The main disconnect comes from the fact that Dr. Hackos boils most globalization issues down to a combination of translation with a little bit of planning and so misses the big picture. Unfortunately this is a very large error, and so she ends up reinforcing a common fallacy that leaves managers unprepared for the challenges that lay ahead. This being said, it is important to note that Dr. Hackos does not trivialize the benefits of localization and is a strong advocate of language technology.

The book starts out, as many other books on the subject do, by outlining the basic model behind the need for content management. In a very general way, between chapters 1-8 the reader understands the need for a strategy and a structured implementation approach based on a company/customer-centric information model. Critical strategic factors that can often lead to project failure, however, are not emphasized sufficiently in the opening chapters; these include:

• Organizational challenges resulting from working with many stakeholders across different languages and cultures, a common failure point for multilingual Web sites;
• Process challenges, primarily in localization, which impact time-to-market, cost, and quality;
• Internationalization and technical challenges resulting from working across different language encodings, country specific conventions (date, time, address, etc.), and technologies;
• Global branding issues resulting from decentralization of tasks and message erosion.

Each of these are strategic issues that must be dealt with up-front as part of a team dynamic. It is not enough to have an information model for globalization, the interactions are too complex, there must be a documented strategy that clearly elucidates goals, roles, processes, and technologies. Additionally, the infrastructure must be fully internationalized and automated global business processes need to be built which span the entire organization and include many contributors who are not translators (in-country reviewers, local content creators, legal teams, etc.).

Interestingly, Dr. Hackos's example of a multilingual site, that for Compaq (pg 282, Figure 8-9) gives a very good example of a site which clearly has not been implemented using best practices. Obvious problems that should have been addressed at a strategic level include:

• Inconsistent navigation;
• Inconsistent branding;
• Inconsistent terminology;
• Inconsistent design and use of colors;
• Inconsistent functionality;
• Inconsistent content; and
• Inconsistent site architecture.

Dr. Hackos outlines the benefits from integrating translation workflow into a global content management infrastructure, however, readers are bound to become confused because she draws no distinction between content management systems (CMSs) and globalization management systems (GMSs). As she lumps the capabilities of both types of systems into one class, CMS, she makes statements that are not true. For example she states that CMSs contain centralized translation memory repositories and have automated processes for streamlining translation workflow - these are capabilities found today only in GMSs.

The key chapters from a GILT perspective are Developing a Single Source Strategy (Chapter 9), Authoring for Reuse (Chapter 10), Staffing for Content Management (Chapter 11), and Making a Business Case for Content Management (Chapter 12). It is in these chapters that Dr. Hackos emphasizes quite strongly that centralized, global content management systems which include translation workflow can save companies tremendous expense, time, and frustration. Unfortunately, as I have noted above, no such systems exist except in combination with a GMS.

The following quote conveys this theme: "One of the most significant returns on investment (ROI) for many organizations pursuing a content-management solution comes through reduced translation and localization costs."(pg 331). According to Dr. Hackos these savings can be attributed to a combination of process automation from implementing a single source content strategy and reuse, especially from using translation memory tools.

I would like to thank Dr. Hackos for writing this book, as it raises the profile of localization and globalization and clearly articulates the significant ROI that can be achieved from localization and globalization process automation. That being said, I would recommend that in future versions of this book, the key strategic issues should be addressed in greater detail and internationalization and localization challenges should be more fully articulated. This will not only help readers to more fully understand the scope of issues associated with their global Web sites, it will more fully ensure their success.

Jorden Woods is co-Founder and CTO of GlobalSight Corporation, a provider of GlobalSight System4, a leading Globalization Management System (GMS). As a pioneer in Web globalization he is recognized as a leading authority on Web globalization strategy and technology issues. He regularly speaks at leading Globalization and Internet conferences such as the LISA Forums, IDC Internet Executive Forum, Comdex, Global Internet Summit, ETRE, Red Herring conferences and the IQPC Global Web Localization and Ecommerce Globalization conferences. Jorden has also taught a course on Global Ecommerce for the Ecommerce Management Program at San Jose State University.

Jorden possesses an in-depth understanding of global markets, cultures and languages, having lived and worked for more than eight years in Asia and Europe. Before forming GlobalSight, Jorden was director of information technology at ERM Hong Kong, a multinational consulting firm. Jorden has over 15 years of technology experience in advanced computer modeling and Web globalization.

Jorden holds a bachelor's degree in astrophysics from California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and a master's degree in physics from University of Washington. Beyond his native English, Jorden's language expertise includes Chinese, Korean, Japanese and French. An avid cycling enthusiast, he has made cross-country bike journeys across the United States, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the UK and France.