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The Impact of Globalization: Translators in Demand

January 29, 2008 / / 0 Comments

In 2005, the White House Conference on Aging discussed the barriers to communication for a growing population of “Limited English Proficient (LEP)” adults. Not surprisingly, the creation of, funding for, and distribution of translated information was a predominant theme. To its credit, the WHCOA site now provides up to date information in eight languages (MT-powered.) Despite some progress in the U.S. over the past decade in areas such as prescription drug labels, quality is still a major issue, particularly in the medical and legal industries.

The U.S. is certainly not the only nation facing language barriers that have economic, health, and legal ramifications. Our interview with Karl Lonnroth demonstrated the enormity of work in progress within the European Union to deliver multilingualism as a fundamental right. In 2006, China discussed a lack of translators as a “major obstacle to China’s economic development.” In late 2007, the Daily News Analysis India ran an article that bemoans the lack of translators as well as infrastructure as major barriers to the availability of Indian literature.

Certainly an over-simplification, but…

Solution? More translation services.

Problem? Lack of translators. Demand exists, tracked monthly by TranslatorsCafe.com (also an excellent site for knowledge sharing and information on job opportunities.) Here’s a good start for our “Resources” contribution, with links to opportunities for certification, under and post-graduate degrees, grants, and research endeavors. Expecting the inevitable “you are missing this site, link, etc.,” we invite comments and additions for the list. We’ll republish updates as appropriate.

Industry Certifications

American Translators Association
Excerpt: ATA has established a certification program to enable individual translators to demonstrate that they meet professional standards. Translators who pass a written examination are certified by ATA in a specific language pair and direction (from or into English).

Institute of Localisation Professionals
Excerpt: The Institute of Localisation Professionals (TILP) has the primary aim to develop professional practices in localisation globally; offers the Certified Localisation Professional (CLP) program.

University Programs

California State University, Chico
Excerpt: The mission of the Localization Program is to provide education, training, and outreach in Localization and International E-Business, with the help of strategic partnerships and collaborations, to help students and businesses compete in the new global networked economy. Also offers the The Localization Certification Program with an updated 2008 schedule http://rce.csuchico.edu/localize/

Kent State University
Excerpt: The Institute for Applied Linguistics (IAL) is a research and training unit within the College of Arts and Sciences at Kent State. Affiliated with the Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies, the Institute and its faculty coordinate the four-year Bachelor of Science Program in Translation, the 2-year Master of Arts in Translation and the Ph.D. in Translation Studies.

University of Limerick: Localisation Research Centre (LRC)
Excerpt: In 1997, UL established the world’s first dedicated postgraduate programme in Software Localisation and in 2001 the first International Localisation Summer School. The LRC also runs regular Professional Development Courses which are linked to the Certified Localisation Professional (CLP) programme established by The Institute of Localisation Professionals (TILP).

University of Massachusetts Amherst
Excerpt: The Master of Arts in Translation Studies is a separate track of the M.A. in Comparative Literature. Thirty-three credits are required. Most students take four semesters to complete the degree. Two languages are required (one may be English). Students will explore practical techniques and strategies of translation in addition to theoretical and cultural studies implications of their field.

Wake Forest University, North Carolina
Excerpt: The certificate in Spanish Translation/Localization (STL) teaches strategies of Spanish into English translation and introduces students to various software language applications; includes an internship in a professional translation environment.

Grants

Finnish Literature Society
Excerpt: Foreign publishers may apply for a grant for the translation of Finnish, Finland-Swedish and Sámi literature into other languages. Funding is awarded primarily for the translation of Finnish literature, though a number of grants are awarded for the translation of works of non-fiction dealing with aspects of Finnish culture.

Research

Translation Research Summer School
Excerpt: Each year between twenty and thirty students are admitted to the TRSS. Most are research students in the early stages of their projects, but some are experienced staff who want to go into translation and intercultural studies or who want to refresh their research skills. Two full scholarships (covering fees, travel and accommodation) are available; deadline for application is February 22, 2008.

ADAM Software Offers XPS-functionality

January 29, 2008 /

ADAM Software announced full breadth XPS-functionality. XPS stands for XML Paper Specification. ADAM’s provider model allows third party developers to co-engineer on emerging opportunities. As for XPS, ADAM software joined forces with the Belgian company NiXPS to build an XPS-engine for ADAM. The ‘NiXPS Library v2.0’ widens the scope in which ADAM can handle data. Thumbnails of XPS files are shown in ADAM, the previewing of XPS files starts here. Metadata can be read by ADAM when importing. ADAM handles a conversion of XPS files to Adobe PDF. http://www.adam.be, http://www.nixps.com

W3C: Canonical XML 1.1 Proposed Recommendation

January 29, 2008 /

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) XML Core Working Group has published the Proposed Recommendation of “Canonical XML 1.1.” The specification establishes a method for determining whether two documents are identical, or whether an application has not changed a document, except for transformations permitted by XML 1.0 and Namespaces in XML. Canonical XML 1.1 is a revision to “Canonical XML 1.0” designed to address issues related to inheritance of attributes in the XML namespace when canonicalizing document subsets, including the requirement not to inherit xml:id, and to treat xml:base URI path processing properly. Comments are welcome through 07 March. Learn more about W3C’s XML Activity. http://www.w3.org/XML/Core/ http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/PR-xml-c14n11-20080129/

Gilbane Group Announces New Practice to Help Enterprises Leverage XML Technologies and Business Solutions

January 29, 2008 /

Gilbane Group Inc. announced the launch of a new practice area dedicated to helping organizations of all types utilize XML technologies and best practices. Well-known industry expert and long-time Gilbane associate Bill Trippe will be the practice’s Lead Analyst. Trippe is joined by industry veterans and Gilbane senior analysts Leonor Ciarlone and Mary Laplante. Gilbane’s XML Technologies and Content Strategies Practice is designed for IT and business managers who need to gain control of critical content, increase collaboration across enterprise applications, improve efficiencies through faster and more flexible information distribution between business partners and customers, and implement new business models that can keep pace with today’s internet-speed competitive requirements. The amount of XML content being generated today is staggering, as large infrastructure providers like Microsoft, IBM, Google, Oracle, and others offer tools and technologies that generate and manage XML information, While many organizations are taking advantage of XML within departmental applications, most companies are not even close to taking advantage of the XML information being created and utilized by popular applications including office software and database repositories. Significantly, many executives are unaware of the XML content and data that are untapped assets within their organizations. To learn more about Gilbane Group’s XML Consulting and Advisory Practice, visit the group’s new blog at https://gilbane.com/xml

 

Press Release: Gilbane Group Announces New Practice to Help Enterprises Leverage XML Technologies and Business Solutions

January 29, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Decades of experience with XML technologies and content strategies provide unique ability to help organizations make appropriate technology choices and leverage industry best practices. New blog at https://gilbane.com/xml

Cambridge MA, January 29, 2008. Gilbane Group Inc. today announced the launch of a new practice area dedicated to helping organizations of all types utilize XML technologies and best practices. Well-known industry expert and long-time Gilbane associate Bill Trippe will be the practice’s Lead Analyst. Trippe is joined by industry veterans and Gilbane senior analysts Leonor Ciarlone and Mary Laplante.

Gilbane’s XML Technologies and Content Strategies Practice is designed for IT and business managers who need to gain control of critical content, increase collaboration across enterprise applications, improve efficiencies through faster and more flexible information distribution between business partners and customers, and implement new business models that can keep pace with today’s internet-speed competitive requirements. The amount of XML content being generated today is staggering, as large infrastructure providers like Microsoft, IBM, Google, Oracle, and others offer tools and technologies that generate and manage XML information, While many organizations are taking advantage of XML within departmental applications, most companies are not even close to taking advantage of the XML information being created and utilized by popular applications including office software and database repositories. Significantly, many executives are unaware of the XML content and data that are untapped assets within their organizations.

“As most of our customers know, XML (and before that SGML) technologies and applications have always been core to our content and information technology consulting and coverage.” said Frank Gilbane, Gilbane Group CEO. “Our team has deep expertise that comes from roles in enterprise IT organizations, software development, standards bodies and industry associations involved in development and adoption of markup language technologies for key business and government applications. While XML cuts across all our analyst and consulting activity, today’s proliferation of XML content means that many businesses need to consider XML as strategic to their information infrastructure. Our group’s experience and market knowledge uniquely qualify Gilbane to provide that expertise. I am thrilled that Bill Trippe, who is always in demand, will be the lead analyst and consultant for the Group.”

“Project leaders, IT managers, and business executives have always depended on Gilbane Group to help them understand the value of applying standards and technologies to their businesses,” said Bill Trippe, Lead Analyst, XML Technologies and Content Strategies Practice. “With this new practice, we are bringing together research, best practices, and advice and guidance on XML implementation and technology acquisition that they cannot get from any other single source.”

To learn more about Gilbane Group’s XML Consulting and Advisory Practice, visit the group’s new blog launched today at https://gilbane.com/xml/ or send an email to xml@gilbane.com.

Liferay Portal Standardizes on jQuery

January 28, 2008 /

Liferay, Inc. announced plans to standardize its products on jQuery, an open source JavaScript Library used to simplify the writing of JavaScript code. Liferay, Inc. will now also provide business support for jQuery technology. While other libraries may still be used, Liferay, Inc. will be standardized to use jQuery and its plugins. As part of its focus on jQuery technology, Liferay, Inc. is now also offering three levels of support for jQuery and jQuery UI, the highest of which features 24-7, one hour response times. http://www.liferay.com/

Our “New/Old” XML Practice

January 28, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Today we announced our new “XML Technologies & Content Strategies” consulting service. The service will be led by Lead Analyst Bill Trippe, who is joined by Mary Laplante and Leonor Ciarlone. See the press release, and Bill’s introductory post on the practices new blog at https://gilbane.com/xml. Bill, Mary, and Leonor all have long and deep experience in this area and make an exceptionally strong team. You can reach them at: xml@gilbane.com.

You’ll note the “New/Old” in this post’s title. Many readers will know that this is because we have always been involved in XML consulting, and before it existed were involved in SGML consulting, which of course is where XML came from. In fact, though we have changed the name of the company a couple of times, our original company was formed in 1986 to advice to organizations like the DoD, Department of Commerce, Lockheed, Fidelity, American Airlines, and many more, on the use of descriptive markup languages and meta-languages like SGML. In fact I first met Bill in 1987 when he was at Mitre investigating SGML. You can still read a lot of our monthly reports from the 90’s that cover markup technologies, although Tim Bray, who edited the Gilbane Report in the late 90s and is one of the authors of the XML standard didn’t write much about it then since XML was still in “stealth” mode. It was also important then to stay neutral about standards, which obviously would have been tough for Tim at the time.

So if we’ve been doing this all along, what’s new? In short, critical mass, information infrastructure, and demand. The sheer volume of XML being created is reaching a level that demands enterprise strategic attention. XML is already part of many organizations information infrastructure whether they know it or not. And while many of our consulting clients are focused on specific applications, there are also many who are looking at the big picture and really want to understand what information encoded in XML can do strategically for their business. More from today’s press release:

Gilbane’s XML Technologies and Content Strategies Practice is designed for IT and business managers who need to gain control of critical content, increase collaboration across enterprise applications, improve efficiencies through faster and more flexible information distribution between business partners and customers, and implement new business models that can keep pace with today’s internet-speed competitive requirements. The amount of XML content being generated today is staggering, as large infrastructure providers like Microsoft, IBM, Google, Oracle, and others offer tools and technologies that generate and manage XML information, While many organizations are taking advantage of XML within departmental applications, most companies are not even close to taking advantage of the XML information being created and utilized by popular applications including office software and database repositories. Significantly, many executives are unaware of the XML content and data that are untapped assets within their organizations.

Welcome to XML Technologies and Content Strategies

January 27, 2008 / / 2 Comments

As Frank noted in our main blog and in the related press release, this blog is part of our launch this week of a new practice focused on the technologies, strategies, and best practices associated with using XML in content management. With this focus on XML, the new practice is broad–XML is fundamental to so many aspects of content management. Yet the focus on XML also compels us to look at content management through a certain lens. This begins with the vendor offerings, where nearly every platform, product, and tool has to meet anywhere from a few to myriad XML-related requirements. As XML and its related standards have evolved and matured, evaluating this support has become a more complex and considered task. The more complex and feature-rich the offering, the more difficult the task of evaluating its support.

And indeed, the offerings are becoming more complex, especially among platform vendors like Microsoft, IBM, and Oracle. Looking at SharePoint means evaluating it as a content management platform, but also looking specifically at how it supports technologies like XML forms interfaces, XML data and content feeds, and integration with the XML schemas underlying Microsoft Word and Excel. It also means looking at SOA interfaces and XML integration of Web Parts,and considering how developers and data analysts might want to utilize XML schema and XSLT in SharePoint application development. Depending on your requirements and applications, there could be a great deal more functionality for you to evaluate and explore. And that is just one platform.

But understanding the vendor–and open source–offerings is only one piece of the XML content management puzzle. Just as important as choosing the right tools are the strategic issues in planning for and later deploying these offerings. Organizations often don’t spend enough time asking and answering the biggest and most important questions. What goals do they have for the technology? Cost savings? Revenue growth? Accelerated time to market? The ability to work globally? These general business requirements need to then be translated into more specific requirements, and only then do these requirements begin to point to specific technologies. If XML is part of the potential solution, organizations need to look at what standards might be a fit. If you produce product support content, perhaps DITA is a fit for you. If you are a publisher, you might look at XML-based metadata standards like XMP or PRISM.

Finally, XML doesn’t exist in a content management vacuum, removed from the larger technology infrastructure that organizations have put in place. The platforms and tools must integrate well with technologies inside and outside the firewall; this is especially true as more software development is happening in the cloud and organizations are more readily embracing Software as a Service. One thing we have learned over the years is that XML is fundamental to two critical aspects of content management—for the encoding and management of the content itself (including the related metadata) and for the integration of the many component and related technologies that comprise and are related to content management. Lauren Wood wrote about this in 2002, David Guenette and I revisited it a year later, and the theme recurs in numerous Gilbane writings. The ubiquitous nature of XML makes the need for strategies and best practices more acute, and also points to the need to bring together the various stakeholders–notably the business people who have the content management requirements and the technologists who can help make the technology adoptions successful. Projects have the best chance of succeeding when these stakeholders are brought together to reach consensus first on business and technical requirements, and, later, to reach consensus on technology and approach.

As Frank noted, this is “New/Old” news for all of us involved with the new practice. I first discussed SGML with Frank in 1987 when I was at Mitre and responsible for a project to bring new technology to bear on creating specifications for government projects. Frank had recently launched his technology practice, Publishing Technology Management. Leonor was a client at Factory Mutual when I worked for Xyvision (now XyEnterprise) in the early 1990s. And I probably first met Mary at a GCA (now IDEAlliance) event during my Xyvision days and when she worked for a competitor, Datalogics. We are, in the polite vernacular of the day, seasoned professionals.

So welcome to the new blog. Watch this space for more details as we announce some of the offerings and initiatives. I plan to blog actively here, so please add the RSS feed if you prefer to digest your material that way. If you have ideas or suggestions, don’t hesitate to post here or contact me or any of the other analysts directly. We look forward to the interaction!

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