Translating & the Computer 26 Conference: Organised by ASLIB

ASLIB is a world class corporate membership organisation with members in some 70 countries around the world. It works with a wide range of organisations worldwide, promoting best practice in the field of information management. It is holding its 26th Translating & the Computer conference from 18-19 November 2004 at 1 Great George Street, London, UK. Registration forms and a call for papers are available at: http://www.aslib.com/conferences/ 

TRADOS appoints new CEO and Director

TRADOS Inc., the world leader in globalisation solutions, recently announced the appointment of Joseph S. Campbell, one of the top executives in Silicon Valley, as its new president and chief executive officer. Campbell brings to TRADOS expertise in global markets and content management, both of which are important to the future of the company. As a 22-year veteran in the enterprise technology market, Campbell has a proven track record in taking enterprise software companies to higher levels of success. Under his leadership as chief operating officer, collaborative content leader iManage (acquired last year by Interwoven) organically grew faster than any other content management/document management provider, became profitable and significantly increased shareholder value. Campbell also helped position the company as a key player in the enterprise content management (ECM) category.  

Mozilla launches Mozilla-Japan.org website

The Mozilla Foundation, which supports the Mozilla open-source project, has launched the Mozilla-Japan.org website and the creation of Mozilla Japan, a non-profit organisation that promotes, develops and helps deploy Mozilla products in Japan.

Mozilla Japan will work on the internationalisation and localisation of Mozilla products and will be responsible for official Japanese localised versions of its Firefox browser, Thunderbird e-mail program and the Mozilla 1.7 Internet suite. Mozilla Japan will also contribute to the development of Mozilla technologies. Local experts will assist in the deployment of Mozilla products and provide support to both end users and enterprises.

Computer software available in South African languages

Translate.org.za, a South African software translation project, has completed the translation of computer software into a number of South Africa's official languages in time for the first annual Global Software Freedom Day. The ongoing project of the Zuza Software Foundation has spent two years developing this software with the sponsorship of the Shuttleworth Foundation, the Department of Communications, CSIR, Obsidian Systems (a South African Linux and Open Source company), Hewlett-Packard (South Africa) and St. James Software. So far, it has translated software into Zulu, Sepedi and Afrikaans.

Software Freedom Day was celebrated worldwide on August 28, 2004, including many venues across South Africa. In Gauteng, the keynote speaker was DPSA Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi. Dwayne Bailey, founder and director of the Zuza Software Foundation, was a guest speaker.

DCML Organization joins OASIS

The Data Center Markup Language (DCML) Organization plans to advance its specification, technical agenda, membership and operations as part of the global OASIS standards consortium. The DCML Organization is an open coalition of vendors and users working to advance utility computing through the development and adoption of DCML. DCML, a freely licensed specification, provides a structured model and encoding to describe, construct, replicate and recover data center environments and elements.

The transition will result in the formation of the OASIS DCML Member Section, which will promote the use of utility computing by providing a standard way to represent the IT environment and enabling data center automation and system management solutions to easily exchange information about the environment under management. DCML will take advantage of the international consortium's open technical process, transparent governance and international reach.

Multilizer and LingoPort form strategic alliance

Multilizer, Inc., a provider of globalisation technologies, and LingoPort, Inc., a software internationalisation tools and services provider, have entered into a strategic alliance to provide an automated internationalisation and localisation solution for companies going global. LingoPort's Globalyzer is an internationalisation tool that enables developers to assess and correct software source code to support character sets, currencies, and cultural and data formats of any language and locale. Multilizer is a tool for automating the localisation process, including translating and resizing menus, dialogues, button layouts and user messages.

Campaign to encourage UK students to study languages

CILT, the National Centre for Languages has designed new materials to encourage more UK students to study languages. They will be launched on September 27, 2004. The "Languages Work" resources, which highlight the benefits of languages in working life, are aimed at careers advisers and language teachers as well as the learners themselves. They will be unveiled at a special European Day of Languages event hosted at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Languages Work targets students age 13 and above, helping them make informed choices and offering essential support at a time when languages are being withdrawn from the compulsory curriculum. The "Languages Work" campaign champions key messages such as English is not enough, A little language learning can make a lot of difference and Languages improve the quality of life.

SDL Translation Portal, Click2Translate, wins Award

Click2Translate, the translation portal from SDL International, has been awarded best E-Business at the regional finals of the Government backed E-Commerce Awards. The website, which has doubled order volumes and grown monthly revenues over 80% since 2003, has also introduced support for multiple file upload of any file types together with online volume discounts. The most complex localisation projects can be managed online, bringing tremendous savings to customers looking for an easy- to-use translation service.

"We are delighted to achieve this recognition for Click2Translate from the National E-Commerce Awards," said Terry Lawlor, VP Worldwide Marketing at SDL International. "We are attracting around 200 new users each month and with the launch of volume discounts for all file types, we expect to continue this extraordinary growth. By eliminating project management fees and providing an easy-to-use portal design, we have made Click2Translate a compelling proposition for businesses worldwide."