Google goes (further into) Africa

Google unveiled localized Swahili versions of Gmail, Google Maps and Google Chrome.

Localizing software makes the Internet more relevant for users everywhere, but in African countries it has the special benefit of bridging the huge Digital Divide and thus bring the local population closer to information that are relevant for economic development, education, health, democracy and their government. “Google is focusing on making the internet more relevant and useful to Africans by creating more African content online; raising awareness among consumers and businesses about the opportunities offered by the internet; and developing products that are locally meaningful” writes KBC online.

Joe Mucheru, Google Lead for Sub Saharan Africa, said in an interview with the KBC, “The Internet offers so many opportunities, and we want to make the Internet more relevant and useful to East Africans.  Being able to use products like Chrome, Gmail and Maps in Swahili means that our users will now have a much better experience of the web in their day-to-day lives. And this is just the beginning.”

Google’s announcement coincides with the commencement of the East Africa Community Common Market in July 2010. The common market wants to see trade among the signing countries made easier and has as an ultimate goal a single currency. It represents a significant milestone for the people of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda & Burundi, which will create new opportunities for the free movement of capital, goods, services and persons across East Africa.However, experts do not see it is likely to be in full swing until 2015.

Swahili is spoken by approx. 120 million people in the East African Common Market or 20% of all speakers of indigenous languages in Africa. “Swahili uniquely conveys much of our shared culture, is the lingua franca used in day-to-day interaction across borders, is one of the languages of the African Union and is becoming an increasingly important part of the internet fabric in Africa” says the Chairman of the Kiswahili and African Languages Department at Kenyatta University, Dr Leonard Chacha Mwita.

Google currently has offices in Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal. This week, the company has also made localized versions of Gmail and Maps available in Amharic.

One more week until TSS 2010

Phones ringing, e-mails coming in and going out in an endless stream, last questions answered, last documents prepared and last problems solved – it is just about a week to go before the kick-off of this year’s International Terminology Summer School and the final preparation phase is in full swing. But all is going smoothly and so at the same time we are looking forward to a great event which is a little bit different from those of the last years.

First of all, our Summer School is a Spring School, really. Both the time of the year and the weather in Europe can’t suggest anything else. But it did not keep many the terminologists from attending. Unfortunately we even had to close our doors early in order to keep the number of attendants managable. Still, we will be a large and merry group.

Secondly, TermNet and other project managers responsible for the EQCA Certified Terminology Manager worked like crazy to launch this new and exciting certification during TSS 2010. And TSS 2010 in turn has offered a special deal for all its participants who want to spice up their attendance with a water proof and Europe-wide acknoledged certificate. A small admin fee for the certification body aside the exam will be free of charge.

But “the CTM”, as we affectionately call it by now, is open – and affordable for everybody! Test it and do the Self-Assessment (completely free of charge, of course):

ECQA Certified Terminology Manager Self-Assessment: http://www.ecqa.org/index.php?id=23 (simply sign up and the chose Certified Terminology Manager from the list)

Right after TSS 2010 there will be a series of free workshops organized at the United Nations in Vienna called Diversity and Global Understanding and there was an announcement in this Blog before (check entry). Registration is still possible during next week – go ahead and sign up, it is a great programme. But again, participation is limited. And after that we will all be at the ACUNS Annual Meeting. ACUNS is the Academic Council on the United Nations System and this year’s meeting will be in Vienna – and as new ACUNS members we will not only be there, but also organize a roundtable on Diversity Management, Terminology and the UN. We’ve heard that close to a thousand participants will attend in total and the events will take place at the UN in Vienna, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the University of Vienna. The programme and keynote speakers are first-class at any rate and I, personally, look very much forward to it.

Of course we will (well, nearly ) liveblog from TSS to keep you up to date and create a platform for discussion of topics!

Federal government announces additional support for Canada’s official languages

A press release from the Government of Canada.

Read the full original article at the source

GATINEAU, Quebec, April 19, 2010 – The Honourable Rona Ambrose, Minister of Public Works and Government Services, today announced the signing of additional contribution agreements to strengthen Canada’s official languages. The agreements support the government’s Canadian Language Sector Enhancement Program—an initiative which encourages the development of a skilled workforce and integrates language technologies.

In July 2009, Public Works and Government Services Canada invited project proposals for university scholarships in translation and language industry initiatives to support the government’s official languages strategy, the Roadmap for Canada’s Linguistic Duality 2008-2013: Acting for the Future. Through the contribution agreements announced today, the government is investing a further $6 million in industry projects that will enable organizations to promote and strengthen the language industry in Canada.

“Today’s announcement clearly demonstrates not only the government’s willingness to ensure the viability of this industry, but also our overall commitment to the linguistic duality that enriches our lives and helps to make our country unique,” said Minister Ambrose.

“The language industry in Canada has an enviable international reputation and we are proud to hear Canada cited as an example to follow,” said Alain Chamsi, Chair of the Board of Directors of the Language Industry Association (AILIA). “Given the major labour shortage in the language sector, the Canadian government’s contribution made through these agreements will enable AILIA and other stakeholders to promote and strengthen the industry so that it can continue to be a beacon of language expertise.”

Ce texte est également disponible en français.

For further information, the media may contact:

Chris Hilton
Director of Communications
Office of the Honourable Rona Ambrose
Minister of Public Works and Government Services
613-697-7324
Email: Chris.Hilton@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca

Public Works and Government Services Canada
Media Relations
819-956-2315

PWGSC news releases are also published on our Web site at http://www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/medias-media/index-eng.html

WSIS Forum 2010: Turning Targets into Action – towards 2015 closes tomorrow

The year of 2010 marks a turning point for assessing the progress made towards WSIS implementation during the past five years and for proposing new strategies to ensure the achievement of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) goals by 2015.

The WSIS Forum 2010 is currently held (10 to 14 of May 2010) at the ITU Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The organizers, UNESCO, ITU, UNCTAD and UNDP set-up an exceptional event: More than 800 participants have registered. Four heads of UN agencies, many ministers, CEOs, civil society, representatives from academia and other stakeholders will participate in a week full of high-level debates, facilitation meetings, thematic workshops, interactive sessions, knowledge exchanges and kick off meetings. There will also be an exhibition and several publication releases and two receptions for the participants…

(for full article go to UNESCO)

WSIS Summit is webcast. View the sessions here: http://www.itu.int/ibs/WSIS/201005forum/index.html

UNESCO will also present its WSIS mid-term assessment, a publication entitled: Towards Inclusive Knowledge Societies – A review of UNESCO’s action in implementing the WSIS outcomes at the Forum

Language Portal of Canada launched

Canada has been regarded by most of us as the linguistist’s and terminologist’s paradise for many years. And derservedly so. Hardly any other country puts so much real effort into preservation and promotion of linguistic diversity. And above all, these efforts are crowned with professionalism, efficiency and success!

Canada now finally has her one-stop-shop for anything related to her linguistic heritage. The country’s rich linguistic resources are now accessible at the newly launched Language Portal of Canada.

“Through this portal, anybody can finally obtain access free of charge to TERMIUM^®, the Government of Canada’s linguistic and terminology data bank. With TERMIUM^® finding the right words has just become easier with more than 3,900,000 terms of which some 200 000 are in Spanish” says Gabriel Huard, Director of the Translation Bureau.

He further notes that “the portal also contains a vast array of language tools, a magazine, exercises dealing with problem words in French and English, and a directory of useful links to resources and organizations active in the language field.”

In June 2008, the Government of Canada published the Roadmap for Canada’s Linguistic Duality 2008-­2013: Acting for the Future. Within the framework of this initiative, Public Works and Government Services Canada mandated the Translation Bureau of the Government of Canada to design and put online the language portal.

Go to www.ourlanguages.gc.ca

Terminology country report: Turkey

If you had asked me about terminology in Turkey one year back, I would probably have answered that there is not much going on in this country. It’s true, we have the occasional (however, I must say, very interested) participants at TSS. But else there was not much information coming out of the country that reached me.

But that was before I encountered TermTurk project (www.termturk.net). This project, sponsored by the EU-Turkey Dialog programme, is an eye-opener for me.

What’s it all about? Actually, it is meant as a beginning. A group of people got together to kick-start what they perceived as long overdue – the development of an elaborate and active terminology infrastructure in Turkey.

Surprisingly, there has not been much institutionalised research on terminology. Nor is there something like an information centre where interested groups or individuals can find what they need to know about it. It is surprising, because there is such a strong patronage: Kemal Mustafa Atatürk himself wrote a brochure to introduce Turkish geometry terminology. Atatürk, as we know was very dedicated to language planning in order to promote and facilitate nation-building processes in the new republic. Terminology is even explicitly mentioned in the country’s famous Anıtkabir – his mausoleum and museum in Ankara (something that my colleagues and I still marvel about because it such a pleasant feeling to see terminology being rewarded such public recognition).

So finally, TermTurk should achieve what is still lacking: an information and research centre at Hacettepe University in Ankara, closer ties with internation organizations and activities (e.g. in standardization and reserach), a national terminology policy, and networking, networking, networking of the many different and often isolated initiatives within Turkey.

And TermTurk is doing well in achieving these goals: Turkish standards institute is now actively participating in ISO/TC 37  standardization projects, a series of well-attended trainings, conferences and workshops foster dialogue and knowledge transfer, quality assurance and service certification (LICS) take root, training material is obtained, translated and produced at high speed.

TermTurk as a project will come to an end in November 2009. But the continuation of the achievements is already planned and prepared.

There is much to be expected from Turkey in the next years. And I, for my part, am quite proud to be at the core of the action from the very beginning.

Wouldn’t you want to develop an international standard?

It’s August again and this usually means  it is time for terminology and language experts, computational linguists and other practitioners to convene and talk standardization (or what did you think August was for ?)

This year the meetings take place in Bogotá (Colombia). Our host here, Colombia’s standards organization ICONTEC has gone to tremendous lengths to make our stay here as pleasant and safe as possible. We feel completely welcome and pampered. If there would be one complaint than it is that it is simplemente freezing here at these high altitutes.
But we will not have much time to notice the cold anyway since we are all working like maniacs on the various new standards or those under revision. discussion after discussion and consensus-finding in order to produce standards that are useful to user groups as diverse as anything: culturally, linguistically and by professional background.

Users of standards concerning principles and methods of terminology span the entire range of communication, globalization etc. And everyody who has a stake in these standards or special expertise in a related subject field is welcome to join. Of course it is not quite that everybody could just show up. Work is delegated via national standards institutes. So if you would be interested in – say – getting involved in developing an ISO standard on the principles of style guides (no joke – this is actually a real example as this might become a new project to be taken up soon), you would have to contact your national standards organization (e.g. DIN in Germany, SABS in South Africa, BSI in the UK or ICONTEC in Colombia). They can delegate you to participate. This is the easiest if the standards body is already member of ISO/TC 37 and have an active national mirror committee.

Anyway, they will be able to tell you and help you. And if not, there might be other ways and maybe ISO/TC 37 secretariat can assist.

Have a look at Wikipedia to learn more about ISO/TC 37 and the standards the committee develops: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO/TC_37

So if you have no other plans in August or want to escape the holiday frenzy – or have a genuine interest in standardization work:  Welcome!

We’ll report from here in the course of the week via Twitter (twitter.com/termnet) or here in the Blog.

Any questions? Comments? Bring them on!

How terminology standards are made (Part 1)

We have written about standards before and will keep doing so as they are really an important issue for the terminologist.

SOURCE: ICONTEC

From 8-14 August experts from the industry who are committed to bring in their knowledge (or interests) in the development of standards within the framework of ISO/TC 37 meet again. This meeting is traditionally scheduled in August in a different location, i.e. hosted by a national standards organization.

This year the meeting week will take place in Bogotá, Colombia, hosted by ICONTEC. The week will consist, as usual, of project meetings (to bring the standards in development a bit further towards publication), plenary meetings (in which important general and strategic decisions are taken), advisory groups meetings (to prepare these decisions through debate), and a number of side events, excursions, networking, partying (just a little – these are long days of work!).

We will be there and we will bring you there through the reports in this Blog. And maybe you find that you would like to become involved in this work as well … which would be great, indeed!

The official Website of the meetings.

On Friday, 15 August a Conference will take place which is open to everybody who is interested, and where Colombian and South American language industry members meet to discuss standards, how they benefit their work and how to bacome more active. If you are in the area, please join. Registration is required, though:  tc37meeting /at\ la.icontec.org.

SOURCE: ICONTEC

Excerpt from the meeting Website:

Welcome to the official website of the Annual Meeting of ISO/TC 37 Terminology and other Language and Content Resources ICONTEC, the Colombian Institute of Technical Standardization and Certification, is the host of Annual Meeting of ISO/TC 37, and invites you to join the meeting to be held in Bogotá from August 8 to 14th, 2009 The mission of TC 37 is to provide standards and guidelines to standardization experts, language professionals in all institutions and organizations creating and handling terminologies and other language and content resources (including ISO, other international standards developing organizations, national standards bodies, national government services, companies, non-governmental organizations, etc.) in order to enable them to prepare high-quality language resources and tools for a wide variety of applications in professional and scholarly information and communication, education, industry, trade, etc. In this web site you will find the whole information to the meeting and information on the hotels and other facilities that Bogotá and Colombia offer to travelers.

Language industry standards

From XML via language codes and ontologies to terminology exchange formats – standards play a fundamental (if sometimes little-noted) role in the language industry. Yet, some knowledge about standards is essential for every translator, localization expert, project manager or other expert in the language industry.

But where to start with? The sheer number of different standards-developing organizations and the confusing variety of existing standards scares off many and makes it hard to get an overview.

The Language Technologies Research Center in Canada has published a report on language standards and guidelines as well as the organizations which develop them. Although written in 2007 its information is still valid and a helpful reading for everybody who wants to learn more about existing standards.

http://www.crtl.ca/en/publications.htm

Author Kara Warburton is a terminology expert and herself active in standardization for many years.

http://www.crtl.ca/en/publications.htm

How the state of the world economy impacts our professions

Something we discussed last week with a few experts in “language-related professions” was about what the future will bring for us terminologists, translators, localizers, technical writers, etc. There is some indication that our field has not been hit as hard as others. Participation at our TSS 2009 training was nearly unaffected, for example. We also learned from Frieda Steurs during her presentations that the industry is growing.

But is this all that is to say? I mean, have we really weathered the economic crisis unharmed? Is it because what an expert said because in times of crisis companies concentrate particularly on the strategic improvement of quality and internal processes? More importantly, would they invest in this in times when cost-cutting is the word of the day?

Or may it be that recession is yet to hit us as – it is predicted to do with so many other industries – with a certain time lag?

I would be curious what you think about it. Your comments please!