Is this the case for you and price promotions

I find this is true in my personal life and have trusted it in my professional life. Was wondering if anyone felt significantly different. When you cut price you expose the true value. Hard work needs to be done on what the particular price should be and then it should be stuck with, at least if you are passionate about it. The things I buy on promotion are things that I don't care about. When I pay full price I am nuts for it.

http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/537141/?sc=dwtr

Naked Translations?

No this is not a new marketing scheme from Sinometrics. Since I have switched to Google Reader I have been checking out the recommendations they make for me to add in my news feed. Nice service Google!

Today they recommended Naked Translations Translation Blog. After checking it out is is really cool. For those who have interest in where words/common expressions come from this will definitely interest you. Enjoy.

Crowdsourcing, movement in translation

This is pretty amazing. I am thrilled for facebook and am very interested in how they will take ont his massive onset of content management. I am trying to find out more of the how, what and where of their process but overall the entire idea thrills me and I hope it goes well. This could really change the way that I do business and business like Sinometrics.

http://mashable.com/2007/12/27/facebook-translations/

No longer Dolla, Dolla Bills Yall

But in a melancholy turn, another noted altering the hook to a famous Wu-Tang Clan tune - to say "Euro, Euro bill, y'all" instead of "Dolla, dolla bill, y'all" - just wouldn't have the same ring to it.

http://www.examiner.com/ArticleEmail.cfm?articleID=1048235#

Those rappers effecting my industry:

http://globalwatchtower.com/2007/11/14/translation-pricing/

Automated Translation

You hope that your first translation won't be you last translation when it works out like this...

URL: Babelfish Sparks Minor Diplomatic Row

New World

Here is a chart taken from the Web Worker's Daily upcoming book, I found it at http://gigaom.com/2007/10/06/from-the-information-age-to-the-connected-age/

I think alot about work and what it means for today, I would like to hold on to this chart and think about it more, and then comment on it. Working in a small company that serves as touch point between technology and a service it seem logical for me to think we might be albe to work differently, offering something different that would be of amazing benefit to our clients. "it" still has not hit me yet though.

Global Watchtower...nails my world

Global Watchtower is the hot trade publication for the localization industry. I am amazed with how this article exactly what I think about. As a matter of fact a friend said to me yesterday you can't be President if your not a "Christian".

http://globalwatchtower.com/2007/10/04/muslim-multiculturalism/

I love that these guys don't shy away from hot topics! Great job

Microsoft Japan does well!

Went to a Bellevue meeting of the Japanese-American Society where Darren Huston, CEO of Microsoft Japan spoke. Great job, if Microsoft's future is conversation this guy is doing his part. He did a great job explaining the business climate for Microsoft in Japan. Did you know that they are the #1 brand in Japan? That's pretty impressive considering Sony, Toyota, and other majorly popular Japanese Companies.

What surprised me is that in Japan their lifestyle tech is far more advanced than here, but according to Darren their work place productivity is far lower. It seems that Japanese business culture as a whole does not get how much technology can advance the workplace. Interesting. And very surprising to me.

Three other highlights: 1. He took a shot at Apple, saying that Japanese do not like person music players because they want to have all in one devices. I get it, but Microsoft need to not be so sensitive about Apple. 2. He spoke very favorably of virtualization to assist in Japan to help update some of the old server systems they have built on. 3. Made a plea for open systems in Japan. It seem 60% of the market is controled by 4 companies. His plea for open systems made me somewhat confused? Open for Microsoft, open source? Regardless it was interesting and made me want to know more. 4. Lastly ESL in Japan is the next big thing! A family is willing to pay 2K-3K a year to have a child learn English. Might be something to think about investing in.

Sinometrics makes lunch

Today our office did something really cool. We all arrived at work, most of us our normal time, others came in early, and then at 9:30AM we went to a soup kitchen to prepare and serve the homeless in our community lunch. It was a really great time, and a great thing for our owner to get us involved with.

Again my world's coming together. While in Oakland, I was involved in this work at least once a month. Now I am doing it as a salesperson. We fed well over 200 people and had a great time doing it. In addition to our office there were a number of other volunteers who were great to serve alongside.

Because I know how much fun actually serving the meal can be, and how much of an impact that can have on someone who has never done it before. I washed dishes the entire time. It was exhausting but thankfully I chatting with the other regular volunteer the whole time and we really enjoyed it! I was back in the office for a few more hours, but the damp food smell of my clothes finally got to me about 3:30 so I headed home. All in all it was a really great experience!

This one is pretty cool!

http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/index.php/digital_tokyo/articles/photocopier_translates_japanese_to_english_at_touch_of_button/

Japanese to English at the touch of a button.

Social Objects, Marketing, and Translation

This is an issue I am having to deal with now and often it feels like I am about to jump off a cliff when I really get a handle of a part of this theory. I am not really sure how to apply it as a sales monkey, but with vision there seems to be plenty of application in our industry. Check out Hugh's video on the link below.

http://www.nevillehobson.com/2007/09/22/business-blogging-survey-videos-on-youtube/

For us it is words (noun) and I'm not so sure about the verb, measure up? The distinction everyone in our industry tries to make is that of quality? But is there any real difference. If there is can we back it up financially or relationally? Send us any document to translated and if you can find better quality you get it for free, that seems like it could be costly but isn't it worth it. Doesn't that make Sinometrics as a company strive to accomplish something in a tangible way that other people are not? I cannot be sure if a guarantee is a social object though. So I am still thinking.

Technology Assisting Translation of Ancient Languages

This is interesting for me on two levels. First I am very familar with the tools that are available to scholars for Greek and Hebrew since I used the through seminary. Now there is new technology that will assist with other ancient langugages.

UAT Instructor Creates Cuneiform and Hieroglyphic Translator

The second side is how language translation is effected by technology. I am very interested in what market disruption through technology would look like for the localization industry. It hasn't quite clicked for me yet.

Company Names and translation

A good laugh here, but really does it make any difference if hulu's market is not swahili?

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/08/29/hulu-translates-to-cease-and-desist-in-swahili-oh-the-irony/

Helpful Hints for a Friday

Try these, might get you out of work early today...

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/08/16/the-not-to-do-list-9-habits-to-stop-now/#more-121

Tim Ferriss helps me expand my thinking. I like it.

Some insight into why WPC was good for Sinometrics

Donald A. DePalma writes a piece outlining some of the problems that we have in the localization industry with our trade shows in Common Sense Advisory. Too many, none distinguishing themselves, and same ol' speakers. I'll be interested in what positive suggestions they add to the conversation.

For me I'm in sales so I'm looking to learn, but my main priority is to find the next lead. So my hope is that we find a way in the industry to improve our story and find more people who want to hear it. We are getting geared up for Localization World, my first so I have some excitement, but honestly we would not be there if it were not in our home town of Seattle, WA.

Machine Translation not quite there

In my mind I think it should be. But once again I ran across another hopeful group that is closing up shop because we still have so far to go before we can get accurate translations. BabbleMail closed it up today.

Transparency for Service Providers

Just came across an interesting article directed at companies like Sinometrics. 6 things your localization agency doesn't want you to know. It seems that Cat's company has been able to find great translators directly that have satisfied their need. This is the case for many companies, and who can blame them. As much as I would like to sell them my services, they have to do what is best for their bottom line.

So it leads me to questions like, "What is the proper place of service companies?" Often I must deal with companies who are in Cat's position or at least exploring the option. What I find is that they want to concentrate on the core strengths of their business rather than spending energy finding people to handle localization projects for them. Why is it that many people use dry cleaners? Some prefer the way a dry cleaned shirt looks. For them it is an issue of quality. Others would rather spend their time on something else rather than ironing clothes. Now there are many companies that exist for this reason. When was the last time you changed the oil on you car? You might even know how, but you probably chose not to.

What I really like about Cat's post is that she is confronting some of the myths of the industry. There are bad ways to use TM's of clients to manipulate them into continuing to do business with you even though you are not providing excellent results. That should be exposed. Now Sinometrics handles the TM's differently, they are owned by our clients so they can use them as they please. There are other fees involved with working with agencies because they carry overhead. Very few translators are hiring a salesteam to go out there and scurry up business. Our agency is able to work in agile programming enviroments, we are not as flexible as working direct, but pretty close.

My impression of the industry is there is a lot to learn and my hope is that the more Sinometrics is able to listen to criticism like Cat's the better we will be able to evolve as a company.

Facebook on the mind

As if I wasn't already obsessed socially with Facebook. Today I read in a blog post at Damn that's some tasty data that they are looking to localize the service. I sent out a few emails, but if anyone has a person who I could talk to at Facebook or any suggestions let me know. Cell-206.407.6067

David vs. Golaith

Lionbridge- 2006 revenue $419.0 Million
SDL Intl- 2006 revenue $174.5 Million
Transperfect- 2006 revenue $112.8 Million

Sinometrics- 2006 revenue $2.5 Million

These are three of the companies I regularly go up against in bids. Now there are countless companies smaller than us in the industry as well, every city has a mom and pop shop that does translation services, either inhouse or they offer the service. Talk about competition.

The Top Twenty in our industry are ranked yearly in the Common Sense Advisory. I might have already linked to it, but incase I forgot. My personal goal is to do everything I can to get us onto that list, is that ambitious?

Here's the link http://www.commonsenseadvisory.com/members/res_cgi.php/070502_Q_Top_20.php

localization

Localization vs. Globalization

Here is the salesman's perspective. A website or software must first be internationalized/globalized before it can be localization. Globalization is the process of getting the code up to speed so that it can handle when a different language is put in for text. Localization is actually taking the source language (i.e. English) and making it into a localized language (i.e. LatAm Spanish). This is what we do at Sinometrics.

In reading today here is how a SLE (Software Language Engineer) would describe the difference from Dot Net Guts, here. And a previous entry from them, here.

What a difference, huh.