SXSW Panel: Lost in Translation? Top Website Internationalization Lessons
By jmj1. Monday, 10. March 2008, 16:05:47
My first panel of the day was Lost in Translation? Top Website Internationalization Lessons. This panel was put together and managed well; the chair by Stephanie Booth, a web consultant and commentator who blogs at Climb to the Stars. She began the panel by asking each panelist to describe his- or herself using three tags before beginning the session. Booth (cat, Judo, people) did a great job keeping the panelists on topic, and she worked hard at keeping the early morning crowd engaged with the discussion.The first question the panel tackled was: what is localization and internationalization? According to Brian McConnell (author, inventor, prankster), the Founder of Worldwide Lexicon, localization is taking an app and redoing the interface for another language. Translation, on the other hand, typically refers to translating the text of a website itself. Interestingly, sometimes entirely different groups work on these two tasks in the same company. Google's Kevin Marks (bibliophile, English, eccentric) then pointed out that internationalization is making sure your website can be translated—that is, working on the backend and design of the site, making sure that your design doesn't make assumptions about the language and culture of the audience.
