Software and Culture: Beyond the Internationalization of the Interface

Abstract

Software applications are designed around user interaction. One interaction component is the user interface; the other deeper components represent the applications’ logic and core functionality. Internationalization architectures recognize the need for localizing user interfaces to particular cultures. We continue the discussion on culture and software focusing on the software core rather than the user interface. This core corresponds to deep culture as opposed to the surface cultural manifestations embedded in the user interface. We argue here that deep culture can be embedded into application software in a modular way.