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.
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.
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
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
The Globalization and Localization Association has announced a series of webinars. Topics include managed crowdsourcing, the Okapi localization tools, multilingual desktop publishing, and project-based machine translation. For details, visit the GALA webinar page.
There is a new international open access online peer-reviewed journal, conneXions: international professional communication journal | revista de comunica profissional internacional (ISSN 1647-2373), published by the Center for Comparative Studies of the University of Lisbon, Faculty of Letters. The journal is dedicated to promoting and developing efficient and effective single and multimedia communication and its constituent communities in local, national, international, and global worksite and civic settings–business and industry, commerce and services, economy and finance, education and the academy, government and politics, media and the arts, medicine and health, research and non-profit, science and technology, the home and public places. The journal’s major topics lie at the intersection of
While centered in international professional communication, the journal welcomes manuscripts from different approaches and domains of knowledge and professional practice. conneXions: international professional communication journal | revista de comunica profissional internacional is aimed at researchers, practitioners, students and emerging scholars with diversified backgrounds, interests and nationalities. The journal is aimed at researchers, practitioners, students and emerging scholars wishing to publish in English, Portuguese, French or Spanish. The journal welcomes submissions of original research articles, teaching cases, reviews of books and other artifacts, and summaries of articles relevant to international professional communication. Click here for the CFP for the first 2010 issue: http://www.connexionsjournal.org/announcement/view/55> .
If you would like to know about *conneXions*, please consult the website at http://connexionsjournal.org.
Berkeley Globalization Conference (LISA@Berkeley) will bring together members of the academic and business communities in an open and engaging communication about the present and future of globalization, internationalization, localization, and translation.
For more information, please check here: http://www.lisa.org/Berkeley.949.0.html
STC members may register online and receive the discounted LISA member rate of $185; $250 after June 19.
First GALA Conference to Focus on Education and Networking in a Tough Economy
Seattle, Washington, USA (31 March 2009) – Registration for the Globalization and Localization Association’s first ever conference has just opened at www.language-of-business.org. “GALA 2009: The language of business. The business of language.” will be held 14 – 16 September 2009 at the J.W. Marriott in Cancun, Mexico and will provide GALA members and industry professionals with education and networking opportunities unparalleled in the industry.
June 8-10, 2009. Localization World will be in Berlin. More information: http://www.localizationworld.com/
October 20-22, 2009
Santa Clara Convention Center
Silicon Valley, California
Know-how for Global Success
In recognition of the fact that localization is not an end to itself, but just one critical step in a company’s progression from domestic to global enterprise, we are looking for presentations that will provide expertise and experiences from the whole spectrum of that challenging, fascinating journey.
In light of that, we are offering four distinct tracks:
Localization World invites developers, practitioners, and corporate and institutional users to submit papers, perspectives and topics for discussion at the global conference in 2009 in San Jose, California USA. By using the same overall theme as our Localization World Berlin Conference in June 2009, we aim to create ongoing discussions on the topic, and to introduce those discussions to local attendees.
Suggestions of ideas, topics and speakers for Localization World Silicon Valley 2009 should be submitted using this template by March 30, 2009. Submissions should be sent by e-mail to submissions@localizationworld.com.
The Worldware conference focuses on the ROI of internationalization. For more information, go to http://worldwareconference.com/ . Conference is from March 17-19, 2009 in Santa Clara, CA, USA.
ITC SIG member Rahel Bailie promotes the concept of content convergence, creating and making available all forms of published information in a networked environment. Reuse is the expectation and the rule, with dissemination of small “bundles” of information to be processed for reuse. Translators have a special challenge to render these bundles correctly in various languages and for various cultures. Rahel comments further and has published an article in the January-February 2009 issue of Multilingual Computing.
