More language. This year marks the 40th anniversary of a little noticed historical turning- point -the year in which the US became the first true "information society", with more people working at desks than in factories or on farms. This trend, which is now well established in most western economies, has spawned a whole range of information industries. The most profound change is the extent to which language is now embedded deep in the material culture of industrial societies. This is obvious to people in the software industry - the very term "software" distinguishes products that are somehow different from the nuts and bolts made in factories.

The original "soft" in software was the technical language of computer science. Increasingly it is natural, human language. What may be slightly less obvious - at least to those outside LISA - is the extent to which language, in the form of software, is invading every corner of the industrial process. "Heavy" industrial products - engines, vehicles, airplanes and the like - can't be made, sold or used without handling staggering volumes of "soft" pure language. Global enterprise is busily "re-engineering" itself - not to handle materials, but to process the language-based items of information that form the true infrastructure of a modern business. Putting it simply, doing any kind of business in the new millennium - industrial, service, or whatever - will require more language.

More language media. What most people understand by the term information society" is the collision between computing and telecommunications which we are currently experiencing. This violent imagery is appropriate to describe the revolutionary nature of a global society where people can be connected (virtually) any time, from (virtually) any place, to do (virtually) any thing. Or where entire libraries can be stored on small disks and browsed at will. New media (on-line, CD,etc.) push language into the foreground even more intensely. The explosion in the quantity and choice of material available - most of it language based - is often compared to the invention of printing.

More languages. We have more language-intensive products, and more ways to present language-based information. We also have a world economy moving to new levels of globalisation. Put these together and the sum is more languages - the need to handle not just "language" but the many different human languages. The new LISA survey highlights this fact. There is a relentless increase in the number of languages covered in localisation projects. If you're handling multi-language projects, chances are that a third of them involve more than 10 languages.

More industries. Localisation is moving beyond the confines of software publishing - or at least of the mainstream software industry. LISA truly represents a vanguard in this respect. The methods and good practice which all LISA members aim for are being applied in new domains. In one sense, other industries are becoming "software publishers" themselves in much the way they used to be "technical documentation" publishers. The glossy brochure in the car showroom has become a multimedia kiosk, while the oil-stained maintenance manual will soon be a PC next to the "grease pit". All this material will be produced in the many languages of the markets served by, in this case, the auto industry.

All these trends lead to the inescapable fact that the localisation industry has more opportunity than ever before. There is more choice for customers (both of suppliers and technology). There are more customers. But there is also more complexity and more risk, as projects get bigger and more mission critical. LISA is in a unique position to help members take advantage of these opportunities. Collectively, the membership represents almost the total sum of knowledge and experience in the localisation industry. As the industry grows, I hope to see LISA grow with it.

Rose Lockwood
Director, ITALICS
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