Using Content Development Guidelines to Reduce the Cost of Localising Digital Content

This paper examines how content development guidelines can reduce the cost of localising digital content. The growth of digital content is examined initially, and a basic taxonomy of enterprise and personal content is described. The demand for localised content is explained next, from international audiences, who demand content customised for their own particular locales. The costs, as well as cost-reducing strategies, involved in localisation process are also described. The cost-reducing strategy of internationalisation is focused on in particular, with the three core processes of authoring, enabling and testing explained in detail. The paper then describes how a Web 2.0 system called the Localisation Knowledge Repository (LKR) will be used to integrate content development guidelines into the internationalisation process. Finally, the benefits of the LKR are explained, including how the system facilitates the production of content for global audiences that is cheaper to translatable and requires less localisation testing.