Inna Geller is the founder of Geller Translation Solutions, a firm focused on providing translation management consulting services for organizations in highly regulated industries. Prior to founding Geller Translation Solutions, Inna supplied 18 years of senior leadership for the translation/localization function at Medtronic, a Fortune 500 producer of medical devices. This certified Green Belt in Six/Lean Sigma methodology can be seen at many events around the world, where she speaks on topics for a variety of organizations like the American Marketing Association, Life Science Alley, the Society of Technical Communications and others.

Earlier this month, CSOFT hosted our 8th Annual World Operations Summit, a week-long event traditionally hosted at CSOFT’s World Headquarters in the heart of Beijing. During this event, we invite our extended team members from around the world—including linguists, clients and industry experts—for an intensive series of training sessions, presentations, teambuilding and localization-focused discussions.

This year, we were thrilled to have Inna Geller of Geller Translation Solutions join us as a guest speaker. Her presentation on translation risk management was so informative and precise that we asked her if she was willing to do a follow-up interview to expound her risk management expertise for the benefit of our audience. Lucky for you and I, she generously agreed! So check out the interview below to find out what the lovely and talented Inna Geller has to say about translation risk management.

As promised, check out the photos below for a snapshot of the various events that took place during our 2011 World Operations Summit from earlier this month! Since 2004, CSOFT has held an annual operations summit with a different theme, though the purpose has remained consistent: to take part in discussions, engage in learning, and align ourselves with CSOFT’s goals as a quality-driven language service provider. The themes throughout the years have ranges from Accelerating for Growth to Cultivating an Innovative Culture and Passion for Excellence. This year’s theme, A Whole New World, was not only accompanied by song (with North American representation!), but also by the belief that CSOFT is paving a new road to unparalleled innovation and progression within the localization industry.

It was indeed quite the localization extravaganza, and we’re very happy to share it with you all! (Click on the pictures to enlarge them.)

We had the great privilege and pleasure of welcoming Dr. JoAnn Hackos of Comtech Services to our World Localization Summit last week. In addition to the great honor of having her compete in CSOFT’s annual Stump the Experts game, it was most enlightening to listen in on her keynote presentation on The Role of the OASIS DITA Standard in Translation Management, which outlined the importance of information management and the impact DITA can have on managing translation.

The following is a brief summary of JoAnn’s presentation.

JoAnn Hackos, presenting at CSOFT’s 2011 World Operations Summit.

Every year, CSOFT hosts an annual Summit in which we invite our global team of linguists, business development managers, operational experts, clients, and fellow industry experts from around the world to CSOFT’s World Headquarters for a week of learning, sharing, discussion and team-building. It’s an exciting, action-packed week of discussions, presentations, and not a whole lot of sleep!

For CSOFT employees and extended team members, the summit serves two purposes: the first being to further strengthen our bonds as CSOFT members and to remain united in our goals and vision; the second is to better align ourselves with the most recent developments within the industry, in terms of technology, best practices and standards.

Guest blog entry by Marisa Bowers, Business Development Manager at CSOFT

Hosted by the Center for Information-Development Management (CIDM), the CMS/DITA North America conference was held last week in Baltimore, Maryland. Content Management Strategies (CMS) and Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) joined forces for the thirteenth year to execute a great conference. From April 4^th to 6^th, individuals from fourteen different countries and across industries came together to participate in dialogue about increasing productivity, decreasing costs, time management, and strategies for producing dynamic, succinct content. I went, along with our very own Uwe Muegge who also served as one of the presenters, and despite unpredictable and varied weather conditions, it was a very satisfying conference.

This Year’s CMS/DITA Presentations

This year’s conference was organized into four tracks—management, information design and development, technical solutions, and tools. Keynote speaker Scott McCloud’s presentation, “Effectively Communicate Content through Comics,” was certainly an out-of-the-box choice for a room full of technical writers, but it nicely weaved together creativity, intelligence, and communication alternatives that should be considered. McCloud talked about how visual representations—comics included—are able to provide shortcuts to insight and understanding, as seen from Hans Rosling’s TED talk on poverty. It was a very winning argument: graphics of all kind seem to be underused, even though they are useful and can sometimes generate a more powerful impact than the written word.

AMD representative Keith Shengili-Roberts was also there, presenting on “DITA Metrics in Production: How, when, where and why (and how much?)”. I sat in on this one and listened to Shengili-Roberts outline the metrics and ROI results from four years of using a content management system. The talk focused not only on why it is encouraged to purchase a content management system, but also on writing productively and efficiently.

There were also, for the first time that I can remember, translation-specific presentations, which was an appreciated acknowledgment. One of these included a presentation led by Comtech (“Taking control of your translations: Designing an in-house process to optimally manage your translations”), which was full of good information. The other was by CSOFT’s very own Uwe Muegge: “Beyond Google Translate: The future for machine translation”.

Guest blog entry by Uwe Muegge, Chief Terminologist and Co-Director of MedL10N at CSOFT

In my opinion, one key characteristic of a mature industry is the availability of a comprehensive set of established best practices, typically in the form of national or international standards.

Since its beginning in 1898, the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) has been a leading provider of standards in a wide array of industries. ASTM’s standards development process is founded on a full-consensus system that invites discussion, collaboration, and a commitment to quality; members from around the world collectively develop and maintain standards in their respective areas of expertise.

Last year, ASTM formed the ASTM Committee F43 to focus on standards specific to language services and products. The current 39 members of the committee will work together to support existing standards for interpretation, translation, language instruction and language proficiency as needed. This also includes modifying performance standards to better adapt to health care and court environments, and focusing on the cultural and language needs of employees in foreign countries. At the same time, the committee also intends to develop standards for language training, foreign language proficiency among students, and performance testing.

Guest blog entry by Uwe Muegge, Chief Terminologist and Co-Director of MedL10N at CSOFT

Imagine a place where total newbies to localization and internationalization can just walk up and introduce themselves to the folks who got this whole industry started, a place that brims with the energy of today’s movers and shakers in the L10Nverse, a place that’s truly open, welcoming and, of course, international. The International Multilingual User Group (IMUG) is just that place: Founded in 1987 and holding regular monthly meetings since 1991, IMUG has been a driving force in the localization community that reaches far beyond its base in Silicon Valley.

Screenshot of Adobe Connect simulcast of the IMUG event. Presentation slide is in the center, and on the left is the video feed of the presenter, the list of virtual attendees, and a chat box for feedback.

What better crowd to introduce CSOFT’s latest tool developments than this? And what better venue than the ultra high-tech conference facilities (think webcasting with not one, not two, but three remote-controlled HD video cameras!) at Adobe’s headquarters in San Jose? We had a total audience of about 50 industry experts, half of whom were physically present, the other half participating via Adobe Connect from locations in the U.S., Belgium, Canada, and Japan. I18n Guy, Tex Texin, won the prize for hailing from the greatest distance: He logged on from Shanghai. I really got a kick out of being part of this truly global environment, and I think Matt Arney, CSOFT’s VP of the North America Market, did too.

Guest blog entry by Carl Yao, TermWiki Masta’ and the Vice President of Global Strategy at CSOFT

The DITA Europe 2010 Conference was held in Vienna, the scenic home of Mozart, and I simply can’t imagine a better location to meet up and talk shop. For those who aren’t familiar with it, the DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) Conference is a biannual convention organized by CIDM (the Center for Information-Development Management) that draws content professionals and CMS enthusiasts from around the world to share XML publishing experience, best practices, and showcase cutting-edge CMS technology. As a set of standards for developing content, DITA itself enables companies to develop and publish content with better reuse, consistency, faster document creation and overall reduced translation costs.

When I arrived at Vienna International Airport, there was an incredibly dense layer of fog that only allowed for about 30 meters of visibility on all sides (you’ve got to admire the bravery of those Lufthansa pilots, because weather conditions like that would’ve caused major traffic delays in the US and other parts of the world). The sky quickly cleared up, however, and I was pleasantly surprised to meet a warm November sun that, according to locals, was completely out of the ordinary for this time of year in Austria.

As I made my way into the city, something happened that immediately impressed on me the importance of the conference. I had hailed a cab and told the driver that I wanted to go downtown. He just looked at me with a surprised expression on his face, indicating that he didn’t speak any English. It made me smile, because I’m constantly reminded in small ways that translation and localization services are still very much in demand in today’s multilingual world. Though not necessarily related to XML publishing and content management, this little event made me all the more confident that CSOFT’s globalization business will continue to fly high. Luckily enough, the resourceful cab driver pulled up to a pedestrian couple and asked how to translate “the place where all the tourists go.”

Guest blog entry by Tammy Werner, Director of CSOFT’s MedL10N Division

On my flight from Miami to Seattle for Localization World earlier this month, it occurred to me that commercial airlines and professional LSPs have a lot in common (except when it comes to drinks and snacks).

When we plan a vacation or business trip, we tend to think only of our final destination and cost. Depending on the distance and our comfort in driving ourselves there, we may opt to hire a professional to “do the driving” for us. Translation projects are really no different.

In preparation for my trip to Seattle, the thought of driving there did not even cross my mind. The first thing I did was go online to price the available commercial flights. Once I found the most attractive flight based on my criteria, I booked the ticket to lock in the best rate. Sure, there were cheaper flights (shhh, don’t tell my Finance Director), but I didn’t want to waste my valuable time flying from Miami to Seattle via Maine.

Though there are more pressing localisation-related topics to be addressed, I think it’s important to first call out my friend and CEO, Miss Shunee Yee, on her unabashed support for the Boston Celtics.

Yes, yes, yes—the NBA Finals are all fine and dandy. But we are a civilized bunch here at CSOFT International, and as a civilized bunch we know that, first of all, the Lakers are going to win. And secondly, nobody cares about the NBA anyway. It’s all about the FIFA World Cup. So I’d appreciate it if we all cut down a bit on the American fluff and focused on a real sport: football.

That said, if I still have a job, I’d like to move on to the point of this post, which is to share with you a brief and belated recap of this year’s GALA Conference in Prague. Interestingly enough, pricing proved to be a hot topic at this year’s convention. An increasing number of vendors are feeling the squeeze as client organizations engage in more elaborate vendor selection processes.