[announce] OASIS Members to Develop Web Services Standard forTranslation

[Carol Geyer <carol.geyer@oasis-open.org>]

OASIS Members to Develop Web Services Standard for Translation

DataPower, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, and Others Collaborate on
Localization Specification

Boston, MA, USA; 17 December 2002 -- Members of the OASIS standards
consortium have formed a technical committee to develop standards to
automate the translation and localization process as a Web service. The
effort brings together DataPower, IBM, the Localisation Research Centre,
Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, and others in a collaboration that will use Web
services as the backbone to a workflow linking the tasks that comprise a
complex software localization project.

"Any publisher of content requiring translation should be able to
automatically connect to and use the services of any translation vendor
over the Internet without previous direct communication," said Peter
Reynolds of Bowne Global Solutions, chair of the OASIS Translation Web
Services Technical Committee. "Web services hold enormous potential for
improving the way localization business is conducted, but first the
industry must come together to agree on standards. With the support of
many of the largest software vendors and localization experts worldwide,
we are confident that we can build the consensus that's needed at
OASIS."

The new OASIS Technical Committee will concentrate first on defining
service types that are relevant to the software/content localization and
translation industry. Their specification will drive the development of
Web Services Definition Language (WSDL) documents that will ultimately
be published in a Universal Description and Discover Integration (UDDI)
registry and potentially also in an ebXML registry.

"The core of a localization Web service is the ability for publishers to
submit content that requires translation, request quotes or other
services from vendors, and for each party to understand what the other
needs. To accomplish this, metadata must be used that is standardized
and publicly available," explained Reinhard Schaler, director of the
Localisation Research Centre (LRC) at Ireland's University of Limerick.
"A key objective of the OASIS Translation Web Services Technical
Committee will be to build the intelligence into the infrastructure by
establishing a set of business process terminology that the
software/content localization and translation industries will find
comprehensive and complete."

The OASIS Translation Web Services Technical Committee joins another
localization effort at OASIS--one that works to develop an XML
Localization Interchange File Format (XLIFF). The two groups plan to
coordinate their efforts. Tony Jewtushenko of Oracle, chair of the OASIS
XLIFF Technical Committee explained the relationship, "The OASIS
Translation Web Services Technical Committee will define standard
interfaces between the disparate actors that work together in a
distributed software localization process. As localizable data moves
through the localization actors, XLIFF-aware tools can be used with
minimal implementation cost. We expect our experience with XML-based
localization technology will result in close relations and shared
membership with the OASIS Translation Web Services Technical Committee."

"The OASIS Translation Web Services Technical Committee is a clear
example of how industry players can come together to jointly develop Web
services standards for their critical business interactions," stated
Patrick Gannon, president and CEO of OASIS. "Industries that conduct
their Web services standards development within OASIS have the
opportunity to interface directly with developers of key foundational
Web services efforts, such as UDDI, WS-Security, SAML, and more than 45
others."


Industry Support for Translation Web Services

"The need for localization and translation services is readily apparent
in today's global economy.  As a member of OASIS, DataPower fully
supports the work of the new OASIS Translation Web Services Technical
Committee to spearhead standards that make automated localization and
translations via XML and Web services a reality," says Eugene Kuznetsov,
founder, President and CTO at DataPower Technology Inc.

"IBM is committed to advancing the Web services architecture and is
pleased to participate in the OASIS Translation Web Services Technical
Committee," said Steve Holbrook, Program Director, IBM emerging
e-business standards. "The ability to describe, publish and find
localization and translation services using open standards will benefit
our customers and help accelerate Web services adoption worldwide."

"SAP's globalization, internationalization, localization and translation
GILT) activities are key factors to SAP's success in the marketplace. We
have always acknowledged the benefits gained through the use and
implementation of industry standards. Accordingly, we have actively
promoted GILT-related standards such as Translation Memory eXchange
(TMX), Open Lexicon
Interchange Format (OLIF), and XML Localization Interchange Format
(XLIFF). Web services will have a major impact on the way GILT will be
organized in the future. We are ready to provide substantial input to
the new OASIS Technical Committee. This input will be based on our
expertise related to the management of outsourced translation by SAP
Language Services, and SAP's GILT infrastructure developed by our
MultiLingual Technology Group," said Willi Therre, Senior Vice
President, Application Infrastructure for SAP.


About OASIS (http://www.oasis-open.org)

OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information
Standards) is a not-for-profit, global consortium that drives the
development, convergence, and adoption of e-business standards. Members
themselves set the OASIS technical agenda, using a lightweight, open
process expressly designed to promote industry consensus and unite
disparate efforts. OASIS produces worldwide standards for security, Web
services, XML conformance, business transactions, electronic publishing,
topic maps and interoperability within and between marketplaces. OASIS
has more than 600 corporate and individual members in 100 countries
around the world.

For more information:

Carol Geyer
Director of Communications
OASIS (www.oasis-open.org)
carol.geyer@oasis-open.org
+1.978.667.5115 x209