Summary of N. America Idiom WorldServer User Group Call
on Sept. 4, 2008

Author: Rebecca Ray (LISA)

Companies Represented:

Adobe, AOL, Apple, Cisco, eBay, EMC/Documentum (?), CaridianBCT, LinkedIn, NetApp, PayPal, PTC, SAP, Sun, Siemens, Xilinx. There were about 20 people on the call, not including presenters.

Links to Additional Materials:

1. LISA presentation for this call
2. OAXAL: What Is It, and Why Should I Care? (article)
3. The Post-Idiom World: High Tech Companies Sound Off (article)

Presenters:

Betsy Fallon, Client Services Director for SDL (and previously for Idiom)

Here are the high points:

1. SDL still views this User Group as a very important channel for feedback. Be proactive with your questions/concerns by contacting Fallon anytime through email.
2. You should have already received a copy of Fallon’s FAQ and Summary of Product Roadmap Dates following the June 25 meeting of about 25 WorldServer users in Maidenhead in June to view the new TMS platform.
3. Fallon and Andrew Thomas have spent the summer talking to/visiting/demoing to many of your companies.
4. There is a roadshow planned for September/October to visit anyone who has been missed.
5. There are now multiple meetings going on between the developers in Waltham and Sheffield to drill down to determine exactly what must be done to migrate Idiom users. Once more concrete product specs are available, the product roadmap will be updated and shared.
6. WorldServer Release Pack 903 will be available at the end of September.
7. There will be a webinar in early October with Fallon, Thomas and developers to share more of what’s going on with the product webinar.
8. SDL has announced its new program for Idiom LSPs.
9. The final dates are yet to be confirmed, but it looks like there will be an SDL World Summit in March 2009 in Orlando. This will include users of all SDL/Idiom products.
10. Though Fallon’s role is still focused on WorldServer users, she is starting to get to know the TMS users. Her goal is to create a joint steering committee with Idiom and TMS users going forward, so that an umbrella SDL User Group can be formed to develop the products together.
11. Fallon Fallon conceded that the “acquisition has thrown a wrench into the works,” but she still believes strongly that the N. America WorldServer Group should remain focused on WorldServer/TMS and not branch out to being a vendor-agnostic user group. HOWEVER, she feels that there is probably a need for a vendor-agnostic group and would strongly support that group if it’s created. She asked the group to discuss among themselves what they see their mission/objectives are going forward.
    Richard Faubert (Cisco) offered to coordinate that effort with the group through a separate call; he also requested that members send him an email with their opinions/issues.
12. There are many WorldServer people from outside Silicon Valley who would also like to participate in this User Group.

Rebecca Ray (Managing Editor, Localization Industry Standards Association – LISA)
Andrzej Zydroń (CTO, XML-INTL and Member of LISA OSCAR and Chair of the OASIS OAXAL Technical Committee

Here are the high points:

1. Slides (Food for Thought From LISA: Applying Standards in the Post-Idiom World) are attached to this writeup.
2. Takeaways from the WorldServer User Group Panel during the Cisco Day at the LISA Forum USA (I will post those in a separate document as well).
3. Idiom has been a strong supporter of standards, and an active member of OSCAR (LISA’s open standards group), so users will be able to migrate their data to whatever future platform supports OSCAR standards.
4. LISA would like to collaborate with this User Group to determine if standards can help them migrate more smoothly by developing a list of requirements that can be shared with tools developers.
5. There is a panel scheduled for the LISA Forum Europe Dublin the week of December 8 that will focus on the business and technical issues confronting WorldServer users. Based on input from various development and standards groups, the plan is to propose a way forward based on standards and open solutions. CaridianBCT, Cisco and Sun expressed interest in participating. More volunteers are welcome!
6. Everyone is encouraged to post their comments, pain points and rants at idiom-usersgo@yahoogroupsaway.com.
7. Open standards mean no lock-in with any one vendor.
8. Open architecture means freedom and interoperability.
9. Open source means security, i.e., if one company fails or their technology is bought, you’re not affected.
10. Alfresco XTM (www.alfresco.com), which was designed and implemented by the original architects of Documentum combined with XTM, XML-based authoring and translation software from XML-INTL (www.xml-intl.com), was presented as one possible standards-based solution for Idiom users.
    All of this technology is based on open standards and an open architecture and is available now (e.g., DocZone - www.doczone.com – offers products based on Alfresco XTM). It is built on open web services, provides industrial quality and is enterprise-scalable. It’s also extremely cost-efficient. DocZone offers their products through SaaS, so you can test-drive them for a few months to greatly reduce your migration pain.
11. DISCUSSION (the comments below are paraphrased):
    
    Tex Texin (NetApp): I’m a strong believer in standards, but this approach still doesn’t solve one of our biggest challenges, and that is the migration itself. As we all know, moving to DITA from FrameMaker is not trivial. For example, you can’t preserve your memories or the investment that you’ve made in them. This also scenario requires a lot of people to adopt the technology to make it possible to really reap the benefits.
    
    Andrzej Zydroń (XML-INTL): It is somewhat a “chicken and egg” problem. It does require mass adoption to gain the benefits. You may take a hit on your memories at first, but the benefits will more than compensate for it over time. Look at DITA - it has become a tsunami! Having common standards around which to build tools benefits everyone.
    I guess I’ve seen the “Promised Land,” based on my implementing systems during my 35 years in IT (including 18 in localization). The old rules will simply never apply again – the paradigm has really shifted. Moving to open standards and open architecture is the only way to protect your investment long-term.
    
    Rebecca Ray (LISA): This is true, but people are under a lot of pressure to deliver now. We need to put together a white paper that provides specific guidelines to WorldServer users vis-a-vis the migration path to an open standards solution, so that they know exactly what to expect. [NOTE: Rebecca will follow up with Andrzej and DocZone to produce a white paper, if none is available.]