At 15:09 27/05/99 +0000, you wrote:
>Hello everybody,
>
>Does anybody know where can I find World Experts in Software
>Localization? Names, Personalities or Universities where they
>research about this matter? I have to start preparing my Ph.D. thesis
>on that and can't find the right academic directions. Could it be in
>Ireland? I know thousands of agencies and companies that work on
>that, but I lack all kinds of info about academic lines or professors
>expert on the issue.There is really nothing here in Spain. Regards to
>you all and thanks for your replies, if you can make it,
>
>Isabel Bou
>Eng -> Spa transator and copywriter
>Barcelona
Hello,
my advice for what it's worth.
1) Forget Ireland. That's where Microsoft subcontracts its grunt jobs
2) Forget about America, except perhaps Apple which made an honorable
effort in this direction a decade ago. Some people in the States wrote a
lot about multicultural issues but it's one thing to write about them and
another to live them daily the way we Europeans do. I must say I am still
astonished by the way Americains discovered localization and just had a go
at it with a total ignorance of the issues involved. Interestingly, when
you look e.g. at the localized versions of Word, it ain't too bad. Probably
c'ause they went to Ireland...
3) My advice for what it's worth. Go after companies in the industrial
field (or engineering departments in European universities) because people
using industrial systems in production (operators and so on) have sometimes
very low skills and an error on a production line costs money (and
sometimes lives...). Hence people working in this field tend to take
localization rather more seriously than in non safety-critical fields. Can
give you the addresses of a few of our industrial customers if nobody else
offers useful suggestions (have to clear it with them first).
Jojo le reptile (L�g�rement adapt� d'un manuel -- chose lue. "Toucher le
bo�tier. Si votre main dispara�t en fum�e, cela signifie que la temp�rature
du bo�tier est trop �lev�e.")
