INTERNATIONALIZATION (I18N)

Internationalization (sometimes shortened to "I18N , meaning "I - eighteen letters -N") is the process of planning and implementing products and services so that they can easily be adapted to specific local languages and cultures, a process called localization.

Internationalization (i18n) creates a product that can be marketed worldwide. The idea is to be able to change the language without redesigning the product. It's the process of generalizing a product so that it can handle multiple languages and cultural conventions without the need for redesign.

Microsoft defines Internationalization as a combination of World-Readiness and localization. World-Readiness is a developer task, which enables a product to be used with multiple scripts and cultures (globalization) and separating user interface resources in a localizable format (localizability, abbreviated to L12y). The terms are frequently abbreviated to the numeronyms i18n (where 18 stands for the number of letters between the first i and the last n in the word “internationalization,” a usage coined at DEC in the 1970s or 80s) and L10n for “localization,” due to the length of the words. Some companies, like IBM and Sun Microsystems, use the term "globalization", g11n, for the combination of internationalization and localization. Also known as "glocalization" (a portmanteau of globalization and localization).

The internationalization process is sometimes called translation or localization enablement . Enablement can include:
Allowing space in user interfaces (for example, hardware labels, help pages, and online menus) for translation into languages that require more characters. Developing with products (such as Web editors or authoring tools) that can support international character sets ( Unicode ). Creating print or Web site graphic images so that their text labels can be translated inexpensively
Using written examples that have global meaning. For software, ensuring data space so that messages can be translated from languages with single-byte character codes (such as English) into languages requiring multiple-byte character codes (such as Japanese Kanji)

Business process for internationalizing software

In order to internationalize a product, it is important to look at a variety of markets that your product will foreseeably enter. Details such as field length for street addresses, unique format for the address, ability to make the zip code field optional to address countries that do not have zip codes or the state field for countries that do not have states, plus the introduction of new registration flows that adhere to local laws are just some of the examples that make internationalization a complex project.

A broader approach takes into account cultural factors regarding for example the adaptation of the business process logic or the inclusion of individual cultural (behavioral) aspects.

Internationalization (i18n) and Localization (l10n) become very important as more and more non-English speaking people/companies/authorities start using the web (internet or intranet) for publishing and exchanging information in other languages than English. Of all the information and data in the world, only a fraction is in the English language, and half of the world population doesn't even use the Latin characterset (such as Chinese, Arabic, Japanese, Hebrew, Thai...). Documents and information in these languages and other charactersets now become quickly available through the internet. This information is often stored in databases, and is expected to be exchangable between countries, companies, authorities, etc...

For example, a pharmaceutical company willing to submit product information on a drug in Europe, has to do so in about 10-20 languages, including languages which do not use non-Latin character sets such as Greek. If the same product information has to be submitted in East-European or Asian countries, everything becomes even more complicated. Usually, pharmaceutical companies make separate dossiers for each country and language. Doing so, the information gets scattered, and lacks reusability. Using databases however, with documents stored in XML and Unicode format, the information can be bundled and made reusable (e.g. for other applications). The same is of course valid for all other kinds of information with an international character, for example product information for customers all over the world.