LISA Forum Europe

Do you want to sell your software applications worldwide? Do you want your eBusiness Web site to be useable and effective globally? Internationalization will get you there faster and cheaper. Why? Because if you want to offer your product in 8,12 or 20 languages, internationalization is about doing things once rather than 8, 12 or 20 times.

Internationalization is the first step of a two-step process. It consists in generalizing your product to be as language-independent as required. The second step - localization - consists in adapting the product to meet the needs of different languages and cultures. Internationalization reduces cost and time-to-market by making localization easier and avoiding work duplication.

Unfortunately, the complexity of internationalization is often underestimated, resulting in missed deadlines and cost overruns. This complexity arises primarily from the large number of issues involved and that language issues are inherently pervasive: they can potentially affect every system, every component, every third-party tool, every line of code, every document, every help file, every test script, every business process involved in releasing your product to the world.

The workshop starts off precisely by looking at these numerous issues. The characteristics of different languages and writing systems, from Greek to Hebrew, Russian to Japanese, Swedish to Mongolian are presented visually, with special emphasis on Asian languages. Differences in cultural conventions are also highlighted. From one culture to another, anything can change.

Subsequent chapters include:

a high-level executive summary: globalization concepts, business implications and ROI
a visual model of globalization clarifying what internationalization really is
internationalization management issues: reducing risk, reducing time-to-market
development issues: locales, character sets, Unicode, input methods, fonts, multi-threading, etc.
clear, simple examples illustrating not-so-simple internationalization problems
testing internationalization: how to prepare testing scripts and what to test

This workshop will prepare you for all aspects of an internationalization project. You will know the issues, you will know the pitfalls and you will know the solutions. The workshop will provide you with a clear understanding of industry best practices, how to apply them and what their benefits are.

Who will benefit from this workshop and why?

Anyone with a general interest in the languages of the world and their impact on computers can benefit from this Workshop. The Workshop intentionally presents concepts with real-world terms and with visual diagrams; more than 80% of the material can be easily understood without a technical background.

Who:	Interested in...
Executives	Implications of entering a new country market Why internationalization? Business justification & ROI for internationalization Business decisions that must be made
Marketing and Product Managers	Features required in different countries Different levels of internationalization complexity Tradeoffs Importance of clear language requirements
Managers	Management approaches to internationalization Avoiding common pitfalls Understanding exactly what your developers are doing during an internationalization project
Software Architects Web Architects	Different levels of internationalization complexity Different internationalization architectures and benefits
Software Developers Web Developers	Programming principles of internationalization Visual model of internationalization Practical advice and examples Extensive checklist of language & cultural issues
Translation Agencies Translators	Learn what your customers could do to make your life easier Understand the perception of programmers and how to sell internationalization to them Understand the perception of executives and how to sell internationalization to them Proper internationalization means a streamlined efficient process that makes for happier customers, happier translators, better ROI and more business!
Test Managers Testers	Major testing issues: platforms, bug workflow, etc. Internationalization of test scripts Visual model of internationalization testing What to test (with checklists) Testing techniques

About i18N workshops

At i18N Inc., we are committed to providing a high-quality learning experience. We design all of our workshops based on the following principles:

visual & intuitive: tables, graphics, animation & video provide extreme clarity
lots of content: rich, relevant content; our handouts can serve as reference
abstract models: we consider the forest first, then the trees (then the bugs!)
no sales pitch: our only sales pitch is the quality of our workshops

"Over the past ten years, LISA has provided numerous workshops on a variety of topics. Pierre has provided the highest quality Internationalization, and Web-Globalization workshops at our conferences and is the best rated workshop instructor we have" -- Michael Anobile, Director, LISA (www.lisa.org).

About Pierre Cadieux

Pierre Cadieux is the president of i18N Inc. (www.i18n.ca), a firm specializing in internationalization training and consulting. He is also technology editor for the LISA newsletter and he teaches internationalization at University of Montreal. Pierre has over twenty years experience in the industry; his globalization experience covers embedded systems, shrink-wrap software and Web sites.

Formerly VP Technology at Alis Technologies Inc., he pioneered the transparent handling of Arabic and Hebrew languages and created the core bi-directional technology licensed by Microsoft. At Alis, he designed the internationalization strategy for all products, including the TANGO multilingual Web browser. He has sat on CSA and ISO committees on character sets and multilingual data coding.

As Director of Localization Technology at Bowne Global Solutions, he carried out research and analysis on multilingual Web sites and published the first generic model of Globalization Management Systems.

As a freelance consultant, Pierre is often sought after to consult and to train on these issues as well as traditional software internationalization. He can be reached at pcadieux@i18n.ca.

This program is developed by i18N Inc.

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