Keynote: Localization at the European Commission — Getting the Message Across Host:Jaap van der Meer Speaker:Filip Majcen, European Commission
Synopsis: Communicating with people in their own language is a high priority for the European Commission. Its translation department plays a key role in this respect, providing high-quality written communication in all official languages. In recent years, it has branched out into editing and web translation services and established a network of field offices in the EU countries, using new media to communicate clearly and opening a space for dialogue between people and EU institutions. The presentation will look at ways in which the translation department is dealing with the challenges posed by this development.
Synopsis: Idris Mootee is a business and innovation strategist and author of several books on business strategy, marketing and innovation. In his keynote speech, he will explore what keeps the localization industry from innovation.
There are many barriers to innovation and the most common one is "cognitive inertia." It is particularly relevant to successful organizations when they become overly dependent on their mental models to the extent that they fail to notice disruptive changes in the external environments — until these changes have become so widespread or their organization's capacity for successful adaptation are seriously undermined.
It is therefore important that organizations periodically engage in innovation processes of exploration and dialogue with a view to broadening their perceptions. The objective is to attain the requisite variety in mental models necessary in order to anticipate the future and develop a strategically responsive organization. In his keynote, Idris will share practical insights from the field as well as prescriptive advice on purposeful innovation. He will present techniques that can make potential threats to organizations more obvious, and through critical reflection of disruptive futures put the organizations into sharp focus. He will share unconventional management practices that generate breakthrough thinking.
The future of localization is unclear? How would concepts such as "citizen translator,""glocalization,""service design" and "localization platform" affect our future? Participants will get a deeper understanding of these concepts that will leave them refreshed and enthusiastic, ready to tackle the future head on! Tuesday 10 June 9.30-10.30
Synopsis: In this keynote panel, localization buyers from some of the leading IT companies look toward the future of the localization industry. "Global customer support" is being redefined in the "post-globalization" phase. Translation becomes a utility generally available to customers and end-users. We are facing bigger challenges than ever before. What is the role of localization in the future? The discussion will focus on disruptive technologies, innovation barriers, industry collaboration, sharing of language data, the role of customers and the role of vendors.
Synopsis: In a world where speed-to-market is of the essence – alongside efficiency of manpower, increasing scopes and reduced cost – initiatives that allow content developers and localizers to work in one environment with few or no barriers must be viewed with interest.
The presentation will look at the achievements and challenges faced by Autodesk and Symantec as the content developers and process owners, and by Alpha CRC as the localization service provider.
The Continuous Workflow is a new process model whereby translation follows closely the creation of the English documentation content. The challenge is examined in an environment of CMS, and GMS connectivity, and analyzed in terms of prerequisites, cost, and simultaneous shipment. The objective is to show significant gains in terms of project management and coordination efficiency and contribute to scale localization processes.
Note: This session will run 15 minutes longer than other sessions
Synopsis: Technology panels are usually comprised of people with a vested interest in promoting their own software and being very guarded on subjects outside of this. The vested interest of the members of this technology panel is different. Rather than being sellers of a particular technology, they are all buyers. We have brought together a panel of technology experts who are very experienced in the tools and solutions offered within our industry and who have strong views on how technology should contribute to the business model of the language service provider.
Synopsis: Three highly experienced industry experts will illuminate the basics of localization for session participants over the course of two one-hour blocks. This instruction is particularly oriented to participants who are new to localization. Participants will gain a broad overview of the localization task set, issues and tools. Subjects covered will include fundamental problems that localization addresses; components of localization projects; localization tools; and localization project management. There will also be time for questions and answers plus the opportunity to take individual questions offline with the presenters. This session will present an overview of why localization is a complex endeavor that requires specialized knowledge, understanding and experience. Theory will be mixed with anecdotal, true-to-life material.
Tuesday 10 June 11.00-12.00
A2: "Can you Localize into Yugoslavian?": Localization Issues in South Eastern European and Central Asian Languages
Host: Ulrich Henes
Speaker: Speaker: Ivan Lukavsky (Moravia Worldwide)
Synopsis: Managing localization in new markets brings challenges that are very similar across markets, with the specific region mattering only to a certain extent. Many issues share common features, varying from non-existing or undeveloped terminology to potential political concerns. Both the client and the supplier are faced with how to manage these issues.
This presentation proposes to cover these two new regions and the typical challenges — from both the supplier and the client viewpoint — we all face when localizing for a new market.
Tuesday 10 June 13.30-14.30
B2: The Falling US$ — A Practical Discussion About Its Impact on the Localization Industry
Moderator: Renato Beninatto
Speakers: Thomas Murray (VistaTEC). Arturo Quintero (Moravia Worldwide), Camilo Muñoz (Translation Source)
Synopsis: A discussion between industry stakeholders about the overall impact on the industry of the continuously falling US$ — from increased international sales for US$ software publishers, potential rate changes for euro zone languages to new sourcing locales. This forum aims to be an open and honest discussion about practical solutions – current and future.
Synopsis: Continuing the topics introduced in C1, the leaders will discuss how project components become readied for localization; the application of tools that localization specialists use; and how to create and run efficient localization projects.
Synopsis: Mainstream localization is an instrument of economic globalization: whoever wants to open up new markets for their message, their service or their product needs to localize. Localization today is, naturally, a one-way process with a focus on economics. It is done, with few exceptions, from English into other languages, from the “rich” for the “poor.”
This presentation will demonstrate that there is nothing “natural” about the way mainstream localization is working today and that it has, in fact, gone badly wrong. Rather than bridging the digital divide, rather than preserving linguistic and cultural diversity, it is widening the divide and endangers cultures and languages. The fact that concepts described as crowd-sourcing and wikifization — that have been around for some time outside the mainstream — are now entering it is a clear indicator that radical changes are about to happen.
Tuesday 10 June 15.00-16.00
B3: Corporate Strategy and the Global Investment Portfolio
Host: Martin Guttinger
Speaker: Rick Silva (Symantec)
Synopsis: We truly live and interact in a global marketplace. As such, it comes as no surprise to companies that there are revenue opportunities in foreign markets. Investing internationally is a business decision that requires significant analysis to ensure alignment with the organization’s overall strategic objectives. Building such a business case for foreign investment keeps the localization model at the heart of achieving strategic international objectives. This session will address making the strategic business case for localization by considering key concepts such as ROI, compound annual growth rate, financial analysis, margin analysis, data-based decision making, and dashboarding — all at the language level.
Tuesday 10 June 15.00-16.00
C3: Audio and Video Localization: Handling Clients' Expanding Needs
Host: Miguel Bernal
Speaker: Xavier Marchand (JBI)
Synopsis: Attendees will learn about different types of assets, video dubbing, audio translation issues, pronunciation guidelines, different solutions to offer clients, pitfalls to avoid, and questions to ask when quoting on projects.
Tuesday 10 June 15.00-16.00
A4: Machine Translation in Microsoft's Publishing Process
Host: Jaap van der Meer
Speaker: Chris Wendt (Microsoft)
Synopsis: Microsoft uses machine translation (MT) in its publishing process for public websites, for packaged software and for software documentation. In this talk we describe the basics of the statistical MT system being used, and we examine the level of language automation in the internal and external publishing processes. We share the experience of the internal and external partners with raw MT and with post-editing.
Microsoft has collected meaningful end-user feedback on its sites, allowing us to define the role of MT in applied language automation. We’ll give an overview of the results and the decisions made.
Tuesday 10 June 16.45-17.45
B4: Content Disruption - The Challenges of Shifts in Localizing New Content Types
Host: Melissa Biggs
Speakers: Dimitrios Dalossis (Sun Microsystems), Ian Butler (Jonckers Translation and Engineering), Kirti Vashee (Asia Online)
Synopsis: This panel will tackle the challenges posed by new content modalities in use to communicate information. Over the past several years, blogs, wikis, YouTube, podcasts, screencasts, content aggregators, feeds and other media formats and techniques have begun to supplement and, in some cases, replace, traditional content forms such as formal documentation, live customer support channels, and so on. Many of these new formats also rely on communities and different authoring assumptions. The panel will discuss ways that both suppliers and vendors can address the challenges raised by these new content types: the content types themselves and their special features such as personas and community participation; time-to-market; customer expectations; utility; and community. The panel will also address how these new modalities affect and are critical to global, cross-language communication.
Synopsis: With growing volumes and reduced turnaround times, the automation of localization/translation tasks is a must. On the other hand, there is no tool that fits all localization scenarios. Do we need to bring in ERP-type consultants? How can we be sure that the current solution will still work in two years, when the IT landscape will have changed?
Is there a pragmatic answer to these and other questions?
Synopsis: Case studies in how using procurement and auction formats are changing vendor management business models.
Wednesday 11 June 10.30-11.30
B5:
Global Social Media: Best Practices in Localizing User-Generated Content Sites
Host: Kathleen Bostick
Speaker: Zia Daniell Wigder (JupiterResearch)
Synopsis: The past year has witnessed a global explosion of user-generated content (UGC). Social networking sites such as MySpace, Hi5, Facebook and Orkut are growing rapidly; consumption of user-generated video continues to increase. Retailers expanding beyond their borders are adding consumer reviews to their new global sites. How can companies growing internationally best integrate UGC into their sites? How much translation is necessary? This session will look at how companies are tackling the UGC challenge and will identify key localization strategies for different types of organizations.
Wednesday 11 June 10.30-11.30
C5: How Localization Made PricewaterhouseCoopers’ TeamMate Software an International Success
Host: Martin Guttinger
Speakers: Bob Donaldson (McElroy Translation)
Synopsis: Too often localization is considered an afterthought within business strategy. But what happens when localization IS the strategy that makes a product marketable — and turns it into a profit center?
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) did just that with TeamMate, its accounting system that now sells to Fortune 100 global companies. By contracting with a professional language service provider, PWC turned TeamMate into a successful international software sensation. This presentation will explain how it happened.
Wednesday 11 June 10.30-11.30
A6:
Sharing Language Assets within an Ecosystem — An Implementation Roadmap
Host: Melissa Biggs
Speaker: Paula Shannon (Lionbridge)
Synopsis: There is widespread recognition that language assets such as translation memory and terminology repositories have not been fully utilized in ways that could maximize their potential benefits. At the center of this push is the concept of sharing assets across an ecosystem of partner organizations. Lionbridge estimates that such a model can result in a decrease of localization costs by up to 20% while increasing speed-to-market.
Paula Shannon of Lionbridge will provide a practical guide for organizations looking to share language assets across a partner ecosystem. She will review a typical implementation roadmap and will explain approaches to answering common questions associated with this business model.
Wednesday 11 June 12.00-13.00
B6:
Current Web Globalization Practices — An Industry Analysis
Host: Ulrich Henes
Speaker: Gary Muddyman (Conversis)
Synopsis: In 2007, Conversis commissioned a research study managed by California State University, Chico. The aim of this study was to explore multinational enterprises websites to find out how well the businesses were adapting to countries, cultures and languages. The study results provide evidence that globalization and localization of websites gives us a deeper insight into current and future developments in terms of web globalization and localization. The presentation will share the results of the study and provide delegates with a unique insight into current attitudes, practices and expectations from the client side.
Synopsis: This Open Space session will facilitate brainstorming on topics to be selected by the participants. Ideas for brainstorming may have come up in any of the sessions during the conference or inspiration may be given by one of the keynote speakers. Participants in the Open Space session will select three or four topics for discussion and break-out in smaller groups. A Localization World Wikispace will be available for the groups to record the notes on their discussions. This Wikispace will remain open after the conference to allow participants and other parties to continue the discussion.
Wednesday 11 June 12.00-13.00 and 14.30-15.30
A7:
Exponentially Increase Demand for Globalization Services
Host: Ulrich Henes
Speaker: Philo Holland (T-Systems, Deutsche Telekom)
Synopsis: Traditionally educated businesspeople are generally not aware of the globalization services industry. Enabling them to fully acknowledge, accept and use globalization services and solutions requires a healthy and functional collaborative framework, based on intercultural trust — which must be established within the customer’s organization first.
As an example, only when the Spaniards, Italians and Japanese successfully collaborate with Americans, Germans and French, will globalization services actually be used. By embracing and fully integrating the cross-cultural training and solutions industry into the globalization industry service portfolio will we be able to successfully introduce our profession, industry best-practices and solutions to the global marketplace.
Wednesday 11 June 14.30-15.30
B7:
Creating a Global Content Value Chain: Focus on Content Management
Host: Donna Parrish
Speaker: Mary Laplante (The Gilbane Group)
Synopsis: Content management is central to any solution for streamlining the flow of content from creator to consumer, even when multiple languages are not required output. As both a technology and a business practice, content management is now essential for companies that operate throughout the world. This session focuses on global content management as the keystone for creating a chain of processes that enable users to add value at each stage of the lifecycle. Mary Laplante, senior analyst in Gilbane Group’s Globalization Practice, presents a state-of-the-market report on content management designed specifically for language professionals. Topics include approaches to integrating content management and global information management platforms; people, process and technology issues that will bias solutions for success; and the business case to be made for investing in solutions, not just building blocks such as authoring systems and translation memories. The agenda begins with an introduction to the concept of the global content value chain and concludes with case studies drawn from original Gilbane Group research. Wednesday 11 June 14.30-15.30
Synopsis: This session will seek to address how you can adjust agile development methodologies to support localization, the mind-set needed to do it, the tools available to assist in the process, and how the development process needs to be altered to facilitate it.
Wednesday 11 June 14.30-15.30
A8:
Calculation of Internationalization Cost as a Real Option
Host: Daniel Goldschmidt
Speaker: Richard Sikes (The Localization Institute)
Synopsis: This presentation posits an alternative to the common “opportunity cost” mentality used to decide whether or not to proactively internationalize software code. Using an adaptation of a well-known mathematical model from finance theory, calculation of internationalization costs will be presented as analogous to the cost of acquiring a real option.
Wednesday 11 June 16.00-17.00
B8: The Intergalactic Impact of Language
Host: Donna Parrish
Speaker: Don DePalma (Common Sense Advisory)
Synopsis: In this presentation, Don DePalma presents his preliminary research for a new book about language use in science fiction. He discusses how sci-fi authors represent Terra’s languages in close encounters of various kinds, geopolitical issues associated with the choice of language, and what the future of sci-fi language holds.
Wednesday 11 June 16.00-17.00
C8: Chinese Localization Vendors Face New Challenge
Host: Sukumar Mushi
Speaker: James Wei (Beijing E-C Translation)
Synopsis: As one of the most active economic entities in the world, China's economic climate has evolved dramatically over the past three years:
1. Local currency keeps appreciating (+13%). The appreciation will continue for the next 3-5 years.
2. CPI increase as high as 6.9% on Nov. 2007 as compared with Nov. 2006 (http://www.stats.gov.cn/english/).
3. Annual average labor cost growth is about 8% or higher.
4. The issue of new law on employment contracts.
5. More and more MLVs have presence in China.
6. Local China vendors enjoy fast growth (30%-50%).
7. Not only Asian languages, but also European languages are assigned to Chinese vendors.
The presentation will give a deep analysis on the current localization market changes in China and review the opportunities and challenges.
Wednesday 11 June 16.00-17.00
Passport to Localization: Conference Activity and Closing Session Prizes
Synopsis: The Globalization and Localization Association (GALA) invites member companies exhibiting at Localization World Berlin to participate in “Passport to Localization,” an activity designed to drive additional traffic to GALA member booths throughout the conference and bring an exciting feel to the closing session. Conference attendees will collect logo stickers on a GALA “passport” from participating member exhibitors to be entered in a grand prize drawing for an airline travel voucher. Exhibitors will also contribute individual prizes to be given away in a drawing using business cards collected at their booths during the conference. For more information about this activity, visit the GALA website or contact Amy Ephrem.
Synopsis: Following 50 years of research and development, machine translation (MT) is now arriving at the workspace of localization and customer support professionals. New promises in translation automation are made on the basis of statistical approaches. Translation memories, accumulated over more than a decade of localization activities, represent a new value as training data for MT. Statistical machine translation (SMT) is making serious inroads in everyday applications such as search, multilingual support and localization. The list of providers includes big names such as Microsoft, IBM and Google but also dedicated technology providers such as Language Weaver and Asia Online.
In this full-day workshop we compare theory and practice. Are the promises of SMT true and applicable to the localization industry? Involving developers and early adopters of the new technologies, we will debate many of the relevant questions and as many answers as possible.
• What are the basic working principles of SMT?
• How much data do we need to train SMT? Is it true, the more data the better? How do we ever get enough clean and trustworthy data?
• How do we measure the quality and what is acceptable to the end-user?
• What is the best practice in post-editing SMT output? How is post-editing SMT different from post-editing output from rule-based engines?
• Can the SMT system learn from corrections made during post-editing?
• How do we integrate SMT in a typical localization workflow?
• How do we customize SMT and improve quality on an ongoing basis?
• What is the cost of deploying SMT?
The format of the workshop is a mix of presentations, group discussions and hands-on exercises. Participation is limited to 25.
Agenda overview
9.00 Translation automation in a market perspective
• Changing market requirements
• Different applications of MT: Jaap van der Meer
9.30 Evaluating quality of MT – Different approaches: Heidi Depraetere
10.00 SMT in a historic perspectives: Marie Laure Poëte
10.30 Coffee Break
11.00 Fundamentals of SMT. How it works, how it’s different, how high quality translations are generated and why data is important.: Hannah Grap
11.30 SMT and developing a continuous improvement cycle: Kirti Vashee
12.00 Introduction to the evaluation benchmarking methodology: Marie Laure Poëte
12.15 Evaluating MT – Hands-on exercise using an industry-standard evaluation metrics participants will score the quality of machine translated texts: Participants
12.45 Lunch break
13.30 User cases of SMT: Simens, Hubert Schlarb
14.30 Report on the scores from the evaluation: Heidi Depraetere
15.00 Break
15.30 Discussion on implementation scenarios and deployment models
16.30 Closure
Deliverables: Participants will receive copy of the TAUS Machine Translation Starter’s Guide. 9 June, Preconference, Full Day
WS2:
Medical Localization Round Table
Leader:Clio Schils, The Localization Institute
Synopsis: The Medical Localization Round Table will address the overall conference theme — “Innovating Localization Business Models.” It will focus on issues concerning localization and translation for the medical device, pharmaceutical and diagnostics sectors.
This edition of the medical localization round table will have a dual track where participants can choose between the Medical Localization Round Table (session WS 2A) and the Software Localization and Internationalization Workshop (session WS 2B).
WS2A: Medical Localization Round Table
Moderator: Clio Schils, The Localization Institute
The Medical Localization Round Table will focus on localization business models and processes. This exchange forum for medical localization experts is open to clients (all day) and qualifying vendors (afternoon only). The topics during the morning session will focus on issues of special interest to clients. The afternoon session is also open to qualifying vendors. Break-out sessions will offer the opportunity to exchange views on the presented topics. In small groups, participants will discuss how the observations and the lessons learned during this round table may be converted into a range of best practices that are applicable to and compatible with each participant’s own specific corporate environment.
The Medical Round Table will address topics such as:
• Dos and Don’ts in Software Localization: Dr. Brigitte Herrmann from Siemens Healthcare Sector will share her experiences concerning software localization implementation as well as a list of valuable tips regarding the dos and don’ts in software localization
• Knowledge Transfer Versus Translators' Needs: In times of highly mobile employees, knowledge transfer becomes vital — particularly for large and global companies. Find out how terminology management can help to store the know-how and relevant terminology for later generations. Translators' needs reflect an absolute counterpoint; they need the vital term information instantly because they have to economize on their resources. However, both needs must be fulfilled to provide a complete solution
• Language Implications of the Revised Medical Devices Directives:
The European Directives concerning Medical Devices (MDD) and Active Implantable Medical Devices (IAMDD) have recently been revised. Manufacturers have until December 2009 to make sure they comply. One of the major changes is that software is now considered part of the device. Does this mean that from now on the user interface of all medical equipment has to be translated? It seems to be up to the European Union member states, but back in 1998 with the implementation of the MDD the member states all wanted translation! Will it be different this time around?
• Facing the Increased Pressure on Current Pricing Models in Medical Localization at Both the Clients' and Vendors' side: The topic of medical localization pricing models offers an ever-changing scenario of challenges. How do localization departments of medical device companies and medical localization providers deal with the increasing pressure from their management to reduce cost and cycle time while maintaining high-quality standards? This Point-Counterpoint session will be an interesting exchange of views.
• In-sourcing vs. Outsourcing: Describing a Hybrid Pricing Model Example:
During this Point-Counterpoint session, the advantages and disadvantages in terms of quality, speed and cost between different localization models will be discussed. Representatives from several medical device companies will share why their companies have chosen for an in-sourcing, outsourcing or mixed (hybrid) operating model. Is it the ideal way or would they want to change?
Participants who would like to share their views in one or both of these Point-Counterpoint panel sessions are invited to send an e-mail to Clio Schils.
You can register for the Medical Localization Round Table (session WS 2A) or the Software Localization and Internationalization Workshop (session WS 2B) through the normal registration procedure on this site. For the WS 2A client-vendor session in the afternoon, the number of vendors will be limited. Vendors with long-standing experience in medical localization will be given priority to attend the round table. Vendors who are interested to participate are kindly requested to send an e-mail to Clio Schils prior to registration. Upon acceptance, you will receive a code that you need for the registration.
Medical Round Table Advisory Board : Richard Korn, St. Jude Medical
Jennifer Perkins, Gambro BCT
Inna Geller, Medtronic
Kimberly Riley, Shire
Simon Andriesen, Medilingua Medical Translations Andres Heuberger, Foreign Exchange Translations
WS2B: Software Localization and Internationalization Workshop Moderator: Carsten Witte, Siemens Healthcare Sector
This educational track is a one-day workshop open for clients and vendors. New software architecture (.NET) and rapid technique development in the software industry challenge the localization industry. Starting with the local language first, the software architects need to know the customer as well as the techniques to develop the software and code in a way that localizers can handle them without problems and prepare the software for other target locales. Software localization is more than translation. You need to adapt workflow and software to the cultural conventions of the target market.
This workshop will give insights into how Siemens Healthcare Sector software development departments and their vendors (for example, Microsoft, Alchemy CATALYST, SDL, acrolinx) are working together to internationalize and localize medical software so that simship for up to 23 languages in eight weeks is easy to perform.
The Software Localization and Internationalization Workshop is not only relevant for medical software development representatives but also for software development departments of other industries.
You can register for the Software Localization and Internationalization Workshop (session WS 2B) through the normal registration procedure on this site.
9 June, Preconference, Full Day
WS3:
Games Localization Round Table Moderator:Miguel Bernal, Roehampton University, London
Synopsis: This full-day round table will consist of several distinct sessions presented by experts in games localization. This round table series is open to clients (game developers and game publishers), and to qualifying vendors (game localization specialists). We aim to provide the best possible venue to enable a fruitful and balanced debate, so we will do our best to maintain a levelled group of participants. The day will end with an open discussion based on information and questions from the day's presentations. The sessions include:
The Multiple Directions of Multilingual Projects Speaker:Seb Berthelsen (Square Enix)
Games localization is facing an exponential increase in complexity as worldwide simultaneous launches become the norm for the games industry and as language pairs become ever more esoteric. Together with the complexity of languages that are so distant not only because of the script they use, but also because of their syntax and culture, the magnitude of these projects makes game localization a feat of good planning and coordination - particularly when localizing from East Asian languages. Can we streamline some of the localization processes involved?
What is Quality? Speaker:Andrea Ballista (Binari Sonori)
When talking about games, we all have our own preferences, but how does localization influence the overall quality of a video game? Is it possible to define some user-oriented quality metrics, or is the quality based on the careful planning of the overall localization process? How can we streamline the quality process when multiple entities are linked in an integrated international production environment?
Common Game Internationalization Issues Speaker:Michaela Bartelt (Electronic Arts)
Creating a game is no small task, but taking that game to ten or twenty different countries for the enjoyment of millions of people is no lesser task. Controlling thousands of text, graphic, audio and video assets and maintaining the naming conventions right through several languages are a titanic job in itself — not to speak of implementing UNICODE properly, adapting date formats, units of measurement, checking for string length and a multilingual UI design. How can localization managers educate and work with the development team on their side?
Preparing for Multilingual Game Localization Speaker:Vanessa Wood (Sony Computer Entertainment Europe) The opening of new territories is taking game industry benefits into the billions, and the potential seems to be even more promising. Yet something very relevant has to happen to turn that potentiality into revenue: well-coordinated game localization. Presently, most games are localized into 15 different languages and the simship model forces synchronous progression of all language versions. Can we palliate these pressures with better preparation?
Preparing for RPG Localization Speaker:Ryan Warden (BioWare)
Many of us strongly believe that video games are an art form, and we strive to innovate in the creation of great characters, dialogue and storytelling. Creating the best story-based games in the world is no small feat, and neither is delivering the best story-best games to the world. Dozens of people across the globe are instrumental in bringing the immersive universes of role-playing games -- with their hundreds of characters and their hundreds of thousands of lines -- to as many different languages and cultures as possible. How can localization teams prepare for these huge undertakings?
Open floor An open-ended opportunity for participants to focus on one or more topics of their own choice or to pick up on issues during the previous sessions.
Synopsis: While machine translation (MT) has a longer history, translation memory (TM) has had a wider adoption by corporations, government agencies and translation houses. The last ten years saw the development of a new generation of TMs called Advanced Leveraging that build upon and extend the capabilities of classic TMs by identifying sub-sentence repetitions. This half-day workshop examines shortcomings of classic TMs and introduces Advanced Leveraging and why it fits within the new market environment. The workshop provides Advance Leveraging examples and a presentation of user cases of several vendors offering Advanced Leveraging products and services.
Agenda overview:
1. Introduction of Advanced Leveraging. Shortcomings of classic TM. Differences between Advanced Leveraging and TM / MT.
2. User case. KCSL.
3. User case. MultiCorpora.
4. User case. Lingotek.
Deliverables: Participants will receive a copy of the TAUS Report on Advanced Leveraging.
Monday, 9 June, 9.00-12.30
WS5:
TAUS Data Association (TADA) – An industry owned platform (Workshop for everyone interested in joining TADA)
Leaders: Melissa Biggs, (Sun Microsystems), Will Burgett (Intel), Francis Tsang (Adobe), Chris Wendt (Microsoft), Jaap van der Meer (TAUS)
Synopsis: The TAUS Data Association will be incorporated on June 30, 2008. Owners and users of multilingual content are invited to join this new industry association for sharing language data. Benefits for clients and suppliers of translation services are reduced translation costs, shorter time-to-market, product innovation, increased end-user satisfaction and market growth. The initiative for this platform is a response to an evolution in the translation industry where larger and shared language data collections represent ever greater values.
The association is intended to become an industry-wide platform representing the interests of data providers and practitioners of professional services. Language data are shared in public and member indexes. Language data can not be resold or licensed. They are shared to stimulate localization business innovation and promote the development of new user scenarios and online collaborative services such as language search, advanced leveraging, dictionary management and automatic translation.
The business plan for the association is supported by the following organizations: ABBYY Software, Acclaro, Adobe, Autodesk, CA, Canadian Government Translation Bureau, Cisco, CLS Communication, eBay, EMC, European Patent Office, Eurotext, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, International Monetary Fund, Jonckers, KCSL, Language Intelligence, Language Weaver, Lexcelera, Linguanet, Lionbridge, Lingotek, Logrus, McAfee, Medtronic, Microsoft, Molina Healthcare, Moravia, Nestlé, Pangeanic, Oracle, PTC, SDL, Siemens, Spacelabs Healthcare, Sunflare, Sun Microsystems, Symantec, UGS, Welsh Language Board, Welocalize, Xerox.
This half-day workshop is a full introduction to the platform, the business model and the legal framework. It is intended for companies considering to join the association as regular or founding members on June 30, 2008.
Synopsis: This workshop is intended for people who want to learn more about the practicalities of medical localization and translation: customers in the medical sector (such as medical device and pharmaceutical companies) and providers of medical localization services.
During this half-day event, several issues that distinguish medical localization from “normal” localization will be discussed:
• How specific are the localization requirements of the highly regulated medical sectors, and are they much different compared to those of, for example, business software publishers?
• What are the language implications of the various European laws concerning medical devices and medicines?
• Why does medical localization seem to be more complicated than localization for other industries?
• What does it take for vendors to produce quality medical translations?
• And how do pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers, biomedical companies and clinical research organizations handle their localization and quality assurance processes?
The workshop will address such questions as Why do we have to translate? What do we translate? Who are the customers? Who does the work? What quality levels are required? How do vendors manage high quality? What can customers do to assess the quality? The workshop is set up as a general introduction as well as an in-depth information session. The workshop leaders will share their many years of medical localization expertise, and participants are welcome to share and exchange their experiences. This workshop was previously given during several Localization World conferences in Europe, North America and Asia and had excellent reviews, both from customers and from vendors.
9 June, Preconference, Morning
GALA1: GALA Annual Meeting
Synopsis:
GALA will host a member meeting on the morning of the preconference day of the Localization World Berlin conference. The agenda will include an update on current activities, membership and finances as well as interaction and input from members on future activities. Each member company is invited to send up to three representatives to the meeting free of charge.
Pre-registration is required. The member meeting is free of charge and open to GALA members only. Lunch is not included; however, companies can register for lunch for 30€/person on the Localization World website.
Monday, 9 June, 9.00-12.30
GALA2:
GALA Speed Networking
Synopsis: GALA Speed Networking provides members with a fun and structured opportunity to become acquainted in short, concise meetings. Every three minutes during the activity, a bell sounds, and participants from one side of the networking table rotate to the next seat, where the process begins all over again. Bring lots of business cards!
Pre-registration is required. Speed Networking is free of charge and open to GALA members only (maximum three participants per company). Lunch is not included; however, companies can register for lunch for 30€/person on the Localization World website.
This activity is made possible thanks to the support of GALA member companies VistaTEC and Clay Tablet Technologies.
Monday, 9 June, 13:30-15.30
VS1: Brandt: Vendor to Partner-evolved Development
Synopsis:
Ariba is the recognized leader in spend management. In its localization division, Ariba has implemented automation to improve efficiency and has evolved in its relationship with technology provider Brandt to address the next challenges.
Ariba believes it is critical to all organizations to improve effectiveness through process improvement. Using open source technology, custom software development and Brandt productivity improvement tools, Ariba has been able to implement continuous improvement from end to end in its projects. Brandt has a results-driven approach to projects allowing the equating of measures of activities with improvements in performance
Synopsis: Be the first to see the future of document translation – Alchemy PUBLISHER.
Following much speculation, the worst kept secret in the localization industry is revealed! Alchemy Software Development, the market leader in translation tools for software localization, is proud to announce the release of Alchemy PUBLISHER, the most anticipated documentation translation solution ever to come to market. Attendees at Localization World Berlin 2008 are invited to an exclusive product launch of Alchemy PUBLISHER, which will completely revolutionize the document translation process.
After over three years of research, development and testing, Alchemy will reveal a brand new approach to documentation translation and publishing, using the most advanced technology and architecture ever seen in our industry. Unlike any other product on the market, Alchemy PUBLISHER provides immense productivity gains in the translation of MS Word, Adobe FrameMaker, Quark XPress, InDesign, XML, HTML, and over 100 other file formats.
Based on the industry-leading architecture of Alchemy CATALYST — the undisputed industry leader for visual localization technology — Alchemy PUBLISHER offers documentation managers and authors the following benefits:
Increased translation productivity and re-use
Massively reduced desktop publishing costs
Instant reduction of time-to-market and delivery
Competitive advantage
Attend our lunchtime session at Localization World Berlin and be the first to see the future of document translation!
Tuesday, 10 June, 12.45-13.30
VS3: Language Technology Centre: Optimizing Multilingual Workflow and Business Information Management in a Global Economy
Host:
Adriane Rinsche
Synopsis: Want to save money through efficient workflows? Join LTC, the specialists in multilingual workflow tools, to learn how you can use technology to boost your productivity and reduce administrative costs. Take your business to a new level with LTC Worx, the business system that adapts to and optimizes your processes. Take advantage of tools that help you to manage projects efficiently, keep on top of your finances and plan ahead effectively. LTC Worx centralizes and manages all your crucial business data and features open, documented APIs and interfaces that allow it to fit right into any IT infrastructure.
Wednesday, 11 June, 13.00-13.45
VS4: Jonckers Translation and Engineering:
Community-based Translation: Panacea or Fantasía?
Synopsis: We’ve all heard about it. Google did it; Facebook is doing it. We all want to try it! Community-based translation is the current darling of the localization sector.
Well, it’s certainly something new, and let's face it. There’s not a whole bunch that’s been new in our business for a while.
We thought we'd go and find out a little bit about it, and we’d like to share some of what we found. This is a presentation discussing some of the aspects, advantages and challenges of using community-based translation in a commercial environment.
Wednesday, 11 June, 13.45-14.30
Introduction to The Institute of Localisation Professionals (TILP)
Synopsis: The localization community is invited to attend this short session about The Institute of Localisation Professionals (TILP) which represents individual professionals and only allows individual membership. TILP pursues it primary aim — the development of professional practices in localization globally — through its Certified Localisation Professional (CLP) programme and courses, currently offered online and in eleven locations worldwide.
Wednesday, 11 June, 13.00-13.45
Introduction to the Globalization and Localization Association (GALA)
Synopsis: Companies interested in Globalization and Localization Association (GALA) membership are invited to attend this short session. GALA representatives will present details on the benefits of GALA membership, including networking, marketing and discount opportunities. GALA membership is open to any company providing translation, localization, internationalization, or globalization products or services, including tools developers, training suppliers, and consultancies.
