• Arle Lommel, LISA's Publications Manager, provocatively asserts that the localization problem is solved in Localization Solved? He compares GILT tools to cars and describes what software users in Western China must go through (hypothetically) in order to obtain support. Which all leads up to his main prediction for 2003: the needs of customers in international markets will become more and more of an issue that all companies must deal with in order to keep and/or grow their market share. He proposes a novel solution for part of the support problem, but I don't want to spoil the surprise!
• In Europe's Language Industry in 2003, Andrew Joscelyn, LISA's Editor for European Affairs, predicts that the purchasers of GILT services may mature a bit and move onto a true ROI model, rather than just cruising for rock bottom prices. He also believes that a few off-the-shelf solutions for project and workflow management may hit the market this year. He yearns for decent market research for the GILT industry and recommends that we keep an eye on something called EEEL, while issuing a prediction that larger vendors may muscle in on smaller ones.
• Minako O'Hagan, LISA's Editor for Asia-Pacific, in Minority Report on Localization 2003, reminds us that TM tools are badly in need of redesign to make them of real use to the translation community at large. Changes occurring in foreign language teaching (or the cessation thereof) will directly affect the GILT industry, for better or worse. She also predicts that GILT activities such as Web localization will support the current advances in cognitive linguistics by clearly demonstrating the interrelationship between language and culture.
• As LISA's Global Business Editor and a perennial eternal optimist, I provide some recommendations on how to survive the current economic downturn in From Tea Leaves to Coffee Grounds. I also strongly encourage our readers to enter the Chinese market sooner, rather than later. At the same time, I am a bit at odds with my fellow editors, predicting that this year will be an important one for Web Services. Much of the hype will die down, revealing that more and more real projects are being implemented. Insights are also provided in to how to read Turkish coffee grounds for any readers who may be interested.
• In a related article, Dateline Shanghai, we provide information about the GILT industry in China, along with an introduction to LISA's new and very exciting Asian Globalization Resources Survey. This article also includes a short synopsis of LISA's recent Shanghai Executive Roundtable.
• Pierre Cadieux, LISA's Technology Editor, in Another Minority Report: Predictions, Dreams and One Hallucination, predicts that the OASIS committee to define Translation Web Services is working on the right problem, and if it moves quickly, that it will be very successful. He is also an optimist, predicting that upper-level managers will finally recognize terminology as an asset... and dreaming of modern ergonomics being put to use to define translation tools that are truly efficient for the translator. His hallucination, which I will let our readers discover, speaks for itself.
• And in the latest installment of the Money Talks series (member content), John Freivalds discusses some consequences of the fact that the U.S. Department of Defense is spending more on languages than Microsoft while ramping up its war machine. He also covers other sectors in which the need for GILT services is growing by leaps and bounds, and provides the latest financial news and gossip about publicly held firms in our industry.

On a personal note, I am very pleased to begin my tenure as LISA's Global Business Editor and look forward to receiving your feedback and ideas at Rebecca@lisa.org. Please contact me anytime.

Drawing on in-depth interviews with executives of over 210 companies in China, the LISA Asian Globalization Resources Survey provides the most up-to-date and comprehensive overview of GILT-related business in China. It identifies the market opportunities that companies must take advantage of to be successful and provides a snap-shot of one of the most rapidly-expanding markets in the world from the IT and related vertical market sectors.