Adobe has started a new process for translating (”localizing”) its software products into foreign languages. According to Francis Tsang, director of globalization at Adobe Systems Inc, “there is far too much content that needs translating”. Crowdsourcing is a term, coined in 2006 by Jeff Howe in Wired Magazine, to describe the involvement of a large number of people working on a task usually performed by a company’s employees or contractors. The concept is similar to the development of open source software where the premise is that a large group of people working on something they love can generate better results …read more

The Common Sense Advisory is a great resource for all things GILT (Globalization, Internationalization, Localization, Translation). Their marketing slogan, “Insight for all things global”, is perhaps a bit overstated, but they certainly provide a lot of independent information (much of it to everyone, some only for members) on the translation/localization market.
One of the things I was looking for (and quickly found) on their site was a ranking of the largest translation companies (also known as Language Service Providers or LSPs). So here are the Top 20 translation companies in 2006 as ranked by the Common Sense Advisory:

L-3 Communications
Lionbridge Technologies
SDL International
Language …read more

Generally speaking, there are four different go-to-market strategies for launching products internationally: with a global product that meets the needs of all markets, by changing the product to meet the needs of many international markets, by adapting the product to local market needs and by translating the product and/or documentation into the new market languages.
The easiest way to remember the four methods is with the acronym GILT:
Globalization
Internationalization
Localization
Translation
Coca-Cola is probably the best known example of a global product, followed by McDonald’s, although certain localized aspects can be found at McDonald’s throughout the world. (For example, at McDonald’s in France, you can …read more