Ccaps Blog

Last week, Wandrianne and I attended an event organized by MultiLingual magazine and the Localization Institute in beautiful Buenos Aires. The first event in Latin America of Localization World, the successful series of biannual events occurring in the US and Europe that became the biggest attraction for industry professionals.

Localization Latin America also managed to bring together relevant regional figures (localization entrepreneurs and professionals from Brazil, Argentina, Guatemala, Uruguay and Chile), and consultants, experts and representatives from major global localization buyers such as Oracle, VMware and Microsoft.

I was invited by the organizing committee and had the pleasure to share a panel with other important figures of the industry. Renato Beninatto, from Common Sense Advisory, moderated the session and has already published an unmissable post about the event in his corporate blog.

Here is a picture of part of the group after the opening dinner.

Localization friends about to go bar hopping

When it comes to project management, three things are necessary: good communication, reasonability and some experience.

Once I heard from a project manager colleague of mine that a project manager should divide his or her time in two parts:

• 75% should be dedicated to the relationship with stakeholders
• 25% should be used with project management tools

While browsing the Internet, I came across an article that can be useful for the layman and the fairly experienced professional. The article seems to confirm what my colleague said.

To access the article (in Portuguese), visit the following link:

http://blog.pccastelobranco.net/2008/04/gerncia-de-projetos-e-os-seus-10.html

And do not forget: focus more on relationships yet never ignore the necessary techniques.

The first beta version of Portuguese dictionary iDicionário Aulete has just been released and can be accessed at www.aulete.com.br.

Besides featuring 818,000 entries, definitions and phrases, Dicionário Aulete contains the full set of rules for the New Spelling Agreement of the Portuguese Language. This is accompanied by text and an explanatory chart, presented in a clear and simple way, in an attempt to facilitate the understanding of the rules.

To simplify searches during the period of transition and adaptation to the new rules, you can search using the old spelling. You will then be directed to the entry with the new spelling and all its corresponding definitions.

But this is not all! The dictionary offers a resource called “Aulete Coletivo,” a simple yet editable version of the dictionary, which will work as an open forum where users will be able to interactively discuss, create and edit words and meanings.

To make the dictionary as accessible as possible, the website contains an easy-to-use, functional gadget for Windows Vista users and a link to install the iDicionário Aulete immediate research feature in Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Definitely worth a check!

Since e-mail was invented, people gradually became less enthusiastic about the idea of talking over the phone or even face to face. Do you think it would be possible to spend a whole day without sending a single e-mail message?

While listening to the latest podcast by Prof. Marins, I started to picture myself in this situation. He says that, since 2001, he has been trying to convince companies to implement a “No e-mail day” in their corporate environment.

It is interesting to realize that we send e-mails almost in auto-pilot mode. We grew so accustomed to our routine of electronic messaging that we do not even realize this. Perhaps you have also been in a situation where you send the person sitting next to you an e-mail when you could have talked to that person instead. This would have saved you time and communication would have been more effective and fast.

We are so used to this tool that we can hardly talk to people by other means than email. What then do you think of this suggestion? Could survive one day without e-mail?

Follow this link to listen to the podcast (in Portuguese) by Prof. Marins and decide whether it is worth it or not to implement this idea in your company.

http://www.profmarinspod.com.br/podcast/no-e-mail-day.html

“Wow, this synergy thing really works!”