balance and compromise: issues in content localization
DESCRIPTION
I gave this presentation at Confab 2012, the Content Strategy conference in Minneapolis, US. It's an updated version of the one I gave in September 2011 at the Content Strategy Forum in London.TRANSCRIPT
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Weaving localization issues into a content strategy
Issues in Content Localization
Lise Janody Confab 2012, Minneapolis, May 15, 2012
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Localize Why Localize ?
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ENGLISH IS THE WORLD’S MOST INFLUENTIAL LANGUAGE
Georges Weber, The World’s 10 Most Influential Languages
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….AND IT ISN’T ABOUT TO CHANGE ANY TIME SOON
89% of European schoolchildren learn English as a second language
Very high level of comfort with English among more than 50% of Europeans
350 million Chinese are learning English
It is the de facto language of work in many global companies
Eurobarometer 2011: User Language Preferences Online - Robert McCrum, Globish: How English became the world’s language, Anchor Canada 2011; Image Fotolia
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9 of 10 Internet users would access web in THEIR language – if given the choice*
Eurobarometer 2011: User Language Preferences Online
Preference Ability is not Preference
But…
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44% of European internet users believe they’re missing information when accessing in non-native language*
Eurobarometer 2011: User Language Preferences Online
Details Getting the gist is not Getting the details
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ACCEPTANCE IS NOT ADHERENCE
Eurobarometer 2011: User Language Preferences Online
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Only 18% of EU internet users polled would purchase goods or services in a foreign language. *
Eurobarometer 2011: User Language Preferences Online
Transaction Access is not
Transaction
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WHY NOT JUST USE GOOGLE TRANSLATE?
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Localization is good
Preference User preference + More sales +
Trust and persuasion =
BUT
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• Costly
• Time-consuming
• Quality an ongoing issue
• Budgets are fragmented
• Requires supporting tools and processes
• Creates complexity
hard Localization is hard
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How can we help reduce costs, speed translation cycles, make it less complex?
Q
Make it part of the content strategy cycle, and not a
parallel process
A
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A FEW
DEFINITIONS
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Localization is the process of adapting internationalized software for a specific region or language by adding locale-specific components and translating text.
From Wikipedia
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A SERIES OF LONG ACRONYMS: GILT
Going into other markets
Ensuring platforms and tools can handle technical requirements of globalization: fonts, date formats, time formats, error pages, etc.
Adapting content to another context
Taking content in one language and making it understandable in another
Globalization
Internationalization Localization
Translation
L10N
T9N
G11N
L18N
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Localization
COUNTRY
Translation
LANGUAGE
Country & Language LOCALES
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MODEL Choice of approach affects your Architectural Model
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LOCALE FIRST
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Corporate site is in two languages: English and language of Headquarters
GLOBAL REACH, LOCAL TOUCH
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GLOBAL REACH, LOCAL TOUCH – REDUCED SCOPE CONTENT
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GLOBAL REACH, LOCAL TOUCH
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REDUCED SCOPE, FEWER LEVELS
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MULTI-PURPOSE, DIFFERENT AUDIENCES
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MULTI-PURPOSE, DIFFERENT AUDIENCES
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MULTI-LANGUAGE VERSIONS
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MULTI-LANGUAGE VERSIONS
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International English default, with limited localized resources
LOCALIZED RESOURCES WITHIN ENGLISH SITE
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• Localized keyword research
• Duplicate content among countries with same language
• New Google hreflang tags
SEO Approach impacts SEO
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• Substitute components
• Add/remove
• Parent/child
• Content modeling
SMS Approach impacts CMS
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• One rule for all locales?
• One rule for the whole site?
• Can you localize the landing page?
• Can you localize entire sections?
• Can you opt-in/opt-out?
• Specific pages?
• Specific page components?
Governance Approach impacts Governance
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Content And of course,
Content
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THE GOAL: MAKING YOUR LOCALIZED CONTENT EFFECTIVE
PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE CONTENT*…. ….APPLIED TO LOCALIZATION
APPROPRIATE Does it apply to the local context?
USEFUL Is your purpose the same in all your markets?
USER-CENTERED Can your users understand?
CLEAR Is translation quality high? Is it localized?
CONSISTENT Are you reinforcing brand while keeping costs down?
CONCISE Less is more – and less costs less
SUPPORTED Do you have the processes, tools, people, and budgets required?
*From Elements of Content Strategy, Erin Kissane, A Book Apart, 2011
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YOU WHAT’S BEST
FOR ?
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SETTING TARGETS, EXAMINING WHAT YOU HAVE…
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Creating baselines
SETTING THE TARGET
• Inform • Educate • Interact • Convert • Transact • Recruit
• Market presence • Type • Number of
People • Consistency of
offering • Culture and
Heritage
• Ability to speak English
• Language preference • Audience A, B, C, D
• Formal/informal • Other elements
impacting Look and feel
• Market size and potential
• Legal & contractual obligations
• Brand recognition • Competition
Market forces
Cultural forces
Site objectives
Internal Forces
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• Number of languages
• IA Model (or models)
• Number of tiers
BASELINE TARGETS DEFINING WHERE YOU WANT TO GO
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IF YOU’RE NOT STARTING FROM SCRATCH
WHAT’S ON THE WEBSITE IN LOCAL LANGUAGES?
BUT ALSO WHAT’S OUT THERE?
From what bucket
% of bucket that’s translated
% of bucket that’s localized
How it’s maintained
Owner
Enlist local help to locate
Mini-sites, YouTube, SlideShare, Twitter, Facebook
REVIEWING YOUR LOCAL SITES
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QUALIFY YOUR SOURCE CONTENT
• Volume of web pages
• Volume of associated content assets
• How often content changes
• Relevance to local audiences
• Budget and ownership
• Potential for localization
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EXAMINE YOUR ECOSYSTEM
• Number of players
• Centralized or decentralized language management?
• In-house or outsourced?
• Centralized or decentralized web management?
• Who owns the budget for what? Is there one?
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LOOK AT YOUR TOOLSET
• Translation Memory
• Terminology Management
• Translation Management
• Machine Translation
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LOOK AT TIME AND METRICS
• Latency
Time from source to published, translated version
• Metrics
If there are sites, are they being visited?
• Costs
Can you develop benchmarks?
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Identify gaps – in content, tools, and resources
Pretty good ballpark figure of costs
- Costs per language and per word (translation)
- Costs for transcreation and original content development
FIND THE GAPS, REFINE THE PLAN
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• What you’ll do with it
• With what quality
• With what workflow
• For which formats
• For which devices
Content Make decisions about localizing content
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WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU LOCALIZE?
As is Keep in full, translate as is
Chunk Add, subtract
Change Shorten, replace, select, rethink
Leave it Link to English or provide no links
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WHAT LEVEL OF TRANSLATION QUALITY?
• Transcreation
• Marketing messages, conceptual, value props
• Tool-supported translation
• Translation memory, terminology management, post-edited machine translation
• Structured content
• Machine translation
• Large volumes of straightforward content
• Real-time communications: forums, chat
• Also, for listening…
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SUPPORTING DIFFERENT FORMATS
• Text…but also
• Video
• Chat
• Webinars
• Micro-copy
- Banner headlines
- Calls to action
- Asset descriptions and titles
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SUPPORTING MOBILE DEVICES
• Truncated words
• Separate processes
• The dominance of mobile in many markets
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SAMPLE RULES FOR SITE SECTION
SOLUTIONS Section Pages Translate Quality? Who Localize? Who Comments
Tier 1 Must Must In full TC for level 1; TM for rest
Central, with local validation; Local for TC
Add info about in-country delivery capability;
Local
Tier 2 Must Opt-in Level 1 only
TC for level 1; TM for rest
Central, with local validation; Local for TC
Add info about in-country delivery capability
Local
Tier 3 Must Replace with Summary
Yes TM Central, local validation
No Use default www
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• Add qualifiers to your inventory
• Include requirements in your page specs
• Make your content global-ready
Action Put content decisions
into action
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ADD COLUMNS TO YOUR INVENTORY
Page Opt-In Translate Localize Status Comments
www.alpha.com/solution/Solution 1/index.html
Yes Exists Add In progress
www.alpha.com/solution/Solution 1/index.html
yes Exists Exists Done
www.alpha.com/solution/Solution 1/index.html
Yes To do Add TM done, need to add
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WEAVE LOCALIZATION INTO PAGE SPECS
• Do you translate? Yes/No
• Do you chunk, change or leave?
• What’s global, what’s local?
• What’s distinct about the local?
• What changes and how?
• Source content for local differences
• Who validates local content?
• Who pays?
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MAKE IT GLOBAL-READY
• Remove idioms
• Keywords
• Terminology requirements
• Voice and tone
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A FEW TIPS
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DON’T…
• Confuse local and locally-produced
• Have several translation memories
• Use just one standard process for all your content
• Treat localization as an afterthought
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DO….
• Use tools to support and lower costs
• Have a feedback loop with your LSP
• Keep the glossary updated
• Try to limit number of players involved
• Find alternatives to latency issues
• Track metrics
• Keep tabs on costs
• Put someone in charge
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• Lise Janody
• www.dot-connection.com
• @lisejanody
Thanks Merci Thanks