- kets?” or “That’s a good domestic requirement, but what twist tions must be defi ned in advance; otherwise, the project team might our foreign markets have on that same requirement?” is creating a possibility of having these items completed in a manner not desired by the market. Localization If you have left hard-coded strings in your code or your All of that and we are fi nally to the point where your hard design doesn’t allow for the necessary localization changes work can start to be a reality and the translation of your text (change in date format or other regional settings type of issues), strings and other things can begin. At this point, you could then these elements of your software will continue to operate in make the decision to send your software out to a localization the manner of your native English software, resulting in a less company to handle all of your localization. You might also real- than fully localized system. ize that this last phase can be completed in-house, yielding a As our own life experiences through situations at work or process and product that will more than likely be of higher even at home have told us, the process we use can either make quality, that will have tighter integration with software code if us more or less effi cient. Is there one magical process that is mistakes are found, and that will allow for shorter schedules. ideal for every situation? Highly unlikely, since business SOPs, Below are the key elements for successfully completing this business models, practices and even the specifi cs of the product process in-house. can all play a role in determining the best process for your

Dear MultiLingual reader, Like many other industries, the translation industry is entering a new era of cooperation and sharing. As evidenced by recent pilot projects undertaken by members of the Translation Automation User Society (TAUS), our sharing and collaborative model provides a springboard for significant increases (up to 50%) in leveraging, volume throughput and machine translation output quality. However, to make it happen we have to get moving. As your industry organization, TAUS is also making a change. We are moving from ‘What if ?’ to ‘How to’. In 2010 we are becoming hands-on with data sharing of course, but also with the TAUS Tracker, workshops, how-to guides, an industry leading Language Search Engine, consulting and collaboration networks for vertical industries. In a collaborative and sharing business world, nobody has to carry the weight and the investments alone. In fact, very little happens if you try to do it alone. Therefore - Help us to help you. Together we’ll fuel greater growth and success in the translation industry. Best regards, Jaap van der Meer, Director, TAUS

Contact [email protected] and request the TAUS Annual Plan 2010

38 | MultiLingual October/November 2009 [email protected]

336-396-39 F KleinKlein ##107.indd107.indd 3388 99/24/09/24/09 9:54:429:54:42 AMAM Industry Focus

specifi c situation. It is likely that your If in your own situation such an offi ce and Although some aspects of this entire process will be modifi ed as you become person doesn’t exist, perhaps the local dis- process could be managed by hand, this is more experienced and familiar with the tributor could satisfy this need or even not one area where I would encourage or areas in your process that are causing one of your customers in the region. In endorse a manual method. A few leading you diffi culties. With my own projects, I any case, having the fi nal phrases reviewed tools on the market might be used instead. have found that utilizing a single “super- in the context of the software is a neces- set” glossary whose translations propa- sary step, since working with a glossary Wrap up gate to each of our individual products will maintain that some terms will be Globalization, localization and inter- during the build process is easiest. It is a translated out of context. nationalization — the three primary phases method to reduce redundancy and elimi- Such trips require your local engineer for a successful international release of nate inconsistencies across products. It or localization person to either travel your software products. As I wrap up this is also a manageable piece to interface overseas or for him or her to fl y to your piece and as you begin or continue your with each of our local market translation location. In either case, I can assure you journey, remember that the overall job reviewers. that a higher quality product will result shouldn’t be so overwhelming that you and more than likely a friendship and feel the need to outsource the efforts. Accuracy of the translations relationship with your market center rep- Keeping these tasks in-house will allow It doesn’t make sense to have interna- resentative. This will benefi t both groups your organization to better control its tionalized your software and then have as a positive line of communication has quality as well as tailor the processes to some friend of a friend who took German already been developed in person. best match your organizational structure in high school complete your transla- and processes. Remember the importance tions. They need to be completed by an Management of the of getting into new guidelines or exist- approved and tested translator, and then resources being localized ing SOPs the new internationalization often it is best to have a second review You may fi nd yourself with several requirements so that future development completed by a different party. thousand phrases needing to be trans- is guided by the new requirements. When we are beginning a project that lated, originating from many different With some up-front work of educating introduces a new language, we send out our modules, all or some of which are either yourself on the tasks necessary, attention entire glossary to an approved language still under development or beginning to to detail and quality at each step along the service provider, which translates the glos- already change because of parallel devel- way as well as some targeted advice as you sary for us according to our requirements opment with another project. How do you work through the process the fi rst time, and typically returns it within two weeks. keep track of these phrases? How do you you will learn a lot. More importantly, you Because of our processes, our translations keep track of the phrases that are chang- will be building a base onto which you can begin so early in the process that they ing and whether it was the whole phrase grow your product while keeping control never fi nd themselves part of the critical that changed or simply one word, which of the quality, schedules, processes and path on project schedules. After using this may have been originally misspelled? tradeoffs as your business sees fi t. M outside source, the remainder of the work is completed in-house. In order to ensure that the glossary phrases have been translated with an understanding of our business, we then send the glossary to our contact in the region we are selling to. He or she will review each and every phrase in the glossary and then sign an approval form. After this task is completed, the software product is built with the new translations and a more thorough fi nal validation is conducted. Face-to-face product screen reviews After having reached the point where I’m able to use our glossary to build a fully localized product and where internal reviews have been completed, it is necessary for a thorough review of all software screens with an approved person in the market or region you will be selling the product to. In past experiences, we have been fortunate to be able to utilize other employees who are responsible for selling or marketing the product to the customers.

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336-396-39 F KleinKlein ##107.indd107.indd 3399 99/24/09/24/09 9:54:439:54:43 AMAM China localizes online games for global players Xiaochun Zhang Industry Focus

The growth and infl uence of the emerging Chi- nese online gaming industry are a refl ection of the size of the local and international market, the awe- Tsome technological advancements of IT, the nature of gaming as a low-cost form of entertainment and the importance of regulative policies promoting online gaming developments. Recent fi gures suggest that the market was worth more than RMB18.38 billion (approximately US$2.75 billion) in 2008, an increase of 76.6% from 2007. The shift in the market share of Chinese online games, with 59.9% of the revenue now provided by locally produced games, stands in stark contrast to year 2000, when online gaming fi rst arrived in China and the market was dominated by imported games. A “wallpaper” image from the game Zu Online includes typical Chinese elements, a dragon and a turtle. In general, the growth, scope and development of the local game industry have prompted increasing numbers of Chinese players, the active paying account users have reached 30.42 game producers to explore markets outside their home country. million, which has increased by 36% year-on-year. MMORPG Overseas sales brought in US$70.74 million last year, which is (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) contributed buoyed by a 28.6% increase from the year before. 82% towards the annual sales revenue of RMB18.38 billion It is remarkable how online gaming has not been affected by (approximately US$2.75 billion), 15% to casual games, and 3% external factors such as the consequences of the global fi nan- to mobile phone games and others. In addition to the fi gures cial crisis. Gaming tends to increase in such times, allowing an mentioned, 15 Chinese game developers made overseas sales escape from reality for players. Thus, the value of the Chinese of US$70.74 million by marketing 33 games. It should be noted online gaming industry is of increasing importance as it con- that sales growth continues in 2009 according to the fi gures tinues to develop. Present market situation According to “2008年中国游戏产业调查报告” (“The China Xiaochun Zhang has a BA in Applied Game Industry Research Report 2008”), issued by the organiz- English from Nanjing Normal University ing committee of the game industry annual meeting, the popu- and an MA in translation from the University lation of online gamers reached 49.36 million last year, which of Edinburgh. She is a freelance translator represents an increase of 22.9% from 2007. Among these game and researcher on audiovisual translation.

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440-450-45 F ZhangZhang #107.indd#107.indd 4040 99/24/09/24/09 10:01:0310:01:03 AMAM Industry Focus

provided by Analysys International, and in the fi rst quarter, same time the Chinese game developers are striving to extend the online games market gained RMB5.5 billion (approximately their infl uence in the global market. The slow process of west- US$0.8 billion) in revenue, which is 8.3% greater than the last ern publishers adapting products to fi t the growing number quarter. of gamers in China has become the major barrier for western In light of these fi gures, the Chinese online game market still game developers to fully take the advantage as fi rst-movers, has plenty of room for growth over the next fi ve years. This which allows Chinese developers to tap the market opportuni- has three important implications. First, there can be no doubt ties without many hurdles common to newcomers. Meanwhile, that the continuing rise of the number of internet cafes, home the adoption of a free-to-play subscription-based sales model PC penetration and internet usage has laid a solid foundation has brought Chinese game producers massive hits. Therefore, for the growth of the game-player Chinese-developed games have population. In 2008, 32.18 mil- secured more than half of the lion PCs were purchased in China, market share for the four years up which is 15.2% more compared to to 2008. Moreover, based on the the previous year. At the same time, foundations laid in the domestic internet users have reached 29.8 market, Chinese game producers million, among which 27 million have launched 33 games overseas are broadband users. It is therefore to explore the global market, which apparent that China exceeds the has so far brought in satisfactory United States with the most neti- profi ts. The Perfect World, Co., zens. In effect, as more and more Ltd., a Beijing-based online game people possess PCs and have access developer and operator, has even to the internet, the number of gam- opened a wholly-owned subsid- ers is likely to increase accordingly. iary in North America. The notable It is predicted in “2008年中国游戏 market performance of homemade 产业调查报告” that by the year of online games and the ambition of 2013, the online games account In this image, the architecture is Chinese, while the Chinese game developers again holders will climb to 94.53 million. character is a combination of eastern and western imagery. indicate further growth. That said, the number of paying gamers has been rising recently and is expected to reach 59.46 Reasons behind the development million in fi ve years’ time, which means the potential market Since online games fi rst appeared in the Chinese market in demand and consumer power will continue to grow. 2000, it has taken Chinese game developers less than ten years Second, diversifi ed new game genres create opportuni- to achieve US$2.75 billion in revenue. What factors can explain ties for new entrants and attract capital investment on game the robust growth of the Chinese gaming industry even under research and development. The numbers of games and the the current global economic recession? genres of games increased in 2008. Online games are normally Some analysts believe that the economic crisis boosts the gam- comprised of segments including MMORPG and casual games; ing industry instead of bringing it setbacks. Due to the increasing however, MMORPG and casual games have increasingly been unemployment rate, it has been suggested that people tend to merged. MMORPG has adopted some rules from casual games fi nd ways to escape the real world, where games can provide while the features of MMORPG can be found in many casual some form of psychological satisfaction. Additionally, the need games, which has substantially diversifi ed the types of games. for cutting costs has directed people to resort to inexpensive There are also some Flash-based or Java-based real-time entertainment, which again leads them to games. Rob Pardo, the strategy games appearing along the lines of traditional casual vice president of American video game developer and publisher games, such as board, card or Mahjong games, which are easy Bizzard Entertainment, recently pointed out on China Business to play and shorter in time commitment. Besides this, stand- Feature that “people might not want to go out to the movies and alone games with a web-based interface and ease-of-use factor spend $100 for a couple of hours and then go to a restaurant. You have also been widely developed. It follows that the variety can go home and pay $15 a month for 100 hours of entertain- of new games and genres may help new commercial players ment.” On the one hand, it would appear that the Chinese gaming in this industry to avoid existing market obstacles. There are industry has benefi ted from the meltdown of other entertaining still enough space in the market and the possibility of gaining industries. On the other hand, this steady growth is hinged on massive hits by producing high-quality, attractive games. As many other factors. the loyalty of game players determines sales volumes, there The overall development of the IT industry has contributed are fewer hurdles than in other industries to establish a mar- to the foundation of the game industry, especially with faster ket share in the shorter term. With regard to features of the internet speeds and the online payment service that has largely present game market, capital from other industries, including enhanced the whole online experience. Kamlesh Kalwar, an entertainment companies and even fi nancial investment insti- industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan, pointed out on ZDNet Asia tutions, have increasingly been invested into gaming research that “the growing broadband penetration has . . . created an and development, which gives the game industry an even environment conducive to encourage users to spend a greater stronger momentum. amount of time online engaging in entertainment activities.” Third, Chinese-developed games are becoming much more The extensive broadband adoption in the home and at internet signifi cant sales drivers in the domestic market, while at the cafés secures the operation of online games while the verifi ed

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online payment service simplifi es the and forbids any foreign institutions or under 18 years of age by deleting half of purchase or recharge of game credits. persons conducting any online games their earned credits if they remain online Gamers are able to choose from various publishing activities in the form of sole for more than three hours a day. If the payment services, such as online bank- proprietorship. As Zhang Yijun stated in child plays for more than fi ve hours a ing, Paypal or even a mobile phone to his speech, “in 2009, the Division will day, all of the gaming credits will be lost. buy or top-up point cards or any other summarize the experience earnestly The system has been welcomed by parents in-game items such as weapons, ammu- and raise the censorship standard to and helps online gaming to be a more nition and so on. With the assistance the macro-control of games imported acceptable entertainment for minors. of the internet, online game companies in terms of proper cultural content, In May 2009, the Working Committee and players do not necessarily need technological power, publishing genres, of Offi ce of the National Campaign on any intermediaries, which creates a fl at and quantity. Excessive imports will be Anti-prostitution and Anti-delinquency sales channel free from any problems prevented to keep a rational (market) has started a new campaign to fi ght caused by delayed payment. Given the structure.” He also emphasized that spe- online games that spread pornography above, some analysts believe this is one cial support will be given for Chinese- and vulgarity after fi nishing the clearing of the reasons that Chinese online game developed games. For example, in any out of vulgar websites. The government companies have developed steadily and online game cooperation deals, if the will also launch a real name certifi cation survived the fi nancial storm unscathed. legitimate rights of a Chinese party were system, which ensures that gamers regis- The Chinese government also plays harmed by the foreign party and the case ter to play games using their real names a signifi cant role in boosting the game was accepted by a Chinese court, China and identifi cation. By applying this sys- industry. Zhang Yijun, director of Tech- would suspend the approval of the game tem, the government can undertake more nology and Digital Publishing Division until the problem was settled. supervision of online gaming and protect of the General Administration of Press With the macro-control of the gov- the legal interests of game players. On and Publication of China, noted in his ernment, domestic game developers face this analysis, all the efforts made by the speech in the annual meeting of Chinese fewer challenges in the market competi- government create a safer and healthier game industry in January 2009 that tion with western developers and pub- gaming environment, which also enhances the Technology and Digital Publishing lishers. In addition, the administration the development of game culture and Division has been recently established will enhance supervision over unhealthy boosts the interests of game developers to campaign for the development of contents to create a healthier internet and publishers. the digital industry and enhance the environment for adolescent game players. administration of the content of digital In 2007, the anti-addiction system was Benefits of going international publishing. To support and protect the launched and forced to apply on all the Shortly after Chinese game compa- domestic game developers, the Chinese online games to prevent teenagers from nies gained the majority of the home government strictly controls the con- spending too much time playing games. market share, some enterprises quickly tent and numbers of imported games The system restricts playing time for those showed their ambition to challenge the global market. What drives them to step forward so rapidly? The broader and mature market is the initial attraction. China undoubtedly has a huge gaming market, but it is built on the massive population. It is common for an online game to be played by millions of players concurrently, but the average revenue per user in China is only RMB50-200 per month (US$7.30-$29.30). However, in the global market, online games do not have the same mass following as in China, but the game players spend more. For instance, in North America, online gamers usually spend US$100-$200 per month. Therefore, despite the smaller number of concurrent gamers, players in overseas markets still bring in admirable revenue. Besides, many overseas countries have formed mature games-centric societies, where their citizens play games regularly for extended periods of time. The regulations and legal protection of the operation of online games are also sounder than in China, where offi cial online game operators have been in a

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war of attrition with private servers for from the experiences of other companies abroad possess the best independently several years. even foreign companies is crucial. If you developed engines and 3D development Moreover, the cost of localization is don’t export games, you can’t interact teams in China, since overseas gamers low, compared to the total development with foreign enterprises. We have learned require a particularly high game qual- expenditure. Normally RMB10-20 million a lot by exporting games, which has had ity. All the competitive game developers (US$1.5-3 million) is needed for Chinese a positive effect on our development.” have directed their attention to human developers to make a new game. If the By being more active in the global mar- resources. For instance, they offer incen- theme caters to the taste of international ket, Chinese enterprisers are able to keep tives to attract top creative talents to join users, the cost to localize a game, such as abreast with the latest game designs and their research and development teams. translation and amendments to the props, market trends, which ultimately benefi t They also encourage their staff to study is just a small fraction of the total develop- their long-term development. Besides, international culture. Yufeng has said, ment expenditure. Therefore, many devel- the Ministry of Culture has been mobiliz- “The cultivation of international talents opers have attached great importance to ing all the culturally creative industries is crucial. In order to export, we espe- overseas markets. to change the “culture defi cit.” All the cially employed some foreigners, who are It should also be noted that the mar- products that promote Chinese culture required to do nothing but communicate keting promotion is simpler in some will enjoy special policy support. As with our staff. Each key member is asked overseas markets. In China, online games most of the Chinese-developed online to talk to them for one hour every day. I’m are promoted largely through internet games are based on the Chinese ancient very happy that all of our staff talks fl uent cafés, online gaming portal websites and stories or legends, the Chinese game English in the end.” It seems that before even online shopping or movie websites. enterprises export not only games but developing any games for the global The promotion in different areas or prov- also culture. market, Chinese game developers should inces has to be planned separately, as the update and educate their team members gamers’ income and local characteristics How to access global markets with both technology and culture. can vary signifi cantly. Therefore, some Although it is clear that going inter- The fi rst stage of developing a game Chinese game companies fi nd the pro- national is benefi cial to Chinese game is the initial planning, where catering motion in some overseas markets such developers and publishers, the global for global taste has to be considered. as Europe and North America less com- market is not an easy one to access. On a technical level, all the games are plicated than China. They believe that Adequate funding and strong research programmed with Unicode, which is a the experience accumulated in China is and development prowess are undoubt- computing industry standard that supports adequate for global markets. edly crucial at the fi rst stage. Meanwhile, the display and manipulation of text used Finally, exporting games enhances the ability of customizing and localizing in most of the world’s writing systems. experience and cultural exchange. As the content to address and appeal to Normally, an English letter takes up to 1 Chi Yufeng, the chief executive offi cer of consumers preferences in a broad range byte while a Chinese character requires 2 Perfect World Co., Ltd., noted in the con- of markets also determines success. bytes, which makes the encoding compli- ference of ChinaJoy 2008, “to become a It is noticeable that the game developers cated and sometimes problematic. Unicode healthily growing enterprise, learning and publishers who have exported games verifi es character sets, which assists with

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the related encoding diffi culties players are always attracted to in computer software and games. new storylines, 3D effects, back- The adoption of Unicode at the ground music and so on; there- initial programming stage makes fore, creativity is the key issue the later internationalization for in the competition. For Chinese online games more direct and game developers, the mysterious effi cient. Chinese culture to western gam- On the other hand, the art ers is a signifi cant advantage. and design team has to estab- The “Chinese fl avor” has been lish what players at home and considered as the key to opening abroad both have in common. the door of the global market at They have to fi nd internation- an early stage. Yufeng has also ally accepted themes that feature said that “only what is Chinese is universal human values to make international.” However, “what is the products sell well in China Chinese” is actually a controver- and also hold favor with overseas sial notion, since what Chinese gamers. It is not an easy task to people believe is Chinese may not design an attractive storyline for A screenshot from the game Perfect World. The dragons, be understandable in the western gamers from all over the world. lotus pond and the two statues are all Chinese characteristics. world. Thus, Chinese game devel- Seen from the exported games of opers have focused more on the China, three similar features can be found. have been seen to insult people’s religious Chinese culture that is internationally First, themes containing real-life events beliefs by using certain sacred articles as recognized. Some people have accused are avoided. Games that are too close to tools. Most of the Chinese games devel- them of making the Chinese cultural real life or based on historical events may opers are fully aware of the political and spirit superfi cial in order to fl atter west- easily and unconsciously lead to ideologi- cultural restrictions, since many western ern taste, but the developers believe that cal clashes, historical disputes or religious games have been banned in China. They introducing Chinese culture to the world offenses to other countries or regions. are reluctant to see their games censored. has to be conducted on a step-by-step Some games, especially war theme games, Therefore, they have adopted a safer way basis, starting from what is familiar to have been banned for using a map with to stay away from political or historical overseas gamers and then introducing the wrong territorial borders; some games themes by basing their games on fairy deeper cultural notions when they are have been announced to hurt national tales, ancient myths or stories that hap- ready to accept more. So far, the Chinese feelings of certain countries by making pen in a virtual world. developers have limited their games their people or leaders look ugly or play Second, Chinese elements are cre- mainly to martial arts and some modern a funny part in a game; and some games atively added in the game design. Game interpretations of Chinese ancient novels or legends. However, with a long history and a profound culture, Chinese game developers have got enough inspiring DO MORE WITH THE POWER OF material to go further. Third, violent and sexual content is strictly reduced in Chinese online games. SYSTRAN All the game developers have been required by the central government to Enterprise Server 7 shoulder social responsibilities in designing games. This means the content of all online games has to be suitable for all age groups. However, there is no offi cial Translate more for less with a powerful hybrid MT age rating system existing for games in Reduce costs engine combining the strengths of rule-based and China as with the Entertainment Soft- Improve effi ciency statistical MT. ware Rating Board in the United States or Pan European Game Information in Achieve quality ›› 52+ language pairs translations Europe. All the games are to be censored ›› Self-learning techniques for users to train the by the Technology and Digital Publishing software to any domain Division of the General Administration ›› Customization tools to manage dictionaries and TMs streamline post-editing of Press and Publication of China, argu- ›› APIs for easy integration with enterprise applications ably under some vague and general rules before launching into market. Chinese game developers are concerned that the Viisiit us onlliine att www.ssysttransofft.ccom limitation on violence and pornography may cause them to lose potential customers, since the content of the games may

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seem to be childish or less stimulating Viscera, which loses its cultural reference players who do not know certain tricks, for adult players. However, it is not cost but is more understandable for overseas such as the ways for a Veno to attack effective to make a different version for gamers. Numerous similar examples can certain monsters without getting hurt. It overseas markets, so the Chinese game be found in the tools or items in Chinese is uncertain whether the game design- developers have to fi nd a balance between online games, and many names of the ers initially intended to create the game different age rating systems. Chinese herbs and other ancient theur- like this, but gamers may hope GMs will Since online game products are market gies that are familiar to Chinese gamers resolve these problems. driven, when it comes to localization, may sound alien and scary to gamers many changes are made to cater to tar- outside Chinese culture. Therefore, game Conclusion get consumers. Developers create special developers localized all these terms into While on the one hand there has been designs to make the game more acceptable something like Ginseng, magic powder recent exponential growth of Chinese to local players. For example, the garments or simply herbs. Also, some animals in online gaming, this general optimism, on are designed in kimono style in the ver- Chinese ancient myths are changed. For the other hand, must be tempered. The sion for the Japanese market, while for the example, 鲛 (Jiao), a kind of fi sh, is trans- global market is much deeper and broader gamers in Southeast Asia, the characters lated into dragon. In Chinese culture, Jiao than the domestic market in China, which are designed to wear bamboo hats. is normally considered evil, while dragons brings challenges for Chinese game devel- Importantly, some Chinese cultural are seen as righteous and powerful, but opers to address language, cultural and reference points are toned down to make for the convenience of overseas players, consumer preferences in many different them more understandable to overseas translators have made some changes. areas. It is arguably not the time for Chi- players. For example, in Zu Online, a After making all these changes, some nese games developers and publishers to Chinese-developed game operated by overseas players might still fi nd Chinese feel comfortable and contented. Further IGG in the North American market, a online games quite foreign and fail to progress is needed in the development range of pet food is called 内丹 (Nei Dan), understand some parts of the games, but of high-quality games within the global which means internal alchemy, a quite this alien and mysterious presentation gaming market and in order to meet the complicated term from Taoism, the native could give them some new experiences. expectations of both the Chinese govern- Chinese religion. By way of background, Generally speaking, feedback on Chi- ment and games players. M internal alchemy, like the more general nese online games has been positive. alchemy, focuses on transmuting energies Some players have even given the local- Resources and substances. The practices focus on ized Perfect World 10 out of 10. Although Peng, Xiao. “Online Games Buck Global restoring balance and elevating spiritual the majority of gamers are captivated by Crises.” China Business Feature. 13 January vitality. The goals of internal alchemy are the storyline, the operating company and 2009. www.cbfeature.com/china_tmt/news/ enlightenment, improved health, longev- game master (GM) have been criticized, online_games_buck_global_crisis ity and peacefulness. Practitioners often and in particular, one player alluded to Solomon, Sol E. “Asia must localize for seek immortality or reunion with God or the “hideous number of faults” in the global gamers.” ZDNet Asia. 23 September another divine source. However, in the game, resulting from game play bugs or 2008. www.zdnetasia.com/news/business/ English version, Nei Dan is translated into exploits that make the game unfair for 0,39044229,62046439,00.htm

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440-450-45 F ZhangZhang #107.indd#107.indd 4545 99/24/09/24/09 10:01:0810:01:08 AMAM Client-vendor lessons from iStock’s localization program Business Michael Smith & Gary Muddyman

If you told iStockphoto, commonly known as iStock, three years ago that by 2009 they’d have corporate clients in Moscow, nobody would Ihave believed you. But not only does iStock now count Russian companies among its corporate clients, it has strong business partnerships in Japan, a thriving Polish user community and a Spanish-speaking audience from Latin Amer- ica to Europe. iStock is one of the ongoing success stories of the digital age, being the pioneers of crowdsourcing and the micropay- ment system in the royalty-free stock photography world. It had absolutely cornered the market in North America by 2006, and © iStockphoto/jallfree the only way to go was global. This was a company that wanted iStock is in the process of localizing its website. to expand internationally, and fast, but had no expertise when it came to localization. The following back and forth should “crowd” of over 78,000 worldwide, reaching more than fi ve mil- shed some light on the vendor-client relationship in the context lion customers. We recently added the fi ve-millionth fi le to our of ambitious client expansion. collection. Thanks to the support from our parent company, Getty Images, we’ve grown with our crowd. We originally localized Localizing a crowdsourced platform from US English into three languages — French, German and Smith: iStock is the world’s fi rst member-generated image Spanish — and have since added six more — Italian, Japanese, and design community. Crowdsourcing is, by defi nition, the use Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Polish and Russian. We’re also of hobbyists on a large scale as a source of production. In fact, searchable in Greek and UK English, for a total of 12 languages. Jeff Howe, the Wired journalist who coined the term crowdsourc- In the world of e-commerce, you’re global from the moment ing, counts iStock as one of the inventors of the phenomenon. your site goes online. As early as 2006, there were translations iStock contributors share a passion for their craft. They’re our being done to some site content. I believe it was by machine at fi rst — this was before my time — and then eventually we had users translating site content. In other words, we were crowdsourcing our translation. Michael Smith is a language One of the things that we found was that dialect differences specialist at iStockphoto. caused a problem. For example, Canadian French wasn’t going over well with the French members and things like that. It was an Gary Muddyman is imperfect system, so they created my position in 2007 and that’s CEO of Conversis. when we started working with Conversis.

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I know crowdsourcing trans lation is very popular at the moment, but it didn’t work for us at the time. We needed something a bit more structured from a partner with a dedication to high-quality results. We also needed a translation team with a passion for being creative that could match our own — one that could really sink their teeth into our unique corporate culture. Muddyman: This is not as easy as it sounds. If you think of a traditional piece of marketing collateral, like a brochure, for example, it fl ows. But people don’t consume web copy in that way. They read in bite-sized chunks. If you have a page or even two to three paragraphs, you then have the chance to get into a fl ow or almost take somebody through a story. That’s an easier piece of copy to write than if you have to encapsulate it in a sharp, snappy sentence. iStock is about selling images, so © iStockphoto/caracterdesign it’s even more important because you have The top grossing iStock image, with over 16,000 downloads. The contributor is from Spain. to encapsulate what you’re seeing. That takes real expertise. We have to look for creative people who have restlessness and a demand from somebody who knows where the ability to copywrite in a foreign language rather than just “it” is that there isn’t from somebody who may have a different translate. job full-time. I think what happens is that Michael and other Smith: And we have learned some lessons there in terms of localization professionals are able to challenge us in a way that how important it is to get the right translators. But I think we people who only do it for part of their job are unable to do. This now have reliable translators who know our business well. isn’t to say that one’s better than another; it just means that iStock has presence everywhere in the world. It seems like they’ve got different roles. By completely focusing on this space, everywhere I go, someone is an iStock client or contributor. I you’ve got a level of expertise that enables challenges. It’s that can remember once while I was in South America, I was asked process of challenging and pushing the boundaries that I think who I work for, and in a conversation among people from four certainly affects the outcome for the better. different countries, it turned out all of them were iStock clients. We’re everywhere! Overcoming bumps in the road Muddyman: There have been obstacles, with translators The in-house localization expert debate needing some guidance with context for their copy, for example, Muddyman: There is no straightforward answer as to when but Michael and Gosia Gizak, our project manager, have found to have a localization expert in-house. For me it’s not about ways to overcome them. There’s never been much out of the whether it is essential or necessary, but whether it is preferable. ordinary for a company in the beginning stages of localization. As a supplier, we would like to say we can fi ll the knowledge Those issues have been fewer and farther between as iStock has gap, but for us it is preferable to have someone who has some brought more expertise into its ranks. localization expertise on the client side because with that comes Smith: Gosia and I have constant feedback, both ways. The the awareness of whether localization is done well or poorly. localization kit includes a phone call when necessary so that I I’ll give you an example of what I mean. Let’s say a cloth- can make it a point to provide as much information as possible ing retailer is doing well in the United Kingdom and decides for context so the translators can do their work accurately and to expand into Europe. There’s a really poor job done on the effi ciently. Mock-ups, such as screen shots and the like, are now localization of the brand and marketing, and the company goes required from our project managers before I send new mate- under. The trouble is, that company will never know what it rial to be translated. Those eliminate most of the queries before would have earned if it had done the localization job well. And they’re made now. Gosia facilitates questions and answers if there is no expertise at all, it may not even be able to point between the translators and me, if there are any. to the reason for the failure — which, as we know, is down to a Usually, by the time I’ve sent the fi les for translation I have poor localization job. read the source text over a few times. I always think “OK, now A localization professional has to be able to make the French how would I translate this?” and any words or terms that stump customer feel just as important as the British one and make me get added to a list of project notes and sent along. I also get the French marketing as effective as the British marketing. It Conversis to do more testing of deliverables than previously. sounds simple, but it is incredible how often companies get The project management team at iStock headquarters consult this wrong. me often now, so I usually have a good feel for a project by the Having said that, I would point out that for us, working with time I get to do my magic on it. a localization expert such as Michael is more challenging than The translations get reviewed by our in-country iStockers working with someone who knows nothing because there’s a where we can — we’re too cool to say “staff.” We have a constant

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fl ow of fi les, so the revisions in it, but it does make it easier. made go live before they get Because Michael and I have a back to Conversis. Periodically, good personal relationship, if I those are sent back so that need to tell him something that the translators get meaningful I think needs to be said, then I feedback to guide their work. don’t worry much about how I I’ve also done some tweaking phrase it. I am just honest with to internal processes to make him, and the same in return. If things run more smoothly and he has a problem with us, then I better communicate the pro- would expect him to pick up the ject needs to those involved. It phone and call me out on it. sounds complicated and drawn Smith: And yes, I’d totally out, but the reviewers with call Gary if I needed someone to longevity will tell you that the post bail or help me in a sticky quality of translation improves situation. I’m pretty sure he has © iStockphoto/bitter exponentially over time. half of MI-5 on speed dial. Muddyman: As I said before, One of the fi rst fi les on the site, contributed by the founder of iStock. Seriously though, most loc- it’s a specialist piece of work, so alization project managers on we try to use the same team of translators, and they now know the client side will tell you that they spend the majority of their iStock very well. They know the requirements and the service, time doing administrative tasks. Because of that trust, I don’t and they don’t have to keep asking for context. So the process have to focus on administration, and I can spend more time on has become much easier over time. I guess you learn from each improving processes and the scope of our program. client that you have. Without being sycophantic, the major les- Clients and vendors in this fi eld have such different perspec- son from working with iStock is how much more productive it is tives that the insight is invaluable. I think that’s called “profes- when you’re working with a client who is both informed and as sional competence,” no matter what your vocation. Localization keen on developing the relationship as you are. is growing so fast that it can be hard to keep up. Michael in particular is so open. His objective is to fi nd the I fi nd, though, that the information exchange can go both most cost-effective, productive and professional way to do this. ways. I’ll often read some newsletter or get some info sent my And so if that means we need to suggest changes to the way way, and after I do my own research, I’ll ask Gosia what her take iStock does things to make things better for the company, then is. Sometimes she’ll be well-informed; at other times it’s the fi rst he welcomes the suggestion. And that is very different from some she’s heard about whatever bit of information. If ever I’m stumped clients, not all, but different from some clients who say, “You’re on where to look for information, they know where to refer me. the vendor. You’ll do it in the way we ask or not at all.” Smith: The truth is, I am results-oriented, so if there’s something The indicators of success on my side that I can do to make the process easier for the external Smith: I know localization has been a success at iStock employees, it really is helping out iStock in the long run. because the program is growing and localization is demystifi ed For me, feedback and communication in both directions are for more people in the company, not to mention our growing not optional. We have developed a productive relationship, and international community. this has meant we’ve had an invaluable source of support as Converts who have really no role in the process can at least we’ve done things like taking on more non-English content understand its purpose. It’s not uncommon for people who aren’t authoring in-house and completely overhauling terminology involved in localization on the client side to see it as a bottleneck. management processes. I’d like to think Conversis has learned At iStock headquarters, those people come and ask questions. that not all content their clients publish is boring! Most impor- That speaks volumes about the program and the company it’s tantly, I think one of the things we’ve all learned is that clients housed in. and vendors work best together, not separately. I also have no shortage of “thank you” notes that I share with Conversis for a job well done. That said, our community of clients On future challenges and personal relationships is also not shy about offering tips for improvement either. Smith: Obviously the more linguistically and culturally Muddyman: I certainly don’t feel like it’s a done job. iStock diverse we are, the more challenging localization will be. While is a dynamic business. The demands of the market that they’re I can’t give specifi cs on next steps, I’d always advise respecting in, the demands of the company and the dynamism of the indi- your audience; it’s the best way to make them your clients. viduals we deal with in that company continually bring chal- Muddyman: I see a key part of our role as helping iStock lenges. One of the worst things we could do is sit back on our stay ahead of the curve. Michael talks about respecting your laurels. audience, and for me that’s about respecting and understand- I guess if I look to success, it’s that we have managed to, in a ing their cultural differences, buying habits, the way they do relatively short space of time, develop a relationship that fosters business, the way they like to have buying solutions presented this spirit of wanting to be better and do things better all the to them. Actually managing that process is going to be a chal- time. As their business develops and expands, the infrastructure lenge, but it’s also going to be rewarding. that we’ve got in place enables us to develop and expand with There are plenty of successful business relationships that I’ve them. I think that has taken a lot of commitment and good had in the past without there being a healthy personal relationship intent on both sides, and that’s rewarding. M

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Services Showcase

Medical Translations Localization Is More Than Translation . . . MediLingua is one of Europe’s few companies specializing in medical translation. Global challenges require flexible and We provide all European languages (36 today professional service providers. Take advantage and counting) and Japanese as well as the of our experience and know-how and make your How to Be usual translation-related services. Our 250-plus product a worldwide success! SAM Engineering translators have a combined medical and was established in 1994 and provides localization World Savvy language background. services to IT organizations as well as translation International Marketing Communications and engineering services to vertical industries We work for manufacturers of medical Market Research devices, instruments, in-vitro diagnostics and through its network of translation partners, software; pharmaceutical companies; medical specializing in the translation of business Marketing publishers; national and international medical applications and technical documentation. organizations; and medical journals. SAM Engineering GmbH is located in Muehltal, Call or e-mail Simon Andriesen or visit our near Frankfurt, Germany. For more information, website for more information. see www.sam-engineering.de MediLingua BV SAM Engineering GmbH JFA Marketing Leiden, The Netherlands Muehltal, Germany Dubuque, Iowa USA [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] www.medilingua.com www.sam-engineering.de www.jfamarkets.com

Europe’s No. 1 Greek Localizer Your Polish More Than Quality Professional globalization requires experi- Since 1986, EuroGreek has been providing high- Production Center quality, turnkey solutions, encompassing a whole ence. Over the past two decades, we have Since 2000, Ryszard Jarza Translations has developed into a top international company range of client needs, for the following language been providing specialized Polish translation, combinations: specializing in the precise tuning of your localization and DTP services, primarily for life documentation and texts to the standards and • English into Greek sciences, IT, automotive, refrigeration and other mentalities of the German-speaking world. • Greek into English technology sectors. • German into Greek Our strength lies in our work for well-known • French into Greek We work with multilanguage vendors and software and hardware manufacturers. Furthermore, we also offer traditional transla- All EuroGreek’s work is produced in our Athens directly with documentation departments of tion services for the business, technology, legal production center and covers most subjects: large multinational customers. We have built a brilliant in-house team made up of experienced and medical sectors. Our team of competent • Technical linguists and engineers, who guarantee a employees provides the very best quality • Medical/Pharmaceutical within the respectively agreed time frame, • IT/Telecommunications high standard of quality while maintaining even if matters are a little more urgent. • Economics/Legal flexibility, responsiveness and accountability. All EuroGreek’s work is fully guaranteed for quality and on-time delivery. Ryszard Jarza Translations Rheinschrift Übersetzungen EuroGreek Translations Limited Wroclaw, Poland Ursula Steigerwald London, UK • Athens, Greece [email protected] Cologne, Germany [email protected] • www.eurogreek.com www.jarza.com.pl [email protected] • www.rheinschrift.de

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4499 SServiceservices SShowcase.inddhowcase.indd 4499 99/24/09/24/09 110:08:350:08:35 AMAM Localizing structured content Business Peter Mork

Some people seem to believe that Darwin newer version of RoboHTML, only to go back to the old version Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is the a few weeks later after it was found that the new version did not best thing since sliced bread. I work in localiza- support Asian language sorting. All content had been converted and had to be converted back to the old format. This roundtrip Stion at PTC, a software company best known for conversion introduced subtle formatting differences to the fi les, its product development and product life cycle and we had no way of knowing which fi les contained genuine management applications. One of PTC’s many content changes — requiring translation — and which ones had only insignifi cant formatting differences that could have been products is a complex authoring tool known as safely ignored. Arbortext, so it was a logical choice to build the A nice little bonus in the new authoring environment is the company’s XML-based content authoring solu- automatic generation of table of contents and index tables. tion on this application. Those little HHC and HHK fi les were always a headache, not only because they required special attention to translate them PTC develops a number of product lines, each with online help consistently with the actual topic titles, but also because entries containing over a million words, translated into nine languages, in HHC fi les behave like fi le and folder names in a fi le system: all — with the notable exception of Arbortext — originally authored you can’t have more than one of them with the same name at the in RoboHTML. RoboHTML had so many issues that at some point same level. We had to put a rather convoluted process in place to we even developed a script called “fi xrobohtml” to address them. ensure that these rules were followed. We, therefore, heaved a sigh of relief when the decision was made On the down side, since the content is now almost completely to migrate the content to an XML-based, structured environment. stripped of formatting information, it has become somewhat This content type and authoring tool change coincided with more diffi cult to create previews. Translators tend to see the our migration from Trados 5.5 to WorldServer, a fully-fl edged generation of output content as something that happens some- translation management system (TMS), which made the whole where in a distant country, using a mysterious tool called a undertaking all the more interesting. publishing engine, not something that one could do on the fl y during translation. Using custom code, we put together a rudi- Separating content from formatting mentary preview functionality for the translation environment Perhaps the biggest benefi t localization gained from the migra- (basic formatting only, no images, links don’t work). For a com- tion to structured content is the separation of content from for- prehensive preview, translators have to rely on PDFs generated matting. We no longer have to retranslate thousands of fi les just by Publications. For some products, this is done automatically to propagate some minor format changes to the localized fi les. We as part of a regular nightly build, which means that an (almost) had an incident a few years ago when Publications upgraded to a up-to-date version of the output is always available to translators and reviewers. User interface references Part of the DITA implementation plan was to introduce desig- Peter Mork, an internationalization engineer, nated custom tags, such as the tag, used by authors works for PTC, a Boston-based software to mark up user interface (UI) strings. This allowed us to write company. He worked in Ireland for many a tool that parses DITA source fi les, looking for text marked as years and is now based in Budapest, Hungary. UI strings and comparing them with the software. The tool has

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access to our software translation project databases and is able to build a complete reference list of software strings. Mismatches are reported in a log fi le and reviewed by the authors. This is a major improvement, as a signifi cant number of documentation- related customer complaints are related to software references in the documentation that cannot be found in the software. Our script also catches typos, incorrectly tagged UI strings and UI changes not refl ected in the documentation. That said, however, the tool produces some false positives. These are caused by external UI strings (coming from the operating system or from a different application) or by message parameters (better known as string variables). The problem is that the software translation database contains parameterized messages only, but the author writes the documentation while looking at the run-time product, where the parameters are replaced with actual values. If the documentation says “Owner is an invalid attribute,” the tool will report a mismatch because it does not know that this message was created from “{0} is an invalid attribute” by substituting “{0}” with an attribute name. Implementing pat- tern matching would reduce the number of false positives, and we are planning to introduce such an enhancement. There is also another source of false positives: legacy content. The Composition Launcher custom dialog of the training guide authoring We had a large amount of old content at hand to convert. We with a group of check boxes for the different target deliverables. began the conversion before our document type defi nition was completely stable, and our old templates did not map perfectly to It follows from the placeholder replacement logic that the the DITA elements we defi ned. As a result, character formatting source and target of a TU must contain the same number of for fi le names, project names, user-entered text and similar items placeholders. Because the translation contains a number of extra was sometimes erroneously mapped to . We are in placeholders and the TU itself does not contain the actual tags, the process of reviewing and correcting these mistakes. We also the TMS would not know what to do with these when it came to intend to introduce a separate custom tag for user-entered data generating the target fi le. to be able to distinguish them from true UI strings. To enforce a manual review, such TUs are automatically downgraded to fuzzy matches when the converted TM is imported Translation memory migration into the system. This turned out to be one of the main sources Because of the TMS implementation, we had a massive number of leverage loss. In the past, our translators treated inline tags of Trados-based translation memories (TMs) to migrate. Migrat- quite liberally; sometimes they deleted them, and sometimes they ing TMs between different translation tools is always a process of added a few extra ones to the target. This was often done to fulfi ll trial and error. You convert the TM, pretranslate a set of sample stylistic requirements, as laid out in the language style guide. fi les, and check the leverage rate. If it is too low, you tweak some- Here is an example: thing in your conversion script — you need to write one if you English: Opens the {0}Create Folder{1} window are serious about TM migration — and try again. Repeat until you so that you can create new folders within the reach an acceptable ratio or become too tired to continue. reference list. We had initial leverage rates between 80% and 90%, usually German: Öffnet das Fenster “Ordner erstellen”, closer to the 90% mark. Reaching 90% was generally easy, but in dem Sie in der Referenzliste neue Ordner ers- going beyond that was a little harder. We were able to approach tellen können. 95% for some projects, but we found that going beyond 95% It is apparent from the source that the term Create Folder using automatic tools would have required so much development is embraced between bold tags in the source but between double work that it was deemed more economical to have the segments quotes in the target. There is no easy way to resolve this program- in question retranslated manually. TM size is an important fac- matically. We had to review TUs with mismatching numbers of tor in this decision. It’s no use spending two days on a script placeholders between source and target, looking for some logic that would elevate a dozen segments from the high fuzzy match that would allow programmatic fi xing. Some types of mismatches category to 100% match. Conversely, even small leverage gains were fi xed this way, but the majority had to be reviewed and fi xed translate to hundreds of dollars of per-language savings if your manually. We also updated our language style guides to ensure that TM is very large. such tag inconsistencies would not be reintroduced in the future. Inline tag migration was greatly simplifi ed by the fact that The difference in segmentation rules between Trados and our our TMS stores inline tags outside of the TM. You only see TMS was another important factor in leverage loss. We had our placeholders in the translation unit (TU); for example, This is Trados INI fi les set to treat the colon as a segment breaker, but bold text becomes This is {0}bold{1} text in the TMS considers it just an ordinary character. HTML com- the TM. This means that if the original content used tags and ments embedded into the text — there are many of those in the new content uses instead, it would still produce RoboHTML source fi les, thanks to those weird kadov tags — are a 100% match. considered inline tags by Trados, but segment breakers by the

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TMS. And the list goes on. Some of these Content reuse and content management, we would have to problems could be fi xed by tweaking seg- push-button publishing translate the instructor’s guide fi rst and mentation rules, but we found it generally Many of our products are built on then use the resulting TM to retranslate more effi cient to address these issues dur- a common architecture, but differ to a the student guide. An additional benefi t ing conversion so the TUs imported into greater or lesser degree in certain areas of single sourcing is that it is now pos- the TMS were already in the expected of functionality. Having adopted a struc- sible to generate customized training format. tured authoring environment made it guides (“profi ling”) in case a customer much easier to reuse content from the wants something extra or would like to Content management system common core documentation in the spe- drop a few topics here and there. Since Localization and Publications cifi c documentation of these applications. Needless to say, all of this comes with have been fully occupied with conver- In terms of content, some products have a price tag. No out-of-the-box author- sion to the new authoring and publish- as much as 70% in common with the core ing environment can do all this; script ing tool, we have not yet implemented product. writing and stylesheet development are a content management system (CMS) But despite all the gains (and pains) of necessary. The latter is aided by one of — unless you consider ClearCase to the migration, it was not Localization or the applications of our authoring envi- qualify as such. We have a staging area Publications that benefi ted the most from ronment (Styler), which makes it a lot on a server from which the TMS fetches the adoption of an XML-based structured easier to create and update stylesheets. source fi les and to which it drops target authoring framework. It was our training Thanks to Styler, we no longer need to fi les. This is a bit uneconomical with department. Our products target a specifi c employ a stylesheet expert to do the work respect to disk space, as we have to copy market with very complex requirements, for us. fi les out from their repository fi rst and so it is understandable that the products We considered it essential to develop then copy the translated fi les back for are equally complex and require exten- a single, well-written, company-wide style- delivery. The other issue is that fi les on a sive training. Overall, we produce over sheet, used across all the documentation shared Windows directory can’t contain a thousand various training guides per groups, that can produce online and any metadata. Not every fi le is translated year for 66 different products, with an printed output for both 8½ x 11 or A4 to every language, and this information average size of 100K words per train- automatically, depending on the language is stored separately in spreadsheets, not ing guide. Training guides are always of the document. This all but eliminated as metadata attached to the fi les. This full of images, with some audio (MP3) the need for post-production desktop means that the TMS cannot pick up fi les thrown in for the web-based versions. publishing (DTP) work on the localized for translation selectively, based on meta- Most guides are published in at least two content. We still do a page-by-page data. We have various plans to solve this formats: PDF for printing and HTML for post-production review, just to verify (write a tool that reads that spreadsheet web-based training, all derived from the that the text and images are paginated and creates projects automatically, using same source, using various stylesheets. accurately. selected fi les), but these are interim solu- With so many training guides and all The entire development work took about tions only. We expect these problems to the different formats, content reuse is a six months and resulted in an estimated go away when we migrate to a true CMS signifi cant time saver. A typical example 60% reduction in production time of the in the future. On the fl ip side, using a is the instructor vs. student version of different training deliverables, compared to staging area means that we always have the same guide. The instructor’s ver- the previous (Microsoft Word-based and easy access to the exact fi les that were sion contains many details that are not Adobe FrameMaker-based) system. fed to the TMS, and preprocessing, still a included in the student edition, but the necessity for many of the input fi les, can bulk of the content is essentially the Conclusion be done easily and effi ciently. same. Without some sort of structured Adopting a publishing system based on structured content brings several benefi ts into the process. The most signifi cant benefi t for localization is the separation of content from formatting, which makes publishing into multiple output formats possible without any manual DTP steps. Localization costs are also reduced due to content reuse on the source side and the automatic generation of table of contents and index tables. The authoring environment enables the potential for consistency checks between documentation and software if authors apply the necessary custom tags consistently and diligently. By and large, the investment required to achieve an overall increase in productivity with subsequent decrease in costs appears to be well worth the effort. M

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This section offers terminology, abbreviations, acronyms and other resources, especially as related to the content of this issue. For more definitions, see the Glossary section of MultiLingual’s annual Resource Directory and Index (www.multilingual.com/resourceDirectory).

back translation. The process of translating a document a topic level and for using that content in delivery modes such that has already been translated into another language to the as online help and product support portals on the web. original language — preferably by an independent translator. fuzzy match. Refers to the situation when a phrase or cloud computing. A style of computing in which dynami- sentence in a translation memory (TM) is similar (but not cally scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a 100% match) to the phrase or sentence the translator is a service over the internet. Users need not have knowledge currently working on. The TM tool calculates the degree of of, expertise in or control over the technology infrastructure similarity or “fuzziness” as a percentage figure. in the “cloud” that supports them. The term cloud is used as gist translation. A less-than-perfect translation performed a metaphor for the internet, based on how the internet is by machine or automatic translation. depicted in computer network diagrams and is an abstrac- globalization (g11n). In this context, the term refers to tion for the complex infrastructure it conceals. the process that addresses business issues associated with computer-aided translation (CAT). Computer technology launching a product globally, such as integrating localization applications that assist in the act of translating text from throughout a company after proper internationalization and one language to another. product design. content management system (CMS). A system used to guanxi. A central concept in Chinese society and des- store and subsequently find and retrieve large amounts of data. cribes the basic dynamic in personalized networks of influ- CMSs were not originally designed to synchronize translation ence. Guanxi is, in part, a personal connection between two and localization of content, so most of them have been part- people in which one is able to prevail upon another to per- nered with globalization management systems. form a favor or service or be prevailed upon. The two people need not be of equal social status. It could also be a net- controlled authoring. Writing for reuse and translation. work of contacts, which an individual can call upon when Controlled authoring is a process that integrates writing something needs to be done and through which he or she with localization so that the text can be written for reuse can exert influence on behalf of another. and at the same time written for efficient translation. internationalization (i18n). Especially in a computing con- crowdsourcing. The act of taking a task traditionally per- text, the process of generalizing a product so that it can handle formed by an employee or contractor and outsourcing it to an multiple languages and cultural conventions (currency, number undefined, generally large group of people, in the form of an separators, dates) without the need for redesign. open call. For example, the public may be invited to develop internaut. A cyber slang term for a designer, operator, or new technology, carry out a design task, refine an algorithm, or technically capable professional user of the internet, some- help capture, systematize or analyze large amounts of data. one who is ultra-familiar with the internet as an entity and DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture). An XML- with cyberspace in general. The word is a combination of based architecture for authoring, producing and delivering internet and astronaut. Other terms roughly analogous with technical information. This architecture consists of a set of internaut are cybernaut and netizen, though each has its own design principles for creating “information-typed” modules at connotation. The common thread among them, however, is an

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implication of experience and knowledge of the internet or by a computer that learned how to translate from vast cyberspace that goes beyond the casual user. amounts of translated text. localization (l10n). In this context, the process of adapting time to market. The length of time it takes from a prod- a product or software to a specific international language or uct being conceived until its being available for sale. Time culture so that it seems natural to that particular region. True to market is crucial in industries where products are out- localization considers language, culture, customs and the char- dated quickly. acteristics of the target locale. It frequently involves changes translation. The process of converting all of the text or to the software’s writing system and may change keyboard words from a source language to a target language. An use and fonts as well as date, time and monetary formats. understanding of the context or meaning of the source lan- machine translation (MT). A technology that trans- guage must be established in order to convey the same lates text from one human language to another, using message in the target language. terminology glossaries and advanced grammatical, syntactic translation memory (TM). A special database that stores and semantic analysis techniques. previously translated sentences which can then be reused on massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). a sentence-by-sentence basis. The database matches source A multiplayer computer role-playing game that enables to target language pairs. thousands of players to play in an evolving virtual world at translation unit (TU). A segment of text that the translator the same time over the internet. treats as a single cognitive unit for the purposes of establish- netizen. A blend of internet and citizen, a person actively ing an equivalence. The translation unit may be a single word, involved in online communities. Netizens use the internet a phrase, one or more sentences, or even a larger unit. to engage in activities of the extended social groups of the Unicode. The Unicode Worldwide Character Standard web — for example, giving and receiving viewpoints, furnish- (Unicode) is a character encoding standard used to represent ing information, fostering the internet as an intellectual and text for computer processing. Originally designed to support social resource, and making choices for the self-assembled 65,000, it now has encoding forms to support more than one communities. Generally, a netizen can be any user of the million characters. worldwide, unstructured forums of the internet. quality assurance (QA). The activity of providing evidence Resources needed to establish confidence among all concerned that quality-related activities are being performed effectively. ORGANIZATIONS All those planned or systematic actions necessary to provide American Translators Association (ATA): www.atanet.org; and adequate confidence that a product or service will satisfy its Language Technology Division: www.ata-divisions.org/LTD given requirements for quality. QA covers all activities from Project Management Institute: www.pmi.org design, development, production and installation to servic- Translation Automation User Society (TAUS): ing and documentation. www.translationautomation.com return on investment (ROI). In finance, the ratio of money PUBLICATIONS gained or lost on an investment relative to the amount of Ethnologue: Languages of the World (15th edition), Raymond G. money invested. The amount of money gained or lost may be Gordon, Jr.: www.ethnologue.com/print.asp referred to as interest, profit/loss, gain/loss or net income/loss. The Guide to Translation and Localization, search engine. A program designed to help find informa- published by Lingo Systems: www.lingosys.com tion stored on a computer system such as the World Wide Index of Chinese Characters With Attributes, George E. Bell, Web or a personal computer. A search engine allows a user 2006: www.multilingual.com/eBooks to ask for content meeting specific criteria — typically those Globalization Handbook for the Microsoft .NET Platform, Parts I - IV, containing a given word, phrase or name — and retrieves a Bill Hall, 2002-2006: www.multilingual.com/eBooks list of references that match those criteria. Translation: Getting It Right, published by the ATA: search engine optimization (SEO). A set of methods aimed www.atanet.org/docs/getting_it_right.pdf at improving the ranking of a website in search engine list- Translation: Standards for Buying a Non-Commodity, published by ings. SEO is primarily concerned with advancing the goals of a the ATA: www.atanet.org/docs/translation_buying_guide.pdf website by improving the number and position of its organic search results for a wide variety of relevant keywords. REFERENCES statistical machine translation (SMT). A machine trans- CIA World Factbook: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/ lation paradigm where translations are generated on the the-world-factbook basis of statistical models whose parameters are derived Omniglot — Writing Systems & Languages of the World: from the analysis of bilingual text corpora. SMT is the www.omniglot.com translation of text from one human language to another Unicode, Inc.: http://unicode.org

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553-543-54 BBasicsasics ##107.indd107.indd 5544 99/24/09/24/09 10:16:1610:16:16 AMAM Buyer’s Guide ASSOCIATIONS 55 AUTOMATED TRANSLATION 55 CONFERENCES 55 NoBabel Suite maintains a familiar work environment. With ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS 55 ASSOCIATIONS NoBabel you lower costs and increase productivity. KCSL Inc. 150 Ferrand Drive, Suite 904, Toronto, Ontario, M3C 3E5 INTERNATIONALIZATION TOOLS 56 Canada, 416 -222-6112, Fax: 416-222-6819, E-mail: customer_info @kcsl.ca, Web: www.kcsl.ca See ad on page 7 LOCALIZATION SERVICES 56 LOCALIZATION TOOLS 58 PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLS 58 Globalization and Localization Association Description The Globalization and Localization Association SPEECH TECHNOLOGIES 58 (GALA) is a fully representative, nonprofit, international TRANSLATION SERVICES 58 industry association for the translation, internationalization, TAUS Data Association localization and globalization industry. The association gives Description TAUS Data Association (TDA) is a not-for-profit TRANSLATION TOOLS 60 members a common forum to discuss issues, create innova- member organization bringing together the translation memo- tive solutions, promote the industry and offer clients unique, ries (TMs) and terminology of the global translation industry. WORKFLOW SOLUTIONS 61 collaborative value. The resulting Language Data Exchange Portal is a high quality, open and secure language database for the benefit of all. We Globalization and Localization Association 23 Main Street, Andover, MA 01810, 206-329-2596, Fax: 815-346-2361, E-mail: work on the basis of reciprocity — you store language data in is a software company in Salt Lake City, Utah. We have devel- [email protected], Web: www.gala-global.org the platform and in return get access to the TMs and glossa- oped the world’s first Collaborative Translation Platform. ries of the wider industry. The data is organized by industry The software platform incorporates translation memory domain, company, product line and language pairs, enabling storage and retrieval, terminology management, machine you to conveniently search and retrieve what you require. translation, project management and workflow engine, all TAUS Data Association Oosteinde 9-11, 1483 AB De Rijp, The sitting on top of a massive data warehouse of centralized lan- Netherlands, 31-299-672028, Fax: 31-299-672028, E-mail: jaap@ guage data. We deliver our software to our customers in a tra- translationautomation.com, Web: www.tausdata.org See ad on page 38 ditional enterprise software install and software-as-a-service Translation Automation User Society (SaaS) model via the web. In many ways, we’re enterprise Description TAUS is a networking community of users, devel- software with a social twist. We’re focused on delivering com- opers and practitioners of translation services and technolo- CONFERENCES mercial grade productivity software to companies to engage gies. TAUS organizes industry meetings, publishes reports, their social and customer networks. and provides research and consulting in the area of translation Lingotek 15 Scenic Pointe Drive, Suite 325, Draper, UT 84020, automation and strategies. The organization is directed by 877-852-4231, 801-727-1580, Fax: 801-727-1581, E-mail: sales@ Jaap van der Meer. lingotek.com, Web: www.lingotek.com See ad on page 25 Translation Automation User Society Oosteinde 9-11, 1483 AB De Rijp, The Netherlands, 31-299-672028, Fax: 31-299-672028, E-mail: Localization World [email protected], Web: www.translationautomation Description Localization World conferences are dedicated .com to the language and localization industries. Our constituents are the people responsible for communicating across the UTOMATED RANSLATION boundaries of language and culture in the global marketplace. TextBase meets Translation Memory A T International product and marketing managers participate in Multiple Platforms Localization World from all sectors and all geographies to Languages All Unicode languages Description MultiCorpora meet language service and technology providers and to net- provides language technology solutions to enterprises, LSPs work with their peers. Hands-on practitioners come to share and governments. As the independent language technology their knowledge and experience and to learn from others. See experts, MultiCorpora empowers organizations to better man- our website for details on upcoming and past conferences. age linguistic assets and transform translation expenses into reusable assets regardless of whether organizations outsource Human Language Technologies Localization World Ltd. 319 North 1st Avenue, Sandpoint, ID 83864, 208-263-8178, Fax: 208-263-6310, E-mail: info@localizationworld their translations or handle them internally. MultiTrans is a Multiple Platforms .com, Web: www.localizationworld.com See ad on page 2 client-server application that pioneered the Advanced Languages Arabic, Bahasa, Dari, Dutch, Egyptian dialect, Leveraging TM concept which features hassle-free document English, Farsi/Persian, French, German, Hebrew, Iraqi dia- pair alignment, recycles previous translations with context and lect, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Pashto, Polish, Portuguese, ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS provides an on-the-fly view of how ambiguous terms were pre- Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Tagalog, Traditional viously translated. The Translation Bureau of Canada, interna- Chinese, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu Description AppTek is tional organizations such as UNESCO, and corporations such a developer of human language technology products with as Toys“R”Us, Fidelity, Kraft, HSBC and Pfizer have selected a complete suite for text and speech (voice) processing and MultiTrans as their multilingual asset management solution. recognition. AppTek’s product offerings include hybrid (rule- MultiCorpora 102-490 St. Joseph Boulevard, Gatineau, Quebec, based + statistical) machine translation (MT) and automatic J8Y 3Y7 Canada, 819-778-7070, 877-725-7070, Fax: 819-778- speech recognition (ASR) for a growing list of more than Across Systems 0801, E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.multicorpora.com 23 languages; multilingual information retrieval with query Multiple Platforms See ad on page 63 and topic search capabilities; name-finding applications; and Languages All Description Across Language Server is the integrated suites providing ASR and MT in media monitor- world’s leading independent linguistic supply chain tech- ing of broadcast and telephony speech, as well as handheld nology. It provides a central software platform for corporate and wearable speech-to-speech translation devices. language resources and translation processes. The all-in-one AppTek 6867 Elm Street, Suite 300, McLean, VA 22101, 703-394-2317, enterprise solution includes a translation memory, a termi- Fax: 703-821-5001, E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.apptek.com nology system, and powerful PM and workflow control tools. STAR Group It allows end-to-end processing so that clients, LSPs and Multiple Platforms translators collaborate seamlessly. Open interfaces enable Languages All Description STAR Group was founded in the direct integration of CMS or ERP solutions, among oth- Switzerland 25 years ago with the exclusive focus of facilitat- ers. Across clients access the Language Server via LAN, WAN ing cross-cultural technical communications in all languages. or web, or as a hosted service. Across customers include The company has grown to be the largest privately held mul- Volkswagen, HypoVereinsbank, SMA Solar Technology and tilingual information technology and services company in the KCSL Inc. hundreds of other leading companies. world with 42 offices in 32 countries. Its advanced technol- Languages All Description KCSL has developed many suc- Across Systems Im Stoeckmaedle 18, D-76307 Karlsbad, Germany, ogy developments have propelled STAR to its current market cessful commercial products including international spell and 49-7248-925-425, Fax: 49-7248-925-444, E-mail: international@ position. Core services include information management, grammar checkers, electronic references, and multilingual across.net, Web: www.across.net See ads on pages 4, 64 translation, localization, internationalization, globalization, search engines. Licensing to hundreds of entities, including publishing and consulting. Core technologies include Tran- Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and the Canadian government, sit (translation memory), TermStar/WebTerm (terminology has created a worldwide user base of over 200 million peo- management), GRIPS (corporate technical communication ple. Integrating natural language processing, multilingual platform), MindReader (corporate author assistance), STAR search, and statistical methods, NoBabel™ Translator is a James (corporate process management), i-Know (corporate major breakthrough in computer-aided translation. Without learning platform) and SPIDER (electronic publication). human interaction, NoBabel creates new translation memo- Lingotek Collaborative Translation Platform STAR Group Wiesholz 35, 8262 Ramsen, Switzerland, 41-52- ries (TMs) as well as cleans, grades and increases leveraging Multiple Platforms 742-9200, 216-691-7827, E-mail: [email protected], Web: of existing TMs. Automatic and accurate, the easy-to-use Languages Supports all language pairs Description Lingotek www.star-group.net See ad on page 10

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packages, translation memories, automatic formatting and INTERNATIONALIZATION TOOLS desktop publishing. GrafiData can also utilize IT solutions that improve the process. Grafi Data Keulenstraat 16, 7418 ET Deventer, Overijssel, The Neth- erlands, 31-570-609797, Fax: 31-570-609850, E-mail: info@ Beijing E-C Translation Ltd. grafi data.nl, Web: www.grafi data.nl See ad on page 33 Languages Asian Description Beijing E-C Translation Ltd., TextBase meets Translation Memory one of the largest localization and translation companies in Multiple Platforms China, focuses mainly on software and website localization; Languages All Unicode languages Description MultiCorpora technical, financial, medical, patent and marketing transla- provides language technology solutions to enterprises, LSPs tions; and desktop publishing services. We use TRADOS, and governments. As the independent language technol- SDLX, CATALYST, TTT/PC, STAR Transit, Robohelp, Frame- ogy experts, MultiCorpora empowers organizations to Maker, PageMaker, InDesign, QuarkXPress, MS Office and iDISC Information Technologies better manage linguistic assets and transform translation other graphic and DTP tools. Having more than 150 full-time Languages Spanish (all variants), Catalan, Basque, Galician expenses into reusable assets regardless of whether organiza- employees located in Beijing, Taipei, Singapore, Seoul, Shang- Description iDISC, established in 1987, is a privately-held tions outsource their translations or handle them internally. hai, Hong Kong, Shenyang and Chengdu, we can handle translation company based in Barcelona that focuses on MultiTrans is a client-server application that pioneered the English/German into and from Simplified Chinese/Trad- localization into all variants of Spanish (European, Latin Advanced Leveraging TM concept which features hassle-free itional Chinese/Japanese/Korean/Thai. We guarantee that American, USA and Neutral) and the other languages spoken document pair alignment, recycles previous translations with clients’ projects will be handled not only by native speakers, in Spain (Catalan, Basque and Galician). Services range from context and provides an on-the-fly view of how ambiguous but also by topic specialists. Clients can expect and will receive translation and localization to engineering, testing, DTP and terms were previously translated. The Translation Bureau of high-quality services, on-time delivery and low cost. consulting. Specialization fields are software localization, Canada, international organizations such as UNESCO, and Beijing E-C Translation Ltd. 2nd Floor, Hua Teng Development technical and telecom documentation, ERP, automotive and corporations such as Toys“R”Us, Fidelity, Kraft, HSBC and Building, No. 23, Xi Huan Bei Road, BDA, Beijing Economic- related marketing material. We have all commercially avail- Pfizer have selected MultiTrans as their multilingual asset Technological Development Zone, Beijing 100176, P.R. China, 86- able tools and experience using many different proprietary management solution. 10-67868761, Fax: 86-10-67868765, E-mail: service@e-cchina customer platforms and solutions; internal workflow portal- .com, Web: www.e-cchina.com MultiCorpora 102-490 St. Joseph Boulevard, Gatineau, Quebec, based tools to reduce management costs and increase quality, J8Y 3Y7 Canada, 819-778-7070, 877-725-7070, Fax: 819-778- consistency and on-time deliveries; and continuous support 0801, E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.multicorpora.com to the client PMs and process optimization to achieve the best See ad on page 63 project results and establish long-term honest partnerships. iDISC Information Technologies Passeig del progrés 96, 08640 OCALIZATION ERVICES Olesa de Montserrat, Barcelona, Spain, 34-93-778-73-00, Fax: 34- L S Binari Sonori 93-778-35-80, E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.idisc.es Description Binari Sonori is a leading provider of international media localization services since 1994, with a unique team of project managers, studios, engineers and selected Search industry events at linguists spread over 30 countries worldwide. Solid procedures and transparent relationships with clients guarantee www.multilingual.com/calendar ADAPT Localization Services high quality of text, audio and video, timeliness and flexibil- Languages More than 50 Description ADAPT Localization ity. We are accustomed to working for global companies that Services offers the full range of services that enables clients need to reach a broad range of markets with their media and to be successful in international markets, from documenta- entertainment products. Specialized support for any media tion design through translation, linguistic and technical localization activity, from effective audio localization to inter- localization services, pre-press and publication management. national content creation. Highly professionalized one-stop Serving both Fortune 500 and small companies, ADAPT shop supporting today’s media localization projects. has gained a reputation for quality, reliability, technological Binari Sonori srl Viale Fulvio Testi, 11, 20092 Cinisello Balsamo, Milano, Italy, 39-02-61866-310, Fax: 39-02-61866-313, E-mail: translate competence and a commitment to customer service. Fields @binarisonori.com, Web: www.binarisonori.com See ad on page 19 of specialization include diagnostic and medical devices, IT/telecom and web content. With offices in Bonn, Germany, Stockholm, Sweden, and Barcelona, Spain, and a number of certified partner companies, ADAPT is well suited to help clients achieve their goals in any market. ADAPT Localization Services Clemens-August-Strasse 16-18, 53115 Bonn, Germany, 49-228-98-22-60, Fax: 49-228-98-22-615, E-mail: EuroGreek Translations Limited [email protected], Web: www.adapt-localization.com Language Greek Description Established in 1986, EuroGreek See ad on page 31 Translations Limited is Europe’s number one Greek localizer, specializing in technical and medical translations from English into Greek and Greek into English. EuroGreek’s aim is to provide high-quality, turnkey solutions, encompassing a whole range of client needs, from plain translation to desktop/web publishing to localization development and testing. Over the years, EuroGreek’s services have been extended to Alliance Localization China, Inc. (ALC) cover most subject areas, including German and French into Languages Major Asian and European languages Description Greek localization services. All of EuroGreek’s work is pro- ALC offers document, website and software translation and duced in-house by a team of 25 highly qualified specialists localization, desktop publishing, and interpreter services. and is fully guaranteed for quality and on-time delivery. We focus on English, German and other European languages EuroGreek Translations Limited to and from Chinese, Japanese, Korean and other Asian London 27 Lascotts Road, London, N22 8JG UK Athens EuroGreek House, 93 Karagiorga Street, Athens 16675, languages. We use TRADOS, CATALYST, SDLX, Transit Greece, 30-210-9605-244, Fax: 30-210-9647-077, E-mail: production@ and other CAT tools, as well as DTP tools including Corel- eurogreek.gr, Web: www.eurogreek.com See ad on page 49 Draw, FrameMaker, FreeHand, Illustrator, InDesign, Page- Maker, Photoshop and QuarkXPress. Our customer-oriented approach is supported by strong project management, a team of specialists, a large knowledge base and advanced method- ologies. We always provide service beyond our customers’ expectations at a low cost and with high quality, speed, dependability and flexibility. Alliance Localization China, Inc. Suite 318, Building B, Number 10 GrafiData, TMMIX Xing Huo Road, Fengtai Science Park, Beijing 100070, P.R. China, 86- Description GrafiData brings decades of experience to local- 10-8368-2169, Fax: 86-10-8368-2884, E-mail: customer_care@ izing your documentation. We offer solutions for multilin- allocalization.com, Web: www.allocalization.com gual publishing by efficiently applying various translation

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for various industries, including top-notch software engi- Japan and throughout Europe. To learn more, please visit neering and testing and DTP for all languages, including www.moraviaworldwide.com bidirectional and double-byte ones. The company is proud Moravia Worldwide New markets for your of its unique problem-solving skills and minimal support USA 199 East Thousand Oaks Boulevard, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360, products and solutions requirements. The company offers all European and Asian 805-557-1700, 800-276-1664, Fax: 805-557-1702, E-mail: info@ languages as well as many rare languages through its offices moraviaworldwide.com, Web: www.moraviaworldwide.com Janus Worldwide Inc. and established long-term partners. With its production site Asia 86-25-8473-2772, E-mail: [email protected] Languages Russian, ex-USSR and Eastern European lan- in Moscow, Russia, Logrus provides a winning combination Europe 420-545-552-222, E-mail: [email protected] guages Description Janus provides translation, localization, Ireland 353-1-216-4102, E-mail: [email protected] of quality, experience and affordability. With over 14 years DTP and linguistic consulting for Russian, Ukrainian and Japan 81-3-3354-3320, E-mail: [email protected] in business, the company has received multiple awards for other European languages. Our deep expertise, flexibility, See ad on page 21 excellence from its long-time customers, including IBM, diversity and exceptional value of services are recognized by Microsoft, Novell, Oracle and others. many industry-leading customers and partners worldwide. Our uniqueness is a solid team of the best professionals in all Logrus International Corporation Suite 305, 2600 Philmont Ave- nue, Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006, 215-947-4773, Fax: 215-947-4773, relevant areas — localization engineers, language specialists, E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.logrus.ru QA officers, DTP and software engineers, and more. We do it end-to-end — from servers to handhelds, from ERP to automotive solutions and from interface specifications to legal Promova notices. Janus is ISO 9001:2000 certified. Company activities Languages Major European languages into Russian and including translating, localizing, DTP and linguistic consult- Ukrainian Description Promova is a translation and local- ing were subjected to audit. Loquant Localization Services ization company based in Ukraine providing a full scope of Janus Worldwide Inc. Derbenevskaya nab., 11B, Ofﬁ ce 113, Moscow language-related services including translation, localization, 115114, Russia, 7-495-913-66-53, Fax: 7-495-913-66-53, E-mail: Languages English, Brazilian Portuguese Description Loquant [email protected], Web: www.janus.ru See ad on page 12 bases its operations on the experience of its founders and QA check, DTP, linguistic testing, copywriting and consult- collaborators, professionals who closely follow the ongoing ing. We focus on large-scale, long-term projects for clients evolution of technology and the latest processes in interna- with unique requirements. We offer professionalism and ISO tionalization and localization of information. Adhering to 9001-certified quality, integrate best-technology solutions on rigorous processes that were developed by the software local- the market, and ensure effective management and best time- ization industry during the last few decades, Loquant is able frames while adhering to even the tightest budgets. to prepare the most diverse products for the primary world Promova Velyka Goncharivska 9, 18, Kharkiv 61052, Ukraine, 38-057- markets. To do this, Loquant counts on the best project man- 760-14-13, Fax: 38-057-372-89-27, E-mail: [email protected], Lingo Systems, Translation & Localization Web: www.promova.com.ua Languages 170+ Description Lingo Systems, powered by agers, native translators, engineers and desktop publishers to Language Line Services, provides customer-focused sole-source guarantee a quality control recognized internationally by the solutions for global companies in 170+ languages. We special- main international standards organizations. ize in the translation and localization of technical documen- Loquant Localization Services Rua Luís Carlos Prestes, 410/114, 22775-055, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 55-21-2104-9597, Fax: 55-21- tation, software, multimedia applications, training materials, 2104-9597, E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.loquant.com e-learning solutions and online applications. Other globalization services include quality assurance testing (hardware and software), integration of content management solutions, inter- PTIGlobal pretation (170+ languages), cultural training and assessment, Languages All commercial languages for Europe, Asia and and internationalization consulting. Lingo Systems has never the Americas Description PTIGlobal is committed to de- caused a late release. No other firm makes this claim. For a free veloping ongoing, long-term partnerships with its clients. copy of our award-winning book, The Guide to Translation and This means a dedication to personal service, responsiveness, Localization — Communicating with the Global Marketplace, high-quality output, and sensitivity to clients’ cost goals and visit www.lingosys.com or call 800-878-8523. MO Group International Languages 40+ Description MO Group International, based timelines. Backed by over 30 years of experience in techni- Lingo Systems 15115 SW Sequoia Parkway, Suite 200, Portland, OR cal translation, PTIGlobal provides turnkey localization 97224, 503-419-4856, 800-878-8523, Fax: 503-419-4873, E-mail: in Brussels, Belgium, is a firm dedicated to supporting inter- [email protected], Web: www.lingosys.com See ad on page 9 national business needs. We understand the multilingual services in 30 languages simultaneously for software, web requirements of achieving international success and provide applications, embedded devices, wireless applications and you with the tools and services to achieve your unique business gaming technology. Projects employ our expertise in end-to- goals. In particular, we specialize in multilingual search engine end project management; internationalization consultation; optimization (SEO) and translation and localization of soft- glossary development; native language translation; multilin- ware, technical documentation, websites and games. We hire gual web content management; translation memory mainte- leading people from around the world to manage our diverse nance; localization engineering; linguistic and functionality LinguaGraphics — Multilingual DTP; Web, range of solutions and provide first-class customer service. MO testing; desktop publishing, complete multilingual video and Flash and Software Localization; Engineering Group International is the first multilingual SEO company to audio services, as well as onsite managed services. Languages All, including Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Farsi, enter the localization industry and offer the combined benefits PTIGlobal 4915 SW Grifﬁ th Drive, Suite 200, Beaverton, OR 97005, Greek, Hindi, Hebrew, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Lao, of SEO and localization to our diverse client base. 503-297-2165, 888-357-3125, Fax: 503-297-0655, E-mail: info@ ptiglobal.com, Web: www.ptiglobal.com See ad on page 11 Punjabi, Russian, Thai, Turkish, Urdu and Vietnamese MO Group International Gulledelle 94, 1200 Brussels, Belgium, 32- Description LinguaGraphics is a leading provider in the 2-771-19-12, Fax: 32-2-772-20-97, E-mail: [email protected], area of multilingual desktop publishing and web/soft- Web: www.mogi.eu.com ware/Flash localization engineering. Our seasoned DTP professionals and localization engineers are working with the latest tools on top-of-the-line equipment to produce a wide range of projects in InDesign, FrameMaker, QuarkXPress, Photoshop and Flash. We specialize in typesetting high-end SAM Engineering GmbH marketing and communications-type material in difficult Languages All Description Global challenges require flex- and rare languages at very competitive rates. For a quote on ible and experienced service providers. Take advantage of your next project, please visit us at www.linguagraphics.com. Moravia Worldwide our experience and know-how and make your product a You have our word that we will never compromise on qual- Languages All Description Moravia Worldwide is a leading worldwide success. Products and services can only be mar- ity and do the utmost to make your project a success. globalization solution provider, enabling companies in the keted successfully if they have been localized to the local and LinguaGraphics, Inc. 194 Park Place, Brooklyn, NY 11238, 718- information technology, e-learning, life sciences and finan- cultural conditions of the target country. Our team of expe- 623-3066, 718-789-2782, E-mail: [email protected], Web: cial industries to enter global markets with high-quality mul- rienced project managers coordinates translators, software www.linguagraphics.com tilingual products. Moravia’s solutions include localization specialists and DTP experts, ensuring that the individual and product testing services, internationalization, multilin- localization processes are performed professionally for our gual publishing and technical translation. Hewlett-Packard, clients. Using tried-and-tested project management methods IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Sun Microsystems and Symantec and the latest TM technology, our team ensures that dead- are among some of the companies that depend on Moravia lines are met and budgets adhered to, while also providing Worldwide for accurate, on-time localization. Moravia the highest standards of quality. Logrus International Corporation Worldwide maintains global headquarters in the Czech SAM Engineering GmbH Kirchstrasse 1, D-64367 Muehltal, Germany, Languages EE, EA, ME, WE, rare languages Description Republic and North American headquarters in California, 49-6151-9121-0, Fax: 49-6151-9121-18, E-mail: sam@sam- Logrus offers a full set of localization and translation services with local offices and production centers in Ireland, China, engineering.de, Web: www.sam-engineering.de See ad on page 49

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PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLS

VistaTEC Tek Translation International Languages All Description VistaTEC is a leading provider Languages All Description Tek provides localization solu- of globalization services and specializes in the localization tions that are tailored to the life sciences, IT and manufactur- and testing of enterprise, mobile and desktop applications. ing industries. Delivering services through our collaborative VistaTEC provides translation, technical consulting, engi- Projetex: Project Management Software project management system, the Tek OneWorld Platform, neering and testing during the design, development and for Translation Agencies we streamline the localization process resulting in reduced marketing cycles of software products. VistaTEC has head- ® Windows cost. Powered by SAP , this flexible, on-demand platform quarters in Dublin, Ireland, and satellite offices in the United provides the sophisticated business intelligence you need Languages English, Bulgarian, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese States. Additional information on VistaTEC is available at (Taiwan), Dutch, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Pol- to help you get more out of your globalization strategies. www.vistatec.ie Since 1961 we have helped customers meet their global ish, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazil), Romanian, Russian, VistaTEC Slovak, Spanish, Ukrainian Description Projetex 7.0 is a lead- business goals by providing specialized, easy-to-customize Europe VistaTEC House, 700 South Circular Road, Kilmainham, solutions. Today, we are using new technologies to ever ing project management and workflow solution employed by Dublin 8, Ireland, 353-1-416-8000, Fax: 353-1-416-8099, E-mail: 300-plus small and medium-sized translation agencies around improve that same customer focus and care. Contact us: [email protected], Web: www.vistatec.ie [email protected]; [email protected]; riodejaneiro USA East 2706 Loma Street, Silver Spring, MD 20902, 301-649-3012, the world. Managing directors, project managers, accountants, @tektrans.com; [email protected]; gothenburg@tektrans Fax: 301-649-3032, E-mail: [email protected] in-house translators, human resources managers and sales .com; [email protected]; [email protected] USA West 131 Shady Lane, Monterey, CA 93940, 831-655-1717, managers dramatically increase their efficiency with Projetex. Fax: 831-372-5838, E-mail: [email protected] Current deployments range from 2 to 100 workstations, with Tek Translation International C/ Ochandiano 18, 28023 Madrid, See ad on page 20 Spain, 34-91-414-1111, Fax: 34-91-414-4444, E-mail: sales@ tested capacities of up to 500. Use does not require additional tektrans.com, Web: www.tektrans.com components. It includes built-in AnyCount (word and character count software) and CATCount (computer-assisted translation tool for easy word count). Reasonable pricing, fast implementation and free technical support are included. Advanced International Translations, Ltd. Suite 1, Tolstogo 15 Street, 01033 Kyiv, Ukraine, 380-44-288-11-45, Fax: 380-44-288-11-52, WhP E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.projetex.com Languages All European and major Middle Eastern and TOIN Corporation Asian languages, including local variants Description WhP, Languages Japanese, Traditional and Simplified Chinese, a major supplier for the industry-leading corporations, SPEECH TECHNOLOGIES Korean, Malay, Thai, Vietnamese and European languages localizes software, documentation and web content. WhP Description TOIN is a solidly established Asian MLV with has been benchmarked “Best Localization Vendor” by more than 45 years’ experience. Our services encompass trans- Compaq. Clients specifically appreciate WhP’s dedication lation, localization engineering, DTP, MT post-editing, work- to high quality and strict respect of deadlines and, conse- flow/process consulting and project management. TOIN offers quently, entrust WhP with their most sensitive projects. global reach and exceptional strength in Asia, with headquar- WhP also helps many fast-growing companies to get their ters in Tokyo and additional operations in the United States, first localization projects smoothly off the ground. WhP’s Europe, China and Korea. The company has been helping AppTek flexible and open workflow technology adapts to any pro- Languages Arabic, Bahasa, Dari, Dutch, Egyptian dialect, Global 1000 companies in industries such as automotive, IT, duction process. WhP’s high standards satisfy the most telecommunications, life sciences, e-learning, computer soft- English, Farsi/Persian, French, German, Hebrew, Iraqi dialect, demanding globalization requirements. Italian, Japanese, Korean, Pashto, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, ware/gaming, semiconductors and consumer products. WhP Espace Beethoven BP102, F06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, TOIN Corporation Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Tagalog, Traditional Chinese, France, 33-493-00-40-30, Fax: 33-493-00-40-34, E-mail: info@ Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu Description AppTek is a developer Japan Shiba 1-chome Building, 1-12-7 Shiba, Minato-ku, Tokyo whp.fr, Web: www.whp.net, www.whp.fr 105-0014 Japan, 81-3-3455-8764, Fax: 81-3-3455-6514, E-mail: of human language technology products with a complete [email protected], Web: www.to-in.co.jp suite for text and speech (voice) processing and recognition. North America Minneapolis, MN, 612-926-0201, E-mail: aki-ito@ OCALIZATION OOLS AppTek’s product offerings include hybrid (rule-based + sta- to-in.co.jp, Web: www.to-in.com L T tistical) machine translation (MT) and automatic speech rec- Europe London, UK, 44-20-8644-8685, E-mail: michael-stephenson ognition (ASR) for a growing list of more than 23 languages; @to-in.co.jp, Web: www.to-in.com China Shanghai, 86-21-3222-0012, E-mail: [email protected], multilingual information retrieval with query and topic search Web: www.to-in.com capabilities; name-finding applications; and integrated suites providing ASR and MT in media monitoring of broadcast and telephony speech, as well as handheld and wearable speech- to-speech translation devices. Software Localization Solutions by Schaudin.com AppTek 6867 Elm Street, Suite 300, McLean, VA 22101, 703-394-2317, Windows Fax: 703-821-5001, E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.apptek.com Languages All languages supported by Microsoft Description Make your software multilingual with the extensive function- Ushuaia Solutions ality, convenient quality control features and advanced transla- RANSLATION ERVICES Languages Spanish (all varieties), Portuguese (Brazil) Des- T S tion support found in Schaudin.com’s RC-WinTrans software cription Ushuaia Solutions is a fast-growing Latin American localizer, used by successful businesses worldwide since 1993. company providing solutions for translation, localization This tool makes it possible to quickly and easily translate soft- and globalization needs. Ushuaia Solutions is focused on ware GUI elements (for software created with Windows Win32, being creative and proactive to meet tight time frames with Microsoft .NET, and Java software development platforms), a high-quality level and a cost-effective budget. Customizing while ensuring that the software continues to run properly in its processes, Ushuaia assures project consistency and tech- other languages. RC-WinTrans can be used by all the members nical and linguistic accuracy, thus reducing clients’ time- CETRA Language Solutions of your team, even those with little knowledge of software lo- Languages All Description CETRA gives you peace of mind to-market. Ushuaia combines state-of-the-art technology calization, and provides them with everything needed to man- with top-notch experienced native translators, editors and because it delivers high-quality, on-time, cross-cultural com- age, exchange, translate and check software data. munications and professional, friendly, responsive service. software engineers. Our mission is to work together with our Schaudin.com Software Localization Solutions CETRA follows the ASTM Quality Assurance in Translation clients, thereby creating a flexible, reliable and open relation- Europe Ritterseestrasse 29, 64846 Gross-Zimmern, Germany, 49- and Language Interpretation Services standard guides. As ship for success. 6071-951706, Fax: 49-6071-951707 a member of the US delegation to ISO, CETRA is actively Ushuaia Solutions Rioja 919, S2000AYK Rosario, Argentina, 54- USA 6900 California Avenue SW, #503, Seattle, WA 98136, 206- 341-4493064, Fax: 54-341-4492542, E-mail: info@ushuaia 935-5070, Fax: 206-935-5075, E-mail: [email protected], Web: involved in developing an international translation qual- solutions.com, Web: www.ushuaiasolutions.com See ad on page 23 www.schaudin.com See ad on page 35 ity standard. CETRA is involved in the language industry at the highest level, with the company president serving in leadership positions at the American Translators Association, American Foundation for Translation and Interpretation, Participate in discussions about the global language and Fédération Internationale des Traducteurs. CETRA, Inc. 7804 Montgomery Ave., Suites 8-10, Elkins Park, PA industry at www.multilingualblog.com 19027, 215-635-7090, 888-281-9673, Fax: 215-635-6610, E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.cetra.com

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technology and measurable translation quality in a process that comprehensive project management processes that cover is both robust and completely scalable, ensuring your projects translations, proofreading, editing and desktop publishing are finished on time and within budget. For more informa- (QuarkXPress, InDesign, PageMaker, FrameMaker), and our tion on how we can help meet your translation requirements experience with CAT tools (TRADOS, SDLX) allow us to or for a quote on your next translation project, please contact provide a premium quality service in accordance with the CPSL us directly or visit our website at www.fxtrans.com provisions of ISO 9001:2000 standard to which we were certi- Languages All Description CPSL enables international com- ForeignExchange Translations 411 Waverley Oaks Road, Suite 315, fied in May 2005. panies from different industry sectors to effectively commu- Waltham, MA 02452, 866-398-7267, 781-893-0013, Fax: 781- Lido-Lang Technical Translations ul. Walerego Slawka 3, 30-653 nicate their products and services to global audiences. Our 893-0012, E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.fxtrans.com Krakow, Poland, 48-12-2546-123, Fax: 48-12-2546-122, E-mail: services cover the full life cycle of multilingual general and offi [email protected], Web: www.lidolang.com technical content, starting with its creation, the linguistic and cultural adaptation through to publishing in different formats and means of communication. Among our services are translation, web and software localization; DTP, electronic publishing and printing; interpretation, technical writing and consultancy. CPSL is an ISO-approved company pro- Hermes Traducciones y LinguaLinx Language Solutions, Inc. viding high-quality language solutions to more than 1,000 Servicios Lingüísticos, S.L. companies on three continents, many of them leaders within Languages All Description LinguaLinx is a full-service trans- Languages Spanish, Portuguese (Continental and Brazilian), their industries. lation and localization agency specializing in the adaptation English, French, Italian, German and other languages CPSL Edifi cio Imagina, Av. Diagonal, 177, 3º, 08018 Barcelona, Spain, of marketing and communications materials into most of the 34-902-363-085, 214-432-6114, Fax: 34-933-000-040, E-mail: on demand Description Established in 1991, Hermes world’s languages. Our enterprise language solutions range [email protected], Web: www.cpsl.com See ad on page 42 Traducciones is a leading Spanish translation company, from glossary development and maintenance to translation specializing in software and hardware localization and memory deployment and global content management. In also undertaking a broad range of other translation proj- today’s highly competitive global environment, it is becoming ects. Comprehensive in-house translation teams include increasingly difficult to differentiate one translation agency translators, reviewers and linguists with an expertise in from another. We stand apart by taking the most proactive Spanish and Portuguese, a knowledge of CAT tools, and approach to quality in the industry, utilizing stringent project a commitment to deliver cost-efficient, reliable and high- management procedures, offering one of the most aggressive quality services to customers. Hermes Traducciones is a rate structures available and applying a sincere dedication to Eriksen Translations Inc. member of the International Committee for the creation providing the best possible service. Languages All Description Eriksen Translations Inc. is a lead- of the European Quality Standard for Translation Services. LinguaLinx Language Solutions, Inc. The LinguaLinx Building, 122 ing provider of multilingual services, including translation, Hermes Traducciones also organizes university courses on Remsen Street, Cohoes, NY 12047, 518-388-9000, Fax: 518-388- 0066, E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.lingualinx.com interpreting, typesetting, project management, web localiza- localization and translation. Hermes Traducciones y Servicios Lingüísticos, S.L. C/ Cólquide, tion and cultural consulting. For over 20 years, Eriksen has o helped a broad range of organizations in both the public and 6 - planta 2 - 3. I, Edifi cio “Prisma”, 28230 Las Rozas, Madrid, Spain, 34-916-407640, Fax: 34-916-378023, E-mail: hermestr@ private sectors excel across print, desktop and web environ- hermestrans.com, Web: www.hermestrans.com See ad on page 52 ments in the domestic global marketplace. With a worldwide network of over 5,000 linguists, a commitment to leading technologies, and an in-house staff dedicated to tailoring our proven project management process to the individual needs Medical Translations Only of each client, Eriksen is your globalization partner. Languages All European languages and Japanese Description Eriksen Translations Inc. 32 Court Street, 20th Floor, Brooklyn, NY MediLingua is one of the few medical translation specialists 11201, 718-802-9010, Fax: 718-802-0041, E-mail: [email protected], in Europe. We only do medical. We provide all European lan- Web: www.eriksen.com KERN Global Language Services guages (36 today and counting) and Japanese as well as translation-related services to manufacturers of devices, instruments, Your language partner in vitro diagnostics and software; pharmaceutical and bio- Languages All Description KERN Global Language Services technology companies; medical publishers; national and is a leading provider in the area of global communication international medical organizations; and other customers in with over 35 offices worldwide. With more than 30 years of the medical sector. Projects include the translation of docu- experience, our services include translation and interpreting mentation for medical devices, surgical instruments, hospital in all languages; software, multimedia and website localiza- equipment and medical software; medical information for Follow-Up Translation Services tion; terminology management; multilingual desktop pub- patients, medical students and physicians; scientific articles; Languages English, Brazilian Portuguese Description Our lishing; and individual and corporate language training in all press releases; product launches; clinical trial documentation; company was founded in 1989, with the purpose of offer- major languages. KERN has established itself as a preferred medical news; and articles from medical journals. ing pure translation work in technical and scientific areas. insourcing and outsourcing solution provider for language MediLingua Medical Translations BV Poortgebouw, Rijnsburger- Along the way, we have developed several other skills in the services. We serve clients in all industry sectors, including weg 10, 2333 AA Leiden, The Netherlands, 31-71-5680862, Fax: 31- translation world, which involve specialized knowledge of the automotive, medical, pharmaceutical, chemical, IT and 71-5234660, E-mail: [email protected], Web: www IT resources and localization tools. We also master patent financial services industries. To learn more about us, please .medilingua.com See ad on page 49 translations in fields such as biochemistry, mechanics, medi- visit www.e-kern.com cine, pharmaceutics, oil and gas, and telecommunications. KERN Global Language Services Today, we are capable of taking on virtually any translation/ USA 230 Park Avenue, Suite 1517, New York, NY 10169, 212-953- localization project from English into Brazilian Portuguese, 2070, Fax: 212-953-2073, E-mail: [email protected] and we treat each and every customer with the maximum Europe Kurfuerstenstrasse 1, 60486 Frankfurt/Main, Germany, 49- care and attention. Our clients’ trust is our greatest asset and 69-7560730, Fax: 49-69-751353, E-mail: [email protected] the medical information company our greatest pride! China Right Emperor Commercial Building, Unit B, 11/F, 122-126 Wellington Street, Central, Hong Kong, SAR China, 852-2850-4455, Follow-Up Rua Visconde de Pirajá, 351, Sala 815, Rio de Janeiro, mt-g — the medical information company Fax: 852-2850-4466, E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.e-kern.com RJ 22410-003 Brazil, 55-21-3553-7223, Fax: 55-21-3553-7223, Languages All Description mt-g is the leading provider of E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.follow-up.com.br translations and global information services dedicated to the medical science. We specialize primarily in medical technology and diagnostics, regulatory affairs, dental medicine and other specialist medical fields. We offer a range of professional services covering translation, information production, global information management and XML documentation applications. At its head office in Ulm and its branch in Munich, 36 Lido-Lang Technical Translations salaried staff deliver solutions for information processes in ForeignExchange Translations Languages All Description Established in Poland in 1991, medical science. More than 680 medical and pharmaceutical Languages 42 languages and growing Description Foreign- Lido-Lang has expertise in technical translations into Central experts in over 100 countries are engaged in translating, pro- Exchange is the global leader in providing translation services and Eastern European languages. We also possess in-depth ducing, managing and documenting medical information. to life sciences companies. We work with many of the biggest experience in the following fields: economics, law, medicine mt-g medical translation GmbH & Co. KG Eberhard-Finckh- pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers, and IT, providing translations in nearly all European and Strasse 55, 89075 Ulm, Germany, 49-731-17-63-97-0, Fax: 49- biotech companies and CROs. Our proprietary Multilingual Asian language combinations. Our global network of more 731-17-63-97-50, E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.mt-g.com Compliance Process combines expert linguists, best-of-breed than 1,000 approved and highly qualified translators, our See ad on page 13

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ideal and esteemed global technical communications partner. language elements into your business. For 19 years, we’ve We specialize in multilingual translation and DTP, technical offered proven expertise in all major fields of industry, writing service, software localization, web globalization and delivered by accomplished, experienced professionals. All so on. We provide our clients with a one-stop production of this means that you get the ultimate in customer care line, starting with the authoring of documents, and going on and the best value for your project dollars. Neotech to localizing, designing, editing and digital publishing. With Syntes Language Group, Inc. 7465 East Peakview Avenue, Centennial, Languages From major European languages into Russian, this business direction, we are striving to grow into and excel CO 80111, 888-779-1288, 303-779-1288, Fax: 303-779-1232, Ukrainian, Kazakh and Azeri Description Neotech is the larg- as a leader based on IT solutions such as CAT and Workflow E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.syntes.com est translation company in Russia and CIS countries, offer- in the global technical communications market. ing a full range of linguistic services to global corporations. Saltlux Inc. Deok-il Bldg., 967 Daechi-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul Neotech is the first translation company on the Russian 135-848, Korea, 822-3402-0081, Fax: 822-3402-0082, E-mail: market that has certified its quality management system to [email protected], Web: www.saltlux.com international ISO 9001:2000 standards. Neotech’s key areas of expertise are in the oil and gas industries, auto manufacturing, information technologies and telecommunications. TripleInk Multilingual Communications The business techniques introduced and applied by the com- Languages All major commercial languages Description As pany currently serve as the best practice within the transla- a multilingual communications agency, TripleInk has pro- tion industry. Neotech is leading the drive to continuously vided industrial and consumer products companies with develop translation market standards and to implement new Skrivanek s.r.o. precise translation and multilingual production services for levels of business and interpersonal communications into the Languages All, with a focus on Central and Eastern Europe audio-visual, online and print media since 1991. Our expe- translation industry within Russia and abroad. Description Skrivanek is a world leader in providing a wide rience in adapting technical documentation and marketing Neotech 23/1 Matrosskaya Tishina, Moscow, Russia, 7-495-787- range of language services, specifically translations span- communication materials covers a wide range of industries, 3331, Fax: 7-495-787-1189, E-mail: [email protected], Web: www including biomedical and health care; building and con- .neotech.ru See ad on page 34 ning a multitude of languages and the effective localization of products on international markets. Established in 1994, struction; financial services; food and agriculture; high- Skrivanek has managed to dominate the European transla- tech and manufacturing; and hospitality and leisure, as well tion market, creating a network of 53 branches covering as government and nonprofit organizations. Using a total 14 countries. Its well-stocked staff of professional transla- quality management process and state-of-the-art software tors, experienced project managers and dedicated software and equipment, our team of foreign language professionals engineers and DTP specialists has enabled Skrivanek to pro- delivers the highest quality translations in a cost-effective vide outstanding quality translation and localization services and time-efficient manner. Rheinschrift GbR TripleInk 60 South 6th Street, Suite 2600, Minneapolis, MN 55402, Language German to/from major European languages in any conceivable language and volume, creating an enviable clientele representing major leading corporations in various 612-342-9800, 800-632-1388, Fax: 612-342-9745, E-mail: info@ Description Professional globalization requires experience. tripleink.com, Web: www.tripleink.com Over the past two decades, we have developed into a top industries. Skrivanek’s quality of service is backed by EN ISO international company specializing in the precise tuning of 9001:2001 certification. your documentation and texts to the standards and mentali- Skrivanek s.r.o. International Project Management Centre, Na ties of the German-speaking world. Our strength lies in our Dolinách 22, CZ 147 00 Prague 4, 420-233-320-560, Fax: 420-241- 090-946, E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.skrivanek.com work for well-known software and hardware manufacturers. Furthermore, we also offer traditional translation services for the business, technology, legal and medical sectors. Our team of competent employees provides the very best quality within The Polish Language Specialists the respectively agreed time frame, even if matters are a little Languages From major European languages into Polish more urgent. Description Wratislavia Translation House Sp. z o.o. is a Rheinschrift Übersetzungen Best & Steigerwald GbR Rolshover Polish translation agency established in Wrocław in 2005, Strasse 99, 51105 Cologne, Germany, 49-221-80-19-28-0, Fax: 49- 221-80-19-28-50, E-mail: [email protected], Web: www SpanSource comprised of 15 in-house translation professionals and in .rheinschrift.de See ad on page 49 Languages Focus on Spanish and Portuguese, other lan- cooperation with numerous seasoned, properly selected and guage combinations through partners Description Span- prepared translators. Our comprehensive service portfolio Source provides translation, localization and related includes translation, editing, proofreading and project man- services from Western European languages into all regional agement in the following fields: IT, technical, legal, finan- varieties of Spanish as well as other language combina- cial and business. We are experts in SAP translation — SAP tions through our network of select SLV partners. Our systems, documentation, training materials — and related domain focus is on software and hardware, heavy machin- services, including preparation of documentation using ery and automotive, legal and financial, medical and life SAP Tutor. Graphic services include DTP, transcreation and Translation and localization into Polish sciences, oil and gas, corporate training and educational graphic preparation. Our strict quality procedures and us- Language Polish Description Ryszard Jarza Translations materials. Our comprehensive service portfolio includes age of CAT tools allow us to deliver high-quality products is an established provider of specialized Polish translation, unparalleled desktop publishing and multimedia localization within tight deadlines. localization and DTP services, primarily for life sciences, IT, engineering support for e-learning materials. Our in-house Wratislavia Translation House Sp. z o.o. ul. Powstan´c´ow S´l. 28/30, automotive, refrigeration and other technology sectors. We staff of 35 includes project managers, senior linguists, desk- 53-333 Wrocław, Poland, 48-1-33-50-512, Fax: 48-71-33-50-511, E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.wth.pl work with multilanguage vendors and directly with docu- top publishers, software engineers and graphic designers, mentation departments of large multinational customers. who prove to be fundamental in SpanSource’s centralized, Our in-house team (12 full-time specialists) is comprised customer-centric approach. of experienced linguists with medical, engineering and SpanSource SRL Santa Fe 1264, 1ºB, Rosario, S2000ATR Argentina, TRANSLATION TOOLS IT backgrounds. We guarantee a high standard of quality 54-341-527-5233, Fax: 54-341-527-0035, E-mail: info@span while maintaining flexibility, unparalleled responsiveness source.com, Web: www.spansource.com and reliability. Ryszard Jarza Translations ul. Barlickiego 23/22, 50-324 Wroclaw, Poland, 48-601-728018, Fax: 48-71-3414441, E-mail: info@jarza .com.pl, Web: www.jarza.com.pl See ad on page 49 TextBase meets Translation Memory Multiple Platforms Languages All Unicode languages Description MultiCorpora Syntes Language Group, Inc. provides language technology solutions to enterprises, LSPs Languages All Description Syntes Language Group is a and governments. As the independent language technol- leading quality provider of customized language solu- ogy experts, MultiCorpora empowers organizations to better tions to business, government and professional clients. We manage linguistic assets and transform translation expenses Localization and Globalization Partner deliver a full line of services in translation, interpreting and into reusable assets regardless of whether organizations Languages 50, including English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean conference coordination; product, software and website outsource their translations or handle them internally. Description Saltlux was founded in 1979 as the first localiza- localization; desktop publishing; multimedia production MultiTrans is a client-server application that pioneered the tion and globalization service provider in Korea. With over 30 and voiceovers; and consultation in both project-specific Advanced Leveraging TM concept which features hassle-free years of accumulated experience and know-how, Saltlux is an and long-term planning for the incorporation of foreign document pair alignment, recycles previous translations with

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context and provides an on-the-fly view of how ambiguous document management and integrates translation software, terms were previously translated. The Translation Bureau of financial accounting systems and existing software environ- Canada, international organizations such as UNESCO, and ments for LSPs, translation and documentation departments, corporations such as Toys“R”Us, Fidelity, Kraft, HSBC and organizations, institutions and government agencies. Plunet Pfizer have selected MultiTrans as their multilingual asset BusinessManager impresses with its significant time and management solution. Solutions for Translation, Terminology, money savings, unrivalled high adaptability to individual MultiCorpora 102-490 St. Joseph Boulevard, Gatineau, Quebec, Full-text and Bitext Management workflows, optimal quality control and effective project, J8Y 3Y7 Canada, 819-778-7070, 877-725-7070, Fax: 819-778- Windows and Web time and contact management. Functions include quotation 0801, E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.multicorpora.com Languages Windows: All Roman alphabet; LogiTermWeb- costing, order/job/workflow management, schedule manage- See ad on page 63 Plus: Unicode Description A single software package to ment, document management, invoicing, financial reports, manage your terminology and databanks. Efficient and effec- contact management and customer acquisition. tive consultation of terms and texts. The most robust align- Plunet GmbH Prenzlauer Allee 214, 10405 Berlin, Germany, 49-30- ment tool on the market. More consistent use of terminology 322971340, Fax: 49-30-322971359, E-mail: [email protected], Web: and phraseology in-house and by freelancers. Internal and www.plunet.de external repetition detection and pretranslation. The web version allows access to your terminology, bitexts and docu- SYSTRAN ments by translators, writers and subcontractors from any- Multiple Platforms where in the world. Languages 52 language combinations Description SYSTRAN Terminotix Inc. 240 Bank Street, Suite 600, Ottawa, ON, K2P 1X4 is the market leading provider of language translation soft- Canada, 613-233-8465, Fax: 613-233-3995, E-mail: termino@ ware products for the desktop, enterprise and internet that terminotix.com, Web: www.terminotix.com See ad on page 35 XTRF Management System facilitate communication in 52 language combinations and Multiple Platforms in 20 domains. With over three decades of expertise, research Languages All Description XTRF is a global management and development, SYSTRAN’s software is the choice of lead- WORKFLOW SOLUTIONS system for translation agencies. With built-in cutting-edge ing global corporations, portals and public agencies. Use of Java technology, XTRF is a flexible, customizable and web- SYSTRAN products and solutions enhances multilingual based software, enabling web access for a company’s suppliers communication and increases user productivity and time- and customers. It’s designed to help translation companies savings for B2E, B2B and B2C markets as they deliver real- to streamline all of their daily activities, and it guarantees time language solutions for search, content management, smooth management of the company while reducing admin- online customer support, intra-company communications istrative costs. Project management, invoicing, quotations, and e-commerce. ISO 9001 reports and CRM are the main fields covered by SYSTRAN Software, Inc. Plunet BusinessManager the system. Designed by translation and localization profes- North America 9333 Genesee Avenue, Plaza Level, Suite PL1, San Multiple Platforms sionals and created by the best IT team, this powerful tool Diego, CA 92121, 858-457-1900, Fax: 858-457-0648 Languages All Description Plunet BusinessManager is the Europe Paroi Nord - La Grande Arche, 1, Parvis de la Défense, 92044 will reduce the time spent on repetitive tasks and increase a Paris La Défense Cedex, France, 33-825-80-10-80, Fax: 33-1-46-98- complete management solution for the translation and company’s effectiveness. 00-59, E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.systransoft.com documentation industry. On a web-based platform, the sys- XTRF ul. Walerego Slawka 3, 30-653 Krakow, Poland, 48-12-2546- See ad on page 44 tem includes business management as well as process and 126, Fax: 48-12-2546-122, E-mail: [email protected], Web: www.xtrf.eu

Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation (Required by 39 USC 3685) 1. Publication Title: MultiLingual. 2. Publication Number: 1523-0309. 3. Filing Date: 9/28/2009. 4. Issue Frequency: Monthly except Apr+May, Jul+Aug, Oct+Nov bimonthly. 5. Number of Issues Published Annually: 9. 6. Annual Subscription Price: $58 in US; $85 International. 7. Mailing Address of Known Ofﬁ ce of Publication: 319 North First Avenue, Suite 2, Sandpoint, ID 83864-1403. 8. Mailing Address of Headquarters: 319 North First Avenue, Suite 2, Sandpoint, ID 83864-1403. 9. Publisher: Donna Parrish, MultiLingual Computing, Inc., 319 North First Avenue, Suite 2, Sandpoint, ID 83864-1403; Editor: Donna Parrish, MultiLingual Computing, Inc., 319 North First Avenue, Suite 2, Sandpoint, ID 83864-1403; Managing Editor: Laurel Wagers, MultiLingual Computing, Inc., 319 North First Avenue, Suite 2, Sandpoint, ID 83864-1403. 10. Owner: MultiLingual Computing, Inc., 319 North First Avenue, Suite 2, Sandpoint, ID 83864-1403; Donna Parrish, 1605 Westwood Dr., Sandpoint, ID 83864-6325; Charles Parrish, 1605 Westwood Dr., Sandpoint, ID 83864-6325. 11. Known bondholders, mortgagees and other security holders owning or holding 1% or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages or other securities: None. 12. Tax Status: Has not changed during preceding 12 months. 13. Publication Title: MultiLingual. 14. Issue Date for Circulation Data below: September, 2009. 15. Extent and Nature of Circulation (Average No. Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months followed by No. Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date). 15a. Total number of Copies (Net press run): 3401, 3064. 15b. Legitimate Paid and/or Requested Distribution: 15b1. Outside-County Paid/Requested Mail Subscriptions Stated on Form 3541: 982, 975. 15b2. In-County Paid/Requested Mail Subscriptions stated on PS Form 3541: 0, 0. 15b3. Sales Through Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors, Counter Sales, and Other Paid or Requested Distribution Outside USPS: 1636, 1709. 15b4. Other Classes Mailed Through the USPS: 223, 97. 15c. Total Paid and/or Requested Circulation: 2841, 2781. 15d. Nonrequested Distribution by Mail. 15d1. Outside-County Nonrequested Copies Stated on Form 3541: 0, 0. 15d2. In-County Nonrequested Copies Stated on Form 3541: 0, 0. 15d3. Nonrequested Copies Distributed Through the USPS by Other Class of Mail: 0, 0. 15d4. Nonrequested Copies Distributed Outside the Mail: 387, 10. 15e. Free Distribution Outside the Mail: 387, 10. 15f. Total Distribution: 3228, 2791. 15g. Copies not Distributed: 173, 273. 15h. Total: 3401, 3064. 15i. Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation: 88.01, 99.64. I certify that the statements made by me above are correct and complete. Donna Parrish. Number of readers of online digital version (as of reported issue, in addition to print): 1457. Average Readers per Printed Copy: 2.95. Total Readership: 11490, 10486.

COMPANIES ADVERTISING IN THE WRITING FOR TRANSLATION GETTING STARTED GUIDE

Across Systems GmbH...... www.across.net SDL ...... www.lspzone.com CEET Ltd...... www.ceet.eu SYSTRAN Software, Inc...... www.systransoft.com Clear Words Translations ...... www.clearwordstranslations.com Tedopres International, Inc...... www.simpliﬁ edenglish.net in FRENCH only inc./in SPANISH too! ...... www.translations.ca Tennessee Foreign Language Institute ...... www.tﬂ i.org Localization World Conferences ...... www.localizationworld.com TermNet ...... www.termnet.org MadCap Software, Inc...... www.madcapsoftware.com

ADVERTISER INDEX Across Systems GmbH 4, 64 KCSL Inc. 7 Rheinschrift GbR 49 ADAPT Localization Services 31 Kilgray 39 Ryszard Jarza Translations 49 American Translators Association 14 Lingo Systems 9 SAM Engineering GmbH 49 Binari Sonori srl 19 Lingotek 25 Schaudin.com 35 Biro 2000 30 Localization World 2 SDL 3 CPSL 42 MadCap Software, Inc. 35 STAR Group 10 E4NET 56 MediLingua Medical Translations BV 49 SYSTRAN Software, Inc. 44 EuroGreek Translations Limited 49 Moravia Worldwide 21 TAUS Data Association 38 Graﬁ Data 33 mt-g medical translation GmbH 13 Terminotix Inc. 35 Hermes Traducciones 52 MultiCorpora 63 TRSB 43, 45 Janus Worldwide Inc. 12 Neotech 34 Ushuaia Solutions 23 JFA Marketing 49 PTIGlobal 11 VistaTEC 20

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555-615-61 BBuyer'sGuideuyer'sGuide #107.indd#107.indd 6611 99/24/09/24/09 110:37:350:37:35 AMAM Tex Texin

Common industry practices are not best practices Takeaway

“WARNING! Detectable amounts of chemicals Sorting data according to native language rules can also be chal- known to the state of California to cause cancer, lenging. However, modifying the user interface to retrieve information based on numeric, timestamp or other nonlinguistic data is birth defects, or other reproductive harm, may often successful and avoids the more diffi cult sorting. be found in and around this facility.” The industry should emphasize modular source code that W encapsulates locale-sensitive routines. Companies can then Signs like this one are on the entrances of many buildings in Cali- outsource just those modules needing adaptation for new locales fornia. If the signs were rare, people would take their message seri- without revealing intellectual property or requiring localizers to ously. However, their ubiquity makes them superfl uous. You might learn the complete product architecture before making changes. take heed the fi rst time you see one, but eventually you will ignore Otherwise, costs can be prohibitive. the warnings. The signs have costs, though. Building owners must Erroneous recommendations are prevalent in the industry. Two decide on the need and logistics for them, visitors must evaluate the examples are the color recommendations by country and the per- actual risks, and the signs diminish California’s reputation. centage for text expansion by language. The symbolism of color Similarly, the globalization-internationalization-localization- depends strongly on context and application. For example, colors translation (GILT) industry hurts itself by promoting impractical on clothing, especially on uniforms, trigger different responses guidelines for software globalization. The additional diffi culty than the same colors on product packaging, fl ags, walls and so increases project costs unnecessarily. A consequence is that lack on. The best practice is to allow colors to be easily localized, if not of return on investment forces the cancellation of otherwise personalized. Meaningless tables of color signifi cance should not profi table globalization projects. be promoted as they are today. Recommendations developed for enterprise brands strive for cul- Similarly, average percentages for text expansion when trans- tural authenticity and the appearance of local manufacture. A large lating from one language to another are only meaningful for enterprise generally has vendor and localization project managers, large chunks of text. These values do not apply to software user linguists, globalization engineers, in-country product managers and interfaces. Many text elements that rely on specifi c placement other staff participating in global product development processes. and sizing will exceed the average expansion and confl ict with An enterprise has the expertise to know which guidelines it can other screen elements. Developers should make the user interface safely ignore or work around to reduce cost or time to market. It also as sparse as reasonably possible. Relying on a fi xed percentage for has fi scal and resource fl exibility if requirements are over-specifi ed. text expansion can require a redesign of many screens. This approach is unrealistic for small and medium-sized busi- The GILT industry should identify minimal requirements for nesses (SMB). An SMB often cannot fund market studies, exten- market entry and how to satisfy them, particularly evolving from sive reviews, quality assurance and so on. Therefore, the SMB relies legacy software. LSPs, in particular, must have a better under- on the advice of language service providers (LSPs) and partners to standing of real world market needs, as they are a crucial resource establish market requirements and solutions. This advice is often that SMBs look to for guidelines, cost and resource requirements. derived from the enterprise-level guidelines. Preaching ideals and overly complex or irrelevant requirements SMB recommendations should identify minimum requirements adds unnecessary risk and drives customers to avoid globalization in and the most fundamental practices and distinguish them from favor of competing priorities. Prescribe a more realistic cost of entry advanced guidelines. Misleading and erroneous guidelines should be for globalization, and more SMBs will go global and the industry eliminated. There are many substantial examples, but due to limita- will be more robust. The industry should defi ne and promote realis- tions of space, I can only provide a few simple ones here. tic best practices that satisfy market needs for minimal cost. M Modifying legacy software to support numerous locale-sensitive date formats can be expensive. For many applications and markets, the “yyyy-mm-dd” date format is acceptable. Revising software Tex Texin is the chief architect and globalization consultant for XenCraft. to support just this one additional format can lower cost and decrease time to market. To offer your own Takeaway, write to [email protected]

62 | MultiLingual October/November 2009 [email protected]

6622 TTakeawayakeaway ##107.indd107.indd 6622 99/24/09/24/09 12:36:1112:36:11 PMPM EXPERIENCE THE DIFFERENCE ADVANCED LEVERAGING TM TECHNOLOGY MAKES

WHY REPLACE OR COMPLEMENT YOUR EXISTING TM WITH MULTITRANS?

Reason number 25 (The ROI has been proven!)

MultiTrans Advanced Leveraging TM has the benefit of being field-tested by globally renowned brands, and according to the most recent test results from the TAUS Data Association, it identifies 30% more repetitions from previously translated documents than conventional translation memories. The adoption of MultiTrans by companies with billion-dollar revenues like RR Donnelley, Toys “R” Us, Ford Motor Company, and numerous government and multilateral organizations like UNESCO only demonstrates how this software is setting the new industry standard.

*For more reasons, visit www.multicorpora.com/reasons

Europe Tel.: +32 (0) 2.213.00.20

USA / Canada The Language Technology Experts: Tel.:+1 819.778.7070 Governments | Enterprises | Language Service Providers Toll Free: 1 877.725.7070

6633 MMultiCorporaultiCorpora aadd #107.indd#107.indd 6633 99/24/09/24/09 110:41:050:41:05 AMAM Always a step ahead!

NOW AVAILABLE! Across v5 Enterprise Language Technology meets Business Intelligence. Solution

Across Systems adapts the concepts of Business Intelligence for a new generation of translation management software. With Across v5 you » exploit full potential of your valuable language resources » gain full control of processes and workﬂ ows » collaborate with language service providers in a smooth linguistic supply chain.

Volkswagen and hundreds of other leading global organisations have already migrated to enterprise solutions from Across Systems. Call us today to learn how you can beneﬁ t from the all-in-one and end-to-end solutions for enterprises of all sizes, as well as for language service providers.

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

AZ_Across_V5_09-09_Mulitlingual.indd6644 AAcrosscross #107.indd#107.indd 6464 1 04.09.200999/24/09/24/09 14:38:43 10:43:1110:43:11 Uhr AMAM WRITING FOR TRANSLATION October/November 2009 GGETTINGETTING SSTARTEDTARTED: Guide

Planning and Writing ® for Translation

Optimizing the Source ® Using Translation Memory

Elements of Style ® for Machine Translation

Optimized MT for ® Higher Translation Quality

Controlled Authoring ® to Improve Localization

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Getting Started: Believe it or not, setting out to write lyrically Writing for Translation beautiful copy for a manual or even the web may not be the most straightforward way to Editor-in-Chief, Publisher Donna Parrish Managing Editor Laurel Wagers get to clear translation. These authors have some better ideas. Barb Sichel begins Assistant Editor Katie Botkin this Getting Started Guide with an overview on planning and writing for translation, Proofreader Jim Healey and then Joseph Campo offers the findings from a project using a translation tool to News Kendra Gray find already-translated phrases to write the original copy. Ken Clark gives a short Illustrator Doug Jones guide on writing for machine translation (MT), and Lori Thicke outlines why MT allows Production Sandy Compton for quality translation in the first place. Ultan Ó Broin finishes things with a discus- Editorial Board Jeff Allen, Julieta Coirini, sion on controlled authoring. Bill Hall, Aki Ito, Nancy A. Locke, The Editors Ultan Ó Broin, Angelika Zerfaß Advertising Director Jennifer Del Carlo

CONTENTS Advertising Kevin Watson, Bonnie Merrell Planning and Writing for Translation Webmaster Aric Spence Barb Sichel Technical Analyst Curtis Booker page 3 Data Administrator Cecilia Spence Barb Sichel, director of business development at International Language Assistant Shannon Abromeit Services, Inc., has over 25 years of sales, marketing and management experience. Subscriptions Terri Jadick Special Projects Bernie Nova Optimizing the Source Using Translation Memory Advertising [email protected] www.multilingual.com/advertising page 5 Joseph Campo 208-263-8178 Joseph Campo, a senior technical writer at Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Subscriptions, customer service, back issues Corporation in Concord, Massachusetts, has ten years of technical writing experience. [email protected] www.multilingual.com/subscribe Elements of Style for Machine Translation Submissions [email protected] Editorial guidelines are available at page 8 Ken Clark www.multilingual.com/editorialWriter Ken Clark, CEO of 1-800-Translate, worked previously as a journalist, Reprints [email protected] screenwriter and speech writer for Japanese and American government ofﬁ cials. This guide is published as a supplement to MultiLingual, the magazine about language Optimized MT for Higher Translation Quality technology, localization, web globalization and international software development. It may be page 9 Lori Thicke downloaded at www.multilingual.com/gsg Lori Thicke is cofounder and general manager of Lexcelera (formerly Eurotexte), established in 1986, as well as cofounder of Translators Without Borders. Controlled Authoring to Improve Localization page 12 Ultan Ó Broin Ultan Ó Broin, MultiLingual editorial board member and Blogos contributor, works for Oracle in Ireland. He has an MSc from Trinity College Dublin.

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GGETTINGETTING SSTARTEDTARTED:GuideWRITING FOR TRANSLATION Planning and Writing for Translation

BARB SICHEL

ocuments and online communica- involve translating warning labels and soft- graphics accessibility. Don’t plan to embed tions are translated to achieve spe- ware user interfaces. Again, to save money, words into layer upon layer of graphics. Your Dcific objectives. Your goal may be perhaps you can omit a section such as the translator may not be able to access them for to execute a global communication plan, corresponding parts list. If your customers translation at all or may be able to do so only meet regulatory requirements, avoid liabil- can’t order parts in Japanese by calling your at great expense to you. Plan to place your ity or drive revenue by addressing target customer service line, why provide a Japa- text labels beneath graphics rather than audiences in their native language. What- nese parts list? inside of them. Text must be “live,” that is, ever the outcome, you will need clear com- Understanding the intent and full scope accessible independently of the graphics in munication of a single message across all of your project will enable you to plan your order to be translated and reinserted in the of the languages involved to get there. budget and work with your translator to same position. Lately, cost considerations have become determine the correct order in which to The same concept applies to screen just as important as the accuracy of the proceed. A phased implementation may shots. Unless you translate your software translation. Consequently, writing for suc- be easiest to manage while allowing you first and provide new screen shots, the cessful translation today involves planning to complete the highest priority require- English copy locked within your graphics your project so that you can convey your ments first. cannot be accessed for translation. If you message within a reasonable budget. must use preexisting graphics, your translator may be able to recommend solutions Message and scope such as a reference table so that the reader First, and most obviously, decide what ranslation is can still understand your message. you need to communicate, and communi- T Too often, project costs are unnecessar- cate it as simply and directly as possible. a meticulous, ily high or the quality of the finished trans- Determine what is most relevant to your lation is compromised because translation target audience and what you must trans- skilled process was never considered when a document late to achieve your particular objectives. was originally created. Take the time to think your project similar in nature to through from the perspective of the recipi- Your copy ent, and do some research if you don’t technical writing. Simple, straightforward text is easiest to know the recipient’s perspective. Translat- translate. Say what you mean as concisely ing everything you publish in English may as possible. Word count is a key factor in not maximize the return on your translation Layout the cost of your translation, so, if possible, investment. You might not have the luxury For printed materials, properly planning keep sentences short and limited to a single of translating every one of your product your layout even before you start writing idea. If English copy already exists for your data sheets, for example, so focusing on copy can greatly influence the ease and pending translations, review and revise product line summary brochures instead cost of managing your project. Quite liter- the content. Formal copy style with correct may be less costly. If it is beyond your ally, it pays to understand which factors grammar, spelling and punctuation will be budget to translate your entire 200-page affect the cost and quality of your trans- most easily understood by your translator. employee manual, perhaps you can focus lation. Then you can craft your presenta- Consider also your audience’s education on only those critical policies most needed tion to achieve the desired outcome within level and communication style and then to protect your firm’s interests. your allotted budget. select the appropriate tone. Instructions to Some projects, such as catalog or web- A few things to consider are the choice a physician prescribing medication should site translations, may warrant the creation of desktop publishing application and lay- be written differently than instructions to of abbreviated or revised versions for target out. If this is going to be a printed docu- the patient taking the medication. audiences. Sections dealing with customer ment with color plates, you might look at Avoid words with double meanings and support or how to locate a sales represen- whether enough room is left for text expan- references or metaphors that may not tative, for instance, may need modification sion to accommodate any graphics. Text will make sense in other cultures. Don’t rely so that they are relevant in the geographic expand in some languages and may contract on buzzwords, abbreviations, industry locale in which they will be used. Other in others. This has implications for the font jargon, colloquial expression or humor. types of projects require translation of ancil- sizes and page margins you select, as well Create standardized text whenever pos- lary materials that may not immediately as graphics. Chinese characters that need sible. If you can reuse blocks of copy from come to mind. Technical documentation for to be reduced to a 6-point font in order to one document to the next, you will save large-scale industrial equipment may also fit on a page will be illegible. Also, check the time and money on your translations and

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ensure consistency across all of your writ- them. Provide files to your translator in the Timelines ten and online communications. same format you would like to receive back. Translation is a meticulous, skilled pro- If your content is highly technical in PDFs are fine for reference, but depend- cess similar in nature to technical writing. nature or your industry-specific terms are ing on the size of your document and the Though you provide the concept and the prone to multiple meanings, supply your application used, having the source files source files, your translator must take time translator with reference material or glos- available may significantly impact the time to fully comprehend your meaning and saries for key terms. Links to websites or to quote your project, the cost of your pro- find the best way to replicate the tone and product catalogs can minimize the need for ject and the appearance of the final out- content in his or her native tongue. Often research during the translation process. put. If you are working from hard copies there is research involved or requests for Some copy may not translate well or may or scanned documents, manual processes you to provide clarification. translate into some languages but not oth- will have to be employed that will similarly Your project involves much more than ers. Be particularly aware of this if you are affect your project. merely translation. Numerous details are creating ad copy or marketing materials. It Given the source files, most translation involved in preparing your files for trans- is worthwhile to check with your translator firms can replicate standard file formats, lation, gaining commitment from the best early, before you have invested heavily in even for software code. How you present qualified translators, proofreading, format- developing graphics or a tagline to accom- content for translation impacts cost, timeline ting and ensuring proper quality control. For pany your corporate logo. Choosing the and the ease of implementing your project. If multiple language translations, managing right words and the right images or colors you do any cutting and pasting at your end, your project becomes even more complex. for your presentation may make the differ- have your translator provide a “post-format If you make a single change, it needs to be ence between a seamless translation and review.” This ensures proper text flow and disseminated across teams of translators one that falls completely flat with your tar- the overall quality of your presentation be- and proofreaders for each language. get audience. fore you print or post it on the internet. Costs Allow realistic timelines for your pro- Acronyms should be avoided. The prob- for this service are usually nominal and can jects to be completed. A simple brochure lem in trying to translate an acronym is that prevent potential embarrassment. may take several days, while a 300-page once you translate the theme word, the Formatting foreign character sets on manual may take several weeks. Advise letters change and they no longer cross- your own can be a challenge, even for an your project manager in advance if you reference to the supporting ideas you experienced graphics person, and you must meet a specific deadline so that your want to convey in your target languages. may not have the right tool set. Languages project can be managed accordingly. A native-speaking translator is a good such as Arabic that read right to left require resource for spotting things that won’t special software versions and the ability Partnering with a vendor play well with your target audience. Basic to reorient everything on a page. It is best Since the quality of the translations you localization — gearing your translated not to attempt this on your own. publish reflects on you and your organiza- document to a particular country, region If you are translating software for user tion, establishing a comfortable working or target audience — is usually part of any interfaces, handheld LCD screens or similar relationship with your vendor is essential. well-executed translation project. Exten- uses, be prepared to answer questions about Carefully crafted branding strategies sive localization, to the point of creative your ability to handle foreign character sets, can be derailed in an instant by sloppy or strategizing, however, is a specialized space limitations and other factors that spe- inaccurate work. Even a single poorly cho- skill beyond the scope of typical transla- cifically affect these types of projects. sen word can alter your intended meaning. tion projects. If you suspect your project If you need to resize short translations And just imagine your customer purchas- requires an unusual amount of attention, to fit an ad or label, ask for an Adobe Illus- ing a piece of equipment only to find that check with your translator. trator EPS file that has been “outlined.” the documentation doesn’t make sense or Provide only fully proofread, final copy This provides the best of both worlds. It that the table of contents doesn’t match for translation. Drafts are fine for budget- is locked down like a graphic to eliminate the order of the text. You will rely on your ary quotes, but works-in-progress are the possibility of introducing errors during translation vendor to provide you with unsuitable for translation and will leave formatting, but leaves flexibility for resiz- accurate translations that are audience yours prone to errors, inconsistencies and ing. You can format the text to meet your appropriate and delivered, print ready, higher costs. If you intend to update docu- needs, even for a character set that you within the specified timeframe. You should ments later with new product models or may not have installed. also educate yourself as to their quality next year’s catalog, the level of attention Lastly, use the right application for your processes and experience level with pro- you devote to tracking changes and version project. Some applications play well with jects similar to yours so that you can move control now will be well worth your effort. the automated tools employed by trans- forward with full confidence. lation firms while others require a lot of While there is no single industry certi- Formatting manual manipulation. fication for translations, there are third Locate your source files for older docu- Microsoft Word works fine for short docu- parties such as TÜV or the American ments. This includes all of the desktop pub- ments, but FrameMaker may be a better Translators Association that provide qual- lishing and accompanying graphics files. choice for large manuals. If you use charts, ity testing and auditing. It is perfectly Are they with your graphics design firm or live embedded links or manually inserted acceptable to ask for credentials. In many archived somewhere within your organiza- multiple carriage returns, the level of diffi- cases, your own in-house quality policies tion? Your translator may not be able to rep- culty in working with your files for translation or regulatory requirements demand that licate your formatting and graphics without will increase, and this will impact your cost. you do. G

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GGETTINGETTING SSTARTEDTARTED:GuideWRITING FOR TRANSLATION Optimizing the Source Using Translation Memory

JOSEPH CAMPO

ow many times have you written largest chm, with approximately 2,000 A dual monitor setup was essential to this something and known that you topics. I went back in time and created an project. On my right monitor, I opened Work- Hwrote something similar, but can’t English TM. bench and ran topics individually through remember where it was or how it was writ- I collected 73 new and 39 changed top- the English TM to pretranslate them. On ten? If you could only find that text and ics that documentation had actually sent the left monitor, I opened the original HTML replicate it, you would save money and to the translation team during the Solid- topic that had been sent to translation. time for your translation team by reusing Works 2007 development cycle. I used the When I ran a topic through Workbench, it already-translated text strings and would Analyze tool in Workbench to obtain an provided a percentage match of the new text produce more consistent documentation. against the existing TM on a string-by-string This article describes a pilot project that basis. I used these suggestions to change tested a potential solution to this issue us- the English source text in HTML on the left ing translation memory (TM). he higher monitor and to improve the percentage of I hypothesized that if our technical writ- T fuzzy match. I also paid strong attention to ers could tie our authoring process into an percentage the trying to reduce the number of new words. English TM that contains already-translated After pretranslating each topic, I used text strings, we could find existing English fuzzy match, the the Analyze tool in Workbench to gauge text strings, reuse them on new topics and and record the amount of savings for each lower our translation costs. In effect, the lower the cost topic. When I completed pretranslating documentation team would pretranslate all the topics, I calculated the costs and their new English documentation to maxi- to translate savings using the research data. I also mize matches against existing English obtained a translation cost estimate from text strings before sending topics to the the text. our outsourcing localization vendor for the translators who use the same TM. now pretranslated topics. We would use the English (source language) TM to improve the quality of Results fuzzy matches and reduce the number of original estimate of a full-cost translation. In both Table 1 and Table 2, results show words. Fuzzy matches indicate a percent- I also obtained an original estimate for a a modest reduction in per-language transla- age match of new or changed text against full-cost translation for the same topics tion costs when comparing the original cost existing already-translated text. A higher from our outsourcing localization vendor, estimates to the cost estimates after using percentage fuzzy match means the text using German as the target language. Trados to research the TM (post-Trados). string more closely matches existing translated text. The higher percentage the fuzzy Original cost Post-Trados Savings match, the lower the cost to translate the project cost text. Totally new text strings are the most New topics $4,807.64 $4,301.79 $505.85 (10.5%) expensive to translate, so I tried to reduce new words used. Because we translate Changed topics $1,957.97 $1,554.78 $403.19 (20.6%) into 12 languages, there is a great potential for cost savings. Grand total $6,765.61 $5,856.57 $909.04 (13.4%) After approval of the pilot project, I worked with my manager to schedule two Table 1: Cost estimate — vendor full-cost translation (includes translation, review and layout/DTP). months of project time. The translation team manager provided me with a TM tool Post-Trados license — Trados, in my case — and I was Original cost project cost Savings ready to start the project after several days of training. New topics $4,463.57 $3,837.79 $625.78 (14.0%) $1,322.25 $1,049.49 $272.76 (20.6%) Project design Changed topics We use RoboHelp HTML to create online Grand total $5,785.82 $4,877.28 $898.54 (15.5%) help and deliver multiple compiled help files (chms). I chose the main SolidWorks Table 2: Cost estimate — Trados Workbench Analyze tool help to use in the pilot because it is our full-cost translation (includes translation, review and layout/DTP).

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Details — new topics: I created charts to display the percentages of fuzzy matches in the original versus the post-Trados topics. The post-Trados topics (Figure 1) showed an increase in the number of 100% matches and a decrease in the number of No Matches. In terms of percentages, there was also an increase in the number of 50%-74% fuzzy matches. The remaining fuzzy match ranges were approximately equal to or less than the percentages of the original new topics. • Total words reduced by 10% (2,028 words). • 100% match increased by 439 words. • No match reduced by 1,613 words. Details — changed topics: Changed topics are exis ting topics with changes to already- translated text. These charts revealed a similar trend as with new topics. In terms of percentages, the post-Trados changed topics showed an increase in the number of 100% matches of about 10%. The remaining fuzzy match ranges were less than the percentages of the original changed topics. Figure 1: Fuzzy matches in original versus post-Trados topics. Overall, there is a greater percentage of 100% matches and a smaller percentage of translation items require full-cost trans- savings of 12.2% for new topics. This no matches compared with the new topics. lation. She suggested we apply a differ- seemed like a reasonable compromise. ent cost metric to the other 50% of our Analysis outsourced translation items; this metric Savings projection The cost estimates are within accept- is called raw translation, which includes Outsourcing costs for a typical release able deviations that permit me to say that translation of the text only. The savings vary from $100,000 minimum to $400,000 the Analyze tool results are defensible. in percent are similar to full-cost transla- maximum, depending on how many new I discussed the deviation with a senior tion using the Analyze tool. Notably, for products and services requiring localiza- employee in our research department. new topics, raw translation saved 14.1% tion are added to our suite of products, Standard deviations are complex to calcu- while full-cost translation saved 14% their length, and the number of languages late and vary based on many parameters. (Table 4). supported. If the process was applied to When I provided the deviations, particularly For the purposes of this pilot, I decided to all new documentation that we send to for the new topics, the research employee split the difference between the outsourc- translation for outsourced localization, an felt that the 3.5% difference was within an ing localization vendor savings of 10.5% estimated cost savings of 12.2% (between acceptable deviation range (Table 3). and the Analyze tool full-cost translation $12,200 and $48,800) would be achieved I then met with the translation manager savings of 14% and to use an estimated (Table 5). to discuss the difference in costs between our outsourcing localization vendor and Original cost Post-Trados Savings the Analyze tool. The translation manager project cost confirmed that translation costs will vary New topics $2,409.98 $2,071.03 $338.95 (14.1%) depending on the vendor, the language, and the services provided. Having multiple Changed topics $ 815.93 $ 629.67 $186.26 (22.8%) variables makes it impossible to provide $3,225.91 $2,700.70 $525.21 (16.3%) an exact cost estimate to fit all situations. Grand total The translation manager informed me Table 4: Cost estimate — Trados Workbench Analyze tool that only about 50% of our outsourced raw translation (includes translation only).

New topics New topics Changed topics Changed topics Grand total Grand total savings deviation savings deviation savings deviation Vendor 10.5% 20.6% 13.4% 33.3% 0% 17.9% Analyze tool 14.0% 20.6% 15.8%

Table 3: Full-cost savings comparison/deviation between vendor and Analyze tool.

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Changed documentation is typically Outsourced localization SolidWorks translation localized by our in-house translation cost savings team time savings team, so for us there will be no “cost savings” per se. However, the translation New $12,200 to $48,800 n/a team would experience a time savings of Changed n/a 20.6% to 22.8% between 20.6% and 22.8% because of the increased quality and number of matches Table 5: Annual estimated savings if Trados as well as the reduced word count. is implemented for all new and changed documentation.

Pilot project conclusions to deal with localization issues during the to XML, this might be the perfect time to Using a TM tool is viable in pretranslation authoring stage, they are simply too over- examine your documentation in detail with only if we consider its value in increasing worked. . . . We often can’t get them to edit your translation costs in mind. the consistency and quality of documenta- their work, let alone reduce the word count One benefit I found was that while using tion. I could not justify using the tool on or make it consistent.” my TM tool, I was fully focused on reduc- just a cost-savings basis alone. I have been following the progress ing word count because I kept translation Savings were achieved by both reuse of of the SDLX AuthorAssistant (SDLXAA) as my main focus. Word reduction is hard existing text and aggressive word-count product, which seems similar to my pilot to achieve in normal writing mode because reduction. However, the anticipated trans- project. SDLXAA lets writers write, then the technical writer is normally not thinking lation savings only partially offset the runs the document against a TM to offer about it. According to Freij, “verbosity is the cost of the skilled writer’s time in editing. suggestions for improved matches and enemy. It pays to be concise and straight I spent approximately 30 minutes per topic reuse. According to Sue Blaisdell, informa- to the point, eliminating unnecessary text using my TM tool. tion architect at Avaya, “with AuthorAs- when localization is imminent. When writ- For the 73 new topics, I spent approxi- sistant, you can connect to TMs for your ing technical documents, remember that mately 37 writer hours. Using $50 cost project, and it will display 100% and fuzzy simplicity is also very much desired by the per writer hour, I spent $1,850 in time to matches to the writer. It also gives the end-user.” It is also important that your TM achieve only $625 savings in outsourcing writers insight into the way that changes be as clean as possible. costs. Labor costs were triple the savings they make in their English content affect What writers need is a TM tool that runs achieved, for one language. Actual cost the localization costs.” side-by-side with an authoring application savings are only achieved when factor- This pilot project indicates that transla- and can semi-automatically offer sugges- ing in that we translate into 12 languages. tion cost savings can be achieved using tions on how to better match new text Savings = total cost savings ($7,500) TM, but at a cost in labor and time. With to the existing TM. The development of – time spent ($1,850) = $5,650. If the TM usage, writers would become more pro- SDLXAA and Author-it’s new application tool were used to only search for reusable ficient with the system and save time. should give us hope that tools are becom- text (no word reduction), the results would Your company would have to be ready to ing available to bring technical writers and be even less impressive (estimated 2.4% absorb license and time costs. If you are translators closer together to achieve cost savings in outsourcing costs). going through a major restructuring of savings by leveraging valuable memory your documentation, perhaps upgrading resources. G Beyond the case study: related research I queried translation experts as to whether any similar projects had been undertaken. Authoring memory tools have been around for over ten years. An article by Jeff Allen UPCOMING EVENTS in 1999 discussed how authoring memory could be used in conjunction with controlled 2009 Know-how for Global Success language to aid in translation (www.transref .org/default.asp?docsrc=/u-articles/allen2 ■ October 20-22 .asp). The new Author-it product, for exam- ■ ple, uses fuzzy logic matching within a con- Hyatt Regency Santa Clara, Silicon Valley, California tent management system. I contacted Nabil Freij, president of GlobalVision, and accord- 2010 ing to him, this pilot project was a unique approach. The key to reducing localization ■ 7-9 June costs is to reduce word count. Some com- ■ Hotel Maritim proArte, Berlin, Germany panies are implementing controlled English to reduce word count, increase the 100% matches, and also to transition to machine ■ October 12-14 translation (MT). According to Freij, “MT ■ Bell Harbor Conference Center, Seattle, Washington engines can perform better under restricted and controlled vocabulary.” In his experience, “most tech pub writers do not want www.localizationworld.com ■ [email protected]

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KEN CLARK

e have entered the Machine Transla- • Don’t remove necessary words, and • Check your translation. So after closely tion Age. Demand for human trans- don’t go too far with editing. In English we studying and applying all these rules before Wlation is still increasing dramatically drop a lot of words when we write, espe- translation, how can you know if your MT — or was until this year — but the vast major- cially when writing informally. Keep those output makes any sense? Translate the ity of the world’s translation is now done by articles, prepositions, pronouns and so on output back using an MT tool. That reverse computer. And the vast majority of machine where the machine can find them. English translation may help you to spot the most translation (MT) transactions is completed speakers are able to fill in the blanks and glaring errors. Recast those problem sen- using free online translation tools such as Ba- fully understand — not so when the reader tences in English and see if the back transla- bel Fish or Google. is a translation engine. tion gets any clearer. Don’t expect miracles The result usually leaves much to be • Misspelling does not compute. A mis- here. But it may be some comfort to know desired, and there’s not much you can do spelled word will not translate — end of that the original translation is better than about it when you are translating some- story, end of translation. the back translation. one else’s content, particularly if you don’t • Ditto on punctuation. One accidental • Keep source and target together. No understand the source language. But you period can completely change the meaning garbage in the MT tool, less garbage out. can dramatically improve translation of of a sentence and trash your translation. But garbage there will be. That’s why we content you write yourself and share with Spell-checking and proofreading after you like to keep a copy of the source with the others in a foreign language, without using write and before you translate are pretty target translation to create a bilingual out- the special software and workflows of pow- basic quality assurance steps. put so that those errors can be spotted erhouse automated translation systems. and corrected later if need be. Just a few simple writing tricks can make a • Identify MT. Avoid blame by giving dramatic difference in MT quality. It’s not credit. Letting people know that you used a controlled language, but language control. he simplicity machine to communicate with them allows Writing clearly, whether for man or T them to read with caution, and keeps them machine, is always a struggle (at least for from feeling they’ve been short-changed me), and the dim machine minds of the and clarity of on a real translation. translation tools are unforgiving when it comes to bad composition in source. expression On the writers’ craft Unlike us humans, MT tools have no sense Using a little bit of discipline to prepare WRITING FOR TRANSLATION of context, no appreciation of an author’s demanded by MT content for MT extends the functionality of intent and definitely no sense of humor. these tools for people busily engaged with With Strunk and White’s The Elements of tools would meet others in multiple languages. Style as inspiration, here’s an abbreviated Writing for MT, just like writing for human guide to good English style for improved MT. the approval of translation, is good writing practice. Trans- • Use short sentences. Keep it simple. lation has a way of highlighting communi- Cut the clauses. Ditch the sentence frag- Strunk and White, cation errors that are invisible or ignored in ments. Simple sentences and grammati- just a single language. The simplicity and cal structure (subject-object-verb) are the I hope. clarity of expression demanded by MT tools only way to go. would meet the approval of Strunk and • Avoid ambiguity, as in “I saw her White, I hope. duck.” Well, which is it? A duck that quacks • Slang is so like, whatever. No slang Their book, The Elements of Style, prized that belongs to her? Or was she avoiding a and no jokes for MT. Irony is the first thing for its focus on clear, concise language, has flying object? Look for multiple meanings lost in MT. Stay earnest and formal. That’s been a source of guidance for writers, copy- when proofing. Good luck. If you don’t find why pithy headlines and snappy news- editors and college students for half a cen- it, your MT tool may just do it for you. paper copy so often translate badly with tury. To commemorate the 50-year edition • Remove extra words. Editing out these tools. Rule of thumb: Good MT style published this spring, The New York Times unessential phrases and extra words will comes in one flavor . . . plain vanilla. commentators consign it to the dustbin of make for a simpler, better translation. • Use “Do not translate” coding. Some history in the Room for Debate blog (http:// Since the algorithms have fewer transla- MT tools will allow you to place code roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/ tion variables to wrestle with and better around a word or phrase, which allows the 04/24/happy-birthday-strunk-and-white). style with fewer words in the translation, word to pass through the engine without I’ve still got a dog-eared, ratty, old copy it will also be more accurate. getting translated. on my desk, where it shall remain. G

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GGETTINGETTING SSTARTEDTARTED:GuideWRITING FOR TRANSLATION Optimized MT for Higher Translation Quality

LORI THICKE

veryone knows machine translation Against the benchmark of FAQT, MT is sure question is whether to wait for MT to catch (MT) has enormous potential for dra- to disappoint. up to our aspirations for it or to invest in Ematically reducing translation cost For those resigned to the lack of qual- processes that can optimize the MT we and increasing speed. But who thinks of ity with unoptimized MT, there’s always have today. MT as a way to improve quality? the unfortunately named FAUT (fully auto- ISO 9001-certified for the last decade, matic useful translation). FAUT is essen- How MT improves quality my company’s quest for quality has unex- tially “gisting” translation, which is a more Once we stop waiting for quality MT pectedly led us to MT. Along the way we’ve or less accurate approximation of the to emerge fully clothed from the loins of developed and tested a number of dif- source text. a research and development lab some- ferent processes for MT and discovered Today, gisting is overwhelmingly the use where, we can start to see MT for what it is: that correctly optimized MT can actually to which MT is being applied and accounts an efficient solution that can assist human improve quality — and for less cost and for even more words translated than by translators by taking out a large part of the with higher rates of productivity. Under humans. If the claim that MT translates drudgery in translation. the right conditions, MT actually breaks The reality we are seeing every day is that those compromises we’ve come to accept Speed for technical translations ranging from soft- in the traditional localization paradigm. ware to manuals to catalogs, quality MT is You may want price, speed and quality, but achievable. But like any relationship, you here’s the kicker: you only get to pick two have to work at it. In fact, correctly optimized out of three. MT — that’s the “working at it” part — paired MT can offer all three. However, the truth with human post-editors can actually improve is that for most people, quality MT is still an quality. How could this be possible? oxymoron. And who could blame them? In the first place, correctly customized MT (customizing MT engines is a skill in MT: always five years from perfection itself) removes terminological inconsis- Just about any of us with an internet tencies. If the source document always connection has had first-hand experience uses the same term, so will the MT engine. with MT. We have probably used SYSTRAN This resolves the real problem of teams of to translate an e-mail or ProMT to give us translators working on the same project the gist of a web page. We may have con- Price Quality but employing divergent terminology. versed with someone in another language The current localization paradigm. Across a large project, MT can also ensure via Google’s translation center, read Wiki- a more consistent tone, with less stylistic pedia in Thai thanks to Asia Online or more than humans seems outrageous, con- discrepancies. Furthermore, MT removes solved an IT problem using Microsoft’s sider that an estimated 30 million e-mails that human element of non-quality: omis- automatically translated knowledge base. are translated by MT every day. sions. Enforced, validated terminology, Along the way, MT will have amused For internauts, instantaneous gisting consistency and completeness are MT’s us with its inadvertent twisting of human (gist-in-time) provides a basic understand- strengths. But what about mistransla- language. ing of an e -mail or a website. In the cor por ate tions? There’s no question that MT deliv- Most people would agree that “out-of- space, gisting is used for legal discovery, for ers more of its fair share of sentences that the-box” MT is far from what it is supposed patent or technology searches, or to iden- mangle the meaning of the source text. to be: fully automatic quality translation tify parts of larger corpora that merit being This is where the post-editors come in. (FAQT). This has been the promise held out translated by a human. But how much gist- Working on a bitext format, a post-editor to our industry since the very first MT sys- ing do we humans really need? Not much, correcting MT output will frequently scru- tem translated 49 Russian sentences into as it turns out: for all the profusion of free, tinize texts more carefully than a reviewer English using a 250-word vocabulary and software-as-a-service and off-the-shelf MT working on human output. On large-volume six grammar rules. Fifty years later we’re solutions, commercial translations, which localization projects, T + E + P (translate + still waiting. As Hans Fenstermacher of need more than gisting quality, are by and edit + proof) as a process may be inter- Translations.com says, “MT has been five large assured by humans. For the vast preted differently by different language ser- years from perfection since 1952.” majority of corporate needs, MT is staying vice providers. T + E + P on a million-word It could be that our overwrought expec- on the shelf. project may consist of T + a sampling review tations for MT partially explain the slow If FAQT is still “five years away” and of 10-20. The source text may or may not be uptake of MT by the translation industry. FAUT is simply not that useful after all, the consulted at the same time.

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MT affords you no such luxury. Because For software, quality may be defined means no information, service or customer MT can and does go completely off the rails as accurate, understandable and rapid satisfaction at all.” from time to time, each and every segment enough for simship. For a catalog, correct Customers also report that support must be examined in bitext format and terminology on each of thousands of items articles translated by MT are just about as approved or rewritten by a human post- is primordial. For courseware, the material effective in solving their problems as human editor. If only every translation received needs to promote learning. For a knowl- localized content and at a price far below that type of attention! edge base, customers need to be able to what human translations would cost. This process for review and correction, resolve their problems without further This is not about depriving translators if properly managed, should not only catch recourse to the help desk staff. of work. Human translations would not and fix the errors, but should also yield Since MT allows you to calibrate the have been economically feasible for the an accounting of what changes need to be human effort (linguistic training, post- hundreds of thousands of knowledge base made to the MT engine itself. This goes to editing) that you put into achieving the articles in various languages — including the heart of any good quality system, such quality levels you need, setting quality Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, French, as ISO 9001: ensuring quality at the source requirements in advance is an essen- German and Spanish — that Microsoft pub- — that is, catching errors at the beginning tial step. The example of online help and lishes online. This would have required an rather than correcting them downstream knowledge bases above demonstrates initial outlay of approximately $30 million — and, crucially, instituting processes for the importance of customer-defined qual- per language, according to Microsoft itself, continuous improvement. ity. It’s well known that human reviewers not including weekly updates. Instead, Correcting systematic errors and then will often designate only extremely high Microsoft chose its own hybrid MT sys- feeding these corrections back into the quality as acceptable. However, when the tem to translate content that would other- MT engine is what we call “the Virtuous choice is between an imperfect translation wise not have been translated. Measuring Circle of MT Quality.” This, too, is the results, the company found that an integral part of the optimization across all languages, MT helped solve process. customer problems on average 23% of the time. This figure may seem low, What quality do you need? but it’s only slightly below the success But what quality is good enough? rate of 29% for human translation. Any good process defines its quality Microsoft concluded at a presenta- expectations up front, and working tion to the 11th Machine Translation with MT is no exception. Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, in MT quality has been measured by September 2007 that “customer sat- the wrong yardsticks to the detri- isfaction numbers for machine trans- ment of the elegant solution that MT lated articles is comparable to and can be when matched to the type of sometimes exceeds original English!” result needed. The question is not whether MT is “better” than a human Optimizing MT translation on a given text. Rather, Regardless of the quality level MT the question is what quality is nec- is to achieve — publishable qual- essary for a particular project and ity or simply understandable quality what process — human only, human — unoptimized MT is just not up to + translation memory (TM), human the job. While some sentences coming + TM + MT — will best allow you to Five factors influence increasing MT quality. out of untrained MT engines may be achieve that exact level of quality. stunningly good, others will be pure The 2008 version of the ISO 9001 standard and no translation (information available gibberish. And without effective training, introduces the idea of customer-defined only in the original language), customers there is no way to ensure that the terminol- quality to the international norm. This is an themselves weigh in heavily in favor of raw ogy you want will be consistently applied important distinction to make. Accuracy, — that is, fully automatic — MT. by the MT engine. consistency of style, correct terminology, Don DePalma of the Common Sense Training, then, is the secret sauce of good spelling and punctuation, and completeness Advisory says, “Whether it’s FAQT, FAUT, MT, even more important than what system are all inarguably elements of a quality trans- or perfectly rendered output, the biggest you choose, whether rule-based or statisti- lation. But how much quality is required for a decision that companies will have to make cal (see sidebar). This is also one of the areas given situation? “Doesn’t read like a transla- about machine translation is whether any that requires the greatest investment. tion,” for example, is the type of quality that of those are a worse alternative than no For statistical machine translation (SMT) a marketing translation would need to have translation at all. Given the enormous vol- systems, this training involves not only in buckets. We may not have a specific metric umes of content that companies and gov- extensive corpora of bitext (think in terms for defining marketing quality, but we sure ernment should make available for other of millions of segments), but also glossa- know when it’s not there! But what about markets, for me and many of the organiza- ries and monolingual texts. The more the software? A catalog? E-learning courseware? tions that we talk to, the quality question better. Imagine Steven Spielberg’s little A knowledge base? This is where the quality is ultimately a non-issue. What we call the alien, ET, saying “Need more data.” That’s question begins to get more nuanced. ‘zero translation’ option of doing nothing SMT in a nutshell.

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However — and this is a big however — the data must be good, clean data, follow- Rule-based versus statistical MT ing the garbage-in-garbage-out truism. As Microsoft says, “we can never have enough There are two major streams in MT technology: rule-based MT (RBMT) and statistical MT (SMT). clean, parallel data.” And it must be domain These two methods, espoused by various MT technology vendors, represent two different routes and client-specific data: no point training to the same place. the system on EU corpora if you’re a car The earliest systems were rule-based, among them SYSTRAN. For the development of RBMT manufacturer. systems (SYSTRAN, ProMT, Lucy), various languages were broken down into their parts of speech In rule-based machine translation (RBMT), and grammatical rules were hard coded, along with dictionaries. An RBMT system would never this training is even more specific, involv- say un noir chat but un chat noir, coded, as it is, with the knowledge that adjectives follow nouns ing data mining to create domain-specific in French. Exceptions such as une vielle dame would also be coded in the system. dictionaries created for terminology entries SMT, on the other hand (Google, Asia Online), uses an algorithm to parse vast numbers of bilin- including “Do Not Translates” and graphic gual sentences (preferably in the millions) in order to extrapolate relationships, including word user interface strings. This expert training order. Un chat noir would appear as the translation of a black cat if it had seen that in the training phase. However, blissfully ignorant of the rules of grammar (with the exception of Asia Online), of the engine creates the grammatically SMT would be likely to incorrectly translate a green cat as un vert chat because it wouldn’t have coded glossaries that will do the work of encountered any green cats — unless trained on Dr. Seuss. imprinting in-house terminology on the sys- Both RBMT and SMT systems have their advantages and disadvantages. Both are capable of tem. This is actually trickier than it sounds delivering accurate, fluid sentences, depending on how they were trained. Both can also deliver and requires a linguist trained in MT’s idio- utter gibberish — again, depending on how they were trained. RBMT wins the day when you syncrasies to avoid inadvertently creating don’t have millions of words of training corpora; SMT is the victor when it comes to adding a new errors and making the output worse, rather language pair, a major multiyear undertaking when preparing an RBMT system. Hybrid systems than better. This can occur when terms are such as SYSTRAN’s are capable of bridging the gap between RBMT and SMT. coded incorrectly (a verb as a noun) but also when coding correctly but failing to take into consideration how the system will Testing will provide information on the level they need to know what level of quality react to exceptions. If training the engine is of fuzzy match that should be discarded in is expected. Besides post-editing, other the sine qua non of quality MT, it is also one favor of MT segments. However, it’s usually post-production optimization techniques of the greatest barriers because relatively useful to make sure that new MT segments include use of QA tools, automatic post- few linguists know how to correctly tune are identified as such to distinguish them editing through regular expressions, text MT systems, and few resources exist to tell from validated TM segments. normalization, updating of the TMs and so them how to do it. on. And above all, it is essential that there Upstream of the actual MT processing, be ongoing tuning of the engine with new another activity is important to optimizing and modified terminology and error cor- MT output: controlled authoring, or lan- ong, convoluted rections in a continuous, virtuous, cycle of guage control of the source content. Long, L feedback and improvement. convoluted sentences do not lend them- sentences do not If all these processes, from pre-production selves to MT, no matter how well trained the to post-production, are instituted to opti- system is. Authoring guidelines specify, for lend themselves mize MT output, what kind of quality can example, that technical writers use short, be expected? Recently one of our clients, simple, declarative sentences, employ the to MT, no matter a major software publisher, noted in the active and not the passive voice, avoid par- report “Leveraging a crisis for innovation enthetical expressions in the middle of a how well trained (or never let a good crisis go to waste)” that sentence and so on. And while we humans “contrary to all expectations, using MT in may understand text that is rife with gram- the system is. [our company] has improved the translation matical errors, no MT system will. quality . . . with the reviewer commenting ‘It Where the source text already exists was nearly 9 — it was the best translation or where in-house documentation teams of courseware I ever read.’” are resistant to applying the principles of The capacity of MT to function as a It has long been believed that buyers of controlled language for authoring, there is standalone will depend on the quality translation services must compromise. In another solution. Using automatic normal- required and on how well the engine is the traditional localization paradigm, if you ization or running source text through a QA optimized through stringent training, want speed and quality, you have to com- program may bring a noticeable improve- ongoing maintenance, controlled author- promise on price; if you want speed and ment to the ability of your MT engine to ing and so on. But for publishable quality, price, you have to compromise on quality. understand and translate your text. human post-editors are essential. MT is often associated with a compromise TM leveraging is another step in MT opti- In this regard, MT can be seen as just of quality in favor of cost and turnaround mization. Even a well-trained MT engine is no another tool in the translator’s toolkit, improvements. However, the reality is that replacement for the human translations con- much like any CAT tool, albeit one that’s correctly optimized MT can break these tained in TMs, assuming they’re of high qual- more complex and expensive to set up. compromises by offering faster through- ity. It’s important therefore to develop the In optimizing MT, post-editors need to be put, lower costs and higher quality. But you processes that will increase TM leveraging. trained in post-editing techniques, and have to work at it. G

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ULTAN Ó BROIN

ontrolled authoring, broadly speak- approved rule and term application during the years through such developments as ing, is the process of applying a set the actual text-editing phase. Caterpillar Technical Eng lish, Nortel Stan- Cof predefined style, grammar, punc- dard English, the Plain English Campaign, tuation rules and approved terminology Controlled languages GM’s Controlled Automotive Service Lan- to content (documentation or software) It’s not uncommon for organizations to guage, Global English and so on. during its development. Many companies have no serious control over their content The introduction of structured authoring offer some form of guidance to their con- style rules and terminology or to rely on through SGML and later XML, along with tent developers, either through tools or manual processes, combining in-house more innovations in linguistic processing more ad hoc means, of course, so this may guidelines with the commonly applicable and database storage, allowed for the devel- not seem at all remarkable. In the last few rules and recommendations of sources opment of and application of targeted rules years, however, innovations in linguistic such as The Chicago Manual of Style, to meet customer requirements driven by processing technology and its commoditi- while working off spreadsheets of terms content type and market, reflected by the zation indicate that controlled authoring and applying simple checks for consis- ability to now apply a controlled authoring holds great potential for anyone seeking a tency and using human editing to meet process through common authoring tools tool-driven approach to maximizing returns their “quality” requirements. For some this such as Microsoft Word, PTC Arbortext Editor from the localization process. This has paris acceptable; however, it is hardly a scal- and Adobe FrameMaker through plug-ins. ticularly paved the way for the adoption of able, enforceable or measurable process. The use of an approved set of terminol- cost-effective machine translation (MT). We’ve all seen the waste of many possible ogy, where each term has only one mean- Controlled authoring and languages are opportunities for localization efficiencies ing in that context — consider the different complex, so this article concentrates on — let’s save the content development effi- translations for the out-of-context word the localization-related aspects of intro- ciencies for another audience — because job, for example — and clear and enforce- ducing controlled authoring into an organi- manual enforcement and voluntary uptake able authoring rules allow writers to zation that must localize its content. of authoring guidelines allow for a good achieve a high degree of consistency in the Controlled authoring itself is frequently deal of subjectivity in interpretation and source texts they create, not only in the conflated with other parts of the overall application. Controlled authoring is much words and terms they use, but how they content delivery process, notably that more objective as the selection, applica- use them. Consistency in constructing of content management, a separate but tion and enforcement of such guidance phrases, along with eliminating complex- contributing function. Isolating the non- is programmatic. The application of rules ity, ambiguity and verbosity, is the key to WRITING FOR TRANSLATION technical essence of controlled authoring “controls” the authoring, so to speak, maximizing TM use and MT potential (and is made all the more difficult by the range allowing content developers to avail of the large efficiencies on the production side). and interplay of tool functionality offered rules directly through the authoring user What might these controlled language by various vendors. Whereas seemingly interface: looking up alternative words, rules entail? Well, the number can vary, could subtle distinctions do not always make a phrases and terms, reusing already written be as many as 10 to between 50 and 100, but great deal of sense from an overall busi- phrases, harvesting and storing new ones, typically might relate to standardized spell- ness process engineering viewpoint, it’s and reporting on the content’s compliance ing, length of sentence, number of clauses, important to understand from a local- with the rules immediately or afterwards. use of active versus passive, simplifying ization perspective just how controlled The origins of the controlled language tenses, rules for noun phrases, modifiers, authoring technology works. For example, concept are far from the needs of modern syntactic cues, past participles, gerunds, if the storage of objects in the content day localization, rather being designed to avoidance of Latin phrases, slang and so on. management system (CMS) allows reuse improve comprehension of the source lan- I recommend Jon R. Kohl’s The Global Eng- at a level higher than the translation mem- guage by simplifying matters for nonnative lish Style Guide if you need a valuable start- ory (TM) segmentation does, localization English speakers of English (“human orien- ing point and reference material for possible saves are limited. It may be more helpful tation”) or computers (“machine orienta- rules as well as Sharon O’Brien’s “Controlling from a business requirements position to tion”). Often, these nonnative readers Controlled English” paper (www.mt-archive regard controlled authoring as an informa- worked in the maintenance and service field, .info/CLT-2003-Obrien .pdf) for recommen- tion quality process that consists of many an audience targeted by probably the best- dations on the rules central to content different parts: data mining for rule and known iteration of a controlled language: intended for MT. terminology research and creation, new ASD-STE100 Simplified (Technical) English. Naturally, the rules vary by content type terminology harvesting and rule devel- The genesis of the controlled language con- and audience. Gerunds may be acceptable opment, reuse management, reporting cept can be traced back to Ogden’s Basic in headings, but not main text without qual- on quality, and so on rather than purely English from the 1930s and established over ification, delimiters may not be required

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content easier to translate by humans and machine. It’s a fundamental recognition that the basic internationalization concept Weighting Solution 1 Solution 2 Solution 3 of assuring translatability and high-quality source content results in greater savings Price accruing to the organization at the localiza- NLP-level verification of terms, grammar tion stage than trying to continually nego- and style according to our requirements tiate lower prices with vendors or praying Prompting of writer to reuse of existing segments from CMS for a quantum leap in translation technology to turn garbage source into localized Scalability (multiple users, concurrent users, performance) gospel. Efficiencies are magnified in a Easy maintenance of rules by existing, in-house resources one-to-many relationship as the number Percentage of existing rules from style guide that can be automated of languages translated increases. Controlled authored content is consis- Integration with existing translation glossaries and exchange formats tently expressed in an understandable way. This results in translators not needing clari- New terminology harvesting fications, maximizing TM matches, elimi- Basic rule set supports translation memory requirements nating the need for terminology creation after localization starts, and providing texts Basic rule set supports machine translation readiness more easily processed by MT, cutting down Automatic reporting on quality in batch and single mode on post-editing needs and recalibrations. Interactive quality assurance through editing environment Volumes too, are generally smaller, reduc- Allows prioritization of rules for grandfathering of content ing cost and time-to-localize per se. Bear in mind, however, that these sav- Supports multiple rules and terms by content type ings are a function of the rules created, Plug-ins and integrations for existing authoring tools as well as how and when the texts are translated. Overarching internationaliza- Automatic indexing capability tion rules also impact the efficiencies as well as the technical review of the source Customer references include MT and TM savings text by domain experts. If a switch should Open standards or proprietary architecture be documented as being “off” instead of Established user group and conference “on,” then don’t expect controlled authoring to eliminate any language version test- Global 24 x 7 support ing issues. Figure 1: Business requirements can be weighed against a variety of solutions. Do you need controlled authoring technology in order to use MT? The simple on software strings but are required on (www.localisation.ie/resources/Awards/ answer is “no.” But if you need a scalable messages or documentation, and so on. Theses/PatrickCadwell_Thesis.pdf), the pub- approach to ensure your source text meets Thus, solutions that allow for forms of lications of Jeff Allen (www.geocities.com/ realistic MT business requirements by pro- semantic checking have an advantage. controlled language), the MT, Localization viding easily processed source text that Professional, and Information Quality groups minimizes the need for post-editing, thus Controlled authoring solution: which one? on LinkedIn, and so on. making MT cost-effective, then controlled Commercially available controlled auth- The decision as to which controlled authoring technology is a must-have. Mov- oring technology solutions range from the authoring solution to adopt is driven ing past the “writing for translation guide- more sophisticated, scalable technology- by business requirements. Localization lines” approach is the way to go here. based solutions based on advanced lin- teams should ensure they’re involved in guistic processing to less complex content the identification of these, so come armed The business case for management-based offerings, “methodol- with facts and figures for the business controlled authoring: the big picture ogies” and combinations of same. Possible case. Initial business requirements when It’s often said that the biggest risks to options include acrolinx IQ, IAI CLAT, applied to a range of solution possibilities the introduction of controlled authoring, Author-it, Smart MAXit, Boeing Simplified might look something like Figure 1. other than the cost (nontrivial even at the English Checker, SDL AuthorAssistant, Requirements vary by organization, best of times), is the political. The term Shufra and more. For those interested in naturally. Prioritize and weight each point controlled authoring itself must be found researching a controlled authoring option, before making a decision among compet- guilty on all counts of contributing to the possible sources of information are IDC ing alternatives. problem of user acceptance as it conjures reports, ELDA, International Journal of up images of mass layoffs, stilted, boring Language and Documentation, CLAW pro- Benefits to localization texts, loss of control by authors, inducing ceedings, Localisation Research Centre The clear benefits of controlled author- an immediate negative reaction, mostly publications, DCU papers from Sharon ing in the localization space are derived based on understandable fear and igno- O’Brien and MA research by Patrick Cadwell from the improved source quality making rance, frequently exacerbated by a belief

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that controlled authoring can somehow solution for a few thousand words of offer automatic creation of content, and marketing material would not be a strong a narrow focus on just localization ben- business case! efits. There are ways of dealing with • Prioritize rules. Decide which ones these issues too, beyond the scope of are more important to you than oth- this article. ers. Aim for automatable and therefore In general then, beyond the clear hard- measurable ones. For example, a rule sell on the TM and MT front, localization called “one strong idea per sentence” is cost and time-to-market savings, local- not automatable, whereas repeating the ization teams can emphasize the quality noun instead of switching it for a pronoun We’re Not Just aspects of the source content for native or checking for the passive voice is. Translators . . . We Are speakers too — superior user experi- • Look for leverage points between ence, consistent terminology, less sup- localization and authoring teams. Many WORDSMITHS! port calls, improved accessibility and so rules for localization maximization are on. Leverage the global user experience, obviously ones that should be applied in FRENCH only inc./in SPANISH too! is a not just the localized one. It should be to text even if never intended for local- small GIANT! pointed out there are controlled author- ization in the first place. Other, more • small and personal enough to ensure language ing solutions for Japanese, German and “severe” MT rules may not be optimal for continuity, short communications channels, fast so on, so do not assume it is an English- the source language depending on the feedback and short production cycles only concept now, whatever the origins. user experience required. For example, • large enough to meet your needs with a text intended for mobile applications may team of passionate, experienced, professional Introduction and changing be fragmented, clipped, dropping articles in-house translators and project managers processes: localization’s role and so on for user experience reasons. Be EN 15038-certified Introduction of controlled authoring prepared for compromise. Err on the side requires a serious management decision of user experience trumping localization as to timing, not least the provision of a unless it’s a complete showstopper. in FRENCH only inc./ significant budget. However, research • One particular challenge to the intro- in SPANISH too! Translations would indicate that using pilot projects duction of controlled authoring can also Toronto, Ontario Canada to develop the process as well as achieve come from localization groups them- [email protected] • www.translations.ca maximum buy-in by the stakeholders in selves — the disruption of TM match the process is key, as well as using train- rates for previously localized content. ing techniques that rely less on com- This requires careful management. Solu- puter science and linguistics but more tions include the introduction of con- on content development approaches. trolled authoring on new content yet to In general, localization groups might be localized, phased introductions based consider the following with faced with on content that is going to change any- the opportunity to introduce controlled way, grand fathering of content that has authoring: shown little change over years, or a reas- High Quality MT • Identify a localization strategy for TM sessment as to how a one-time hit on and MT tools and how controlled author- localization assets results in longer term for International Success ing business requirements fit into this. cost savings, time-to-market improve- SYSTRAN is the leading provider of machine • Help kick-start the controlled author- ments and quality uptake. translation (MT) solutions for the desktop, entering process of adoption and pilot proj- • Localization group input to the rule prise and internet services. Our solutions facilitate ects by providing rules and terminology creation process must be matched by an multilingual communication in 52 language pairs already harvested to the implementers of evaluation of the localized source out- and in 20 domains. SYSTRAN Enterprise Server 7 the technology. put, too, iteratively maximizing returns is powered by our new hybrid MT engine that • As the creation of rules and terminol- through the fine-tuning of rules. An MT combines the predictability and consistency of ogy are central to controlled authoring pilot makes a fine adjunct to a controlled rule-based MT with the fluency of the statistical and to the impact on localization tools, authoring pilot. Provide content develop- approach. The self-learning techniques allow then it is critical that localization groups ment teams with the feedback, qualita- remain visible and active as stakeholders tive and quantitative. G users to train the software to any specific domain in their development and maintenance to achieve cost-effective, publishable quality over time. Acknowledgements translations. SYSTRAN solutions are used by • Recognize the best kind of texts Publicly available sources from the fol- Symantec, Cisco, Ford and other enterprises to — large volumes of structured, techni- lowing were used in this article: Patrick support international business operations. For cal, procedural texts such as software Cadwell (DCU), Sharon O’Brien (DCU), Jeff more information, visit www.systransoft.com and user assistance strings or online Allen (Translations.com), Uwe Muegge documentation. These texts require a (Muegge.cc), Jon Kohl (SAS), Andres Heu- SYSTRAN Software, Inc. consistent user experience between com- berger (ForeignExchange Translations) and San Diego, California USA • Paris, France ponents. Seeking a controlled authoring Fred Hollowood (Symantec). [email protected] • www.systransoft.com

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SDL TRADOS Translation Services Clarity and Efficiency Technologies With a vast network of professionals worldwide, into 70 Languages SDL TRADOS Technologies is a division of we provide reliable, customized language We provide translation services into 70 solutions in Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. SDL, the world’s largest provider of technology solutions for global information management languages using the most modern technology for Our services include localization, translation, (GIM), which benefit corporations and institu- clients throughout the whole world. interpreting, desktop publishing, and project tions, language service providers and freelance CEET provides translation, proofreading, management solutions that enable our clients to translators worldwide. localization, DTP, interpreting, voice-over and increase revenue and create effective communica- cultural consulting in all major world languages tion channels with their audiences. SDL has over 170,000 software licenses deployed across the translation supply chain with special expertise in Central and Eastern Our adherence to on-time deliveries, fair pricing and has demonstrated proven ROI in over 500 European languages. and fast turnaround makes us a language service enterprise solution installations. SDL delivers We approach all projects with respect to provider our clients can trust. innovative software products that accelerate customers’ needs and the cultural uniqueness of You are kindly invited to find out how you can global content delivery and maximize language each country because we believe the language benefit from our services. translation productivity. of your firm communicates who you are to the audience. Clear Words Translations Córdoba, Argentina SDL CEET Ltd. [email protected] Berkshire, UK Prague, Czech Republic www.clearwordstranslations.com www.lspzone.com [email protected] • www.ceet.eu

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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 software, 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 internet and worldwide web for e-mail, for purchasing services, for

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