Call the Irish. Call the Irish. Antiglobalization protesters at venues such as last week's World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, give voice to the fear that as the world gets smaller, it will be more easily shaped by the rich and powerful. But in Ireland, a thriving industry has sprung up that gives globalization a more human face - more easily recognized and thus more easily accepted.
Critics call it stealth marketing or globalization in sheep's clothing.
This little-known business has grown to make Ireland the world's top software exporter. Currently the high-tech industry accounts for between a quarter and a third of Ireland's gross domestic product, according to analysts. At its simplest, localization is translation - taking Microsoft Word, for example, and translating all the online help, all the error messages, all the words that appear in toolbars and everything else into another language. It's not always simple. And translation isn't enough.