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SOFTWARE LOCALISATION: OUTSOURCING OR IN-HOUSE? NOEMÍ FLUIXÀ Page 6 LRC ’04: OPEN SOURCE LOCALISATION THE 9TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL LOCALISATION CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION Page 8 LOCALISATION IN ITALY LUIGI MUZII Page 10 THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR LOCALISATION June 2004 Be recognised as a Localisation Professional Join TILP www.tilponline.org VOL. 3 Issue 2 7.50 / $7.50 US ISSN 1649-2358 SOFTWARE LOCALISATION: OUTSOURCING OR IN-HOUSE? NOEMÍ FLUIXÀ Page 6 LRC ’04: OPEN SOURCE LOCALISATION THE 9TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL LOCALISATION CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION Page 8 LOCALISATION IN ITALY LUIGI MUZII Page 10

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Page 1: SOFTWARE LOCALISATION: OUTSOURCING OR IN … 2004.pdf · SOFTWARE LOCALISATION: OUTSOURCING OR IN-HOUSE? NOEMÍ FLUIXÀ Page 6 LRC ’04: OPEN SOURCE LOCALISATION THE 9TH ANNUAL

SOFTWARE LOCALISATION:OUTSOURCING OR IN-HOUSE?NOEMÍ FLUIXÀ Page 6

LRC ’04: OPEN SOURCELOCALISATIONTHE 9TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL LOCALISATION

CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION Page 8

LOCALISATION IN ITALYLUIGI MUZII Page 10

THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR LOCALISATION

June 2004

Be recognised as aLocalisation ProfessionalJoin TILPwww.tilponline.org

VOL. 3 Issue 2€7.50 / $7.50 USISSN 1649-2358

SOFTWARE LOCALISATION:OUTSOURCING OR IN-HOUSE?NOEMÍ FLUIXÀ Page 6

LRC ’04: OPEN SOURCELOCALISATIONTHE 9TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL LOCALISATION

CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION Page 8

LOCALISATION IN ITALYLUIGI MUZII Page 10

Page 2: SOFTWARE LOCALISATION: OUTSOURCING OR IN … 2004.pdf · SOFTWARE LOCALISATION: OUTSOURCING OR IN-HOUSE? NOEMÍ FLUIXÀ Page 6 LRC ’04: OPEN SOURCE LOCALISATION THE 9TH ANNUAL

INDUSTRY.newsLionbridge Named as External GlobalisationPartner for Siemens Medical

Siemens Medical Solutions has signed a mas-ter agreement that names Lionbridge as anexternal globalisation partner.

With the agreement, Lionbridge will helpSiemens Medical Solutions further its Europeanand Asian market strategy by localising syngo,Siemens' software platform for medical systemsand applications and LEONARDO, the syngo-based workplace for intelligent post-processing.

For more, visit www.lionbridge.com

CNH Implements Knowledge-basedTranslation with SDL

SDL International has announced that CNHGlobal has successfully implemented SDL’sKnowledge-based Translation System (KbTSystem) as part of its technical support system.

CNH needed fast and cost-effective transla-tion of its web-enabled warehouse of experttechnical knowledge (ASIST). Using SDL’s KbTSystem, over 2 million words have been trans-lated into 5 languages.

For more, visit www.sdlintl.com

Meridea Financial Software Turns to BowneGlobal Solutions for Quality Documentationand Flexible Services

Bowne Global Solutions (BGS) has completedthe documentation for Meridea Product Suite(MPS), which enables retail financial institutionsto offer streamlined and accessible banking serv-ices to customers through service and self-serv-ice channels.

BGS was responsible for designing and tailor-ing Meridea's customer documentation processand producing the documentation.

For more, visit www.bowneglobal.com

Locasis Nominated as SAP’s EMEATranslation Partner of the Year 2003

SAP AG has nominated the Turkish localisa-tion and translation company Locasis as itsTranslation Partner of the Year 2003.

The presentation of the award was made byChris Pyne, SAP AG’s Global Partner Managerfor Language Services at the Turkish SAP Forum2004 in the prestigious Swiss Hotel in Istanbulto Vedat Oygur, Managing Director of Locasis.

For more, visit www.sap.com

Events in Localisation - 200408-10 July – IWIPS 2004 The Sixth AnnualInternational Workshop on Internationalisationof Products and Systems, IWIPS, Vancouver,Canada; www.iwips2004.org

21-22 September – The Ninth AnnualInternational Localisation Conference, LRC,Limerick, Ireland; www.localisation.ie/learning/conferences /2004/index.htm

26-29 September – The Fourth Congress of theEuropean Society For Translation Studies, EST,Lisbon, Portugal; www.fl.ul.pt/EST2004

28 September - 02 October - The SixthConference of the Association for MachineTranslation in the Americas, AMTA, WashingtonDC, USA; www.amtaweb.org/AMTA2004

07-10 September – Twenty-sixth Internationalizationand Unicode Conference, Unicode, San Jose,California, USA; www.unicode.org/iuc/iuc26

18-19 November – Translating and theComputer 26 - Conference and Exhibition,ASLIB, London, UK; www.aslib.co.uk/confer-ences/index.html#TC26

PUBLISHER INFORMATIONLocalisation Focus is the publication of theLocalisation Research Centre (LRC). It is dis-tributed to the localisation community andthose interested in localisation. Please notifythe centre if you or one of your colleagueswould like to receive Localisation Focus regu-larly.Editor: Reinhard SchälerAssistant Editor: Deirdre CoffeyProduction: Cosmon Ltd. 66 FitzwilliamLane, Dublin 2. Tel. 01 676 3911 Fax. 01661 1158.Email: [email protected] by: Localisation Research Centre,Dept. of Computer Science and InformationSystems, University of Limerick, Limerick,Ireland.Tel. +353-61-202881Fax. +353-61-202734Web: www.localisation.ie

Opinions expressed by individual authors do notnecessarily reflect those of the editor

When you change address, remember to updateus at [email protected]! This way you will be able to

enjoy reading your magazine wherever you go. © 2004 Localisation Research Centre

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LOCALISATION FOCUSCONTENTS.editorialJUNE 2004 3

From theEditor

LRC ’04: Open SourceLocalisation will takeplace on 21-22 Sept.2004 at the Universityof Limerick, Ireland.

The Economist recentlyreported that the leadingdesktop interfaces for theopen-source Linux operat-ing system — KDE andGNOME — are, between them, available in more than twiceas many languages as Windows. KDE has already beenlocalised for 42 languages, with a further 46 in the pipeline,according to this report. Similarly, Mozilla, an open-sourceweb browser, now speaks 65 languages, with 34 more to fol-low. OpenOffice, the leading open-source office suite, isavailable in 31 languages, including Slovenian, Basque andGalician, and Indian languages such as Gujarati, Devanagari,Kannada and Malayalam. And another 44 languages includ-ing Icelandic, Lao, Latvian, Welsh and Yiddish are on the way.

LRC ’04 will examine what is involved in the localisationof open source digital content, technically and economi-cally, on the main conference day.

Pre-conference workshops on 21 September will focuson hot topics such as the semantic web and localisation,certification for professionals, localisation research andnew technologies.

LRC ’04 will make a special effort to make this an event forthe localisation community. There will be a special, low costregistration fee for individual professionals.

LRC ’04 is the one localisation event not to be missedin 2004! For more information see page 8 or visitwww.localisation.ie.

Reinhard Schäler

To subscribe to Localisation Focus, visit

www.localisation.ie/publications/locfocus/changes.htm

For accessing your issue online: please go to www.localisation.ie

and click on “issue online”. Password: j0204 ; Username: magsub

LO

CA

LI

SA

TI

ON

C

EN

TR

AL

SPONSORSHIPAND ADVERTISING

To advertise in or to sponsor an issue ofLocalisation Focus, contact the LRC [email protected] and find out about the benefits.

GET YOURCOMPANY NOTICED

Send your press releases to [email protected] get your company on the

Localisation Focus INDUSTRY.news page

CONTENTS

2 Industry News and Events in Localisation – 2004

4 Localisation Awards

5 News from GALA & TILP

6 Software Localisation: Outsourcing orIn-House? . . . . . . . . . . . . Noemí Fluixà

7 Opening up the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joseph Deignan

8 LRC 2004 Conference

9 Guidelines, Education & Outreach . . . . . . . . . . Richard Ishida

10 Localisation in Italy . . . . . Luigi Muzii

11 Crystal Translator Professional 1.2 . . . . . .Rafael Guzmán

12 Readers’ Forum

14 LRC News

15 The LRC and its functions

Personal Profile

Country Focus

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The Localisation Research Centre at the University ofLimerick announces the launch of its 2004 awardsprogramme. This year’s awards will be presented at theLocalisation Research Centre’s 2004 conference on the22nd of September.

There will be three awards presented at this event:

LOCALISATION FOCUS LOCALISATION.awards JUNE 20044

2004 AWARDSPROGRAMME

NOTE: Due to the date of this year’s conference,applicants for the 2004 awards are asked to note the new entry

deadlines for this year’s awards: 31 August 2004.

THE LRC BEST GLOBAL WEBSITE AWARDThis is the second year of the Best Global Website Award, an

award for the most innovative website in relation to multilin-gual and multicultural issues. This award, sponsored by EuroRSCG Interaction invites individuals and companies who havedesigned and/or are operating a multi-lingual website to submittheir work for consideration. Websites will be judged on a vari-

ety of different criteria by a panel of academic and industryexperts. Further details of this award can be found on

www.bestglobalwebsiteaward.com

THE LRC BEST LOCALISATION SCHOLAR AWARDThis award, sponsored by IBM, seeks to find the most promising

research proposal/project by a postgraduate student entering into orcurrently conducting research on a localisation related topic in aEuropean third-level institution. The award is based on both thestudent's outstanding undergraduate track record and the quality

and relevance of their research proposal.Further details of this award can be found on www.localisation.ie

THE LRC BEST THESIS AWARDThis is the eighth annual award for the best thesis on a localisa-

tion-related topic, again generously sponsored by Symantec IrelandLtd. Students who have completed a thesis on a relevant theme

within the past two years are invited to submit their work to theLRC for consideration. Theses may be submitted prior to their

degree award and will be judged by a panel of academic and indus-try experts. Further details of this award can be found on

www.localisation.ie

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New

s

LOCALISATION.centralThe inside information on localisation

News Update from the Localisation Associations

EventsExpansion of the EU Meeting in Brussels

June 28. GALA will host a one-day meeting on theExpansion of the EU in Brussels on June 28. Guest speakerswill address the impact of EU expansion on economic, legal,socio-economic, marketing, linguistic and financial fronts.

GALA European Members Meeting in BonnJune 29. GALA will hold a GALA member meeting in

Bonn, Germany immediately before the Localization WorldConference. The meeting will have an open discussion andaddress issues pertinent to GALA as an association.

Localization World BonnJune 29 – July 1. GALA is participating in a joint exhibit

for members at Localization World Bonn. The Bonn confer-ence sessions are geared towards professionals seeking tolearn about new tools, methods and business practices in theareas of localisation and internationalisation.

Jornada Internacional para Traductores, Rosario2004, Argentina

November 21. In conjunction with the III CongresoInternacional de la Lengua Española, the UCEL(Universidad del Centro Educativo Latinoamericano) andGALA member company Rosario Traducciones y Serviciosare organising an event for translators featuring guest lec-turers and roundtables dealing with the Spanish translationindustry. GALA is sponsor of the event and will providemoderators for roundtable discussions.

NewsJoint Tool Directory with ELECT Online

GALA recently collaborated with the LRC on furtherdevelopment of the ELECT Online tool directory.

Gold Sponsor of ClientSide B2B Expo 2004GALA was the Gold Sponsor of the 2nd annual ClientSideNews conference, “Back to Business,” in Montréal, Canadaon April 28-30, 2004. GALA member participation includ-ed a joint exhibit of GALA companies, GALA member pre-sentations and roundtables, and hosting of the annualClientSide Excellence Awards dinner.

EventsLRC Summer School: The CLP Programme

TILP reported on progress made on the implementation of itsCertified Localisation Professional (CLP) Programme at the recentLRC International Localisation Summer School at the University ofLimerick. TILP plans to launch this programme at the annual LRCconference on 21 September 2004 in Limerick, Ireland. TILP willaccredit commercial and third level course providers who offer rel-evant high-quality courses to professionals who wish to obtain CLPcertification in any of the following five professions: LocalisationEngineer, QA Engineer, Translator, Project Manager andInternationalisation Engineer.

For Your DiaryMeet TILP at any of the following events:

12-14 August 2004 – IATIS Congress, Seoul, Korea.www.iatis.org/content/korea/plenary.php

28 August 2004 – Second International Workshop on LanguageResources for Translation, Research and Training, University ofGeneva, Geneva, Switzerland. A satellite event of the 20thInternational Conference on Computational Linguistics.www.issco.unige.ch/coling2004/

7-10 September 2004 – 26th Internationalization and UnicodeConference, San Jose, California, USA. www.unicode.org

21-22 September 2004 – LRC ’04 – Open Source Localisation,The 9th Annual International Localisation Conference organised bythe Localisation Research Centre (LRC), University of Limerick,Limerick, Ireland. www.localisation.ie

10-12 November 2004 – European Information DevelopmentConference 2004, Tekom, Wiesbaden, Germany.www.tceurope.org/conference/eidc_conference.htm

10-13 July 2005 – IPCC 2005: Making Connections, University ofLimerick, Ireland. http://ieeepcs.org/conference/limerick/

NewsTilponline.org

TILP, in association with electonline.org, has developed an onlinepayment and membership maintenance facility. Members can nowcheck and update their details online. They can also see whethertheir membership is up-to-date and pay their annual fees by creditcard. For those who would like to join TILP, membership applica-tion forms can also submitted online.

TILP CouncilThe TILP Council has decided to focus its work on the develop-

ment of the CLP Programme due to be launched on 21 September2004. At its monthly meetings, proposals have been reviewed whichwill allow TILP to accredit course providers as CLP compliant.

TILP ContactFor general information on TILP, membership application forms

(associate and professional) and news visit: www.tilponline.org oremail [email protected].

The Globalization andLocalization Association (GALA)GALA is a fully representative, non-profit,

international industry association for the trans-lation, internationalisation, localisation andglobalisation industry. The association gives

members a common forum to discuss issues, create innovative solutions,promote the industry, and offer its clients unique, collaborative value.Web: www.gala-global.org

For more information contact [email protected]

The Institute ofLocalisation Professionals (TILP)

TILP is a non-profit organisation owned byits members and directed by its elected Council.TILP’s aim is to develop professionalism in theindustry. Individual professionals can apply forassociate or professional membership.Web: www.tilponline.org

For more information contact [email protected]

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LOCALISATION FOCUS LOCALISATION. central JUNE 20046

Loca

lisat

ion

Proc

ess

Software companies today are perfectlyaware that in order to spread their

business worldwide and reach interna-tional markets an investment in productlocalisation is essential. This applies tosmall, medium, and large companies.Questions that often arise are what isthe best method for carrying out such acomplex undertaking and whether thisshould be outsourced to external vendorsor done by an in-house localisation team.

The current situation points towards alogical trend: large organisations preferto work with localisation partners, whilemedium and small companies are morelikely to create an in-house localisationteam to manage the process onsite. Bothapproaches have advantages and disad-vantages and consequently, some com-panies choose a hybrid model combiningboth practices.

Larger companies prefer outsourcingbecause localisation vendors often pro-vide the necessary strategy and humanresources to deal efficiently with a largevolume of work. They are technologicallyprepared, and the translators live intheir native countries, which ensures up-

to-date use of language. Localisationpartners also provide a faster turn-around, since there are many peopleworking on the same project, althoughlinguistic quality assurance can becomea challenge. Workflow management alsohas to be very accurate to ensure a per-fect final result.

In contrast, the disadvantages for theclient are high costs, lower level of coop-eration and involvement, communica-tion difficulties, and the risk of becom-ing vendor-dependent in the future.Once the project has been outsourced,the client often avoids any contact withthe vendor. The best practice is for bothvendor and client to become deeplyinvolved in the process and to reach agood understanding of each other’sneeds. Keeping a constant interactionmay be time-consuming, but it is moreprofitable in the long term.

Defining whichtask is better tohandle in-house

and what should beassigned to an

external vendor mayrefine the

whole processCreating an in-house localisation team

also has advantages for a medium orsmall company: lower costs (althoughthey have to invest in human resourcesand technology), better communicationand coordination, smooth functionaltesting, and straightforward problemsolving. Moreover, translators are in

permanent contact with developers,which is a great help for better under-standing of the product that is to belocalised. Updates are also easier to per-form since the whole process becomessimpler.

However, disadvantages are also evi-dent, especially when dealing with mul-tilingual projects. Having an in-housegroup of localisation professionals fromvarious countries makes it difficult fortranslators living outside their nativecountry to be in contact with the livelanguage, so the risk of getting inaccu-rate results is higher. Meeting deadlinesalso becomes a tough issue: the fewerpeople working on a project, the moreeffort it will take to finish the job.Appropriate tools, well-trained localisa-tion professionals, and efficient manage-ment of all the linguistic and technicaltasks are crucial aspects for attainingsuccessful results in an in-house localisa-tion project.

The best solution may be a mixture ofboth procedures. Defining which task isbetter to handle in-house and whatshould be assigned to an external vendormay refine the whole process and makeit cost-effective. The key is to determinethe objectives, identify the availableresources, evaluate the needs, distributethe tasks, and monitor the process fromthe earliest stage to its final completion.

Noemí Fluixà has a degree inTranslation and Interpretation (UPF)and a Postgraduate in Translation andInformation Technologies (UAB). Sheworks as a Localisation ProjectCoordinator and Translator in McNeelEurope, a software company where shehas worked for three years. She can bereached at [email protected]

Software Localisation:Outsourcing or In-house?

A hybrid ModelOutsourcing or In-house? Noemí Fluixà takes a look at the advantages and

disadvantages of both out-sourcing localisation projects to external vendors andusing an in-house localisation team.

Noemí Fluixà

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LOCALISATION FOCUSLOCALISATION. centralJUNE 2004 7

Open Source Softw

are

Open Source Software is having amazing success in develop-ing countries particularly in Brazil, India, China and South

Korea. Its attractions are already legend: it can be modified andinspected, it can reduce costs, soothe security concerns and avoidmonopoly supplier dependence.It is also proving much easier to localise: The leading desktopinterfaces for the Linux operating system – KDE and GNOME –are already available in over twice as many languages asWindows, with KDE alone planned for full localisation into 88languages, and the Mozilla web browser on course for 99 lan-guages. OpenOffice, the leading open-source office suite, willsoon have a local "look and feel" for speakers of no less than 75languages – including many distinct regional languages such asIrish, Galician, and over 14 Indian tongues such as Gujarati,Devanagari, Kannada and Malayalam (See Fig. 1).This "micro localisation”, reaching locales that other software

providers cannot reach, is having a dramatic effect on bridgingthe information poverty gap in many poorer parts of the worldwhere proficient access to IT can be vital for a chance of eco-nomic sustainability. To imagine the scale of improvement possi-ble, we can estimate, that in India alone, 915 million people hadpreviously been left behind in the global IT revolution due to thelack of local language interfaces. Traditional proprietary software vendors did not always see aReturn On Investment (ROI) in these marginal marketplaces anddeigned not to localise, whereas the combination of Open Sourcestandards with a new online co-operative spirit between enthusi-asts and facilitative entrepreneurs has led to the emergence overthe last few years of one of the largest localisation rushes everwitnessed (See Fig. 2). Now however, the answer to the “chicken and egg” conundrumfor the ROI issue is crystalising as denizens of these previously-marginalised locales can finally reap the benefits of IT efficiency,become players in e-commerce, have access to online informa-tion databases and markets, save time and money with emailcommunication and improve lifestyles through telemedicine(remote medicine using videoconferencing technology). For, asthe entrepreneurial environment is raised to a level equal to itsdeveloped world counterparts, the revenues have suddenly

appeared to justify a rush of local ISP,back bone and infrastructure providerstart-ups (including many areas beingamong the first to embrace wi-max tech-nologies). This will lead to higher powerexpectations, higher demand, greaterreturns, and finally a lot more ROI-friendly locales on the map of any devel-oper.So who is doing all the localising?Dedicated user groups who collaborate online in seamless proj-ect management to produce perfect localised versions with ongo-ing QA in amazingly short timescales.Why is it so easy to localise? The unique aspect of Open Sourceis that it is modifiable, and so, when localising software for a silkmerchant in Chittagong in Bangladesh or a coffee farmer in RioBranco in Brazil, there is no reason to “impose” the paradigm offiles and folders of the original UI which was, after all, designedfor a “western” audience. Instead, local “acculturisationexperts” can customise the OS interface to their own needs, nomatter how simple or unique.Why now? To put it simply Unicode: The lack of standards onfonts in developing countries was as much to blame for the delayin IT emancipation as any corruption, politics, wars or ROIissues. While the rest of the world got to know each other betterwith ASCII standards bases, fundamentalists refused to agree onany common standard until the emergence of Unicode.So the shrinking world of IT is currently undergoing a great andsilent enlargement, while at the same time offering hope forworld poverty levels, and of course, more than a little hope for

stakeholders in the “traditional” localisation industry who willbe preaching to the converted in the future when it comes topitching geographical expansion.

Joseph P. Deignan is Director of the EMEA Business Solutionsteam at Alchemy Software, the leading visual translations toolsprovider. He can be reached at [email protected]

Opening up the WorldThe rise of Open Source software encourages “micro localisation”

Fig: 1: Bangla (Bengali) language support on GNU/Linux operating system

Fig. 2: Competition for our industry

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The use of open-source software and digital content is becoming

increasingly popular, particularly in developing countries. In fact,

the governments of many countries, including China, South Korea,

India and Brazil, are actively encouraging its use since, unlike propri-

etary software, it permits users to examine, change and freely redis-

tribute its fundamental programming instructions.

Employing open-source software can cut costs, dispel security con-

cerns and also prevent companies from becoming too dependent on a

foreign supplier. There is however another huge benefit: because it can

be freely customised and tailored to suit specific needs, open-source soft-

ware is also easier to localise for use in a particular language or culture.

According to an article published in The Economist on 4th Dec

2003, “The leading desktop interfaces for the open-source Linux

operating system—KDE and GNOME—are, between them, available

in more than twice as many languages as Windows. KDE has already

been localised for 42 languages, with a further 46 in the pipeline.

Similarly, Mozilla, an open-source web browser, now speaks 65 lan-

guages, with 34 more to follow. OpenOffice, the leading open-source

office suite, is available in 31 languages, including Slovenian, Basque

and Galician and Indian languages such as Gujarati, Devanagari,

Kannada and Malayalam. And another 44 languages including

Icelandic, Lao, Latvian, Welsh and Yiddish are on the way.”

21-22 September 2004Informatics Building,University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland.Conference: 22 September 2004Pre-conference Workshops: 21 September 2004

LOCALISATION FOCUS LOCALISATION. central JUNE 20048

Conf

eren

ce

LRC 2004 REGISTRATION FEES

Fee TILP MemberDay 1 €100 €50Day 2 €300 €150Localisation Dinner: €100 €50Both days (incl. Dinner) €400 €200

Non-salaried: Please contact the LRC at [email protected] registration and payment details visit www.localisation.ieJoin TILP on www.tilponline.org today or when you register forLRC 2004 to avail of significantly reduced registration fees.2004 TILP Associate Membership fee: €50.

Fees include refreshments, buffet lunch, documentation and proceedings. If you have any questions or want to find out how you can exhibit at this year’sevent, visit www.localisation.ie or email [email protected]. Note: This programme may be subject to change without special notice.

LRC ’04: Open Source LocalisationThe 9th Annual International Localisation Conference and Exhibition,

organised by the Localisation Research Centre (LRC)

Tuesday, 21 September 2004: Pre-Conference DayWorkshopsInternational Localisation Showcase (Exhibition)The Annual LRC Localisation DinnerAnnouncement of the winners of the LRC Localisation Awards

08:30 Registration09:00 Welcome09:30 Workshop 1 Workshop 2

TILP: The Certified Localisation research – Localisation Professional Opportunities and Programme – Introduction directions

10:50 Break11:10 Workshop 1 continued Workshop 2 continued

TILP: The Certified Localisation Localisation research – Professional Programme – The LRC Best Scholar Opportunities for professionals and Best Thesis Awardsand training providers

12:30 LUNCH14:00 Workshop 3 The LRC Industrial

The Localisation Teaching, Advisory Board –Training and Research Network: Annual Meeting (forSharing teaching and members only)training resources.

15:20 Break15:40 Workshop 4 Workshop 5

Standards in Localisation: An Localisation Serviceeconomic imperative or Providers – common technical impossibility? standards and practices

17:00 Close17:30 The Institute of Localisation Professionals (TILP)

– Annual General Meeting19:30 The Annual LRC Localisation Dinner

Announcement of the winners of theLRC Localisation Awards:• Best Localisation Scholar Award• Best Localisation Research Award• Best Global Website Award

Wednesday, 22 September 2004LRC 2004: Open Source LocalisationPlenary SessionsInternational Localisation Showcase (Exhibition)Presentation by the Winner of the LRC Best Global Website Award08:30 Registration09:00 Welcome & Opening09:15 The LRC Best Global Website Award

Presentation by the winner09:45 Open Source: the new paradigm for international digital

content development?This keynote will examine current developments in internationaldigital content development, especially in relation to open source.Is open source localisation just a low-key, second-best solution forcountries who have so far not been discovered by large multina-tional digital content developers or does open source offer a moretechnically advanced, more cost effective and a more secure alter-native to over-priced, under-developed and low-security solutions?

10:30 Break11:00 Technical challenges

How can open source content be localised? Which tools and tech-nologies are available? Can industry-standard localisation environ-ments and processes easily be applied to open source localisationprojects? Are international standard organisations providing suffi-cient support for open source localisation projects? – Tools devel-opers and experts in open source localisation provide answers.

12:30 LUNCH14:00 Commercial realities

Should low cost of acquisition be the only factor when choosingopen source in an international computing environment? Has thelack of standardisation and controlled support in open sourcecomputing an impact its commercial viability? – Commercialcompanies active in developing open source solutions in aninternational environment examine these questions.

15:20 Break15:40 Success stories – and failures

When is open source the ideal solution for collaboration in a globalcomputing environment? Are certain applications better suitedthan others for open source? – Case studies will offer an insightinto success stories – and failures – of open source computingaround the world.

17:00 Close

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Following a family holiday in Barcelona Richard Ishida reflect-ed on how the world has changed since his youth. Apart from

one short exchange program just the other side of the EnglishChannel, he had been ignorant about life outside the UK until hewas 18. By contrast, his nine year old son, Kenzo, has alreadyspent over a month in Japan each year, and in between has alsotravelled to various countries in Europe and North America. Theworld, as they say, has become a smaller place, but also a muchmore closely integrated place too.

Richard failed most of his University entrance exams in 1976,but scraped a D in French, so he set off for the South of France toseek his fortune. It seemed like the only interesting option at thetime, but he was blissfully unaware of how that decision was toopen for him unexpected new and fascinating horizons on life andliving. Four years later he returned to the UK, studied French,Spanish, Italian, Psychology and Communication Studies andwent on to the university he had originally hoped to attend. Therehe studied French and Spanish translation and interpreting with aRussian subsidiary (although others may argue that he just didthis part-time, when he wasn’t acting in Shakespearian or Frenchplays!).

During his university years he also developed a growing interestin the nascent area of personal computing. Prompted by a finalyear course in phonetics and speech synthesis, he completed apost-graduate course in Computer Speech and Natural LanguageProcessing at Cambridge. He based his thesis on the experience ofdeveloping a program in LISP to translate Swiss French weatherreports into English.

All of this just seemed to be evolving by chance, but was all toprove useful experience. After a couple more years working as asoftware engineer and technical documentation author, and pick-ing up German, he took a job with Xerox, just North of London.

At Xerox Richard developed translation processes and workedon translation tool requirements. It soon became clear, however,that all the hard work that was being put in by the translationteams was forever hindered by the base design of the product. Hebegan analysing the issues and feeding them back to the designteams. Eventually he had enough assembled issues and proposalsto create presentations, then seminars and even a Xerox designstandard. This work later developed into an external consultancybusiness for Xerox, and Richard presented the concept of inter-nationalisation to literally thousands of people in product groupsaround the world. Specialising in international user interfacedesign, he tried to convince designers and developers to developwebsites, documents, software, and on-screen information in away that enabled easier localisation. Along the way, he studiedJapanese and Arabic.

In 2002 Richard went to work for the World Wide WebConsortium (W3C) [www.w3.org], where he is team contact forthe Internationalization Working Group.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web,established the W3C to "lead the Web to its full potential". Itdevelops base standards and technologies to support interoper-ability of information on the Web. These include such fundamen-

tal standards as XML and HTML, butalso forward-looking technologiessuch as Web Services and the SemanticWeb. W3C employees are attached toorganisations in the US, France andJapan, but are dotted around numer-ous other countries, too.

The W3C has always placed valueon enabling people of all languagesand cultures to interact via the Web.The W3C's InternationalizationActivity [www.w3.org/International]was established in late 1995. In 1998,this was augmented with an Internationalization Working Group(I18N WG), which strengthened the focus on ensuring that allW3C specifications are enabled for world wide use. Today’sInternationalization Working Group includes three 'task forces'.

The Core task force reviews W3C specifications for interna-tionalisation issues, and develops specifications of its own to sup-port development of internationalised features.

The Web Services task force looks at issues and requirementsfor Web Services internationalisation.

Richard chairs the third task force, GEO (Guidelines, Education& Outreach). GEO aims to make internationalisation aspects ofW3C technology better understood and more widely and consis-tently used. The group develops a growing number of articles,tutorials, tests and talks that are all available from theInternationalization Activity website at www.w3.org/International.

In addition, the GEO group is working on a set of documentsunder the title of Authoring Techniques for XHTML & HTMLInternationalization. There are currently three drafts in develop-ment: Characters and Encodings, Specifying the Language ofContent, and Handling Bidirectional Text. The idea is to providea set of authoritative do’s and don’ts for content authors creatingXHTML/HTML and CSS that can be used as a lookup reference.

An overview document facilitates lookup at the point of need,see the latest draft at www.w3.org/International/geo/html-tech/outline/html-authoring-outline.html. Information in theoverview will be organised by task. For example, if you are inter-ested in designing a table in XHTML, you will be able to drilldown to that specific task to find out what internationalisationpoints should be borne in mind. From there you would be able tolink to detailed explanations, useful resources, etc.

Richard summarises his job as helping to make the World WideWeb world wide, and he is delighted to be able to lend a hand. Inparallel, his personal desire is to see integrated human webs ofindividuals and cultures working together in spite of diversity. Ashe thinks of his work and how Kenzo’s horizons differ so muchfrom his own at that age, he can’t help feeling that, in many ways,the world has become a very cool place.

Richard Ishida is team contact for the InternationalizationWorking Group at the W3C, and co-chair of theInternationalization & Unicode Conference. He can be reached [email protected]

LOCALISATION FOCUSLOCALISATION. centralJUNE 2004 9

Personal Profile

Guidelines, Education & Outreach (GEO)Richard Ishida, team contact of the W3C Internationalization Working Group,

reflects on how the world has changed along with his ever-evolving career

Richard Ishida

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LOCALISATION FOCUS LOCALISATION. central JUNE 200410

Coun

try

Focu

s Localisation in ItalyLuigi Muzii gives us an overview of the industry in Italy

1. In 2002 World Bank reported a GNI of $ 25,320.0 per capita and 1,127.9 scientists and engineers in R&D per million people.2. A business, often, but not always, of a very small size, run by the members of a family. FIAT is an example of this along with Benetton, Bulgari, Ferrero, Guzzini,

Luxottica, and even Pirelli (controlling Italy's main telco) or Fininvest (the Prime Minister's family holding).3. In 2002 ITU and WITSA reported 839 mobile phones per 1,000 people.4. In 2001 WITSA reported a total ICT expenditure of $ 64,555.0 millions for a 5.7% of GDP and $ 1,116.8 per capita.5. In 2002 ITU and WITSA reported 194.8 personal computers per 1,000 people, 852,600 personal computers installed in education and 16.4 million Internet users.

According to the Minister for innovation and technologies, in 2003 86% of civil servants was equipped with a personal computer and 60% of them had an e-mailaccount. The Minister also reported for 9% of e-payments and almost 100% of electronic income tax statements.

Luigi MuziiOften when talking about Italy onetends to refer to its history or artis-

tic heritage. Few people think of it as aneconomic power that is a member of themost exclusive club, the G8.1 Nonetheless,the Italian economy is made up of a myri-ad of medium and small (often very small)companies. This framework is largelybased on the family company model2, espe-cially in the areas where growth has beenhigh in the last few years.

There are over 60 million people whospeak Italian, most of whom welcomeinnovations such as computers and mobiletelephones.3 Therefore, the market is rela-tively large and as such is of interest toglobal companies in the IT industry.4 Thiswould indicate that large software suppli-ers will probably keep the I of FIGS(French, Italian, German, Spanish) in theirLocalisation priorities for a long time.

Another advantage for the localisationindustry is that, despite long-term EU mem-bership, Italy still has poor English skillsand as a result interfaces and documenta-tion often have to be translated into Italian.Also there is a rich flow of products thatneed to be localised to help domestic com-panies reach other markets in Europe,North and South America, and Asia.

However, skill shortage remains a majorproblem as the demand for high-tech skillsis soaring.

Only 1.08% of the overall working pop-ulation in Italy is made up of highly skilledprofessional resources, compared to 2.4%in the USA. Also, only 26% of Italianorganisations invest in education andtraining, compared to 90% of Irish,Danish and Dutch organisations.

The language industry in Italy suffersfrom an even higher grade of fragmenta-

tion than the rest of the country's econom-ic scene since, at present, anyone in Italycan set up business as a translator or atranslation firm. There are no overt checkson professional skills and competenciesrequired, and many people feel that thebest way forward could be to introduce alaw to govern the translation profession.There are no more than half a dozen trueLocalisation companies while some 500translation agencies offer localisationamongst their services. No actual competi-tion exists between the major global play-ers on the market, as the larger domesticLocalisation companies service the majorglobal multilingual vendors.

The smallest players on the market,mainly freelancers or small Localisationfirms with two to three localisers, are notequipped to compete for larger contracts,and survival in a world moving towardsever larger units and tighter margins getsharder everyday.

The smallest playerson the market, mainlyfreelancers or smallLocalisation firms,

are not equipped tocompete for larger

contractsAccording to the last survey run by the

Ministry of Economy and Finances in2002, there are 1,443 people working asfreelance translators, 278 partnershipfirms, and 261 corporate enterprises. AITI,the Italian Association of Translators andInterpreters, a founding member of FIT,the International Federation ofTranslators, has a membership of about1000 professional translators and is theindustrys most representative body whileFedercentri, the National Federation ofTranslation Companies affiliated toEUATC (the European Union ofAssociations of Translation Companies),has approximately 200 members.

According to a survey run by GruppoL10N only two months ago, only about3% of translators and translation compa-nies operate in the software localisation

industry. Most freelancers are located intraditional industrial regions. In North-East Italy, the Marches and part of Emilia,where economic development has beenfaster and more intense over the last fewdecades, and production is strongly orient-ed to foreign markets, the family companybusiness model prevails, with poor addedvalue, low-tech, intensive handicrafts pro-duction. Therefore, the average assign-ments of a typical professional translatorare extremely diverse.

On the other hand localisation compa-nies and professionals are, in most cases,adequately equipped. Broadband solutionsare widespread and Internet jargon is partof everyday language.5 Usage of computertools, especially translation andLocalisation tools, although still consid-ered quite expensive, is rapidly spreadingthrough the Italian language market.

Nevertheless, the nature of Italy’s indus-trial economy shows up even in pricingand plays a major role in determining aconstantly low trend and with no rise inthe numbers of self-employed workers inrespect to the overall amount employed, anegative trend is on the rise. Incomes havebeen compressed over the last few yearswhile working hours have risen. The strug-gle to squeeze current expenditure hasresulted in compressed expansion capaci-ties for businesses and, ultimately, for themarket in general. This trend affectsinvestments, again playing a central role inbusiness development.

In conclusion, while the need for a mod-ern educational programme in localisationis great, the infrastructure and many edu-cational channels and resources are, regret-tably, inadequate. The localisation indus-try in Italy is similar to that in comparableEuropean countries, only seemingly or“cosmetically” happier.

Luigi Muzii is the team leader ofGruppo L10N, a group of GILT profes-sionals “volunteering” in Localisationeducational programs to help universitiesforge highly specialised skills to meet theindustry’s demand for professionalresources and to build a common platformfor networking. He can be reached [email protected]

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Crystal Translator Professional is a tool that deals exclusivelywith the localisation of Crystal Report files (.RPT) in a WYSI-

WYG environment. The latest version of Crystal TranslatorProfessional (V1.2) was released in April 2004. To my knowledge, thisis the only localisation tool currently available that can handle thistype of file.

How Crystal Translator worksIn order to translate a Crystal Report file, translators need to follow

a few basic steps:

• Creation of a Translation Memory (TM). This TM will store the source text and its translation. In the File

menu, the user can create a new TM, (or open an existing TM). Theuser needs to specify both the source and target language/s in the TMdialogue box.

Crystal Translator generates a target report window for each acti-vated target language in the TM. More target languages can be addedat any stage. Because each TM can only contain one source language,the user needs to create a TM per language pair, as needed.

There are also four other tabs that allow the user to select optionsregarding pre-translation, and global date/time/number/currency for-mats.

By “global” I mean a list of formats that can be used by anybody inthe world. For example, translators can create a date format list suchas: 2004-06-16, 16/06/2004, 16.06.2004, 16-06-2004. Based on this,Crystal Translator displays a drop down list in the translation panel,each time a date needs to be translated. The translator can then choosethe most appropriate format.

• Opening the source Crystal Report file for translation. From the File menu, the translator can open any Crystal Report file.

Once the file is opened, one or all of the target languages need to beactivated in the TM dialogue box. Crystal Translator will automati-cally generate a separate translation window for each languageaccordingly.

• Translating the Report file. The original text can be translated in the "translated value" column

within the translation panel (see Fig. 1). Resizing text boxes and tableshappens automatically, where necessary, as the translated text isentered. Moving the position of graphics and text in the Report file is

also possible, althoughnot by using the typicaldrag-and-drop method.Instead, the translatorneeds to activate the"Position" option fromthe "Property filter"menu. The positioncoordinates of thegraphic or text are thendisplayed in the “grideditor”. The translatorcan then modify them ass/he wishes.

As the translator isworking in a WYSIWYG environment, each change to the target filecan be seen straight away in the target report.

Finally, the translated Crystal Report file needs to be saved by click-ing “Save all target reports” in the File menu.

The Translation panelThe translation panel consists of a grid editor with several columns.

Each column displays information on the item that needs to be trans-lated. For example, the “Source value” column shows the source text,which can be translated or edited in the “Target value” column. The“Property type” column indicates whether the translatable item istext, date, currency, or a number. As I said above, translators canchoose between different date/currency/number formats from a drop-down list that appears in the “Target value” column. Each item is

marked as translated or untranslated in the Status column. Finally, the“Previous translation” column displays the previous translation (ifany) stored in the TM for each particular item.

Each column in the translation panel can be resized as needed.However, if an entry in the column containing the source text (“SourceValue” column) is too long, or contains several lines of text, it is bet-ter for the translator to use the “multi-line translation editor”, whichis brought up by double-clicking on the entry.

Other featuresOther features include the “Workload Analysis”, which produces a

detailed word count report, and filters to display different types oftranslation properties (i.e. text, dates, numbers, currencies). Finally,Crystal Report files previously translated with Crystal Translator canalso be imported.

Interaction with other toolsTranslation units can be exported to a TMX file format that can

then be opened by SDLX or other tools supporting that format.Unfortunately, Crystal Translator doesn’t allow the user to import anyTM or glossary in any format other than .RPT

Main Features

Intended Target Users: Freelance translators and translation agencies.

Price:The professional edition is €580 and the freelance edition is €250

VerdictI tested Crystal Translator with a number of static Crystal Reports,

and it did a good job. Crystal Translator is easy to learn. However, itcan only handle Crystal Report files, which might make the price seema bit high. On the other hand, the alternative is to buy the tool to cre-ate Crystal Report files, and then translate the file from scratch intoeach language which is a time consuming and expensive task.Therefore, if you have a substantial demand for translating CrystalReport files, Crystal Translator would certainly be a good investment.

Crystal Translator Professional 1.2Rafael Guzmán reviews the latest version of

Crystal Translator Professional

LOCALISATION FOCUSLOCALISATION. centralJUNE 2004 11

Tools Review

WYSIWYG translation environment YesSupported Import Files .RPT (versions: 7, 8 , 8.5, 9, and 10)Import TMs Yes (only those created

with Crystal Translator)Supported Export Files .RPT, .RTF, .HTML, .DOC,

.XLS, .PDF, .TXT, .TMX (v. 1.4)Pseudo-Translation NoPre-translation YesSpell-checker NoImport Glossaries NoText formatting (e.g. bold, Italics) NoWord count YesUnicode support No (Asian and Arabic

languages are not supported)

System Requirements Minimum RecommendedProcessor Pentium I Pentium 4RAM 64 MB 256 MBOperating System Win98/NT Win2000/XPHard Disk 130MB -Monitor 800 x 600 resolution

Fig. 1: As the translator translates the Report file, he/shecan see what it looks like in a WYSIWYG environment.

About Softlang: Philippe Nozay founded the London based companySoftlang in January 2004. Phillipe, who developed Crystal Translator,also works as a localisation professional in different areas.For further information, contact Softlang: Email: [email protected] visit their website at: www.softlang.com

Rafael Guzmán is coordinator of the LRC’s LocalisationTechnology Laboratory and Showcase (LOTS). He can be reached [email protected]

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Different solutions for differentproblems

I spend more time thinking aboutTranslation Memory (TM) than MachineTranslation (MT), but I think there is anunderlying principle that is equally applica-ble to both. Before asking ourselveswhether a particular tool is a viable solu-tion for the “translation problems faced bythe localisation community”, we must iden-tify those problems. Not once and for all,but on a case-by-case basis. Localisationwork comes in all shapes and sizes, and weall have our niche markets. Instead of put-ting on our MT hats and trying to force ourprojects into the mould, we could, in anideal world, look outward from each proj-ect toward the panoply of tools available.Of course, we have to have an idea of whateach tool can do, so that we can say, “Forthis job, I would get the best results if I used(Tool A/Tool B/both/neither/other).”

Francie Gow, a translator in theGovernment of Canada’s TranslationBureau, holds an MA Translation from theUniversity of Ottawa. Her thesis on TMevaluation was awarded the ELECT LRCBest Thesis Award in 2003. She can bereached at [email protected]

MT is a supplement, not a stand alonesolution

Machine Translation (MT) hasbeen viewed by some as the “HolyGrail” of localisation, that once theright bit of code is finally written,software will replace humans in thelocalisation process. At Bowne, wehave a more practical view of MT.Our belief is that the current capabil-ities of MT can be utilised, not as areplacement for human translators,but as a supplement to improvetranslator productivity. MT presentlylacks the sophistication to serve as astandalone solution for translation.The nuances of language are too sub-tle. The quality is too inconsistent.

Having said that, MT does havemerit as a component of an overalllinguistic management program. At

Bowne, we are working on implementing atranslation platform that integrates a vari-ety of pre- and post-production systemswith translation memory and MT. Our goalis to increase the throughput of translatorswhile maintaining the kind of authenticitythat can only come from human transla-tion. In this environment, MT can play apowerful role. But it is still not a plug-and-play tool applied universally.

MT is most effective when it is cus-tomised to each client’s content. Each cus-tomer has a unique style and terminologythat must be considered when applying MT.It is only by capturing and coding thisknowledge into the dictionaries and rules ofthe MT engine that MT can be utilised withany real measure of success. Given the timeand investment required for this customisa-tion, we find that MT is best developed in acollaborative environment with customerswho are adopting a more strategic view ofachieving improvements in localisationquality, cost, and turn-around-time.

Machine Translation and HumanTranslation both have a role to play but wefeel companies will have more success whenthey understand how to make them worktogether rather than viewing them as dis-crete alternatives.

Pedro Gomez is Director of Business

Solutions, Bowne Global Solutions. He hasover twelve years of experience in the local-ization industry. In his role at BowneGlobal Solutions he helps customers definetheir globalisation requirements, and devel-op solutions that fulfil their business objec-tives. Pedro has a degree in linguistics andhas recently completed an MBA. He can bereached at [email protected]

Proprietary development is not theanswer

Localisation is often subject to strict lin-guistic limitations, as the localised matterbelongs to a narrow sub-language. This isthe ideal basis for implementing MachineTranslation (MT) systems. To put it bluntly,the issue is not whether MT works in alocalisation setting, but whether the devel-opment and maintenance costs can be cur-tailed. Most localisation service providersare used to localisation suites based on pro-prietary (stand-alone) platforms. I believethat proprietary development is not theanswer to the MT needs of the localisationindustry. These needs are best catered forusing existing, commercial MT systems.Commercial MT systems today offer, tosome extent, the possibility of defining lin-guistic rules and project terminology, thusallowing (major) localisation service

providers to obtain speciallydesigned MT products. If you want areally customised MT product, thecost is prohibitive, however. If locali-sation service providers as a groupdemand customisable MT products,we should be able to influence MTvendors in the direction of producingtools that serve the localisationindustry.

Benjamin Holst Kjeldsen is a part-ner of ad Astra Translations, and hasparticipated in the development of aDanish MT component for Systran.ad Astra is a full-service translationand localisation agency based inCopenhagen and managed byDanish state-authorised translators.He can be reached at [email protected]

Breakthroughs have been announced at regular intervals by the developers of Machine Translation (MT) systems.Some localisation service providers who are using MT report phenomenal success rates. Others have lost hundreds

of thousands of euro (or Dollars) in their attempt to make MT work for them.

Do you believe that MT is a viable solution for the translation problems faced by the localisation community?

Last issue’s proposition was:

Readers’ ForumLOCALISATION FOCUS LOCALISATION. central JUNE 200412

Read

ers’

For

um

Next IssueLocalisation Focus invites its readers to comment

on this statement and send their contributions [email protected] by 28 July 2004

The Institute of Localisation Professionals (TILP)will launch its Certified Localisation ProfessionalProgramme (CLP) later this year. The CLP will allowindividuals to acquire a professional certification inany one of the following professions: LocalisationEngineer, QA Engineer, Translator, Project Manager,and Internationalisation Engineer. In order to qualify,individuals will have to provide evidence of formaltraining (offered by TILP accredited courseproviders) and professional experience.

Do you believe that there is a need for profession-al certification for individuals working in the locali-sation industry? Who would benefit most from this-individuals or employers?

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© 2003 TRADOS, Inc. All rights reserved. *TRADOS 6.5 Freelance includes Translator's Workbench, MultiTerm 2003, TageEditor including XML Validator, Generic Tag Verifier, and S-Tag Verifier, T-WindowCollection for software resources, software executable files, and Clipboard content, Filters for FrameMaker, PageMaker, Interleaf/Quicksilver, InDesign and WinAlign.

With TRADOS 6.5 Freelance You Can:

• Increase your productivity and complete jobs faster

• Analyze files to quote your translation assignments

• Never have to translate the same sentence twice

• Ensure consistency at the term and sentence level

• Add terminology to your glossaries on-the-fly

• Translate any file format from Word to HTML to XMLto FrameMaker to QuarkXPress to InDesign

• Translate PowerPoint and Excel Files directly in TRADOS TagEditor

Enjoy the world's most popular and most complete* translation (CAT) software plus MultiTerm 2003, themost advanced terminology management tool

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Order today at www.translationzone.com or call +49 (0)711-16877-15

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The LRC is becoming more active in localisation-related research while further developing its well-established web- and print-based information offer-ing together with its three major annual events, theProfessional Development Courses in January /February, the Summer School in June and theAnnual Conference in September.

The LRC’s current research areas focus on:• Localisation issues in open source digital content• The semantic web, web services and localisation

There will be a number of events where you willbe able to establish direct contact with LRC staffthis year and to discuss opportunities for coopera-tion with the world’s leading university-based local-isation laboratory. Details are provided in the fol-lowing sections.

Review10-12 May 2004 – 6th International Conference on

Translation Distance Teaching of Translation andLanguages (Department of Translation and Interpreting,Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, Spain)

Rafael Guzmán, the coordinator of the LRC’slocalisation laboratory LOTS, delivered a paperentitled LOTS Online: an e-Learning TranslationTools Facility for Translation Professionals.

(www.fti.uab.es/congres2004/index_eng.htm)

11-12 March 2004 – I Jornadas de TraducciónProfessional (Universidad Alfonso X, Madrid, Spain)

Reinhard Schäler and Rafael Guzmán presentedinvited papers and workshops on localisation tech-nology at this conference which was attended bymore than 200 delegates.

(www.uax.es/OfertaDocente/jornada_tp.shtml)

Outlook12-14 August 2004 – Translation and the

Construction of Identity (Sookmyung Women'sUniversity, Seoul, Korea)

Reinhard Schäler will present a paper and organ-ise a demo session at the first conference of thenewly founded International Association forTranslation and Intercultural Studies.

(www.iatis.org/content/korea/plenary.php)

28 August 2004 – Second InternationalWorkshop on Language Resources for Translation,Research and Training (University of Geneva,Switzerland), a satellite event of the 20thInternational Conference on Computational Linguistics

The organisers have invited Reinhard Schäler topresent a keynote on language resources for locali-sation. (www.issco.unige.ch/coling2004/)

7-10 September 2004 – 26th Internationalizationand Unicode Conference (San Jose, California, USA)

Reinhard Schäler will present a paper contribut-ing to the Localisation Track of this event.(www.unicode.org)

10-12 November 2004 – European InformationDevelopment Conference 2004 (Tekom,Wiesbaden, Germany)

Europe’s largest professional association of tech-nical communicators has invited Reinhard Schälerto deliver a keynote at the Localisation Forum of itsupcoming conference which is expected to attractaround 1,000 delegates. (www.tceurope.org/confer-ence/eidc_conference.htm)

10-13 July 2005 – IPCC 2005: MakingConnections (University of Limerick, Ireland)

The IEEE Professional Communications Societywill hold its international conference outside ofNorth America for the first time in many years. Thekeynote at this event will be delivered by ReinhardSchäler. (http://ieeepcs.org/conference/limerick/)

NewsMicrosoft announces Irish LIP for Windows and

Office, cooperation with the LRCIreland’s Minister for Community, Rural and

Gaeltacht Affairs, Mr Éamon Ó’Cuív, TD, launchedMicrosoft’s Irish Language Localisation Programmefor Windows XP and Office at an event in AnCrúiscín Lán, Spiddal, Co Galway, on Wednesday,9th June, 2004. With the help of a number of Irishuniversities and Foras na Gaeilge, Microsoft’sDublin-based European Product DevelopmentCentre will produce its first ever applications withan Irish language interface as one of the LocalisationInterface Packs (LIP). LIPs are currently availablefor 11 languages: Bulgarian , Catalan (installs ontop of Spanish Windows XP Pro or Home),Croatian, Estonian, Lithuanian, Latvian,Romanian, Slovak (fully localised), Slovenian (fullylocalised), Thai, Ukrainian (installs on top ofRussian Windows XP Pro). The LRC will providetesting services to the project.

(www.microsoft.com/globaldev/DrIntl/faqs/lip-faq.mspx#LIPques4)

ElectonlineVisit www.electonline.org and check out the new

Tool Cards, developed together with the localisationservice provider’s association, GALA.

Localisation ReaderThe Localisation Reader, containing the best arti-

cles from Localisation Focus and MultilingualComputing can now be downloaded fromwww.localisation.ie. It is free and educators areinvited to use it for their courses.

LOTSTest the latest version of industry-leading tools

and technologies in the LRC's laboratory or accessthem from LOTS Online. For more informationvisit: www.electonline.org/lots.php

LOCALISATION FOCUS LRC.news JUNE 200414

LRC News

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LOCALISATION FOCUSADVISORY.boardJUNE 2004 15

Logrusspecializes in complementary solutions:

• Multilingual solutions (localization, contentmanagement, engineering and testing)

• Large production site in Moscow• Large and complex projects

• ERP/CRM/BPO specialization• Multilingual software development projects

• Multilingual Web content management

Logrus • [email protected] • +1(215)947�4773

Logrus is a provider of multilingual solutions into a large number of languages,making it possible for software publishers and other companies to ensure globalpresence of their products. We specialize in large and highly technical projectsrequiring unique technical experience, a high level of self+sufficiency, and outstand+ing problem+solving capabilities.

Logrus was founded as a dedicated software localization company. We go beyondtranslation (although we do a lot of translating) and beyond programming (althoughwe do compile software, prepare the builds and fix bugs). We are localization professionals.

The LRC at UL is the focal point and the researchand educational centre for localisation. It is one

of the world’s leading intelligence, technology and edu-cational localisation centres. The LRC was establishedin 1995 at University College Dublin under the IrishGovernment and European Union funded TechnologyCentres Programme as the Localisation ResourcesCentre. When the centre moved to the University ofLimerick (UL) in 1999, it merged with UL’s Centre forLanguage Engineering and was renamed theLocalisation Research Centre (LRC).

The LRC is owned by UL. It has a director, facultymembers and project staff. Its Industry Advisory Boardrepresents a large section of the localisation industry.The LRC is supported by UL, its Industrial AdvisoryBoard, subscribers to its services and EnterpriseIreland. Its main areas of research are:

Industry IntelligenceLocalisation Exchange PointLocalisation DirectorySurveys and Industry Studies

Education and TrainingGraduate Diploma / MSc in Software LocalisationProfessional CertificationProfessional Developement CoursesLocalisation Teaching and Training Network (LttN)Annual LRC ConferenceInternational Localisation Summer School

Technology and ResearchLocalisation Technology Laboratory and ShowcaseTools and Technology Evaluation and CertificationTranslation and Test AutomationAnnual Industry Sponsored Awards Programme

Page 16: SOFTWARE LOCALISATION: OUTSOURCING OR IN … 2004.pdf · SOFTWARE LOCALISATION: OUTSOURCING OR IN-HOUSE? NOEMÍ FLUIXÀ Page 6 LRC ’04: OPEN SOURCE LOCALISATION THE 9TH ANNUAL

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Alchemy Software Development has its headquarters at Block 2, Harcourt Business Center, Harcourt Street, Dublin 2, Ireland

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