Recently in Globalization Category

E-C Translation Ltd., the Beijing-based, technology-driven language services provider with a mission to provide high-quality localization solutions, has announced today its re-branding to EC Innovations. In Phase One, the re-branding includes both a new name as well as a new company logo. Phase Two will include a new website and a new product launch. That new reality is reinforced by the product launch of their new, revolutionary Translation Business Management System (TBMS), a user-friendly localization project/process/business-management suite designed by localizers. http://www.ecinnovations.com

The Globalization and Localization Association (GALA), the largest international non-profit association within the language and localization industry, is launching a full-time, funded initiative to define standards for the benefit of the entire industry. The association has commissioned Arle Lommel, one of the industry’s most respected and experienced standards experts, to manage the initial collaborative planning phase and to establish a framework for long-term execution of standards. In Phase I of the initiative, Lommel will lead a transparent effort to determine how the industry can collaborate to proceed with standards. He will seek input from localization buyers and suppliers, tool developers, and various partner localization and standards organizations. He also will explore funding options for a long-term, stable standards program that is available to all in the industry. Throughout this phase GALA will provide platforms for feedback and input to the process. The first will be a standards roundtable hosted by Serge Gladkoff, GALA Board member, to take 29 March, at the GALA 2011 conference in Lisbon. The roundtable will be broadcast as a webinar worldwide and interested parties who are not at the conference will be invited to listen and comment on the proceedings. The culmination of Phase I will be an industry standards plan that will lay out what standards should be pursued, how the standards will be developed in an open and unbiased way, and how the ongoing standards initiative can be funded by the industry. http://www.gala-global.org

The official Google Translate for iPhone app is now available for download from the App Store. The new app has all of the features of the web app, as well as some new additions designed to improve translation experience. The new app accepts voice input for 15 languages, and—just like the web app—you can translate a word or phrase into one of more than 50 languages. For voice input, just press the microphone icon next to the text box and say what you want to translate. You can also listen to your translations spoken out loud in one of 23 different languages. This feature uses the same new speech synthesizer voices as the desktop version of Google Translate introduced last month. Another feature is the ability to easily enlarge the translated text to full-screen size. This way, it’s easier to read the text on the screen, or show the translation to the person you are communicating with. Just tap on the zoom icon to quickly zoom in. And the app also includes all of the major features of the web app, including the ability to view dictionary results for single words, access your starred translations and translation history even when offline, and support romanized text like Pinyin and Romaji. You can download Google Translate now from the App Store globally. The app is available in all iOS supported languages, but you’ll need an iPhone or iPod touch iOS version 3 or later. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-translate/

A new version of the XTRF system - XTRF 2.2 has been introduced to the market. This version is in accordance with the system development direction initiated in versions 2.0 and 2.1. Similarly to the previous versions, the XTRF team focused on solutions that respond to the increasing users' needs, new market trends, and changes in the companies' environment. Among the new functions of the version 2.2, the following can be distinguished: Online cooperation with translators (No-Login Provider) - A module enabling the registration of new subcontractors from the official site of a translation company. In the module, a special form for registering subcontractors in the company's database is available without the necessity to log in. The form may include the following data: Identification data; Contact data; Field of specialization and language pairs; Suggested rates; Software possessed by a subcontractor; and Additional information. After the registration, the translator's data are saved in the company's database, and the system automatically notifies the HR Manager about a newly registered subcontractor. The registration is protected by the CAPTCHA module. Online cooperation with clients (Creating Requests for Proposals) - A new module "No Login Quote" makes it possible to create and submit quotes directly from the company's official site. Reminding of unpaid invoices - XTRF informs authorised persons about the invoices that have not been paid on time. Flexible mechanism of delivering information from the system to the user's e-mail address - Users can program the XTRF system so that it sends data concerning projects, quotes, clients, and translators in a selected layout. Such a set of information may be sent by e-mail to any user without the necessity of logging into the system. The frequency of delivering information may be configured by users. Managing several company branches - thanks to implementing the branch category, XTRF enables you to manage your translator, client, and employee database divided into regional offices. Moreover, in connection with the module for creating financial reports, it is possible to conduct separate analyses for each company branch. In version 2.2, two new language versions have been added: Kazakh and Slovak. http://www.xtrf.eu

SDL, the provider of Global Information Management solutions, announced the launch of SDL BeGlobal. SDL BeGlobal delivers a central cloud platform to manage and deliver real-time automated translation for multilingual interactions across various forms of corporate communications. Combined with SDL TrustScore, which enables content owners to publish content many languages, SDL BeGlobal allows monolingual content managers and business users to communicate with their global customers. www.sdl.com

SDL, a provider of Global Information Management solutions, announced the release of SDL Trisoft 2011 for DITA, the XML standard for technical writing. With this new release of the company’s Component Content Management software, SDL offers DITA capabilities. One strength of SDL Trisoft is the ability to manage large volumes and variations of DITA topics that comprise a company’s technical product information set. With DITA 1.2 support, SDL Trisoft can now be used with the DITA Learning and Training specialization, the new task model and the machine-industry specialization. Users can also take advantage of new ways of managing content variations and achieving reuse with DITA 1.2’s new capabilities of “keyref”, “conkeyref”, “conref push” and “conref ranges”. In addition to supporting the DITA 1.2 standard, SDL Trisoft offers new authoring and publishing capabilities that enhance the user experience. A new search architecture gives the ability to search for information faster and with more granular precision. The new search includes the ability to search and find content inside XML elements and attributes, variables and conditions and to identify the context in which content resides. New capabilities are offered in the SDL Trisoft Publication Manager that include the ability to save a new version of an open publication, to check in / out from the Browse Repository dialog, to find most recently used items, to save output formats in the next version of a publication, to see an InContext Preview of Content, and to add additional fields to the Baseline tab and to autocomplete items that are added when building a publication. To address the growth and adoption of DITA in Japan, SDL Trisoft is also releasing a version of its desktop clients as Publication Manager and Authoring Bridge in Japanese. SDL Trisoft now supports Adobe Flash in the Publication Manager, enabling synchronization of technical content with Flash and other multimedia graphics. To support interaction with the community of content consumers, SDL Trisoft now supports round-tripping of comments from SDL LiveContent back to SDL Trisoft, providing a closed-loop feedback mechanism between the community and the information developer. SDL Trisoft is also now integrated with SDL XPP, the company’s advanced XML Professional Publisher for customers who have high volumes or advanced layout requirements. SDL Trisoft provides support for Transparent Data Encryption in Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008, as well as platform support for Windows® Server® 2008 R2 64-bit. The system also supports 64-bit Support Desktop Clients based on Windows 7 and Internet Explorer® 8 support for the SDL Trisoft Web Client. SDL Trisoft is integrated via an authoring bridge to Adobe FrameMaker® 9.0, PTC Arbortext® Editor 5.4 and Just Systems XMetaL® 6.0. Support for XMetaL 6.0-J, the Japanese version of XMetaL, will follow soon. www.sdl.com/

dotCMS, the web content management solutions provider, has announced an update to their flagship ECM suite. The major additions of 1.9.1 include: Multi-lingual backend now includes Spanish, French, German and Conversational Chinese translations; "red lining" tracks additions and deletions before publishing; Lucene/Nutch based site search, which can index different file types such as HTML, XML, ZIP, OpenDocument, Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint), PDF, JavaScript, RSS, RTF, and ID3 tags; New I/O "friendly" disk cache implementation speeds page delivery and overall throughput; JSP/Velocity integration tool eases legacy/enterprise system integration by allowing JSPs to be wrapped by velocity templates and content; Improved starter site ships with Events calendar, more demonstrations, Google Maps and Google Analytics; Multi-host sites will exclude system content by default, more cleanly separating content that lives on specific hosts; Multi-host sites log you into the host that you are viewing by default; server side JSON handling that allows you to consume and reuse JSON from remote systems; scripting friendly tool allows email communication from within Velocity; as well as a number of minor bug fixes and improvements. All of the improvements listed above are available in the Community Edition of dotCMS, with the exception of Red-Lining. All 1.9.1 features will be included in all Enterprise products. http://dotcms.com

XTRF 2.1 is a system solution made for translation companies and translation departments. Version 2.1 signifies the first major update since the 2.0 release in May 2010. New features include individual e-mail templates, Integration with webpages, a report generator, and database updates. The module to manage relations with contractors was supplemented by an option enabling the creation of one’s own correspondence schemes, i.e. e-mails that are used the most often in everyday work. Now each user can design an e-mail on marketing information, tender for contractors, searching for project offers, or on any other topic. The e-mails are stored in the system, and may be accessed at any time without the necessity to rewrite the same content a number of times. A project quote form, which can be embedded in the company webpage, has been added. From now on, the clients can ask for a quote without the necessity to log into the system. Information included in the form will be sent directly to XTRF and to a person responsible for preparing the offer. Each user can now prepare individual financial and statistical report models, select their own preferred quantitative, numerical or percentage analysis criteria and save the reports in the system. The system enables you to simultaneously introduce changes in the profiles of more than ten business partners. Contacting the contractors via social networks: In the Client and Provider Profiles, a requested form of contact was enabled – profiles in forums and social networks (Proz, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.). Each contact tab, apart from the standard data, contains the information on the preferred messengers and a link to a personal account in any selected social network service. A possibility to carry out the Char/Word/Page Count in the files imported to the system was added to the “workflow” module. From now on, as a result of the preliminary assessment of the size of the project, a Project Manager can calculate the project deadline and select the appropriate subcontractors. Apart from the above, XTRF 2.1 offers a scope of features enabling the generation of reports and accounts, searching through information on contractors and projects, and communication with business partners. Version 2.1, above all, makes it possible to define a number of settings and views on one’s own, thanks to which the system can be easily adapted to the needs and habits of individual employees. http://www.xtrf.eu/ 

Alchemy Software Development announced the availability of training courseware and certification exams for Alchemy CATALYST, A solution for software, online help and website localization. The course materials were developed at the Localisation Research Centre (LRC) and the Centre for Next Generation Localization (CNGL) in the University of Limerick and are designed to teach students how to use advanced translation memory technology to localize sophisticated software applications, online help systems and complex web sites. The courseware has been recognized by The Institute of Localization Professionals and will be incorporated into their world-wide Certified Localization Professional (CLP) programme. Students will also be able to take the Alchemy CATALYST certification exam fulfilling the membership requirements of TILP (The Institute of Localization Professionals) for continuous education of localization professionals. http://www.alchemysoftware.ie

TransPerfect, the privately held provider of translation services, announced the release of a new iPhone application for translation, which is available free to users. The application is called TransPerfect TransImage and it provides real-time machine translation via the device's camera for users who come across text they would like to instantly understand. Machine translation has not yet advanced to a point where it can replace a human translator for mission critical content, but it can be an informative tool for getting the gist of content in another language. TransPerfect's iPhone application leverages OCR (optical character recognition) and MT (machine translation) technology to form an application that takes text within a picture and translates it automatically. The current version includes support for 49 languages. The free application is now available from the Apple iTunes Store. www.transperfect.com.