The deadline for submitting proposals for Gilbane Boston, November 27 – 29, 2007 is May 15, 2007. Instruction for proposals are at: https://gilbane.com/speaker_guidelines.html We will still accept proposals after tomorrow, but chances of acceptance start to diminish quickly as we start designing the program in the next couple of weeks. Remember that we always receive many more excellent proposals than we can fit into our program. Please do not be discouraged if you are not selected. We do multiple events, and may be able to fit your presentation into another conference.
Month: May 2007 (Page 3 of 4)
Bill has a nice summary of SDL’s research into the use of XML in delivering global content across multiple channels. Seven golden rules is right on target — given the age-old premise from cognitive psychologist George A. Miller.
Check it out.
This week, EMC announced a collaborative research network, with this headline: New EMC Innovation Network to Harness Worldwide Tech Resources, Accelerate Information Infrastructure Innovation. Among the areas that the research network will explore are Semantic Web, search, context, and ontological views.
There is a lot to feed on in this announcement but the most interesting aspect is the juxtaposition with other hardware giants’ forays into the world of document and content search software (e.g. IBM, CISCO), and recent efforts by software leaders Oracle and Microsoft to strengthen their offerings in the area of content and search.
One of the phrases in EMC’s announcement that struck me is the reference to “information infrastructure.” This phrase is used ubiquitously by IT folks to aggregate their hardware and network components with the assumption that because these systems store and transport data, they are information infrastructure. We need to recognize that there are two elements missing from this infrastructure view, skilled knowledge workers (e.g.content structure architects, taxonomists, specialist librarians) and software applications for content authoring, capture, organization, and retrieval. Judging from the language of EMC’s press release this might just be tacit recognition that hardware and networks do not make up an information infrastructure. But those of us in search and content management knew that all along; we don’t need a think tank to show us how the pieces fit together nor even how to innovate to create good infrastructure. Top notch professionals have been doing that for decades. Will this new network really reveal anything new?
EMC does not explicitly announce a plan to make search and information infrastructure product commodities but they do express the desire to build “commercial products” for this market. They have already acquired a few of the software components but have yet to demonstrate a tight integration with the rest of the company. Usually innovation comes from humble roots and grows organically through the sponsorship of a large organization, self-funding or other interested contributors. This effort to lead an innovation community to solutions for information infrastructure has the potential to spawn growth of truly innovative tools, methods and even standards for diverse needs and communities. Alternatively, it may simply be a push to bring a free-wheeling industry of multi-faceted components under central control with the result being tools and products that serve the lowest common denominator users.
From a search point of view, I for one am enjoying the richness of the marketplace and how varied the product offerings are for many specialized needs. For the time being, I remain skeptical that any hardware or software giant can sustain the richness of offerings that get to the heart of particular business search needs in a universal way. Commodity search solutions are a long way off for the community of organizations I encounter.
One of the unique aspects of the translation and localization industries is the breadth of contributors and skill sets that actually get the work done. I remember standing in line last summer for the ferry to Ellis Island and marveling at the number of languages being spoken simultaneously and the number of cultures represented in one huge line. But for that moment, (2 hours actually) that line was a community with a single purpose. Despite language barriers, everyone shared the excitement of the historical adventure to come.
No, the San Diego-based WorldSummit organized by Idiom Technologies didn’t offer a cross-country trek to the Status of Liberty. It did however, offer an opportunity for an impressive group of professionals with multiple skill sets and cultural backgrounds to come together and share the excitement of where the industry is heading and what it can achieve along the way.
Blending technical writers, brand managers, and marketers from varied organizations with translators from multiple countries, LSPs, university professors, industry researchers, and analysts is no small feat. But for that moment, (3 days actually) WorldSummit fostered community and conversation amongst those who research, those who groom the next generation of translators, those determined to author source content with globalization in mind, those faced with the nuances of dialect and locale, and those who provide the services and technologies so necessary for this complex work.
With Mary and I both attending, we got to compare notes and reactions as we moved through various user sessions, informal conversations, and social events. One clear pattern we both noticed is the power of human connection; IOW, the power of face-to-face, passionate conversations. Without belittling the impact of Web communities, I am standing firm on the notion that there’s nothing like eye contact, body language and the sight of folks waving their hands to speak to fuel the adrenaline of a community conversation. It’s positively contagious. Here’s some examples of the adrenaline I’m talking about:
- Mary’s user panel, “Evaluating and Selecting a Globalization Management System – Best Practices,” included real-world advice from Brian Shorey – Cisco Systems, Alma Siller – Continental Airlines, and Mimi Hills – Sun Microsystems. This was not a panel of “nirvana” stories told through predefined slides; this was an honest and thoughtful discussion of the approaches each participant used to pave the way for success (including some colored commentary on the challenges to expect along the way!)
- Keynotes on translation quality and the future of technologies were passionately delivered by well-known researchers such as Jaap van der Meer and Alan Melby. The wealth of history these two brought to the table resulted in many a cramped finger as the audience scribbled furiously.
- Machine translation’s potential to resolve time to market challenges and its intersection with human expertise was absolutely hot, as John Yunker notes over at Global by Design. Whether more acronyms are useful or confusing, it is quite clear that the pool of worldwide translation talent may not be able to keep up with demand.
- And I’ll not soon forget the students from Kent State University and California State University Chico, who cheered their professors with more enthusiasm than I’ve seen at a technical conference for some time.
Whew. Documenting the varied participants and choosing my highlights was tough enough. Pulling off the event was surely another story. Kudos to the Idiom team for achieving a well-rounded and extremely organized event.
Squarespace, a subscription-based solution for managing websites and blogs together in the same platform, has released version 4.0 of its publishing software. Along with improvements to site architecture and enhancements to bandwidth and storage, five features have been added to provide users with more options for creating a professional and dynamic web presence. Bloggers will have access to a search function that operates across all of a website’s content types, including blog posts, discussion forums, FAQs, photo galleries and standard webpages. Squarespace search can also operate on protected areas of a site and index content as soon as it is published. Users can create online forms, allowing users to address the difficult problem of capturing and analyzing data from their customer base. Website owners can use Squarespace’s new FAQ component. Publish questions and answers in a search engine friendly format that is as easy to manage as a blog post. Webmasters and bloggers alike are now able to host a discussion forum within Squarespace just as they would a photo gallery or guestbook. Users can add Google Maps to their site and highlight the location of offices, meetups or other events for their readers. Hosting packages range from $7 to $65 per month, and are available for individuals or businesses. Enterprise users can also take advantage of Squarespace’s customized support and bandwidth plans for $175 per month. http://www.squarespace.com
Informative Graphics Corporation (IGC) announced the latest release of its Java version of the Brava! product line, Brava Enterprise 5.2J. Version 5.2J is the next step in IGC’s secure, Java-based viewing technology, bringing features like thumbnail views, term-hit highlighting, redaction, markup consolidation and the ability to output to PDF to the client/server viewer. Brava Enterprise brings unified view and annotation capabilities to a large number of users inside and outside the firewall. Brava! Enterprise integrates into existing systems, honoring user rights, leveraging metadata and managing annotations. Brava Enterprise is integrated with content management systems like EMC Documentum and Open Text Livelink ECM, Interwoven WorkSite MP and Microsoft SharePoint, and project management systems like Primavera Expedition and Meridian Project Systems, as well as many commercial collaboration web sites. http://www.bravaviewer.com, http://www.infograph.com
Mary and I did the Webinar with Oracle this week. You can see the recorded version and download the associated white paper over at the Oracle site. The focus was on the challenges of multisite management.
Web content management is a staple technology for thousands of enterprises–and for good reason. Every enterprise needs a basic web presence, and organizations of even modest size and complexity have multiple websites. These multiple sites likely span a range of purposes and needs, including supplier and distributor extranets, customer support websites, and corporate and departmental intranets. Every enterprise’s needs will vary of course, but the larger the organization, the likelihood that the organization will have multiple websites, spanning a range of internal and external needs.
The abundance of websites results from sound business needs. These needs begin with the obvious requirement to have a web presence, but extend to many other areas. Consider the need to work closely with suppliers, and how that requirement can be met by a content-rich and functional extranet. Human Resources is another likely arena, where the organization might want to provide benefit information through an interactive website. The examples abound, and the recent explosion of blogs and wikis has amplified the need.
A key element in multiple website management is understanding who does what when it comes to website design, content creation, and the day-to-day efforts to keep the site or sites going. Can these users be productive and efficient? The matter of scale is another central question: Are there only one or two sites, or is your enterprise in the position of having dozens or even hundreds of sites, and serving content to intranets, extranets, and portals, with new websites regularly demanded by the needs of the business?
Multiple websites present challenges in many different typical workflows and processes. These include identifying and empowering the IT personnel who need to take the lead in web architecture to the line of business manager who must decide on the content and organization of the site and keep it up to date. Perhaps most significant are the needs of the content contributors. At the end of the day, they need easy-to-use tools that allow them to create content within the policies of the overall enterprise and the specific line of business.
Given the strong demand for multiple websites and the potential costs and inefficiencies of building these out separately, there is a natural need for the right technology. At minimum, organizations need web content management technology that supports centralized strategy and governance and that uses IT resources efficiently; at the same time, the technology must give site managers and contributors the means to create and manage the content quickly and easily.
Customers we met at Interwoven’s GearUp ’07 reminded us of how much really hard work goes into complex content-centric applications. We see the glittery, exposed tips of solutions, while the bulk of the application lies under the surface, often at depths where only the experts go. A presentation by Sun Microsystems at GearUp is a case in point.
The session focused on Sun’s Starlight platform, a global information management infrastructure described in a Gilbane CTW case study. It was an opportunity to hear the Starlight story live, in a panel discussion featuring Sun’s Sean Browne, director of web publishing, and three members of his team, including Kristen Harris, content management engineering manager, and Jed Michnowicz, engineering lead. In the program, we noticed that the session was being moderated by Steve Van Leishout from NEC Corporation of America (NECAM). What was the connection, we wondered, between Sun and NECAM?
During the discussion, we learned that NECAM is a long-time Sun partner, providing program management and technical expertise in support of the redesign of Sun web properties. A few examples of the heavy lifting that NECAM has done at Sun: helping to migrate nine properties into two primary vehicles of approximately 225,000 pages and assets, and coordinating the hand-offs between more than 100 stakeholders responsible for publishing content to sun.com, java.com, two developer sites, and over 35 country sites in 12 languages. The hard work below the surface enabled us to gain a new appreciation for the success story documented in the Gilbane case study on Starlight, reminding us that there’s usually much more to successful applications than meets our eye.
If you have an iceberg application that you’d like to share, consider submitting a speaking proposal for Gilbane Boston 2007. The deadline is May 15.
To learn more about Sun’s Starlight platform, see Leonor’s entry on the Gilbane globalization blog entitled Aging: Web Years Are Worse Than Dog Years.
