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Considerations and strategies for developing Multilingual web sites
Written by Yousef Elbes   
Friday, 11 July 2008 20:37

A multilingual web site is a site where most of the content is available in several languages.

For your multilingual site to be successful, you have to consider three areas and adopt three strategies:

First: areas


1. Compatibility of your site

• Technical
Tools that can handle different languages (Operating Systems, Databases, Content Management Systems, etc.)
• Socio-cultural
Suitable design (graphics and colours are interpreted differently by the various cultures)
Suitable content (sensitiveness: religious, ethnic, racial, political, etc.)

2. Language servicesalt

•  Translation
In-house translation (if your Organization has translation services)
Outsourcing (where you can pick translators based on their scientifc backgrounds and expertise)
Machine Translation (the best investment if you are generating much content)

•  Managing translations
Work-flows
Processes
Tracking
Archiving

• Web editing
One editor per language, or a combination of languages
(Chinese+Spanish, Arabic+French, etc.) = don''t dump translations on your web site!

•  Quality assurance
Consistency (style guides and glossaries)
One word, one meaning, one part of speech (convince your reader that you know what you are doing)

 

3. Global gateway for the site

This can be achieved throuh a combination of design elements and information architecture technologies to ensure that:

• Readers find their languages versions as quickly and effortlessly as possible
• Control over the site is centralized
• Consistent image and message are conveyed to the world

Second: strategies


1. Before building the site

• Define target audience
• Tackle technological challenges related to languages
• Develop content in your main language that is suitable for most of your languages
• Define metrics to measure your performance (traffic, pages, etc.)

2. During the process of building the site

• Develop a network of allies and partners within the organization to support your activity - you will need their support

3. After building the site

• Collaborate with similar online multilingual communities (benchmarking and learning)
• Define web site marketing and promotion tools
• Build long-term trust
• Get feedback (the life force)
• Keep an eye on emerging technologies

alt PowerPoint version
 

MT-Friendly Sites
Written by Yousef Elbes   
Tuesday, 22 July 2008 19:25

Read this first: Who is reading your text?

Machine Translation Ready Unless we spread the awareness of the existence of Machine Translation (MT), no progress can be made in this domain. Collaboration between writers and MT is vital for the latter to succeed. From here, let's encourage web writers and authors to tailor their texts according to the basic needs of MT. Once the text is polished and prepared for MT, authors can then tell their readers that their pages are "Machine Translation Friendly", or "Machine Translation Ready". For this purpose, adding a small etiquette will distinguish your friendly site from other unfriendly sites and your particular content from the rest of content. It would be very useful to place on your front page if all your content is "MT-Friendly" or on the pages that you think they meet the following minimum requirements: ...