Standards

When the grass roots of our industry can more easily embrace XML, this will help to open a vast pool of data resources for interchange and repurposing, which will be a great benefit to the entire localization industry.

The LISA Terminology SIG was invited by OSCAR to recommend which data categories should be included in TBX-Lite. We welcomed this opportunity to have our practical industry experience reflected in this upcoming standard.

The first step was to decide what criteria would be used in selecting the data categories. First, it was understood that only data categories currently supported in TBX (originally from ISO 12620) would be considered, since TBX-Lite must be a subset of TBX. We then agreed on the following selection criteria or principles:

1. We would use the results from the following key LISA industry reports as an indicator of industry needs

LISA Terminology Survey (2001)

LISA Terminology Survey for the Localization Industry (2003)

A Comparative Study of Costs, Data Categories, Tools, and Organizational Structure

2. We would ensure that solid principles of terminology management were reflected, based on ISO standards and other best practices.

3. We would strive to serve the broadest base of developers of localization-oriented terminology resources by limiting mandatory fields.

4. We would focus on simplicity as a key objective to ensure broad-based adoption.

These guiding principles were agreed to by the Terminology SIG, including Alan Melby from OSCAR.

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Kara Warburton is responsible for IBM's terminology strategy, including tools, processes and data management. She is the chair of the LISA Terminology SIG, which defines best practices, and is a delegate to ISO TC 37, which defines terminology standards. She holds a Master's degree in Terminology from Université Laval and has held positions as translator and information developer. Warburton has published articles, given conference presentations and taught university courses on terminology. She can be reached at kara@ca.ibm.com.