Discovering the Joys of Internationalization in Australia
Understanding the Difference Between “Unicode” and
“Unilateral”
By James Hogan
Queensland University of Technology
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“The true
salesman, it is said, can offer ice to the Inuit and
make it sell. An attractive challenge, but one hampered
in my case by the absence of web-enabled ice transfer
technologies, and the rather robust spring weather
in which I find myself,” writes Dr James Hogan
of Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Hogan
offers another perspective on localization and internationalization
to those who’ve heard it all before. This time,
however, the story concerns an Australian industry
waking up to the challenge of the world markets, and
a growing partnership between key industry players
and universities that is helping to make it happen.
Australia – Discovering
the Joys of Internationalization
Anglo-centric
insularity is profitable if the product is able to
crack the U.S. and U.K. markets.
My perspective is that
of the academic computer scientist, a member of a
department that produces remarkably good software
developers who, up until recently, wouldn’t
have known “Unicode” from “Unilateral.”
Their complacency has been shared for many years by
a software industry that has drawn adequate sustenance
from local development work. Even some of the more
ambitious players have been slow to internationalize
their applications, although the reasons seem forgivable:
anglo-centric insularity is profitable if the product
is able to crack the U.S. and U.K. markets.
It would be wrong to
suggest that the Australian software industry is entering
some sort of localization renaissance, but the joy
of internationalization is becoming better known,
with companies showing greater interest in hiring
localization-aware developers, and in seeking out
tools and technologies to manage the process. A number
of factors have influenced this embrace of the internationalized
product, through a curious mix of global success and
local failure.
Success has been a principal
driver – with sales in English-speaking markets
leading over time to a presence in Europe, and nascent
explorations into Asia. As market penetration in the
U.S. reaches a plateau, these expeditions become more
significant, leading to growth in demand for specialist
services, and some re-engineering of existing products.
Just as critical has been the emergence of Australia
as a specialist development base for key international
vendors. My own city of Brisbane, for example, is
the center of Asian language development for Red Hat,
and there is a strong development presence from both
Oracle and Boeing, along with the headquarters of
Mincom, Australia’s largest software vendor.
…the
failures of the dot com bust have had a positive impact,
with many of the survivors focused sensibly upon niche
products which can sell across national and cultural
boundaries.
Yet the giants of the
landscape are rare, and most of our industry consists
of SMEs (small- to medium-sized enterprises) employing
between ten and fifty people. It is here that the
failures of the dot com bust have had a positive impact,
with many of the survivors focused sensibly upon niche
products which can sell across national and cultural
boundaries. Given the limited size of the Australasian
market, and dominant vendors in many of the most important
sectors, this decision to jump out of the garage is
critical to the future of the industry – a lesson
now widely acknowledged.
Such optimism has at
times proven misplaced, in spite of the best efforts
of many. The Government-fostered industry body, Software
Engineering Australia, supported a major awareness
campaign some years ago, even facilitating internationalization
services from their regional offices. Ultimately,
the initiative proved unsustainable, although the
awareness campaign planted an important seed, which
we continue to nurture.
The University –
Industry Partnership in Preaching Localization Mantra
The
numbers are starting to grow, and the challenge is
to sustain them.
QUT works in partnership
with several organizations to continue this awareness-raising
in the industry and among graduate software developers.
Professional issues aside, we felt that we could not
continue to educate large numbers of international
students – from South East Asia through to Scandinavia
- without getting serious about localization. Yet,
if our international students provided some motivation,
one should not underestimate the value of the returning
expatriate – especially one with key experience
in software localization and a passion to develop
the industry.
Brett Hooker is a QUT
alumnus who leads Oracle’s Brisbane office,
and like his compatriot John Richardson, he worked
extensively on the localization of Oracle products
during his career in California. Our connection with
Brett and John, and with Paul Gampe of Red Hat, enabled
an immediate and practical industry focus to our industry
presentations and academic coursework. Subsequently,
we have been able to act as an educational supporter
of the industry – and critically, the SMEs of
the industry – by providing regular briefings
on developments such as the new XML standards and
on localization tools affordable by even small software
firms. Hopefully, Yves Savourel will have sold a few
books as a result of our efforts!
The healthy sign for
our industry is the number of people who comment on
the perfect timing of my presentation: “We are
just undertaking our first project selling into France.”
Or more imploringly, on the altogether dreadful timing
of my presentation: “I wish I had seen your
seminar six weeks ago when we started on our first
localization project.” The numbers are starting
to grow, and the challenge is to sustain them.
Seeking Localization
Training Down Under
Training in software
localization remains limited in Australia, although
two Brisbane universities – QUT and Griffith
– provide electives, and others seem likely
to follow suit. Our own graduate level course is focused
on practicalities, and is centered around the facilities
provided in Visual Studio, with students having to
develop internationalized applications and localize
them to particular targets. Students appreciate the
difference when they are able to develop the same
product in both its local and internationalized forms.
Moreover, they begin to see the context of localization
issues: the difficulties for translators, the cost
of poor architecture and the reasons that machine
translation won’t save us just yet. Translation
in our courses is left up to the students, many of
whom are more than adequate linguists. Others work
with a bogus test character set, embodying all of
the string length issues without the need for fluency
in another tongue.
“…the
challenge for Australia and its partners in New Zealand
and South East Asia is to exploit our established
excellence in software and ICT research, together
with a broad base of language skills, to make a major
contribution to this area.”
Training in other facets
of localization is also becoming better developed,
again in part through a healthy interaction between
the industry and the universities. The Melbourne localization
firm, Metalang, is a good supporter of this process,
linking with language departments to foster an appreciation
of the requirements of industry practice. Yet professional
software translation work is limited in Australia,
with much of it outsourced to the global centers or
offered to students on an ad hoc basis. Once again,
the skills are available, but the industry needs careful
nurturing.
More strategically, the
challenge for Australia and its partners in New Zealand
and South East Asia is to exploit our established
excellence in software and ICT research, together
with a broad base of language skills, to make a major
contribution to this area. One small step is being
taken in January with the Australasian Workshop on
Software Internationalization (AWSI2004) in Dunedin,
New Zealand. This workshop, part of the Australasian
Computer Science Week, is intended to provide a bridge
between industry practitioners facing software internationalization
challenges, and those with expertise which may be
brought to bear in solving them. In particular, we
are delighted to have the involvement of members of
Macquarie University’s Language Technology Group,
industry representatives from Metalang, Oracle, SAP
and Red Hat, along with strong support from LISA.
LISA members who fancy a trip to the South Island
of New Zealand should visit our web pages at: www.fit.qut.edu.au/~hogan/si/
and submit a paper as soon as you can. (Given the
number of times that I have asked conference organizers
for an extension I suspect that there is some flexibility
in the submission dates.)
James
M. Hogan is a Senior Lecturer in the
School of Software Engineering and Data Communications
at the Queensland University of Technology. He plays
a key role in software internationalization initiatives
at QUT, and has presented regularly to the local industry
and students on localization issues, and their importance
for a sustainable industry in Australia. Other interests
include computational semantics and machine learning
for text processing and bioinformatics.
Reprinted
by permission from the Globalization Insider,
7 October 2003, Volume XII, Issue 4.1.
Copyright
the Localization Industry Standards Association
(Globalization Insider: www.localization.org,
LISA: www.lisa.org)
and S.M.P. Marketing Sarl (SMP) 2004
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