Editorial

Open standards are very effective defense mechanisms

One of the few effective defense mechanisms that we can employ to actually help us maintain some semblance of order in all of this is the application of standards – the more open the better.

The easiest ones to negotiate and to implement are almost always the technical ones. They are the ticket to portability for our technology and workflow. This is especially important right now in today’s post-Idiom world. There is a new, open standard architecture available that is XML-based and supports the creation of open and very cost-effective solutions for multilingual publishing. The OASIS acronym is OAXAL, and it stands for Open Architecture for XML Authoring and Localization. For insights into how OAXAL (and the LISA open standards from OSCAR that support it) can serve as the basis for users migrating from Idiom to an open source solution, read OAXAL: What Is It, and Why Should I Care (public), by Andrzej Zydroń (CTO of XML-INTL, member of LISA OSCAR and Chair of the OASIS OAXAL Technical Committee).

EDITOR’S NOTE: LISA is currently collaborating with the N. America Idiom WorldServer Users Group to identify how standards may provide a “3rd path” for migration. If you’re interested in joining us or in being interviewed about your migration plans, send me an email at rebecca@lisa.org.

Business process standards are the ticket to portability for people

I, personally, am more interested in the business process standards that are the ticket to portability for the people who work on the teams that actually get most of the work done in today’s business world. For example, the methodology that we follow to make our strategic decisions to link our globalization strategies with corporate strategies. In their presentation during the recent LISA Forum USA, Priscilla Knoble (Director of Corporate Product Management) and Francis Tsang (Director of Globalization) from Adobe Systems challenged the audience to really think about whether they could clearly articulate their organization’s globalization strategy and whether they could really execute successfully against that strategy with the products and processes they have today. They then explained how Adobe has evolved and matured into its current global readiness strategy.

Editor’s Note: If you’re a LISA Member, you can download Hitting the Ground Running in New Markets: Do Your Global Business Processes Measure Up? by logging into www.lisa.org and visiting http://www.lisa.org/San-Francisco-2008.826.0.html?from=GI.

If you’re interested in more case studies and hard data from companies like Adobe and EMC, then join us for the LISA Forum Europe in Dublin the week of December 8 when our theme will be The Business Impact of Operating Without Standards. Are you or your organization looking for guidance in how to apply language-related technical and business process standards as you ramp up to meet the needs of all customers equally on a worldwide basis? Is your team considering the possibility of implementing a proprietary product or process that’s not based on open standards? Then click here for program details and registration information.

New LISA Member Adaquest is working very hard to evangelize best practice in the project management area for internationalization and localization engineering. Adaquest President Hiram Machado and his team have taken matters into their own hands and created a new boot camp to train Localization and Internationalization Engineers. The first course will begin on October 4 (here’s the link: www.adaquest.com/training/core/mainbasic.aspx). In my interview with Machado (public), he explains what prompted him to invest and where he and his team plan to go with the course, along with work they’re doing with the University of Washington to revive the localization initiative there.

Editor’s Note: If you, or your team, are interested in (1) globalization testing, (2) automated translation technology, (3) terminology, (4) project management for globalization professionals, (5) applying globalization standards, (6) buying/implementing CMS systems, (7) building high-performance localization teams or (8) assessing your organization for globalization readiness, click here for more information on the LISA Skills Workshops to be given in Dublin the week of December 8 during the LISA Forum Europe.

Partner Announcements

UNICODE 32: September 8-10

The Internationalization & Unicode Conference 32 (UNICODE 32) will take place in San Jose, California, USA from September 8–10. This conference is the premier technical conference for both software and web internationalization, as well as a great opportunity for networking with other practitioners. Learn more at http://www.unicodeconference.org/.

AMTA 8th Biennial Conference: October 21-25

The Association for Machine Translation in the Americas (AMTA) will highlight real world uses of translation technology during its 8th biennial conference in Hawaii from October 21-25. LISA has collaborated with the AMTA to develop joint programming for the commercial user track (there is a government track as well). Keynotes will be given by Mark Tapling (CEO of Language Weaver), Dion Wiggins (CEO of Asia Online) and Nick Bemish (Senior Human Language Technology Expert at the U.S. Government's Defense Intelligence Agency). The conference program and registration information are available at http://www.amtaweb.org/AMTA2008.html.

DocTrain East: October 29-November 1

To be held in Burlington, Massachusetts, USA, the theme of the 10th Annual Documentation & Training East Conference is Producing Quality Content. There will be a special focus on both software documentation project best practices and translation and localization issues. Companies that practice what they preach will be showcased. Learn more at http://www.doctrain.com/east/.

That’s all for this month.