This enduring double vision pervades much of the debate within the community: localization is 'more than' translation, versus translation is 'more than' just a commodity produced by subalterns; large localization vendors have 'solved' the translation equation, versus 'localization is actually only a subcategory of the broader world of translation', and so on. The fact is of course that a professional translator may or may not work on localization projects, whereas a localization vendor will inevitably carry out translation to deliver his final product. So this split is not quite so simple as it might first appear.

In practice of course, every one knows that both faces of our bifrons are reverse sides of the same coin and largely complement each other in various ways. Over-valorizing one or the other aspect usually heralds the start of a new move in the ongoing game of pitching value propositions that try to meet - or even invent - market needs. But this seems fair enough in an inherently fragile, undercapitalized sector such as the localization/translation services industry, at the constant mercy of customer volatility. The main thing is not to be right - no one ever can be - but to be innovative in laying down useful links between the two putative halves of our localization brain.

In this issue of your Globalization Insider, we cover the view from 'translation' from three different points of view. First, drawing on the long experience of a family firm, Rick Woyde tries to show how certain mainstream messages of the 'translation' component in MLVs actually fail to release the real added value that translators bring to the localization process. On the way, he suggests how local vendors can boost the ultimate value of translator and localization training courses by involving them more closely in the spread of technology skills.

To underline, some of these points about translator status, we also bring you an article by Deborah Fry, my illustrious predecessor on this newsletter, first published six years ago, on the mutations in store for the translator's trade in a business environment already primed by localization practices. Deb takes three models of what the translator can be, and points out how difficult it is in practice to maintain hard and fast distinctions between them.

Finally in an exclusive interview with LISA, Pierre-Yves Foucou [premium content], Chief Technology Officer of the legendary MT supplier SYSTRAN, shows how industrial strength integration is also very much the name of the game for a dedicated MT solutions provider, by taking us through a demanding checklist of requirements that any successful large-scale MT project has to address, over and above purely technical considerations.

In the last analysis of course, whether vendors use the L word or the T word may have very little to do with their success on the market. Reaching and serving customers is the litmus test for any successful marketing strategy and a more effective industry as a whole. And understanding and enriching the skein of relations between each 'side' is far more important than mutual disparagement.

-Andrew Joscelyne