Software Development & Globalization Services

A recent report by Rebecca Ray highlights the perfect union that is formed when software development and globalization services combine. Although the notion seems highly intuitive, up to this point globalization has largely been considered an extra step in the process of creating software instead of part of the initial product. However, that will soon be changing.

This new way of creating software is projected to revolutionize the industry. The report strongly suggests that businesses serious about growth should consider this option as an obvious way to increase their competitive edge.

To find out more, please visit www.lisa.org.

The LinkedIn Controversy

Most of us by now are familiar with the idea of crowdsourcing. The role of crowdsourcing in the language industry and its possible effects, both positive and negative, has been widely discussed and debated.

Most recently, LinkedIn proposed to use a crowdsourcing project similar to that of Facebook and Wikipedia to localize their website. However, I believe their approach communicated an incorrect message to the translation community. Instead of coming across as a crowdsourcing effort, they asked in effect if professional translators would be willing to donate their time, or translate “for fun.”

An outraged translation community responded with pleas for translators not to become involved in the project on the grounds that LinkedIn was demonstrating a lack of respect for the profession. Again, I think it was just incorrect communication on the part of LinkedIn. Either way, they will likely have to come up with another solution in order to localize their website.

Ideas taken from "Translators Wanted at LinkedIn. The Pay? $0 an Hour"
New York Times (NY) (06/29/09) Newman, Andrew Adam