IMUG Past Events Archive: 2015
2015 Events:
- Dec: Annual International Potluck & Holiday Bash
- Nov: The Global Content Experience
- Oct: Understanding Multilingual Tweets
- Sep: What Recruiters Want & Applicants Need to Succeed in Localization Careers
- Aug: Internationalization at Startups
- Jul: Globalizing Twitter
- Jun: Bridge for Out of Eden Walk: 21,000 Miles of Social Media in Translation
- May: Source Han Sans & Noto Sans CJK: The World's First Open Source Pan-CJK Typeface Families
- Apr: The Future of Global Online Marketing: Localization Workflow and Optimization
- Mar: Special IMUG Event: an Evening with Translators without Borders
- Mar: Google Translate and Crowdsourcing (v2)
- Feb: Global Linguistic Diversity and the Endangered Languages Project
- Jan: Agility and Scalability in Localization
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2015 Events Archive
December 10, 2015, 6 - 9 PM
Annual International Potluck & Holiday Bash
Hosted by Adobe Systems
Photos: Coming soon
The IMUG holiday bash always features unusual food and good conversation, including discussions of language technology, business, travel, life across cultures, and more.
Dr. Ken Lunde and the Adobe globalization team have once again graciously offered to host our event at Café Adobe, and will supply the drinks including soda, wine and spirits.* IMUG will supply free pizza. You needn't bring a thing, but we always look forward to the fantastic variety of ethnic dishes the less culinarily-challenged among us can muster up for this annual food-fest. That always takes things to a higher level.
You needn't prepare or buy more than 3 to 4 portions worth, and in fact you needn't bring anything at all. Come as you are, with or without a potluck contribution, but do come prepared to eat!
*Please drink responsibly, and choose a designated driver or take alternate transportation if necessary.
November 19, 2015, 7-9 PM
(Networking 6:30-7:00 PM, and after the event as time allows)
The Global Content Experience
Hosted by Adobe Systems
Photos: http://www.meetup.com/IMUG-Silicon-Valley/photos/26562790/ 
Customer experience increasingly comes down to content. The confluence of e-marketing practices now embedded in mainstream marketing management includes PPC, SEO, social/paid social, blogging, syndication, e-mail automation, landing pages, funnel design, and more. CMOs seek to free these activities from organizational silos, bringing them into an orchestrated program that bolsters the virality of content, achieves optimal ROI, and meets the full potential of the content experience. Meanwhile, hypermobility among companies and consumers has raised expectations for branding and message consistency across countries, languages, and cultures.
Global companies must extend online presence to dozens of local languages. Content programs must follow. This talk unravels the ramifications of content-based marketing and global customer experience, drawing on data from 2,407 prominent websites, 100 online languages, and 195 countries, from CSA Research.
Ben Sargent is a Content Globalization Strategist and a member of the executive team at Common Sense Advisory. He has worked in the language services industry since 1989, serving in operations, consulting, and marketing roles at companies such as Lionbridge, iXL, Bowne Global Solutions, and International Communications. He also helped to found and manage several venture-funded high-tech start-ups.
In his work at Common Sense Advisory, Ben’s primary focus areas are website globalization, translation management systems, and content management technologies. He also consults for Global 1000 brands and global technology vendors.
Ben has written articles and white papers on multilingual publishing and been a regular speaker at conferences and seminars in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. He has lived in France, and has recently traveled to China, Canada, and Western Europe. Ben has formally studied French, and earned a degree in Music Theory and Composition in 1983.
October 15, 2015, 7-9 PM
(Networking 6:30-7:00 PM, and after the event as time allows)
Understanding Multilingual Tweets
Hosted by Google
Photos: http://www.meetup.com/IMUG-Silicon-Valley/photos/26483620/
Video: https://youtu.be/ioGk2AwGgtY
Building upon their recent IMUG talk on globalizing Twitter — which will be repeated at the SF Globalization Meetup ten days before this event — this time Alolita Sharma and James Koval will delve deeper into internationalization.
Twitter is one of the world’s favorite open social networking platforms. Twitter conversations reflect the latest news, global trends, events as well as local discussions. Real time conversations take place on Twitter as tweets in several languages.
In this talk, we will cover ‘twitter-text’, which is heavily used by Twitter to understand tweets in several languages. twitter-text is an open source library which defines and recognizes URLs, @mentions, #hashtags and a lot more for Unicode languages.
Alolita Sharma is a senior engineering manager at Twitter, heading the company's internationalization, localization, NLP engineering. Alolita believes the web has to be fully “language enabled” to reach every human on the planet. Alolita has been working with and promoting open source software for more than two decades. She is on the board of the Software Freedom Law Center and is a past board member of the Open Source Initiative. She holds bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science. Alolita speaks internationally on multilingual web, language technologies, open source, women in technology and building successful developer communities. She can be reached on Twitter @alolita.
James Koval is an internationalization engineer at Twitter. He is a core contributor for twitter-text. James can be reached on Twitter @jakl.
September 17, 2015, 7-9 PM
(Networking 6:30-7:00 PM, and after the event as time allows)
What Recruiters Want & Applicants Need to Succeed in Localization Careers
Hosted by LinkedIn
Photos: http://www.meetup.com/IMUG-Silicon-Valley/photos/26416719/
Video: https://youtu.be/rlR-B0w-CRk
What do client-side companies and LSPs tell us are the most desired skills they seek in job candidates? Do recruiters and hiring managers look for the same skills posted in their job descriptions? Are there any mismatches? Are companies setting appropriate standards to hire the employees they really want? What are the holes a job applicant will most want to fill in his or her resume?
Learn from current research about the localization industry's most sought-after hard skills and soft skills. Employers and recruiters will learn what to expect from applicants to be competitive. All participants will learn what skills we need to be competitive the next time we apply for a new position in localization management or engineering and - if we don't already have such skills - how and where we can obtain them.
Adam Wooten is co-founder and CEO of AccuLing, and Assistant Professor of Translation & Localization Management at the Middlebury Institute for International Studies at Monterey.
August 20, 2015, 7-9 PM
(Networking 6:30-7:00 PM, and after the event as time allows)
Internationalization at Startups
Hosted by Box
Photos: http://www.meetup.com/IMUG-Silicon-Valley/photos/26370634/
Video: https://youtu.be/tLI__ECnBeo
Startups are not small versions of big companies. Growth is usually the tipping point to decide to launch internationally. However, startups face unique business and technical challenges.
In this discussion, representatives from different areas in the internationalization process will discuss best practices for a successful international launch.
Panelists:
• Claudia Galván (moderator), Senior Director, ABI.Local
• Tex Texin, Chief Globalization Architect, XenCraft
• Igor Afanasyev, Director of Localization, Evernote
• Jamie Cox, Project Management Lead, Gengo (now with Welocalize)
July 15, 2015, 7-9 PM
(Networking 6:30-7:00 PM, and after the event as time allows)
Globalizing Twitter
Hosted by Groupon
Photos: http://www.meetup.com/IMUG-Silicon-Valley/photos/26270214/
Video: coming soon!
Twitter is one of the world’s favorite open social networking platforms. Twitter conversations reflect the latest global trends, news, and events, as well as local and personal discussions. Real time conversations occur in different languages, so enabling a great multilingual user experience is key. In this talk, I will walk through language technologies and processes that help us at Twitter build a small world after all.
Alolita Sharma is senior engineering manager at Twitter, heading the company's internationalization, localization, NLP engineering. Alolita believes the web has to be fully “language enabled” to reach every human on the planet. Alolita has been working with and promoting open source software for more than two decades. She is on the board of the Software Freedom Law Center and is a past board member of the Open Source Initiative.
She holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in Computer Science. Alolita speaks internationally on multilingual web, language technologies, open source, women in technology and building successful developer communities. She can be reached on Twitter @alolita.
June 18, 2015, 7-9 PM
(Networking 6:30-7:00 PM, and after the event as time allows)
Bridge for Out of Eden Walk: 21,000 Miles of Social Media in Translation
Hosted by Facebook
Video: https://youtu.be/ymYXtO6Qs2Q
Summary: https://medium.com/meedan-labs/21-000-miles-of-translating-social-media-9b8be45bc323
Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/edbice/20150615-bridge-for-ooewfinal
Photos: http://www.meetup.com/IMUG-Silicon-Valley/photos/26219442/
Bridge is a web and mobile platform the Meedan Labs team is building to aggregate, curate, and translate a living archeology of a geo-bounded social media landscape that mirrors Paul Salopek’s Out of Eden Walk, a 7 year, 21,000 mile walk around the world, sponsored by National Geographic.
In the next seven years, the percentage of people using the internet who are not speaking ‘top ten’ languages is projected to rise from 18% to 35%, and with many social media sites the potential to access content across languages is limited to poor, dead-end, machine translations of the content. Bridge for OOEW will provide a unique digital artifact - human translated views into the social media landscape sampled at 100 mile waypoints on Paul’s slow ambulatory trace of the path of human migration from Africa, across Asia and through to Tierra del Fuego.
Members of Meedan’s team have been working to create a more cross-lingual internet since 2006, pioneering new approaches to social translation in projects like Speak2Tweet (the Egyptian Revolution translated voice message project) and Bird’s Nest: Ai Weiwei English. Across all of our work we design and build tools to help create a more accessible, inclusive, and connected digital landscape.
Ed Bice is the founder of Meedan.org, a non-profit working on tools for journalists, and Meedan Labs, a start-up working on crowdsourced social media translation software. Ed has a degree in philosophy from Carleton College and was a residential architect before founding Meedan. Ed holds a US patent for hybrid human plus machine online translation (HDNLT).
May 21, 2015, 7-9 PM
(Networking 6:30-7:00 PM, and after the event as time allows)
Source Han Sans & Noto Sans CJK: The World's First Open Source Pan-CJK Typeface Families
Hosted by Adobe
Video: https://my.adobeconnect.com/p9j5loxf5oj/
Slides: http://blogs.adobe.com/CCJKType/files/2015/05/imug-05212015-lunde.pdf (PDF)
Photos: http://www.meetup.com/IMUG-Silicon-Valley/photos/26141033/
There is nothing extraordinarily new about pan-CJK fonts, which are designed to serve multiple East Asian languages and regions using a single font resource, and whose development simply requires a lot of coordination and resources. What is extraordinary about Source Han Sans and the Google-branded Noto Sans CJK is that they represent the world's first open source pan-CJK typeface families.
Offered in a broad range of weights, these typeface families serve the needs of the East Asian community, and also come with the right price tag: free. This presentation will detail what went into the development of Source Han Sans and Noto Sans CJK, including some of the pitfalls that were encountered along the way, along with the reasons behind the various deployment formats in which they are offered.
Dr. Ken Lunde has worked at Adobe Systems for over twenty-three years, and is a Senior Computer Scientist specializing in CJKV Type Development, meaning that he develops East Asian fonts, along with the specifications on which they are based. He is also the author of "CJKV Information Processing," Second Edition, which was published by O'Reilly Media at the end of 2008.
April 16, 2015, 7-9 PM
(Networking 6:30-7:00 PM, and after the event as time allows)
The Future of Global Online Marketing: Localization Workflow and Optimization
Hosted by Google
Photos: http://www.meetup.com/IMUG-Silicon-Valley/photos/26108699/
Multinational online marketing requires a fine balance between content and workflow optimization. Successful international companies strive to accelerate translation of online marketing into multiple versions of each language to test, revise and retest in order to determine the most effective translation and localization for their target audience. Scalability becomes a challenge as the number of iterations in each language increase as a multiple to the number of target markets. As such, the iterative nature of content optimization must be paired with efficient and streamlined workflow to be sustainable over time.
In this presentation, we discuss our approach to helping our customers overcome these challenges. Our company, One Hour Translation, provides clients with hassle-free, end-to-end solutions to quickly and reliably translate, host, manipulate and advertise web content. Through our global network of professional translators, we empower multinational marketing experts by ensuring that the right message is reaching the right audience.
Lior Libman is a co-founder and president of One Hour Translation. Lior holds a Ph.D. in Neuroscience and an MBA. As part of One Hour Translation global expansion, Lior recently moved to the US to head One Hour Translation US operations.
March 26, 2015, 7-10 PM
(Networking 6:30-7:00 PM, and after the event as time allows)
Special IMUG Event: an Evening with Translators without Borders
Hosted by PayPal
Photos: http://www.meetup.com/IMUG-Silicon-Valley/photos/26009250/
Don't miss this opportunity to learn more about the translation and localization industry's leading humanitarian organization!
Translators without Borders board members, advisors, and staff from around the world will join us once again for this special evening, including Program Director Rebecca Petras (Amsterdam), board chairman Andrew Bredenkamp (Acrolinx, Switzerland), plus board members Renato Beninatto (Moravia, Brno, CR), Val Swisher (Content Rules), Salvo Giammarresi (PayPal), Iris Orriss (Facebook), Donna Parrish (Multilingual), and others.
Master of Ceremonies:
Scott Abel, "The Content Wrangler"
Speakers:
- Andrew Bredenkamp, Chairman of the Board, Translators without Borders, and Chairman and Founder, Acrolinx,
- Alolita Sharma, senior i18n, L10n, & NLP engineering manager at Twitter, previously with Wikimedia, and board member of the Software Freedom Law Center, the Open Source Initiative, and the Commons Initiative,
- Paul Warambo, translator, Translators without Borders Kenya, via special video link,
- and others we hope to confirm soon!
Hors d'oeuvres, beer and wine will be served.* The evening will also feature a silent auction for several items, including an Xbox One, a FitBit, a Sonoma vacation, advertising, conference passes, and more, donated by Common Sense Advisory, Don Plumley, Val and Greg Swisher, Diane Wagner, Tim and Rebecca Petras, Welocalize, Multilingual Computing, and the Localization Institute.
The entrance fee of $10 for members and non-members will be donated to Translators without Borders. You can RSVP for yourself and any guests via Meetup with a debit card, credit card, or PayPal account. Credit cards, cash, and checks will also be accepted at the event, and donation receipts will be available from Translators without Borders upon request.
Many thanks to:
Salvo Giammarresi and PayPal for hosting, and
Renato Beninatto and Moravia IT for sponsoring the drinks!*
This is a fundraiser for the language industry's charity. Additional donations are welcome! Translators without Borders is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization.
*Please drink responsibly, and arrange alternate transportation if necessary.
March 19, 2015, 7-9 PM
(Networking 6:30-7:00 PM, and after the talk as time allows)
Google Translate & Crowdsourcing (v2)
Hosted by Google
Photos: http://www.meetup.com/IMUG-Silicon-Valley/photos/26009400/
Back by popular demand, the Google Translate team will reprise their October 2014 talk on Translate, the Translate Community initiative, and their ongoing research, with updates on their progress.
Google Translate is a statistical machine translation service that currently supports 90 languages and processes more than 1B user translation requests per day. While Translate helps numerous people around the world communicate and learn new languages, it could always use a little help to improve translation quality for already supported languages, as well as help in adding new languages. This talk will focus on Translate's evolution over the years, its inner workings, and the recent launch of the Translate Community , a crowdsourcing platform designed to improve machine translation quality by leveraging knowledge of multilingual users and language enthusiasts.
About the Speakers:
In her current role, Sveta Kelman is a program manager for Google Translate. She has previously spent several years on the Google Localization team, managing L10n process for a number of Google consumer products. Having made a switch to the machine translation team, she is currently focusing on expanding Google Translate to more languages, as well as the recently launched Google Translate Community. Passionate about languages and translation for many years, Sveta holds an M.A. in Scandinavian Philology from St. Petersburg State University (Russia).
Arne Mauser (Technical lead, Google Translate in More Languages) and Keith Stevens (Technical lead, Google Translate Crowdsourcing) will also join the panel.
Feb 20, 2015, 7-9 PM
(Networking 6:30-7:00 PM, and after the talk as time allows)
Global Linguistic Diversity and the Endangered Languages Project
Hosted by Google
Photos: http://www.meetup.com/IMUG-Silicon-Valley/photos/25929498/
Video: https://youtu.be/Hxp743DCYw4
The Endangered Languages Project: an online collaborative effort to protect global linguistic diversity
Humanity is facing a massive extinction: languages are disappearing at an unprecedented pace. With every language that dies we lose an enormous cultural heritage, the testimony of centuries of life.
The Endangered Languages Project is a collaborative initiative designed to facilitate the documentation and revitalization of at-risk languages around the world. The project was born out of the recognition that a platform was needed for language speakers, learners and advocates to share and access relevant information and resources.
The result is a groundbreaking initiative that brings together a variety of diverse interests to promote this important work. Language communities and speakers can play an active role in putting their languages online by submitting information or samples in the form of text, audio, links or video files.
Originally launched and developed with support from Google, the project is led by true experts in the field of language preservation, and is now overseen by the First Peoples' Cultural Council of Canada, Eastern Michigan University , and a governance council of language experts from around the globe.
This talk will discuss language loss and efforts to preserve and revitalize languages, and the role of EndangeredLanguages.com. We also discuss issues in supporting languages in online products.
About the Speakers:
Shay Boechler manages outreach efforts for the Endangered Languages Project on behalf of the First Peoples’ Cultural Council , where she previously served as FirstVoices Coordinator, conducting on-site training workshops on language archiving, and mentoring numerous community-based FirstVoices language administrators throughout Canada and more recently in Australia. Shay holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Applied Linguistics from the University of Victoria.
Craig Cornelius is a member of the International Engineering group at Google, Inc., working with the Google Search, Gmail, Google Translate, and other projects. He continues his work with the Cherokee Nation, and has recently joined the Advisory Board of the Australian Research Council's Center of Excellence on the Dynamics of Language . He has held academic and industry positions over many years, but his Ph.D. in Chemistry has almost nothing to do with i18n.
Scott Coleman leads the partnership development team for Google's Technology for Social Impact group, with responsibility for Civic Innovation, Giving, and Google Ideas. Products include Google Elections, Google Crisis Response, Google for Nonprofits, and Google Ideas products. He holds an MBA from Wharton, and a BA in Spanish, Portuguese, and Political Economy from UC Berkeley.
January 15, 2015, 7-9 PM
(Networking 6:30-7:00 PM, and after the talk as time allows)
Agility and Scalability in Localization
Hosted by Adobe
Photos: http://www.meetup.com/IMUG-Silicon-Valley/photos/25868096/
Video: https://my.adobeconnect.com/p7ac35ess7o/
Great blog post by the speakers: Going Global with our Online Training System
Mindflash provides a cloud-hosted high scale learning management solution serving 1000+ customers, including several Fortune 500 companies. To better serve an increasingly distributed workforce and trainee base, Mindflash globalized its offering. The company recently rolled out support for over 7 languages in weeks, architected for new language addition or content modification within a few hours. This talk shares details about the challenge in doing this for an offering that supports a wide variety of devices and training cultures and the approach adopted in node.js and angular.js
Shobana Radhakrishnan started with Mindflash in March 2014 as Vice President of Engineering and is responsible for its technical strategy and overall engineering execution. Prior to this, she led the development of cloud-based systems enabling personalization and globalization at Netflix. She has also played various engineering leadership roles at Yahoo, Symantec and Excite@Home. Shobana is an active industry speaker interested in cloud migration, high scale fault-tolerant web application architectures, and holds a Master's degree in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Josh Iverson is a senior developer at Mindflash and has been with them for over 5 years. He started with Java programming over a decade ago, then worked with Flash/Flex and has more recently taken on html5 programming as Mindflash expanded their offering to support mobile devices and tablets in addition to the web-based offering.
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