A localization lesson from North Korea
You never know how your next lesson in localization will reach you. What if you were to learn something from a digital trailblazer like North Korea?
The International Herald Tribune reports that North Korea is offering overseas shoppers the chance to buy hundreds of its goods through the Internet. Offered items include boxing gloves, bicycles, commemorative stamps, roller skates and uniforms for Taekwondo. While the site is obliging enough to accept credit cards, it has not yet reached the level of capitalistic level of revealing prices.
But the most forward-thinking aspect of the site is that, right out of the gate, it is localized into Korean, English, Chinese, Russian and Japanese. How many of us are that enterprising and globally inclined? Show this post to your boss and say, "See? Even lowly North Korea can develop and implement a localization strategy. Why can't we?"
The hitch: The site has been live since 31 Dec 07, but it spends a lot of time off line. Try your luck: www.dprk-economy.com/en/Shop/index.php
The International Herald Tribune reports that North Korea is offering overseas shoppers the chance to buy hundreds of its goods through the Internet. Offered items include boxing gloves, bicycles, commemorative stamps, roller skates and uniforms for Taekwondo. While the site is obliging enough to accept credit cards, it has not yet reached the level of capitalistic level of revealing prices.
But the most forward-thinking aspect of the site is that, right out of the gate, it is localized into Korean, English, Chinese, Russian and Japanese. How many of us are that enterprising and globally inclined? Show this post to your boss and say, "See? Even lowly North Korea can develop and implement a localization strategy. Why can't we?"
The hitch: The site has been live since 31 Dec 07, but it spends a lot of time off line. Try your luck: www.dprk-economy.com/en/Shop/index.php
Labels: Web localization
posted by John White, Localization Guy at
15:50
1 Comments:
Gotta keep your eye on those wily North Koreans. I can't access the site, but will keep trying because I am dying to see what codepage they are using.
Fun DPRK trivia:
Some years ago the DPRK published a codepage standard (KPS 9566-97) that was very similar to the common KSC 5601-1987 Korean standard, except that it has 6 Korean syllables enshrined separately and for the sole purpose of covering the names of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. The very curious will find them on pg. 7 of the PDF underneath the roman letters h-z.
By
Kaykuri, at 12:39
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