Web Theologian

>This is an issue I am having to deal with now and often it feels like I am about to jump off a cliff when I really get a handle of a part of this theory. I am not really sure how to apply it as a sales monkey, but with vision there seems to be plenty of application in our industry. Check out Hugh’s video on the link below.

http://www.nevillehobson.com/2007/09/22/business-blogging-survey-videos-on-youtube/

For us it is words (noun) and I’m not so sure about the verb, measure up? The distinction everyone in our industry tries to make is that of quality? But is there any real difference. If there is can we back it up financially or relationally? Send us any document to translated and if you can find better quality you get it for free, that seems like it could be costly but isn’t it worth it. Doesn’t that make Sinometrics as a company strive to accomplish something in a tangible way that other people are not? I cannot be sure if a guarantee is a social object though. So I am still thinking.

>This is interesting for me on two levels. First I am very familar with the tools that are available to scholars for Greek and Hebrew since I used the through seminary. Now there is new technology that will assist with other ancient langugages.

UAT Instructor Creates Cuneiform and Hieroglyphic Translator

The second side is how language translation is effected by technology. I am very interested in what market disruption through technology would look like for the localization industry. It hasn’t quite clicked for me yet.

>A good laugh here, but really does it make any difference if hulu’s market is not swahili?

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/08/29/hulu-translates-to-cease-and-desist-in-swahili-oh-the-irony/

>Donald A. DePalma writes a piece outlining some of the problems that we have in the localization industry with our trade shows in Common Sense Advisory. Too many, none distinguishing themselves, and same ol’ speakers. I’ll be interested in what positive suggestions they add to the conversation.

For me I’m in sales so I’m looking to learn, but my main priority is to find the next lead. So my hope is that we find a way in the industry to improve our story and find more people who want to hear it. We are getting geared up for Localization World, my first so I have some excitement, but honestly we would not be there if it were not in our home town of Seattle, WA.

>In my mind I think it should be. But once again I ran across another hopeful group that is closing up shop because we still have so far to go before we can get accurate translations. BabbleMail closed it up today.

>Just came across an interesting article directed at companies like Sinometrics. 6 things your localization agency doesn’t want you to know. It seems that Cat’s company has been able to find great translators directly that have satisfied their need. This is the case for many companies, and who can blame them. As much as I would like to sell them my services, they have to do what is best for their bottom line.

So it leads me to questions like, “What is the proper place of service companies?” Often I must deal with companies who are in Cat’s position or at least exploring the option. What I find is that they want to concentrate on the core strengths of their business rather than spending energy finding people to handle localization projects for them. Why is it that many people use dry cleaners? Some prefer the way a dry cleaned shirt looks. For them it is an issue of quality. Others would rather spend their time on something else rather than ironing clothes. Now there are many companies that exist for this reason. When was the last time you changed the oil on you car? You might even know how, but you probably chose not to.

What I really like about Cat’s post is that she is confronting some of the myths of the industry. There are bad ways to use TM’s of clients to manipulate them into continuing to do business with you even though you are not providing excellent results. That should be exposed. Now Sinometrics handles the TM’s differently, they are owned by our clients so they can use them as they please. There are other fees involved with working with agencies because they carry overhead. Very few translators are hiring a salesteam to go out there and scurry up business. Our agency is able to work in agile programming enviroments, we are not as flexible as working direct, but pretty close.

My impression of the industry is there is a lot to learn and my hope is that the more Sinometrics is able to listen to criticism like Cat’s the better we will be able to evolve as a company.

>As if I wasn’t already obsessed socially with Facebook. Today I read in a blog post at Damn that’s some tasty data that they are looking to localize the service. I sent out a few emails, but if anyone has a person who I could talk to at Facebook or any suggestions let me know. Cell-206.407.6067

>Lionbridge- 2006 revenue $419.0 Million
SDL Intl- 2006 revenue $174.5 Million
Transperfect- 2006 revenue $112.8 Million

Sinometrics- 2006 revenue $2.5 Million

These are three of the companies I regularly go up against in bids. Now there are countless companies smaller than us in the industry as well, every city has a mom and pop shop that does translation services, either inhouse or they offer the service. Talk about competition.

The Top Twenty in our industry are ranked yearly in the Common Sense Advisory. I might have already linked to it, but incase I forgot. My personal goal is to do everything I can to get us onto that list, is that ambitious?

Here’s the link http://www.commonsenseadvisory.com/members/res_cgi.php/070502_Q_Top_20.php

localization

>Here is the salesman’s perspective. A website or software must first be internationalized/globalized before it can be localization. Globalization is the process of getting the code up to speed so that it can handle when a different language is put in for text. Localization is actually taking the source language (i.e. English) and making it into a localized language (i.e. LatAm Spanish). This is what we do at Sinometrics.

In reading today here is how a SLE (Software Language Engineer) would describe the difference from Dot Net Guts, here. And a previous entry from them, here.

What a difference, huh.