Global Talk

The American Chemical Society’s email newsletter has pointed to an article about classifying and labeling chemical in a worldwide standardized manner.

Kathy Moore, Acting Manager of the Scientific Communication SIG of STC, excerpts the following information.

“A harmonised international approach to classifying and labelling chemicals — a long-term goal for governments and industry alike — is slowly moving closer to reality. The UN’s Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) has finally gone from planning to implementation, which will have a major impact on anyone making, distributing or transporting products in the US and elsewhere.

GHS has now been adopted by US authorities, with particular impact on the US Hazard Communication Standard (HCS). As a result, the US Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) published a modified HCS in March 2012, which came into force in May last year.”
[many paragraphs snipped]

Tech Comm News Internationalization, Science, Standards

The GALA standards initiative promotes the effective use of standards for international and multilingual content, builds awareness of best practices for their implementation, and enables the localization community to make open standards work.

Download a copy of the full standards initiative plan (version 1.2, published 02 June).

Related organizations Internationalization, Multilingual publishing, Standards

Expand Your Markets: Global Software Strategies.  Topics will cover successful internationalization of your materials. For more information and to see the call for papers:  http://www.worldwareconference.com/

Tech Comm News Events, Internationalization

A Localization World conference will be held October 6-8, 2010 at the Bell Harbor Conference Center in Seattle, Washington. For details visit  http://www.localizationworld.com/

Related organizations, Tech Comm News Event, Internationalization, Localization

For guidelines on using English effectively worlwide, consult Kohl’s Global English Style Guide, which has been reviewed.

Features English language, Internationalization, Resource

The challenges of selling stories for youth in many parts of the world and successsful techniques are the subject of an April 14, 2010 feature in Publishing Perspectives, “Selling Amanda Abroad.” This is a series of books and an interactive website.

Features Internationalization, Localization, Translation

The Handbook of Global User Research is described on the User Centric website at  http://www.usercentric.com/handbook-global-user-research. You can view the table of contents at http://www.globaluserresearch.com/book/table-of-contents.

Features Cross-cultural communication, Internationalization, Resource, Usability

Localization World will be held in Berlin in June 2010.  Details about the five tracks are posted:  Global Business Best Practices, Managing Global Websites, Advanced Localization Management, Localization Core Competencies, and Know-How for Global Success.

Related organizations Business, Event, Internationalization, Localization, Web

When you are creating a form, it’s necessary to consider users in countries other than your own. The UXmatters blog has a post about setting up address fields to accomodate international differences.

Features Forms design, Internationalization, Localization, Resource, Usability

The Nielsen Norman group offers “E-commerce User Experience: Design Guidelines for International Users” (pdf, 2007). You can read about and download these guidelines. There is a charge for the download.

Features Internationalization, Resource, Usability

Successful internationalization does more than prepare a website for deployment across cultures and in different languages. There are a number of ways you can optimize your website for search in different regions, where language and culture affect the way people look for information. Read more in “Internationalizing websites for search success” in the December 2009 issue of Tekom’s TC World.

Features Internationalization, Search

If you spend a few minutes on delicious.com, you can be rewarded with insights about resources in internationalization and localization, as well as who is active in the community. Explore one user’s links on web localization and then explore some other related searches to discover this world for yourself.

Features Internationalization, Localization, Resource, Web

If your organization does business in more than one part of the world, your web team faces the challenge of internationalization and localization of the website.

Internationalization refers to making a product ready for use throughout the world, and localization refers to making a product ready for use in a particular geographic area. For a website, internationalization requires making the code work worldwide, especially to support presenting the site in multiple languages, and developing a design and content for audiences with different cultural expectations.

Several articles are available to help meet these challenges. Four are presented here.

Several basic tips for internationalizing code are presented in Implementing Websites For Internationalization.

If you are providing a website in multiple languages, it’s desirable to avoid creating and maintaining multiple versions of the site. Internationalize JSP-based Websites presents one method.

A design blog addresses the challenge of providing a way for users to change to their preferred language. The author notes there is no standard interface for this. For details, visit Design Examples of Website Internationalization and Localization.

Creating content for readers worldwide is the focus of 7 Easy Tips to Internationalize Your Website. This is part of a larger guide with many resources, Culture Customized Content.

Features Communication, Cross-cultural communication, Design, Internationalization, Localization, Marketing, Resource

GALA is offering webinars of interest, including one by SIG members Hans Fenstermacher and Aki Ito.

Setting up Localization Collaboration in a Global Market
Thursday, 4 March, 11:00 EST
Sneak preview for the GALA 2010 workshop by Jean-Luc Mazet (Hewlett-Packard)
http://www.gala-global.org/gala-webinar-setting-localization-collaboration-global-market 

Easy Translation Management with memoQ 4.0
Thursday, 11 March, 11:00 EST
Tool Demonstration by Istvan Lengyel (Kilgray Translation Technologies)
http://www.gala-global.org/gala-webinar-easy-translation-management-memoq-40  

Managing Artwork Localization and Versioning of Language by Artwork
Thursday, 25 March, 11:00 EDT
Tool Demonstration by Luke Alexandre (StorePOINT International)
http://www.gala-global.org/gala-webinar-managing-artwork-localization-and-versioning-language-artwork  

Prague Meeting Primer: Taking Stock of Your Business
Thursday, 8 April, 11:00 EDT
Primer for the GALA 2010 workshop,
“Not Your Same Old Differentiators: How LSPs Can REALLY Stand Out”
by Gordon Husbands (Wordbank), Hans Fenstermacher (TransPerfect / Translations.com) and Aki Ito (TOIN Corporation)
http://www.gala-global.org/gala-webinar-taking-stock-your-business   

Effective Localization Workforce Management
Thursday, 22 April, 11:00 EDT
Presentation by John Watkins, ENLASO Corporation
http://www.gala-global.org/gala-webinar-effective-localization-workforce-management

Related organizations, Tech Comm News Artwork, Business, Event, Internationalization, Localization, Translation

Registration is open for the 2010 conference of the Globalization and Localization Association, GALA.

The Global Community: Capturing Customers Worldwide
10-12 May 2010
InterContintental Hotel, Prague
http://www.gala-global.org/conference

Related organizations, Tech Comm News Event, Internationalization, Localization, Translation