By now, most people in the localization industry have probably heard that a new organization has been formed — the Professional Association for Localization (PAL). Formation of PAL is one more indication that this industry is truly maturing.

Until now, the Localisation Industry Standards Association (LISA) has been the sole professional organization for the industry. LISA has drawn people from all over the world to attend regular forums and has promoted development of the TMX standard. Unfortunately, high membership and conference costs have prevented many people who work independently or in small companies from participating.

As with LISA, PAL membership is composed of people from both the vendor and client side of the localization equation. However, the focus will be on supporting individuals as localization professionals, rather than providing support for the company level. The general membership fee is $75 for individuals, with student membership for $50.

How It Began

Ricardo Erb was a localization project manager at Hyperion when he decided that the localization industry needed a group for the common man. "I was inspired," he says, "by an article in MultiLingual Computing & Technology #31 Volume 11 Issue 3: The Last Word, "An Industry in Denial?" by Reinhard Schäler. It read: 'The industry must establish its own professional association. . . What is needed is for somebody to take on the initiative and lead.'"

Erb, who now serves as president of PAL and provides training through The Localization Institute, took on Schäler's challenge. He and co-founder S. Rowan Wilson assembled a group of officers with varied backgrounds and began the process of incorporation as a non-profit organization. The officers later appointed a group of four directors.

The other officers are Wilson, vice president and legal advisor; Jacline DeRidder, Web site officer; and Suzanne Topping, communications officer, events chair and information exchange chair.

Directors are Mario Chavez, membership chair; Beverly Corwin, secretary; Dorinda Hale, employment chair; and Marilyn Mason, standards chair.

One of Erb's goals is to simply get people communicating. "I want people talking at the lowest level," he says, "so that we can help each other."

Officers and directors see PAL and its prospective members as playing an important role in an international context. Wilson says she helped with the founding of PAL — recruiting directors, coordinating meetings and generally getting things started — because localization and related industries help shape "the true purpose of the controversial 'globalization movement': human understanding."

Hale, localization manager for a variety of digital products and Web sites at Eastman Kodak Company in Lowell, Massachusetts, says, "Localization is not just any old business. It is a business that fosters international good will when done well, and doing it well requires the coordination and deployment of a massive amount of knowledge, both practical and intellectual. Through PAL, I hope to contribute to 'doing it well.'"

Focusing on Individuals

Nancy Locke, a multilingual desktop publishing specialist and editor of the localization site at www.suite101.com, comments, "One of the most important functions that PAL can perform is to provide a voice to freelancers in the industry. So many localization professionals work as independent contractors, and their concerns are different from those employed full time for providers.

"I'm not sure what form that voice would take, but hope that PAL acknowledges and supports in some way the essential importance of the freelance sector to the industry."

Director Mario Chavez, a Spanish technical translator and interpreter based in Indianapolis, Indiana, says, "I joined PAL because it proposes to promote the interests of individual localizers and globalizers, including translators and project managers."

Another director, Marilyn Mason, agrees. "Serving the interests of freelancers and watching over the interests of individual professionals within companies should be within the top tier of the defining qualities of PAL," she says. Mason is president and CEO of Mason Integrated Technologies, a provider of natural language processing and language stabilization computer processes and localization software. "The language technologies industry is going through so many changes," she adds. "I want to see a protection mechanism in place to watch over the welfare of individual professionals who can so easily become casualties as companies make their decisions to guard their bottom line."

PAL's Mission

PAL's areas of focus are education, job help, events, on-line resources, networking and information exchange, tools, techniques and trends, standards, industry representation and other member services.

Education. Providing affordable educational opportunities is a prime objective. PAL plans to conduct annual conferences and implement some creative alternatives for localization learning. The organization will approach training providers such as The Localization Institute, the Localisation Research Centre, Austin Community College and the University of Washington to request discounted fees for PAL members and hopes to arrange for annual scholarships.

Plans are under way for establishing a mentor program. Members interested in being a mentor or working with a mentor will be able to submit information through the Web site.

The site will also contain calendars of events and links to educational opportunities and resources. Eventually it will include conference and forum summaries so that members who could not attend would be able to access information about the events.

Job help. Economic changes over the past year have convinced PAL founders that assistance with job placement is an important role for the group. Initial plans are to offer on-line job and resume listings. In addition, PAL will provide guidance for localization job hunters. The mentor program will tie in nicely with its career development services.

Events. PAL will organize annual conferences and other events so that members can meet and exchange ideas. Collaboration with other industry organizations will make it easier to coordinate a variety of functions.

On-line resources. As the industry has matured, more information about localization has appeared on the Web. In the past this might have meant a source or two, but not much really existed. Now, terms such as globalization and localization pop up all over the place. Some information is reliable and useful, and some isn't. The PAL site, www.pal10n.org, will leverage existing high-quality content and supplement it with new information developed by PAL members. Discussions are under way about how to share content with respected industry portals such as www.globalization.com and www.i18ngurus.com.

Networking and information exchange. Since one of Erb's original goals was to foster communication among individuals in the localization community, PAL will provide a variety of venues for information exchange such as e-mail distribution lists and on-line discussion forums. Annual conferences will be useful for networking, and the Web site may include a section for members to post bios or to showcase specific areas of expertise.

Tools, techniques and trends. Given the dizzying rate at which localization technology is changing, PAL has decided that tools, techniques and trends need to be an area of focus.

The PAL site already includes links to a wide variety of dictionaries and glossaries. Links are also provided to on-line resources for information about specific technologies such as XML, Unicode and TMX. PAL will add to this collection by including reviews of tools, case studies and descriptions of emerging localization trends.

Standards. Development of standards goes hand in hand with an industry's maturation. While PAL's primary focus is not on developing standards, it will participate in the various bodies that are busily working on them. The Web site will contain links to existing standards.

Industry representation. PAL founders are active in a variety of industry associations. Alliances are being formed with the Association for Machine Translation in the Americas (AMTA), American Translators Association (ATA), LISA, the Unicode Consortium, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and other organizations.

Other member services. PAL may offer group rates for health and life insurance, another example of the organization's focus on helping individuals, as group rates would be significantly lower than members could get on their own.

Member Participation

PAL offers numerous avenues for participation. Members can suggest what programs and services are needed through the PAL Web site at www.pal10n.org. Donations of time, services and materials are needed and will be recognized with publicity on the Web site and in event materials. Early donors include the firm of Thompson & Knight LLP in Texas, for example, which volunteered legal services for incorporation, limiting PAL costs to filing fees. Virginia and David Anderson of Canvas Dreams created a logo and graphic identity materials and commented, "We believe that PAL will add a much-needed unifying force to the localization industry."