Ccaps Blog

This week we started the festivities to celebrate Ccaps 10th anniversary!

And I could not have received better news than the one shared by Cecilia on the 50% growth we achieved in the first semester of 2009, when compared to that of last year. In 2008, we had managed to increase our revenue in 70%, yet with the so talked about and much feared crisis, I decided to keep it low key. To tell you the truth, I had meagre hopes of reaching 30% growth in 2009.

Crisis, what crisis, dude? Half year is gone and we are way ahead our expectations. And the best of all is that the optimism seems to be everywhere. Yesterday’s headline of Brazilian newspaper Valor points to reviewed growth figures for Brazilian GDP and in another story Brazil is the next place to look out.

It was worth fastening the seat belts tight, facing the adversities and risking. This video clip is for you, client, collaborator, friend or family member who believed in Ccaps and helped us create this success story:

But the celebrations have just started. Soon we will have more news for you. Stay tuned!

The first-ever Globalization and Localization Association conference, GALA 2009: The language of business. The business of language. will feature the “wizard of local,” Craig Newmark, as the keynote speaker. Newmark is the founder and chairman of Craigslist, which is one of the top ten Internet companies in the world. He will speak at this translation and localization event about the future of online community and commerce, as one of its most successful innovators and practitioners.

As proud members of GALA since 2005, Ccaps is happy to announce this momentous achievement of the leading industry association. GALA 2009 will be held on September 14–16, 2009 at the J.W. Marriott in Cancun, Mexico, and will provide GALA members and industry professionals with language technology education, training and networking opportunities unparalleled in the localization and translation industry.

GALA 2009 attendees will hear Newmark’s secrets for effective internet marketing and customer service. “We are committed to creating a great meeting with many educational opportunities for localization and translation professionals,” said Jim Hollan, executive director of GALA. “Craig Newmark will offer invaluable insight that will help participants think out of the box in their own marketing and customer service activities. At the very least I am interested in the experiences and opinions of someone who has actually done it. I think we all can learn a lot from the Craigslist experience.”

Newmark is the guy who started Craigslist in his bedroom as a simple email exchange service, and now the site attracts 10+billion page views and 35 million visitors from more than 550 cities and 55 countries per month! Now this is what I call viral marketing! In 2008, Newmark was named one of the 25 Most Influential People on the Web by BusinessWeek magazine.

Ever thought of getting close to being one of the 25 Most Influential People in the Translation Industry? Then you should not miss this opportunity.

For more information and to register for “GALA 2009: The Language of Business. The Business of Language.”, please visit www.language-of-business.org or www.gala-global.org/conference.

See you there!

If you missed the conference, take a look at what people are talking…

Practically a movie star…

More online testimonials by:
Kirti Vashee, Asia Online
Emerson Barroca, Wordfast
Rodrigo Resuche, Eriksen Translations
Juan Baquero, Texo (SDL Reseller)
Bob Donaldson, McElroy Translations
Kady Ferguson, Eriksen Translations
Daniel Goldschmidt, Localization Flow Technologies
Richard Sikes, Localization Flow Technologies

The next one might even be in Brazil!

I have just returned from the IMTT 6th Language and Technology Conference, in Córdoba, Argentina. I was much impressed with the quality of the speeches and the talks with attending colleagues, whether they happened in the corridors between sessions or enjoying some wonderful Malbec by the pool side.

My presentation was called Saludos Amigos – Rising Opportunities in Latin America and apparently those who could participate enjoyed the optimism and ideas I tried to convey. The time has come to actually place Latin America in the localization map and for that I suggest the CID approach: Collaboration, Innovation and Determination. =)

Look how happy I was to learn so much in such short time…

Of the sessions I could attend, the highlights were the one-day Vendor Management seminar with Renato Beninatto, Teddy Bengtsson and Mauro Bertuol, and the sessions by Bob Donaldson, Kirti Vashee, Richard Sikes and Daniel Goldschmidt. Not to mention the Expert Panel on the Industry Outlook, moderated by Bob Donaldson and presented by Gabriela Morales, myself, Teddy Bengtsson and Richard Sikes.

It is time for our tanned people to show their true value and if it is within my reach I will be in the forefront of this initiative representing my country and region with due pride.

Congratulations to the organizers, “las dos Cecis”

You can view the pictures of the event at http://www.imtt.com.ar/conference/front/index.asp?ID=31.

“Kickoff meeting is over. You can go back to work.
I said NOW!”

I have been invited by Cecilia Iros and Cecilia Maldonado, “las 2 Cecis” from IMTT, to participate in the event above, which will happen in Córdoba, Argentina, on April 16-18, 2009. It will be such an honor to share the stage with industry peers such as Bob Donaldson, Renato Beninatto, Richard Sikes and Daniel Goldschmidt in an event that has been praised for all those who attended its previous conferences. I will be talking about the Rising Opportunities in Latin America yet if this is not reason enough for you to be convinced and join me in “los pampas argentinos”, here are some more 10 Reasons to attend the 6th L&TC I recently received from the organizers:

1. Because, regardless of where you stand right now, the 6th Language & Technology Conference is a one-of-a-kind opportunity to look at all the different tasks in this process from different perspectives and to network with your peers.

2. Because, whether you are a vendor or you recruit vendors, you’ll learn from eye opening experiences, best practices and methods during pre-conference seminars and conference presentations.

3. Because you offer localization services and you want to build the skills that will make you a preferred vendor.

4. Because you’re a project manager and you need to be familiar with tools and technologies to manage both translation and localization projects.

5. Because you know machine translation is here to stay and you want to be prepared to become part of the new model. We’ll get together to discuss the benefits, the impact and the changes MT will bring to our working lives.

6. Because it is said that crisis means opportunity in times of danger and we’ll find out what opportunities the global economic crisis creates for Argentina, Latin America, and the industry in general.

7. Because you translate health care documentation for the USA and you need to understand the changes in health care with the new administration and the recently-enforced state and federal regulations your clients have to comply with.

8. Because it’s impossible to learn, buy and use all of the technology available and Bob Donaldson will help you draw a customized roadmap for you.

9. Because IMTT has been organizing top notch events for the language industry for years and you just can’t miss this great program.

10. Because this is the perfect site for powerful networking since you wake up until you go to bed. As if you needed more reasons to spend three stimulating days with colleagues in a great venue!

See you there!

You may have already heard that the eight Portuguese-speaking countries signed a new Orthographic Agreement and that Brazil is at the forefront of its implementation, official as of January 1, 2009. We had even mentioned the end of the dieresis here at the Ccaps Blog…

This generated a lot of questions among buyers and vendors of language services as to whether to use the new spelling and how to adapt to the new rules. Reasons given for not using the new orthographic rules range from doubts among academics associated with certain terms to the lack of a reliable spellchecker that can be used with the most widely used word processor, namely Microsoft Word.

Even if you decided to change to the new spelling, how would you deal with legacy material? After all, you have been translating your company material into Brazilian Portuguese for years and probably have it stored in the form of translation memories, content management systems or the like.

Translation memories pose a more difficult question, since you would have to completely review your discounts for fuzzy matches, 100% matches and in-context (a.k.a. XTranslate or ICE) matches. All legacy material would have to be thoroughly reviewed not only to comply with the new orthographic rules, but mostly to avoid mixing new and old spellings in the same document that could leverage previously translated texts.

With this in mind, we decided to create a simple yet highly effective process to avoid such costs and headaches for you: The Ccaps New Brazilian Spelling TM Compliance Tool. This tool was created by the Ccaps language and engineering teams to adapt Brazilian Portuguese words to the new spelling rules in exported translation memory files. New versions of the tool will allow the checker to be used in other document formats (such as .tmx, .tbx, .html, .xml, etc.)

This is a value-added service that will be provided free by Ccaps. Follow this link to download the tool and the user guide explaining how it should be used.

We could not forget to send a special thanks to Renato Beninatto, from Common Sense Advisory, who inspired us to create the tool and who, as usual, started the discussion on this topic ahead of everyone in the industry. He even published a post on the Global Watchtower about our tool. Check it out!

Yet one serious doubt remains: should we change our address to “Rua da Assembleia”? Being a proper name, should it remain as is or should the accent be removed since “assembleia” is a common noun? We are open for discussion…

WHAT? All these deliveries for today???