Globalization+of+Software

=Software globalization= is a term that explains the utilization of one particular software around the world and how effective/popular is it in that particular area. To describe the senario, here is a good example: a cardiologist goes on a conference in India and he has a presentation on a particular style of heart surgery. He creates a powerpoint presentation and prepares a speech along with it. On the day of his presentation, he relaizes that in India powerpoint is not a very commonly used software and the computers does not have the particular software for running the presentation. They use flash. The cardiologist is then completely thrown aside and is unable to share ideas. Situations as such is very common and thus globalization of software is necessary.

Some key focal points of internationalisation and localisation efforts include:
 * 1) Language,
 * 2) Computer-encoded text,
 * 3) Alphabets/scripts; different systems of numerals; left-to-right script vs. right-to-left scripts. Most recent systems use the Unicode to solve many of these character encoding problems,
 * 4) Graphical representations of text (printed materials, online images containing text),
 * 5) Spoken (Audio),
 * 6) Date/time format, including use of different calendars,
 * 7) Currency,
 * 8) Images and colors: issues of comprehensibility and cultural appropriateness,
 * 9) Names and titles,
 * 10) Government assigned numbers (such as the Social Security number in the US, National Insurance number in the UK) and passports,
 * 11) Telephone numbers, addresses and international postal codes,
 * 12) Weights and measures,
 * 13) Language translation,
 * 14) Special support for certain languages such as East Asian languages, etc,
 * 15) Customs,
 * 16) Content,
 * 17) Symbols,
 * 18) Cultural values and social context

Below is an extract from the article **"Are America's software skills getting soft?"** written by Tony DiRomualdo and published on October 6th 2007. This might not be the best article found but somewhat related. ---

//The world of business is globalizing. Fast. In fact, some aspects of globalization are happening so quickly, they are ahead of any attempts to capture data to measure them. One aspect of globalization is what's come to be known as "off shoring," which is defined as "work done in another country, whether or not it is done by part of the same company."

The media is filled with stories about how this trend is occurring in industries and processes such as manufacturing, R&D, and IT. Yet the effect of these trends on different countries remains hard to gauge. Last year, the highly-regarded Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) released the results of a two-year study titled// [|"Globalization and Offshoring of Software."]

//**Software programming goes global** The ACM report documents the dramatic shift of the field of IT software to a truly global industry as programming becomes increasingly geographically dispersed. The task force asserts that the practice of off shoring will continue to grow - driven by changes in information technology, work and business processes, education, and national policies.

It argues that off shoring can be beneficial to both developed and developing countries, but that it's hard to measure the direct impacts in terms of job migration and creation. The authors predict that higher-value jobs will be sent off shore just as commodity tasks have been.

Increasingly, global investments in research and development will drive this trend as more talent and skills in the industry are distributed around the world. According to the ACM report, the implications for individual companies as well as entire nations are significant. Participation in the global systems, software, and services industry requires a workforce with deep grounding in the fundamentals of computing, the latest knowledge about business processes and platforms, and a sound understanding of the global community in which work will be done.

The ACM report assesses how individual countries are responding to the globalization of the industry. It notes that Australia has embraced globalization of the software industry but has also instituted initiatives to increase government support for displaced workers, push up foreign direct investment in Australia's IT industry, and implement improvements of teacher training, educational programs, and educational assessment.
 * How countries are coping**

Sweden is another country that the report asserts is positively engaging in off shoring. It has upped investments in R&D, ranking as one of the highest in the world along with outputs in scientific publishing and patents. Instead of trade and job protectionism, Sweden has instituted several initiatives to improve its competitiveness and counteract the effects of off shoring. The country has implemented a national innovation strategy and increased public-private partnerships and R&D investments in key areas, including more funding for start ups and support of small and medium research-driven companies.//

//Some countries, such as China and India, have been huge benefactors of the software globalization trend. India is a hot magnet for off shoring work. This is no accident, as the Indian government has deliberately pursued policies to nurture the software industry through tax breaks and other incentives and support for a national software industry. Its IT industry has also benefited from the experience of returning Indian entrepreneurs and programmers that have worked in America and become familiar with American-style business practices.

China, according to the report, is a policy-driven society with a great deal of state intervention in the economic development of the software industry. The Chinese government has provided financial and other support to the software industry and has aggressively wooed overseas native talent to return to their birth places to work in the industry. It also strongly supports R&D in universities and research institutes. But the task force asserts that China is the most protectionist of the countries it studied.//

For further reading [|click here] for the full article.