LOCALISATION TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY AND SHOWCASE

(LOTS)

Currently, localisation professionals searching for suitable technology to localise their products often duplicate their efforts. They do not have easy access to a dedicated localisation laboratory and showcase. The LOTS laboratory will enable them to identify suitable technology faster and more efficiently – and localisation technology developers will find it easier to establish contacts with potential customers. 

The central point for learning and testing  

Based at the University of Limerick, and run by the LRC, the LOTS laboratory enables localisation professionals and trainers to identify suitable technology faster and more efficiently.  Since September 2002, localisation professionals searching for suitable technology to localise their products can access the LOTS laboratory free of charge. With this facility, researchers and developers can experiment with different technologies and operating systems, as well as language and locale settings. The laboratory provides access to state-of-the-art localisation technology. It even offers sample files, donated from various companies, to aid their research and evaluation. In short, LOTS encourages and facilitates high-end research.

The localisation industry showcase

All the tools available in the LOTS laboratory are for research, evaluation and demonstration purposes only.  This is proving to be of great benefit to both users and developers. Among other things, LOTS also encourages localisation technology developers to establish contacts with potential customers. Localisation tools and technology developers are invited by the LRC to make their products available to interested parties through LOTS for research, evaluation and demonstration purposes 

Benefits

	LOTS offers benefits to both developers and users of localisation technology.
	Through their support of this central repository and showcase, developers raise the awareness of the tools and technologies currently available, make it easy for potential customers and users to access their products, and expand the market for localisation tools and technologies.
	Potential users have easy, hands-on access to tools and technologies for evaluation purposes, they can gain an immediate overview of available tools and technologies, and they can easily match their specific requirements with available tools and technologies.

If you would like to arrange a visit to LOTS, please download this form (zipped word file, 67.8KB) and email or fax it to us. (see details below). However, if you cannot come to LImerick, you can also request remote access to LOTS Online (the LOTS server).   

Location and Co ntact Details  

The LOTS laboratory is located in the Computer Science and Information Systems (CSIS) Building of the University of Limerick (Ireland), Room CS2-044.

Coordinator: Michael Bourke (michael.j.bourke@ul.ie)
Telephone: +353 (0)61 234293 or 202881
Fax: +353 (0)61 202734
Email: Lrc@ul.ie  
URL: www.electonline.org 

Physical Access

The LOTS laboratory is physically accessible to students and any professional involved in the localisation industry both in Ireland and overseas (provided they travel to the University of Limerick). In order to use the laboratory’s facilities, it is necessary to schedule a visit with the LOTS staff via email, telephone or fax. Users will need a username and password, which will be issued to them after having scheduled a visit.   Each user is provided with full administrative rights. To allow for the fact that settings may be changed, bugs may be created etc. as people test the applications, each PC will be rebuilt on a regular basis using stored ghost images.   

Remote Access to the LOTS Server - LOTS Online
 
As it is not viable for all individuals to travel to the University of Limerick, users can also have access to most of the applications available in the LOTS laboratory, by logging into the LOTS server remotely (i.e. from anywhere in the world). This server contains most of the software applications and sample files available in the actual LOTS laboratory.

As with physical access, users wishing to make use of this remote facility need to request a personal user name and password from the LOTS staff. Then, they can log onto the LOTS server and once logged on, they will have access to a personalised LOTS desktop, in exactly the same way as if they were sitting in front of the server. Unfortunately with remote access, full administrative rights cannot be granted to any user, as we need to give the contributing companies a guarantee that a certain level of security will be maintained during the use of their software packages.