Translating into Success : Cutting-Edge Strategies for Going Multilingual in a global age

Rating:
Summary: Excellent range of topics and modern relevance
Review: Having worked in the L10N industry for 10 years, I found this book to be an excellent compendium of interesting and relevant information on a wide range of topical issues. The book covers basic cross-cultural adaptation, language management, localization techniques, tools and automation. Of particular interest to anyone facing large-scale globalization and internet issues will be Rose Lockwood's article on CaterPillar's Machine Translation (MT) and Controlled Authoring (I've been digging for this kind of information for a while), Carmen Lange and Winfield Bennett's study of MT and and Translation Memory at Baan, Gary Jaekel's coverage of Terminology Management at Ericsson, and a very timely piece by Susan Cheng of Idiom on the globalization of e-Commerce sites. On the down-side I would liked to have seen more of BiDirectional L10N and I18N issues, and respository-based translation, but that's a small criticism on balance. This is a book that can be recommended for seasoned professionals and people who are new to the L10N, I18N aspects of globalization, or for anyone who just wants to appreciate the range of issues that face companies who need to provide culutrally appropriate content cheaply, efficiently and of sufficient quality. Well done!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent range of topics and modern relevance
Review: Having worked in the L10N industry for 10 years, I found this book to be an excellent compendium of interesting and relevant information on a wide range of topical issues. The book covers basic cross-cultural adaptation, language management, localization techniques, tools and automation. Of particular interest to anyone facing large-scale globalization and internet issues will be Rose Lockwood's article on CaterPillar's Machine Translation (MT) and Controlled Authoring (I've been digging for this kind of information for a while), Carmen Lange and Winfield Bennett's study of MT and and Translation Memory at Baan, Gary Jaekel's coverage of Terminology Management at Ericsson, and a very timely piece by Susan Cheng of Idiom on the globalization of e-Commerce sites. On the down-side I would liked to have seen more of BiDirectional L10N and I18N issues, and respository-based translation, but that's a small criticism on balance. This is a book that can be recommended for seasoned professionals and people who are new to the L10N, I18N aspects of globalization, or for anyone who just wants to appreciate the range of issues that face companies who need to provide culutrally appropriate content cheaply, efficiently and of sufficient quality. Well done!

Rating:
Summary: Low on Insight and more MS AGITPROP
Review: Working in the Localization Industry, I was keen to read this book. However, there are virtually no profound insights into the activity of localizing products and services on a global scale that aren't known. The question is: "Who exactly is this book aimed at, and why?" Localization professionals already know all this stuff. Senior managerment are unlikely to learn any new strategic tricks unless they're brain dead already and incapable of picking up a telephone. In particular, I was disturbed by the Microsoft case study and the comments from David Brooks of Microsoft. What puzzles me is why Brooks does not give any real credit to fact that the localization effort really began to be centered in Dublin Ireland SINCE THE LATE eighties, instead making it look like all the running was made from Redmond Seattle until much later. Furthermore, no mention is made of of Brooks' initiative in the mid-90's which launched a three-pronged drive to cut the MS localization budget: 1) Outsource even more tasks, 2) Invest in Translation Memory Tools (they bought 20% of Trados GMBH as a result) and 3) Invest in internal MS project management skills. What was the outcome of this? Finally, I worked in Microsoft at the time - I never heard of this term "Jihad" being used - this looks like it's for dramatic effect. In all, the only thing this case study is designed to do is make David Brooks look good. Pity the MS budget for localization is still gargantuan and Brooks no longer has a localization job there. What a coincidence.