The annual International Workshop on the Internationalization of Products and Services, IWIPS 2004, will be held in Vancouver, Canada, 8 -10 July 2004. Situated on the Pacific coast, the location provides a central meeting place for Asia, Europe, and the North American continent. IWIPS is a unique venue at which practitioners, academics and others gain access to cutting edge information regarding globalisation, localisation, and internationalisation issues. This year's conference is focused on culture and design, and how trust is developed in online environments.

IWIPS 2004 will feature the same varieties of presentations, breakout sessions, and social events that have proven effective in previous years for both international networking and information exchange.

On June 8 in Rome at the Libera Università degli Studi S. Pio V (LUSPIO), Gruppo L10N will hold a one-day seminar in Rome on Enterprise Content Management Systems (ECMS) and Globalization Management Systems (GMS). Contributors will come from SDA Bocconi, Vignette, Wordwide, Trados and Ocè Technologies. Registration deadline is 24 May 2004. More details on registration fees and discounts are available on the group’s web site.    

The seminar is intended for:

The Globalization and Localization Association (GALA) is hosting a one-day seminar to discuss critical issues related to the expansion of the European Union. The seminar, entitled "The Europe of 25: New Challenges in the European Expansion", will be held in Brussels on 28 June 2004. Join key industry experts to consider the impact of the expansion on economic, legal, socioeconomic, marketing, linguistic and financial fronts.  Topics include:  marketing to diverse communities, conducting business within new regulations and understanding the market language needs of new member states. To find out more, visit http://www.gala-global.org/event_brussels2004.htm.

Austin Community College (ACC) will host the second Localization Summer School in Austin June 16-18, 2004.

The summer school is a complement to a leading training program for localization in the Austin Community College in Austin, Texas. Dr. Tim Altanero has built a global network of instructors and introduced the first localization certificate program in Texas. McElroy Translation Company supports the ACC Localization Certificate Program through participating in class instruction and encourages people to take advantage of this unique opportunity to learn more about global communication. 

Seminar Topics include the following:

1. Translation memory – Understanding this topic is essential for most localization projects.

2. Technology tool – Tool that enables resizing for text expansion or special character display.

3. Sales process – Identify stakeholders and learn the internal and external sales process.

4. Localized product testing – Learn the basics from a pro—process, structure, who should be involved, resource allocation and technology requirements.

5. Internationalization basics – Technically prepare software or websites for localization. 

TRADOS, Inc., a leading provider of globalisation solutions, has released its latest innovation, TRADOS TeamWorks. This is a localisation process management solution, which is designed to connect the work of content authors, project managers, project specialists, translators, quality assurance specialists and reviewers or editors. As a centralised collaboration platform, TRADOS TeamWorks also unifies the different media formats, such as HTML and applications from Microsoft and Adobe.

Some of the features of TRADOS TeamWorks include Web-accessible central translation memory; localisation project management; collaborative workflow for process optimisation; task-level automation; integrated quality assurance, as well as other functionality which is new to the industry.

Bowne Global Solutions (BGS), a provider of technical publication, translation and localisation services, has formed a strategic alliance with BAeHAL Software Ltd. (BAeHAL), a provider of technology-based documentation solutions to global aerospace and defense companies. BAeHAL is a joint venture company owned by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, India and BAE SYSTEMS, UK. 

As part of the alliance, BAeHAL will act as a long-term offshore partner to BGS collaborating on technical publication contracts and providing alternative production resources for data conversion, authoring and illustrating.

International standards consortium OASIS has brought together government defense agencies, major manufacturers and software vendors to collaborate on the deployment of an international data exchange standard to support complex engineered assets throughout their entire life cycles. The new OASIS Product Life Cycle Support (PLCS) Technical Committee will develop Data Exchange Sets (DEXs) that provide a mechanism to maintain information on complex systems such as ships, aircraft, engines, or oil platforms, supporting product changes from concept to disposal.

OASIS PLCS Technical Committee members will base their work on the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) 10303 Standard for Exchange of Product Model Data (STEP) Application Protocol 239 PLCS. OASIS will build on the ISO STEP XML binding to generate standardised XML schemas for PLCS DEXs. Participation remains open to all organisations and individuals, and OASIS hosts a mail list for public comment.

According to a new report , "Leaving La Vida Loca," released by independent research firm Common Sense Advisory, most global brands have yet to tailor their on-line message to the large Latino population within the United States. Ninety of the world's 100 most valuable global brands largely ignore this segment in their on-line communications. But Latino America ranks as the fifth largest group of Spanish speakers in the world; and unlike previous generations of immigrants, US Latinos retain their language and culture. The report provides insight on what the top global brands are or are not doing to reach this market; how to offer services that will help clients expand their appeal to and revenue from Spanish-speaking communities; and strategies for developing a deliberate cross-channel multicultural plan.

Macromedia has awarded Rubric a Master Services Agreement (MSA) to be the software company's sole localisation partner for European and Latin American markets. Under the MSA, Rubric is localisng Macromedia software, on-line Help, documentation and product collateral into French, German, Italian, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese.

TargeTek Co., Ltd., renowned provider of localisation solution and translation service in Asia, has announced the opening of a new office location in Beijing, China. The establishment of this new location will effectively increase TargeTek's capacity on Simplified Chinese language services, testing and DTP. With its existing Traditional Chinese operation, TargeTek now has the unique ability to provide both major Chinese language services, and both with state-of-the-art quality standards. Until now, there has not been one localisation service provider who was able to offer both Chinese translations with the same level of readability in the market. TargeTek now offers the service that puts the two Chinese languages into separate translation processes and produces results achieving real "localisation" for both markets.