News

IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP form OASIS lingual translation team

• By Rich Seeley
• December 24, 2002

IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP have joined forces to create a new Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) technical committee to work on XML standards aimed at speeding up lingual translation of Web content in global business applications.

The goal is to create a standard way for Web content publishers to employ the services of a translation vendor via the Internet ''without previous direct communication,'' according to Peter Reynolds, chair of the newly formed OASIS Translation Web Services Technical Committee. This would allow ''localization'' of Web services content for countries with different languages, such as English to French or German in Europe, according to an OASIS spokesman.

The new committee will first determine the types of lingual translation services available over the Internet that could be used for ''software/content'' localization, according to the OASIS announcement. The next step will be to design specifications for WSDL documents to be used by Web content providers to request price quotes from translation vendors offering their expertise via Web services, the technical committee said.

The standard would have two benefits for organizations conducting global business via the Web. It would allow lingual translation vendors to offer their expertise via Web services to the international business community, and then allow a company to quickly arrange to have its Web content translated into the languages of the countries where it does business.

For more information about the new committee and other activities of the non-profit OASIS, click on http://www.oasis-open.org