Call for papers:

Internationalization and Web Services

San Jose, California, USA

September 8-10, 2004

This is the premier technical conference for software and Web internationalization and your source for the latest information on standards, best practices, development tools and advances in the globalization of software and the Internet.

The Internationalization & Unicode Conference features a number of presentation formats including tutorials, workshops, lectures, and panel discussions to support different learning styles.

CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS

Conference Theme: Internationalization and Web Services
Each conference covers a wide range of Unicode and internationalization topics in a variety of contexts, while also exploring one or more topics in greater depth. This conference will focus on the current problems and potential solutions for designing and deploying web services in scenarios where users and services span the globe.

Collaboration with ACCTI, GALA, CSN, TILP
ClientSide News and the localization organizations ACCTI, and GALA will host workshops on localization in parallel with the Unicode Conference at the same venue on September 8 and 9 and in collaboration with the conference organizer Global Meeting Services

The Institute of Localisation Professionals (TILP) will chair a track during the conference, devoted to localization standards, tools, methodologies and techniques.

Registration for the Unicode Conference tutorials will grant access to the localization workshops. Registration for the conference will grant access to the TILP localization track. Speakers therefore will have opportunities to reach a wider audience of localization and internationalization management and professionals. We invite papers that are appropriate for this expanded audience.

Internationalization for an Expanded European Union
On May 1, several countries joined the European Union (EU). The 25 country EU is the world's largest trader. This "Enlargement" creates revenue opportunities but also imposes new internationalization and localization requirements for software and web applications. Applications will need to be evaluated for appropriate support for currency, fonts, translations, multilingual publishing, and character encodings, to name just a few criteria. IUC26 will identify these and other new requirements and discuss effective ways to upgrade applications to meet the new challenges.

Exhibitor's Showcase and Panel Sessions
A forum on the latest advances in language tools and technologies. Exhibitors are also welcome to submit papers that are in line with the conference themes and topics and are intended for technical audiences.

INVITATION TO SUBMIT PAPERS

Submission instructions and online form

New technologies, innovative Internet applications, and the evolving Unicode Standard bring new challenges along with their new capabilities. This technical conference will explore the opportunities created by the latest advances, how to leverage them, and the potential pitfalls. Their impact on business and the problem areas that need further research will also be identified. Best practices for designing applications that can accommodate any language will be demonstrated.

Our audience is very interested in how Unicode and internationalization are being applied in the real world. Come and share your ideas with the peers and industry experts in attendance. Submit papers describing challenges you faced, lessons learned, and ideas for future implementation.

Attendees benefit from the wide range of basic to advanced topics and the opportunities for dialog and idea exchange with experts and peers.

We invite you to submit papers on the conference themes or topics that relate to Unicode or any aspect of software and Web Internationalization. You can view the programs of previous conferences.

A submission must contain an abstract and a speaker's biography. For more details and an online submission form, see the IUC26 Submission Instructions.

CONFERENCE ATTENDEES

Conference attendees are generally involved in either the development and deployment of Unicode software, or the globalization of software and the Internet. They include managers, software engineers, testers, systems analysts, program managers, font designers, graphic designers, content developers, web designers, web administrators, site coordinators, technical writers, and product marketing personnel.

THEME: INTERNATIONALIZATION AND WEB SERVICES

This conference will identify the language and multilingual requirements of Web services and potential solutions. Of course, users and Web services may be geographically distributed over wide distances and have different language capabilities. Web Services may also chain to, or otherwise integrate with and utilize many other Web services, The conference will consider internationalization issues raised by many scenarios similar to these and potential solutions.

For background information, see Web Services Internationalization Usage Scenarios. Example topics include: How will services that satisfy a range of language and cultural requirements be discovered? Will the most appropriate language and cultural service be chosen by negotiation? Should the user's locale, the locale of the services host machine, or the nature of the service determine the language and cultural formats that the service provides? Can multilingual services be made more efficient? How does internationalization impact chaining of services? Are multinational chains flawed or can they be made to work predictably with robustness and speed.

Example Internationalization in Web Services topics include:

• Unicode 4.0
  Features of this recently released standard as well as previous versions, implementation guidelines, upgrading existing applications, and case studies
• Internationalization of Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI)
  Identifying Web Services with appropriate set of language capabilities, and configuring the best choices.
• Internationalization of Web Services Description Language (WSDL)
  Making language and cultural capabilities known.
• Mastering Multilingual Web Applications
  Up-to-date information on Web standards and best practices for supporting languages on the web, creating web sites that support current and older browsers, implementing multilingual web services
• Working With Multilingual Software
  How to input characters, which fonts to use, configuring software, integrating and deploying multilingual applications, achieving interoperability and backwards compatibility, administration and support guidelines.
• Acquiring Software
  Specifying language requirements, what to ask for, defining metrics, conducting evaluations, establishing Returns on Investments (ROI).
• Language Capabilities
  Current and planned releases from the major software companies, such as Microsoft (e.g. .NET), Sun (e.g. Java, J2EE), Sybase, Oracle, IBM and others.
• Language and Cultural Requirements
  Specialized needs such as Hong Kong business names, dialectal characters in Arabic, Japanese JIS X 213 and Chinese GB 18030 standards, and support for the American Navaho language. General regional requirements such as right-to-left and vertical writing, culturally correct sorting, measurement systems, number and monetary formats, Hijri (Islamic) and other Calendars, et al.
• Language Software Standards
  Including the Open Lexicon Interchange Format 2, Terminology Management Framework, Term-Based Exchange, the ISO Data Category Registry, the upcoming ISO Language Codes Part 3, and the International Standards for Language Engineering.

OTHER TOPICS

Other topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The World Wide Web (WWW), XML, Web Services, protocols, Semantic Web
• Encoding standards, issues, practices: Practical and political hurdles implementing Unicode, new features of Unicode Version 4, new encoding standards
• Evaluations (case studies, usability studies)
• Unicode in government applications, multilingual publishing, cataloging, multilingual search, Defense and Homeland Security applications, Education, Legal System, etc.
• Natural language processing, Machine Translation
• Algorithms (e.g. normalization, collation, bidirectional), Search engines and strategies, Security (e.g. Avoiding spoofing of UTF-8 data), Optimizing performance
• Programming languages and libraries (Java, .NET, J2EE, Perl, et al), Migrating legacy applications
• Library and archival concerns
• Printing, imaging, typography, optical character recognition (OCR)
• Operating systems, Databases, Large scale networks, Cross platform development, Portable devices
• Testing applications, Load testing, Unicode Conformance
• Business models for software development (e.g. Open source)
• Postal, address, currency and other international formats
• Localization process automation, Leveraging, translation memory, localization tools, Computer Assisted Translation (CAT)
• Localization engineering, testing, management, standards and file exchange formats (e.g. TMX, XLIFF)

We invite you to submit papers which define tomorrow's computing, demonstrate best practices in computing today, or articulate problems that must be solved before further advances can occur. Presentations should be geared towards a technical audience.

SESSIONS

The conference runs multiple sessions simultaneously to maximize the value provided. Meeting formats are varied, providing for a mix of lecture, demonstration, and discussion:

• Keynote presentations
• Workshops/Tutorials
• Technical presentations
• Panel sessions

All sessions except the Workshops/Tutorials will be of 40 minute duration. In some cases, two consecutive 40 minute program slots may be devoted to a single session.

The Workshops/Tutorials will each last approximately three hours. They should be designed to stimulate discussion and participation, using slides and demonstrations.

PUBLICATION

If your paper is accepted, your details will be included in the Conference brochure and Web pages and the paper itself will appear on a Conference CD.

SPEAKER REGISTRATION

Once your paper is accepted you need to register for the conference. Primary speakers get a discount of 50% off of the conference fee. This substantially reduced conference fee includes full participation at all conference and tutorial sessions, and related conference privileges such as food, beverage and the special event dinner.

For a submission with multiple speakers, please designate the person who is to qualify for the primary speaker discount. The speaker fee must be received by the Completed Papers Due Date.

EXHIBIT OPPORTUNITIES

The Conference SHOWCASE area is for corporations and individuals who wish to display and promote their products, technology and/or services. Every effort will be made to provide maximum exposure, advertising and traffic.

Exhibit space is limited. For further information or to reserve a place, please contact Global Meeting Services at the above location.

THE UNICODE CONSORTIUM

The Unicode Consortium is a non-profit organization dedicated to the development, maintenance and promotion of The Unicode Standard, a worldwide character encoding. The Unicode Standard encodes the characters of the world's principal scripts and languages, and is code-for-code identical to the international standard ISO/IEC 10646. The Consortium also defines character properties and algorithms for use in implementations. The membership base of the Unicode Consortium includes major computer corporations, software producers, database vendors, research institutions, international agencies and various user groups.

For further information on the Unicode Standard, visit the Unicode Consortium Web site.

International Unicode Conferences are organized by Global Meeting Services, Inc., (GMS). GMS is pleased to be able to offer the International Unicode Conferences under an exclusive license granted by the Unicode Consortium. All responsibility for conference finances and operations is borne by GMS. The independent conference board serves solely at the pleasure of GMS and is composed of volunteers active in Unicode and in international software development. All inquiries regarding International Unicode Conferences should be addressed to info@global-conference.com.