Strategies of internationalisation and localisation: a postmodernist’s perspective

Abstract

Many software companies today are developing software not only for local consumption but for the rest of the world. We introduce the concepts of internationalisation and localisation and discuss some techniques using these processes. An examination of postmodern critique with respect to the software industry is also reported. In addition, we also feature our proposed internationalisation technique that was inspired by taking into account the researches of postmodern philosophers and mathematicians. As illustrated in our prototype, the technique empowers non-programmers to localise their own software. Further development of the technique and its implications on user interfaces and the future of software internationalisation and localisation are discussed.