Global Talk

 Euro-IA, “Translating Information Architecture.” September 21-22, 2007,  Barcelona, Spain Abba Garden Hotel. http://www.euroia.org/

When you visit a website, where do you expect to find the feature to change the geographic location? Do you have a preference for where this feature is on a site? There are various locations on popular websites:

• At the bottom of the page (http://www.apple.com and http://www.dell.com and http://www.bmw.com)
• At the top right corner (http://www.microsoft.com and http://www.adobe.com)
• Right hand column (http://www.bp.com)
• Pop-up after recognizing the location by the IP address (http://www.ebay.com)

The second quarter issue of Carolina Communique, newsletter of the Carolina Chapter, has published “E-Globalization” by Sharmila M. Govindarajan. The article is Sharmila’s final project for completion of the Duke University Continuing Studies in Technical Communication Certificate program.

We welcome to the SIG family the Europe SIG, newly approved by the STC Board. We look forward to working with them! Below, find their Welcome message to all of STC. –Traci Kelly

Welcome! Bienvenue ! Willkommen! Welkom! Benvenuto!

The challenges faced by technical communicators in Europe, which include meeting the imperatives of multi-language publications, ensuring conformity with a changing regulatory environment, and working in diverse cultures and languages (and perhaps different versions of English), are often greater than those felt by their colleagues in other regions. But dealing with Europe-specific issues is also increasingly important for technical communicators outside Europe due to the advancing globalisation of industries, technologies, and marketplaces. The STC Europe SIG is one of the ways in which these challenges can be addressed.

The Europe SIG seeks to advance the purposes of the Society by working with individuals and groups across Europe to promote technical communication. The Europe SIG can give STC members who are based in Europe a collective voice in what happens in their region and will seek to establish a dialogue with existing organisations, such as TC-Europe, in a spirit of sharing and co-operation and not as a competitor.

Establishment of the Europe SIG also creates an enduring framework for trans-European initiatives such as conferences and the Europe-wide technical communications competition. It aims to help share information among members on dealing with the challenges and opportunities of working across Europe. The Europe SIG’s goal is to complement, not compete with, the activities of geographical communities in the region.

If you’re interested in joining a team focussed on European issues related to technical communication, then join the Europe SIG. Membership in the Europe SIG is open to all STC members who are interested in European technical communications issues, irrespective of where they are based.

Membership in the STC Europe SIG will be available from the 2008 membership year. In the meantime if you are interested in becoming involved with the Europe SIG, please let one of the Interim Co-Managers know by emailing them directly. They are: Jennifer O Neill (France Chapter), Jennifer O Neill (France Chapter) writer@jennifer-oneill.eu  and David Farbey (UK Chapter) david@farbey.co.uk

METM 07 Building Bridges, Constructing Networks. Madrid. 27 October 2007.
http://www.metmeetings.org/pagines/events_METM2007.htm

The Silicon Valley chapter has published “So, What is Linguistic Quality?” by Francoise Spurling of Rubric, in the May, 2007 issue of the Connection newsletter: http://www.stc-siliconvalley.org/newsletter/HTML/articles/spurling-linguistic-quality.htm

STC members in the Philippines are in the process of forming a chapter based in the city of Taguig. To get in touch with the provisional chapter leaders, visit http://www.stc.org/membership/chapterSearch01.asp and search by country.

Call for Papers, tcworld Localization Track at the 2007 tekom conference. 7-9 November in Wiesbaden, Germany. Deadline for submissions: 4 May 2007.

GALA is cooperating with tekom to organize the tcworld Localization Track for the tekom annual conference and trade fair.

You are cordially invited to submit a presentation or workshop proposal for the tcworld Localization Track. The program will cover high level management, practical applications, and cultural or regional issues in the field of translation and localization. Read the call for papers (MS Word document). Download the application form (MS Word document).

Yves Savourel has announced that ITS, the Internationalization Tag Set has been published as a W3C Recommendation. W3C has posted a press release and the  ITS specification is posted.

ITS is a set of attributes and elements that are designed to help the internationalization and the localization of XML material. For example, the same way you can use [p xml:lang=”es”] to specify a the content of the “p” element is in Spanish, you can now use [p its:translate=”no”] to indicate the content of the element should not be translated (where square brackets have replaced angle brackets).

You can find examples and descriptions of ITS features in the specification document, and in some of the articles and presentation slides listed on the ITS Work Group page.

The International Technical Communication SIG is holding its first election for officers and to approve the bylaws. Members will receive the slate and voting instructions very soon. The proposed bylaws have been posted here. As soon as the election is over we’ll announce the new ITC SIG leaders.