Global by Design

The Rockley Bulletin features a great article on the importance of using controlled vocabularies, particularly for documentation. The article cites a customer support call in which the word “jack” is cause for confusion on both ends of the line.
The challenge of controlling your company’s vocabulary is in first deciding who actually controls this vocabulary. Tech [...]

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The Pew Global Attitudes Project recently conducted a survey of citizens of Japan, China, Pakistan, and India.
Conclusion: These people don’t like each other all that much.
Between contested territories, painful histories, and the simple fact that neighbors often make the best enemies, I guess none of this should come as a surprise.
Here are the [...]

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I always have wondered what Europeans would call US football if and when it became popular over there. Apparently, I’m not alone and ESPN has a solution to that pesky soccer/football naming issue. You can view the ad here

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The New York Times has an entertaining piece on culture and its role in how long people are apt to wait in line.
The article focuses on the new Disney Hong Kong theme park, which has had experienced epic lines thus far; apparently, part of the problem is that Asians are more likely to stand [...]

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The second installment of the Anholt-GMI Nation Brands Index is out and the rankings have changed significantly, largely due to the fact that the survey now includes more countries (25 in all; the first edition included 11 countries).
Australia debuts in the number one spot, displacing Sweden. And the US falls to number 11…

Country Rankings
NBI [...]

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Do you display your phone number with dashes or periods?
ie: 555.555.5555 or 555-555-5555
The punctuation you choose says a lot about your company (or maybe just your choice of designer). And now it appears that there is a global angle to this story; according to this article, some folks believe periods are becoming popular in the [...]

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Simon Anholt is the author of Another One Bites The Grass and Brand New Justice, two books that don’t get nearly the amount of attention they should.
I’m glad to see Simon resurface recently in a partnership between him and research firm GMI. They have launched the Anholt-GMI Nation Brands Index.
According to the Web [...]

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The NY Times has a great article about the making of Disneyland Hong Kong

It looks like Disney learned some painful but important lessons about the importance of localization from the Euro Disney disaster.
Writes Laura Holson…

When Disney opened Disneyland Paris in a former sugar beet field outside Paris in 1992, the company was roundly criticized for [...]

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Perhaps I expected too much. I loved The Lexus and the Olive Tree, and when I heard the title of Tom Friedman’s new book back in the fall, I got my hopes up. Just by the title, I knew what he was getting at, and I was thrilled to see such a high-profile columnist calling [...]

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