We have now started a new year, a new decade and a new phase in the maturity and growth of our industry.  I see the following seven translation industry macro-changes in process:

1. An open translation platform: I see a lack of uniform standards on top of an open and shared platform as our industry’s primary productivity and innovation barrier. It is interesting to see a company like Google sharing the same thoughts. “A well-managed, closed system can deliver well designed products in the short-run – the iPod and iPhone being obvious examples – but eventually innovation in a closed system tends towards being incremental at best,” wrote Jonathan Rosenberg, a Google executive.

Our suggestion: GlobalSight and other open tools and translation systems including machine translation as the basis for this platform.

2. A new quality question: The traditional quality process is centered around asking a reviewer to compare the quality of the source and target language in a side-by-side comparison. This is a necessary step in the QA process, but is it the central question around which the quality process should be built?

Our suggestion: What would happen if we asked a reviewer what they thought about the target language version only – within the context of what sales and marketing is trying to accomplish with the target language? In this regard, we are connecting translation to the desired business outcome and not limiting our decision making to linguistic feedback only.  Machine translation is more easily considered within this context.

3. A new relationship with translators: I attended many meetings in 2009 where clients and vendors collaborated on the key challenges facing the client. These meetings were very beneficial, but in none of the meetings were any translators in attendance. If we are to truly optimize the translation supply chain to improve time, cost and quality- translators must be part of the solution.

Our suggestion: A translator portal for each client where all translators, regardless of vendor, can collaborate, train, share knowledge and share tools in order to increase productivity.

4. A new relationship with end-users of client services and products: The traditional translation process provides linguistic feedback and in-country subsidiary feedback, but rarely do we engage and receive feedback from actual users of the product or service.

Our suggestion: A big part of the potential in a crowdsourcing tool is to recruit, engage and reward end-users for their feedback about translated versions. The open source product CrowdSight can be such a tool.

5. Translation as a utility: The majority of information and applications are moving to the cloud with the supporting delivery model being on-demand. This has dramatically changed the translation and review process. Faster timelines and higher-quality are a requirement in this hyper-competitive, hyper-collaborative and ever-changing environment.

Our suggestion: An always-on translation utility built upon an open and collaborative platform using GlobalSight, the additional open source tools available and the TDA supercloud.

6. Business intelligence: as the saying goes, you can’t manage what you can’t monitor. Many large companies find it difficult to even calculate their total spend on translation, and I have yet to see a company be able to justify translation ROI in simple terms and metrics. We have failed as an industry in not being able to provide our clients with a way to quantify both value and translation ROI.

Our suggestion: Welocalize has developed a reporting tool called InSight. InSight is capable of pulling data from disparate systems in order to deliver the necessary key performance indicators which are vital to good decision making.

7. Machine translation: quite simply, we will not be able to keep up with the demand for translated material without machine translation.  MT is not a magic wand; it is a productivity tool.

Our suggestion: Develop a program matching content types to desired business outcomes and invest in training translators to post edit. Translators will be more interested in machine translation if we can make it more productive/profitable for them.


Smith ...

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I read an interesting interview with Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon; and as we start the new year, I think his suggestion of “starting with the customer” is where any company should start. Here is an excerpt of the interview.  His philosophy is the same philosophy we are pursuing here at Welocalize.


“We start with the customer and work our way backward. We learn whatever skills we need to service the customer. We build whatever technology we need to service the customer. We are inventors, so you won’t see us focusing on me-too areas. There are two ways that companies can extend what they're doing. One is they can take an inventory of their skills and competencies, and then they can say, "OK, with this set of skills and competencies, what else can we do?" And that's a very useful technique that all companies should use. But there's a second method, which takes a longer-term orientation. It is to say, rather than ask what are we good at and what else can we do with that skill, you ask, who are our customers? What do they need? And then you say we're going to give that to them regardless of whether we currently have the skills to do so, and we will learn those skills no matter how long it takes.”

Regards,
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The Wisdom of Crowds


I read a story once about guessing the number of jelly-beans in a jar. The jar was on the counter in a candy store, and a sign invited anyone to drop their name in a box with their guess of the total number of jelly beans in the jar. After a month, over 400 people made a guess, but no one guessed the right number. However an enterprising math student, who ate too much candy and could not sleep that night, decided to average all of the guesses to see what number the “crowd” guessed. Turns out, the crowd average was correct!

There is even a book on this topic. According to Wikipedia: “The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations, first published in 2004, is a book written by James Surowiecki about the aggregation of information in groups, resulting in decisions that, he argues, are often better than could have been made by any single member of the group. The book presents numerous case studies and anecdotes to illustrate its argument, and touches on several fields, primarily economics and psychology.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wisdom_of_Crowds

So how do we harness the wisdom of the “crowd”? Well, one idea is organized communication and knowledge sharing across our industry from the translator level through to client's end-users, and I expect this concept of "crowdsourcing" will continue to grow.   I know there are great ideas at all levels of our supply chain, so get excited about sharing, and you will quickly see that together we can guess the number of jelly beans in jar and even much greater things!

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Microsoft has described the future of their company as "3 screens and the cloud." What this means is that Microsoft products and services are moving to the cloud (a subscription or software as a service basis for buying and using their services/products) delivered on-demand to 3 devices: PC, Mobile Phone, TV/Game Console. The services and products will be always-on and on-demand with steady, streaming and seamless updates.

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, described it is a “fundamental shift in the computing paradigm.”

This also represents a fundamental need for a shift in the localization paradigm.

Here is how I see the shift from a high level:

The old world
Customer buys a license to a product or information service, installs the application on their PC, discards the hard copy installation and support material, calls the supplier multiple times with support questions, waits for the next release and wonders why it is not easier.

Localization Provider receives email with files from client, prepares quote, waits for client to approve quote, starts a project, starts a cycle of handoffs in the translation supply chain, waits for each handoff to complete, gets stuck in what is often an endless review cycle, sends invoice for the project, waits months for feedback, payment and the next release. Faces risk of losing business when a new project manager is hired on the client side, laments the fact clients don’t appreciate translation and is frustrated by the lack of true collaboration and partnership.

The new world
Customer subscribes to a product or information service in the cloud, goes to the online community for advice, support and training, turns-on the streaming updates offered by the provider pointed to the devices of their choice (Desktop, Netbook, Mobile Phone, TV, Game Console) – enjoys the latest and greatest anytime, anywhere on any device.

Welocalize collaborates with client to define and set-up an optimized translation supply chain, defines and sets-up the translation and end-user community, defines and sets-up the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) from the translator all the way through to the end user. Flips the switch of the “Translation Utility” built upon an open-source, open-standards platform, catches everything that streams through, constantly refines, adjusts and optimizes - and invoices the client once per month. Rejoices during Quarterly Business Reviews (QBR) along with the client team and their VPs where all are cheering about how the amazing KPI is showing higher search engine page rankings, increased traffic, longer customer visits, lower support costs, increased customer loyalty and increased sales in-country for the client. Signs deep partnership deals and collaborates to produce amazing innovation and successful business outcomes for all.

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I recently read two interesting articles. The first pointed out that a Gartner study found that 85% of companies are using open source software. The second suggested that Google may actually be the largest open source software contributor.

Welocalize has contributed 1.5 million lines of code to the open source GlobalSight product, but that is a small number compared with Google’s open source output.

According to Matt Asay who interviewed Chris DiBona, Google's open source and public sector program manager, about Google's open-source contributions. DiBona’s response was: “Conservatively, we've released about 14 million lines of code. Android tops 10 million lines of code, and then you have Chrome (2 million lines of code), GWT (300,000 lines of code), and about a project released every week over the last five years. Then you have a couple hundred Googlers patching on a weekly or monthly basis.”

Asay goes on to say “While DiBona was quick to suggest that Google doesn't claim the crown for Open Source Top Contributor ("We'd say we're 'among' the largest [contributors]"), it almost certainly is the world's largest open-source code contributor, especially when one considers its other open-source activities, including hosting perhaps the world's largest repository for open-source projects, with more than 250,000 hosted projects, at least 40,000 of which are actively contributed, not to mention its Summer of Code.

What does this have to do with the GlobalSight open source initiative? Well Asay points out the following, “We are all open-source companies now. Which also means that none of us are. Open source is simply a way that we enable some aspect of our businesses, whether we're Red Hat or Microsoft or Google or Facebook.

Or I might say, Welocalize. There are over 1500 registered users in the GlobalSight community now, and they are realizing that an open source initiative such as GlobalSight is the best way to enable an ever growing number of aspects in their businesses.


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The fact that the world speaks multiple languages drives the need for our business. However, this same fact also creates a situation where many people in the world are cut-off from life saving information simply because it is not available in their language.



In my view, this is a senseless tragedy, and I believe that it is our responsibility to appreciate not only the multilingual demand that drives our business but also the multilingual downside for those who cannot afford the services we provide.


Yes, globalization has been a welcome proposition to our ears as it drives more and more demand for our services. But the last 20 years of the current form of globalization, have shown a very clear decline in progress for certain segments of society as compared with the previous two decades. The following two areas are key examples:


• First, Infant and Child Mortality: Progress in reducing infant mortality was considerably slower during the period of globalization in the last 20 years than over the previous two decades.


• Second, Education and literacy: Progress in education also slowed during the most recent period of globalization.


These statistics are disturbing and without educated and prosperous future generations all around the world, our economics, our prosperity and our humanity are challenged.


My proposition is this - that not only will the Rosetta Foundation benefit the world’s poor, it will also benefit all of us, including business. Why? Imagine if we supplemented our efforts to hook the developing world’s children not only on fast food and soft drinks but also on education? Education is fundamental in building a healthy society. Without education there is no market opportunity. Without education there is no prosperity. Without education there is no market. Just look at sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia.


Based on enrolment data, about 72 million children of primary school age in these areas and others in the developing world are not in school; 57 per cent of them are female. And these are regarded as optimistic numbers. Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names. It is estimated that less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.


Yes, the profit motive is part of the problem given profit drives investment and access to resources, thus we need to recognize that the profit motive must be a part of the solution. 51 percent of the world’s 100 hundred wealthiest entities are corporations. Given they represent the majority of wealth, naturally, the solution must involve them. And if we want them to get involved in a large scale way, it must be in their best interest, meaning there must be potential for profit. As an example, the same is very clear in the global climate change challenge.


So where can we help and where does translation fit into the equation?


Let’s start with demand, demand drives investment and a strong middle class drives demand. A strong middle class is at the heart of every strong and growing economy. And what creates a strong middle class? I would argue that one of the most important factors is education. An educated workforce is attractive for job creators. Anytime you hire, you are helping to create demand in the economy for additional products and services, and the cycle is re-enforcing. An educated workforce and attractive business climate create greater demand for more jobs, more jobs create demand for more educated workers, more workers create a larger middle class, and a larger middle class invariably desires more products and services.


Just look at Ireland in the last 30 years. The country went from last in the EU to first in terms of GDP growth, at least pre-recession, based upon the combination of a well-educated workforce and job creation through low corporate taxes.


Again, one of the fundamental building blocks is education, and this is where translation comes in. The world’s information is in many languages. Thus, it is a classic Tower of Babel challenge. How can we educate the world’s poor when the educational materials are in a whole variety of different languages?


Our company has translated approximately 164M words through Q3 2009. Three one hundredths of a percent was into Bengali, the language spoken in Bangladesh, which is the world’s third poorest country. Thus, it is clear Bangladesh is not a target market for our clients. But at 162M people, Bangladesh ranks 7th in the world in terms of population.


So why are our clients not targeting one of the world’s largest countries? Well, there is a strong correlation between education and income, and without income it is very hard to be a customer for anything, and survival itself becomes the priority.


There are roughly 2.2 billion children in the world, and there are approximately 121M with no access to any form of education. Thus, is there any question why 2.2M die each year because of something so simple as lack of immunization? Many do not even know immunization is necessary because they have never been informed or educated on such a simple topic. 2.2M million a year is approximately 6,000 per day. Unfortunately, that means that approximately 75 children will die while you read this article.


So what do we do, well Google translate even misses the mark. 1.6 billion people, a quarter of humanity, live without electricity much less the internet. Good old fashioned printed material in their native language is the first step.


But here is the exciting part, we now have the internet, and technologies such as GlobalSight and CrowdSight, which can enable any translator in the world to help. The efforts of translators, the Rosetta Foundation and NGOs around the world can be combined to collaborate to innovate. By working together, we can find a way. Such a large challenge is not insurmountable and even the smallest of efforts from a single individual can be harnessed and leveraged to conquer this challenge of global information poverty.


Reading about it and hearing about it often makes it feel so far away and outside our circle of circumstance. But that circle is smaller than we think. A lack of education and multilingual materials contributes to needless death in the ranks of the world’s poor, but it also has the potential to inspire the ranks towards the darker side of the have and have not equation, fomenting frustration, envy and unfortunately hatred. Hatred and contempt are the harbingers of violence and terrorism. And while terrorist leadership may sometimes come from the developed world - the troops are recruited largely from the ranks of the uneducated, the disenfranchised and poor.


Every generation faces the same question of can we leave the world a better place than we found it. I believe that we, and this industry as whole, can. The time is now. We can all make a difference. I challenge you to get involved.

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2010 Priorities

Towards the end of each year, many companies begin a process of defining their priorities for the following year. This is a relatively simple process at Welocalize, because our priorities have not changed. Our priorities have been and will remain what we call our 4-Pillars:

· Customer Service
· Quality
· Innovation
· Global Teamwork

Something that does change each year is our set of goals, and I have set the bar high for 2010.

Our goal is to be rated by our customers as their top performing partner in each of the 4-Pillars.

All of our 9 offices and 393 people worldwide have been working very hard and doing a great job to fine tune processes for optimal performance, and I believe we are in position to strive for the top of the industry in each Pillar.

We will be reaching out to our customers at the close of each quarter to request their opinion and ranking of Welocalize in each of the 4-Pillars. The feedback we receive will be used in a continuous improvement loop to support our relentless drive to the top in each Pillar; and we will not stop there – we will do everything possible to push the boundaries of improvement to STAY at the top of each Pillar.

Smith ...

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