Editorial

The keynote on the second day of the Forum, November 9, Why Every Localization Customer and Services Organization Should Be Using DITA, will be given by Dr. JoAnn Hackos, President of Comtech Services Inc. and Director of The Center for Information Development Management (CIDM). As a founding member with IBM of the Technical Committee for DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) at OASIS and co-editor of the DITA specification, Dr. Hackos is obviously very passionate about DITA. We interviewed her recently and include a short excerpt from a much longer interview to be published in a future issue of the Globalization Insider.

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Insider: What best practices in information design are most valuable for those of us designing with multilingual content (to be repurposed) in mind?

We advise managers to develop several programs. The first is minimalism, which focuses on ensuring that the content being presented is relevant to the users. It also means reducing the verbiage for a topic to only what is really needed, with a special focus on eliminating what we refer to as "text junk." Text junk typically consists of (1) information in the preface and introduction that is rarely read by anyone and (2) text that is the result of overly wordy style guides.

The second is structured authoring, which focuses on topic-based structures for specific, well-defined information types. All authors should follow identical structures for similar types of information. The consistency also facilitates the reuse of the content in more than one context.

The third is controlled vocabulary. We urge organizations to establish language standards in the source language. A controlled vocabulary makes the writing more readable in all languages, thus ensuring consistent translations as well.

Insider: What is the most important piece of advice for an organization that is planning to implement single sourcing?

Single sourcing is an approach to information development that involves the principle of normalization. Normalization requires that a database contain only one version of a particular piece of data or content. In most technical publications organizations, the database – even if it is not in a content management system – contains redundant content that is exactly the same or similar. Most of the differences are accidental and contribute no value to the customer.

In planning for single sourcing and content management, it is critical that information developers pursue a normalization process before they try to "convert" legacy information into structured authoring or content management systems.

Insider: Why should every localization customer and services provider start using DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) today?

We believe that DITA is a rapidly emerging standard that is attracting the attention of many information providers. We also believe that it is the best approach for every organization that wants to increase productivity and decrease costs. However, DITA is an approach that requires considerable collaboration and discipline among authoring groups. It should be studied and adapted to the needs of each organization. Using XML markup does not make your information structured. Most technical content today must be rewritten to become structured. As a result, a move to DITA, while technically fairly straight forward, is challenging. There is no easy conversion tool that will turn threaded, unstructured content into a structure that is semantically or lexically marked.

Editor’s Note: We also encourage you to attend the first DITA Europe™ Conference, to be held November 3 in Frankfurt, Germany. Sessions include developing a business case, DITA specialization, localization and DITA, and a live demo of how DITA fits into a content management system.

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Along with standards such as DITA, leveraging the expertise of implementers who have gone before you will play a large role in the success of any global content management strategy. LISA is very proud to announce its third Best Practice Guide: Managing Global Content. LISA Members Alison Toon (HP) and Andrew Draheim are leading the LISA Global Content Management Initiative. Based on their popular workshops at recent LISA Forums (one of which they will give in Zurich), they have written this guide to help you understand your global content management needs, how you can procure the best solutions, and how to help your users get started. Toon and Draheim are two of the world’s most experienced implementers of Global Content Management and Global Translation Management Systems, so don’t miss out on this unique opportunity to leverage their expertise. Order your copy today! We include a short excerpt from the Guide in this issue (public).

Of course, a sound global content strategy is only as strong as the terminology link. In his article (premium), Bridging the Disconnect Between the Engineering, Authoring and Translation Communities, Rick Woyde, President of Detroit Translation Bureau, Inc., outlines how J1930, an SAE (Society for Automotive Engineers) Recommended Practice, might be adapted to bridge the disconnect described in the title. He points out that, as tomorrow’s vehicles come loaded with even more electronic gadgets of every kind, J1930’s value will continue to increase, as the majority of new technical terminology will fall under its domain. It is an important automotive terminology tool, and perhaps combined with other tools and standards, it could help foster a more effective translation process.

I just keep wondering what will happen when all of our vehicles are enabled with the gift of speech. What will happen in regions where the people – and their vehicles – speak different languages? Check out WiFi May Make Cars Smarter.

Attendees at the LISA Forum Europe in Zurich will have the opportunity to share their experiences about globalizing material that was originally created only for a monolingual local market during an open discussion session, Do Words Really Matter?, to be facilitated by Kara Warburton (IBM) and Dino Ferrari (CLS Communications). If you plan to attend, please bring examples of problems in original source materials, strategies for educating content creators, and success stories for developing content for global markets.

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We also caught up with Bruno Hermann, Marketing Manager for Web Content at ACNielsen, who will be leading a Best Practice Session in Zurich on November 8, Global Content Management in a Web Portal Environment, and asked him two questions:

Insider: How do you really support your customers through delivering “intelligent content?” What is so “intelligent” about it?

When arriving at the ACN portal, our customers now expect to find more than “just” valuable content. We have always delivered this type of content, based on (market) data, desktop applications/tools and reports. Historically, this content was delivered via offline/traditional channels (CD, mailings) and by email.

In the past few years, customers have taken their expectations to the next level by requiring content that is really actionable in a quick and intuitive way, and the internet is the perfect channel to meet these requirements. This means, for us, moving existing products and services to the web and adding new ones to support our customers by providing the most relevant market insights to enable them to make the best marketing decisions possible. Intelligence is a key concept since our portal delivers not only content, but also the services and tools to make the most of it.

Insider: What effect is the growing importance of emerging economies having on your web content localization strategy?

It will be a key component of our 2006 web content strategy, and beyond. The need to deliver quality content to Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia has never been so business-critical. Since our growth and revenues come from these markets to a significant extend, ongoing efforts and best practices will be essential to meet our customers’ needs in these regions.

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The Schlumberger SEED (Schlumberger Excellence for Educational Development) Foundation and iHorizons have partnered to show what can be done in one of the business-critical regions that Bruno describes. SEED offers young people around the world a unique opportunity to share and expand their knowledge through its educational web site and grant programs. Its vision is to build a learning community that dissolves barriers and creates connections. iHorizons helped introduced SEED to the Arab world by localizing its web site and translating all of its materials into Arabic.

You will have the opportunity to meet Dareen Mukhaimer (iHorizons Media and Information Services) when she joins Maria Wawrzyniak (Schlumberger SEED Foundation) to present Case Study: Localizing Arabic Web Sites at the LISA Forum 2005 in Zurich on November 9. During the Forum, you are also encouraged to attend the All About Arabic Workshop on November 7. And don’t miss LISA Forum Cairo 2005 (December 5-8), which will address the region's market conditions for language processing technologies, product development and customer support for Arabic and African languages.

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Recent events have shown that there is still much evangelism to be done for global information management – at least if the darling of the U.S. stock market, Google, is any indication! Earlier this month, Google Maps went to market with ”Taiwan, Province of China'' pasted next to a map of the island. They quickly took care of the problem after the Government of Taiwan lodged an official complaint, but not before they were caught by one of the classic mistakes when localizing a product/service – no proper audit was done of third-party software that was integrated into their own product.

LISA Member Vic Dickson, CEO of Transco, a localization provider of Asian languages based in Beijing, describes how his company saves companies such as Google from making their recent mistake in his article (premium), BSC as a Strategic Management Tool for the Language Services Industry. The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) model is a well-known management tool for enterprises seeking performance excellence. How to combine the model successfully with the real-world environment of language services providers is a challenge. Dickson introduces the basics of BSC and then describes how to adapt it for application in a language services setting.

Eric Nicod (Logitech) and Arnaud Daix (HP) will further explore the application of metrics during their presentation, Localization ROI: A Standard Business Approach Justifying Market Entry and Customer Support for Localized Products, in Zurich on November 8. They will use case studies to illustrate the challenges and issues associated with the ROI of localized products, being careful to note the differences between (1) localization costs, (2) costs reduced by localization and (3) added value in terms of real revenues. Their focus will be on the value perceived both internally (by upper management) and externally (by customers).

In this month’s issue of Money Talks, John Freivalds discusses medieval dining halls, stock prices and venture capital. Click here (premium).

That’s it for this month. Hope to see many of you in person in Zurich week after next at the LISA Forum Europe!