IMUG Past Events Archive

2003 Events

• Design Practices for Global Gateways
• International Components for Unicode (ICU) - An Introduction
• Automating Globalization End-to-End
• Development of Phrase Translation Systems for Handheld Computers: From Concept to Field
• Simputer - Effectively Bridging the Digital Divide
• Telling Time Internationally
• Writing for International Audiences and Translation
• Beggars at the Globalization Banquet
• From the .NET Front Lines: Writing an Image Globalization Management Tool in .NET
• Input for Indian Languages Made Easy
• Gaiji: Characters, Glyphs, Both, or Neither?

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Design Practices for Global Gateways
Date: November 20, 2003, 7-9 p.m.
Speakers: Renato Beninatto (Common Sense Advisory, Inc.)

Common Sense Advisory, an independent market research and analysis firm, analyzed the websites of the top 25 revenue-producing companies in 16 countries from Western Europe, Asia, and the Americas. This sample encompassed 28 market segments, including aerospace, beverages, consumer products, pharmaceuticals, retail, and telecommunications. Renato Beninatto, a partner at Common Sense Advisory, will present the findings of this report.

Renato Beninatto has served on the executive teams for some of the industry's most prominent companies, most recently as Vice President and Director of Alpnet Inc. and Berlitz GlobalNET, respectively. He focuses on strategies that drive growth on a global scale. He specializes in making companies successful in global markets and in starting businesses that span across borders. As a partner of Common Sense Advisory, he conducts buyer-focused independent research and analysis of the localization Industry.

International Components for Unicode (ICU) - An Introduction
Date: October 16, 2003
Speaker: Markus Scherer (IBM Corp.)

This presentation gives an overview of the International Components for Unicode (ICU) libraries, which provide a wide variety of Internationalization functions in C/C++ and Java. They support basic Unicode string and character handling, codepage conversion and normalization, as well as higher-level services like collation, formatting and regular expressions. The presentation also discusses the latest version of the Unicode Standard, version 4.

IBM developerWorks open source article on ICU:
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/webservices/library/co-cow7.html

Markus Scherer is a software engineer at IBM developing ICU and other Unicode/Globalization solutions. He has contributed to many parts of ICU including character conversion, bidi, normalization, Unicode properties and collation and is currently the technical team leader of ICU4C. After graduating from the University of Kaiserslautern, Germany, in computer science he worked on projects for wireless and mobile computing with IBM. A strong interest in languages brought him into the Internationalization parts of the projects, followed by his current focus on Unicode and Globalization.

Automating Globalization End-to-End
Date: September 18, 2003, 7-9 p.m.
Speaker: Claudia Galván (Adobe Systems, Inc.)

Simultaneous release is often an elusive target. Products are not properly internationalized, processes are not followed and slipping schedules make this goal difficult to achieve. Operating systems and development frameworks are not set up for facilitating internationalization and localization. Libraries and tools are often created to work around these limitations. Automating globalization end-to-end is a concept that starts with internationalization technology targeted at easing the product localization, as well as the establishment of key automated processes that manage the information flow among key stakeholders. We will discuss our proposed solutions, in terms of architecture, process and best practices to achieve this worthy goal.

Claudia Galván is currently responsible for the development and deployment of shared libraries and tools that support product Internationalization/localization as well as electronic software delivery (ESD) technologies for all Adobe products. At Adobe she co-authored a patent pending technology to allow 100% string leverage. Before that she was the National Language Support Manager for the Oracle Tools division, where she established processes and technologies that allowed shipment of 29 languages simultaneously. Claudia has worked in three different countries developing shrink wrapped software products in graphics, database development tools, school administration, and testing. She is also a former presenter at the Unicode conference as well as the Stanford Society of Women Engineers.

Development of Phrase Translation Systems for Handheld Computers: From Concept to Field
Date: August 21, 2003, 7-9 p.m.
Speaker: Horacio Franco (SRI International)

We describe the development and conceptual evolution of handheld spoken phrase translation systems, beginning with an initial unidirectional system for translation of English phrases, and later extending to a limited bidirectional phrase translation system between English and Pashto, a major language of Afghanistan. We review the challenges posed by such projects, such as the constraints imposed by the computational platform, to the limitations of the phrase translation approach when dealing with naïve respondents. We discuss our proposed solutions, in terms of architecture, algorithms, and software features, as well as some field experience by users of initial prototypes.

Horacio Franco is the Chief Scientist at the Speech Technology and Research (STAR) Laboratory at SRI International. He has been a member of the research team at the STAR Lab since 1990, where he contributed to the development of SRI's speech technology in several aspects of acoustic modeling and recognizer architectures as well as speech technology for language learning. Dr. Franco has been a principal investigator for several DARPA funded projects, in particular he has been leading the team involved in the software development of the "Phraselator", a phrase translation system funded by DARPA. He has an Electrical Engineer Diploma and a Doctor in Engineering degree both from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Simputer - Effectively Bridging the Digital Divide
Date: July 17, 2003, 7-9 p.m.
Speaker: Edward Cherlin (Encore Technologies and Earth Treasury)

The Simputer was designed for illiterate people without access to electric power, telephones, or money. It also works as a server, an embedded system controller, and a component of enterprise systems providing ubiquitous mobile computing. The result is the ability to attack global poverty on a sustainable for-profit basis. Apple once tried to address the Indian rural market but failed. The presentation will examine the differences between the technologies of then and now.

Simputer projects include completing Unicode support for modern languages, text-to-speech software for multiple languages, voice recognition for multiple languages, health, education, microbanking, an instant emergency Internet Service kit, a realization of the Alan Kay Dynabook, and much more.

Edward Cherlin is the Evangelist for the Simputer, a Linux handheld for poor people. Ed has been in high tech for 26 years, doing market research, software development, writing, editing, and publishing. He is also setting up a non-profit corporation, Earth Treasury, to fund non-commercial Simputer projects.

Telling Time Internationally
Date: June 19, 2003, 7-9 p.m.
Speakers: Bill Hall (MLM Associates), http://www.csharpi18n.net

Developers as a group would rather not think about the problems of writing code that supports world wide use. Yet, some of the most interesting problems arise here. In this talk, we show how to build a simple program that introduces .NET date, time, and calendar handling capabilities in combination with a range of interesting technologies. Specifically, we show how to write a program in .NET that uses the Internet to access the National Institute of Standard and Technologies' very accurate clock and renders the time and date in as many formats as are available for any selected .NET culture. Along the way, calendars from Hebrew and Hijri to Japanese Era and Thai Buddhist are encountered, Julian and modified Julian Days are explained, a bit of socket programming and direct operating system calls are explored, and how XML can help in managing a list of service providers.

This presentation was previously given at the 23rd Internationalization & Unicode Conference in Prague, Czech Republic (March 2003).

Since 2000, Bill Hall has worked as a Globalization Consultant for Convey Software, Inc., Internationalization Director at SimulTrans, L. L. C., and more recently for his own company. His main duties include the analysis and repair of client and web software for customers who are interested in creating a worldwide presence. He has also been involved in delivering training material on internationalization of various platforms including Win32 and WinCE, Microsoft .NET, and on languages such as C++, CSharp, and Java.

Bill has been a software and systems developer, having held positions in the industry that included OEM ports of early versions of Windows to diverse hardware at AT&T Information Systems, as well as taking complex software programs through internationalization and localization cycles and developing graphics software for network management systems at Novell.

In previous lives, Bill has been a military aviator, commercial civilian pilot, and flight instructor, an associate editor of Mathematical Reviews, and a university professor of mathematics. He has published 65 papers on mathematics, teaching, computer programming, and internationalization including several recent ones on .NET. He talks frequently at international meetings including Unicode. The publication list can be found at http://www.mlmassociates.cc/newpubs.htm.

He has five university degrees including a Ph. D. in areas such as electrical engineering, computer science, and mathematics from both American and English Universities.

Phone: 408-241-6983
Email: Click here
Websites: http://www.mlmassociates.cc & http://www.csharpi18n.net

Writing for International Audiences and Translation
Date: May 15, 2003, 7-9 p.m.
Speaker: Nancy Rains

Nancy Rains will discuss issues involved in making your English language documents more appropriate for worldwide audiences and easier to translate. The material covered is suitable for technical writers. It is also particularly helpful for other professionals who find themselves suddenly more involved in product information and translation handoffs--perhaps due to company downsizing.

Nancy will describe issues such as:

• Checking for cultural bias in your materials and reviewing the many types of data that are culture specific.
• Developing a writing style that is accommodating to all your readers
• Standardizing vocabulary and how common word choice errors are more troublesome for those who speak English as a second language
• Special symbols commonly used in the US that don't have universal meaning.
• Also, potential pitfalls of graphics and document production will be covered.

Participants are invited to share their own experiences in taking their documentation to different countries.

Nancy Rains has been a technical writer in Silicon Valley for over 10 years. For several years, she managed the Localization and Internationalization SIG for the local chapter of STC (Society for Technical Communication; www.stc.org). She has written documentation for localized software, localization tools, and globalization standards.

She speaks Spanish and Italian and has a bachelor's in Language from the University of California. Nancy Rains can be reached via this link.

Beggars at the Globalization Banquet
Date: April 17, 2003, 7-9 p.m.
Speaker: Renato Beninatto (Common Sense Advisory, Inc.)

To understand how companies with ambitions beyond their own markets think about and measure localization efforts, Common Sense Advisory interviewed 50 managers responsible for setting or implementing localization strategy at U.S.-based organizations.

Localization comprises the business practices by which a company prepares its product or service offering for worldwide markets. Without this practice a company would never bridge beyond its own borders. In preparing their report - "Beggars at the Globalization Banquet" - Common Sense Advisory found that localization investment happens to be very small compared to the big international revenue it enables. Even so, most American firms shortchange their budgets for translating and adapting products, services, support materials, and output for non-US markets - but continue to expect increasingly more productivity.

This presentation will include many of the findings of our research as well as recommendations to help you transform localization from cost into investment.

Renato Beninatto has served on the executive teams for some of the industry’s most prominent companies, most recently as Vice President and Director of Alpnet Inc. and Berlitz GlobalNET, respectively. He focuses on strategies that drive growth on a global scale. He specializes in making companies successful in global markets and in starting businesses that span across borders. As a partner of Common Sense Advisory, he conducts buyer-focused independent research and analysis of the localization Industry.

From the .NET Front Lines: Writing an Image Globalization Management Tool in .NET
Date: March 20, 2003, 7-9 p.m.
Speaker: Bjorn Austraat (Austraat Globaliztion Solutions)

Globalization Image Assistant (GIA) is a tool for total life-cycle management of large-scale image globalization projects. I will present my findings on some of the more exotic 'quirks' of .NET components used in the project (complete with workarounds), how to patch up the gaping security holes of .NET distributable EXE and DLL components, and an example of the System.Globalization namespace at work.

Bjorn Austraat is the Principal Consultant of Austraat Globalization Solutions. Prior to launching Austraat Globalization Solutions, he was the Director of the Globalization Consulting group with Convey Software in San Francisco, CA. Bjorn has more than 15 years of experience in the areas of globalization, translation and localization.

His responsibilities at Convey Software included the creation of globalization roadmaps for complex Web properties, internationalization tool development, targeted technical consulting and executive training as well as leading internal and external knowledge transfer projects.

Bjorn also taught a highly successful seminar on software and Web globalization at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, a private graduate school in Monterey, CA.

Before joining Convey Software, Bjorn served as Senior Localization Specialist at Berlitz International and led a comprehensive Machine Translation research project at IDOC, Inc. (now Bowne Global Solutions).

He holds a Master’s Degree in Conference Interpretation from the University of Vienna and a Master’s Degree in Translation and Interpretation from the Monterey Institute of International Studies.

Input for Indian Languages Made Easy
Date: February 20, 2003, 7-9 p.m.
Speakers: Srinivas Annam (Deshweb.com)

This presentation will describe the hurdles software designers face when implementing Indian languages on computers and suggestions for overcoming them. In the past, it was common practice to implement Indian languages on computers using "hacked" fonts because of the lack of standards. Now that there is Unicode, and Microsoft and other OS makers have started supporting Indic via Unicode, how is this changing the scene? We will also look at the problem of lack of decent input support on Windows platforms and how "Aksharamala" is solving it. Also, how does Unicode support on Office XP, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, Open Office and such applications make features such as spell checking, data storage, sorting, email, etc. available for Indian language users?

Srinivas Annam, President & Founder of Deshweb.com, architected and created the software product called "Aksharamala" for empowering Indian languages for Internet and computer use. In addition, he envisions solutions for enhancing productivity using the very latest in technological developments and standards.

Gaiji: Characters, Glyphs, Both, or Neither?
Date: January 16, 2003, 7-9 p.m.
Speakers: Jim DeLaHunt (Adobe Systems, Inc.)

This talk will describe the "gaiji" requirement, survey the leading gaiji mechanisms in use by the Japanese publishing and personal computer industries, and look at the interesting light which gaiji glyphs (or are they characters?) cast on the Unicode character-glyph model.

Unicode encodes Han characters by the tens of thousands, but fonts typically have only thousands of glyphs. Some fonts may have more glyphs, some may have fewer. And since the Han character repertoire is fundamentally open-ended, there will always be characters which are not encoded. The characters legal for the script, but not in your font, are known as "gaiji". Writers and publishers insist on being able to use gaiji, so the Japanese publishing and computer industries have come up with a number of gaiji mechanisms. Looking from the viewpoint of a publishing software and font developer, we describe and evaluate a few of the most important gaiji mechanisms. Finally, we look at gaiji in terms of the Unicode character-glyph model. Are they glyph variants, or characters, or both, or neither?

Jim DeLaHunt is an engineering manager at Adobe Systems, responsible for Japanese fonts and gaiji. He was introduced to the gaiji requirement when he first joined Adobe thirteen years ago, and still isn't satisfied with any gaiji mechanism he has found in the market.