Gizmodo.com occasionally features ‘localisation’ problems (they spell it with a ‘z’, yet another localisation problem). As localisation raises challenges of customer expectation, information design, information presentation and a whole heap of other potential tripwires for Information Quality disasters, this is sometimes a good source of quick examples of how poor quality information can screw up processes.

Sometimes, however, there are stories that take it to such an extreme that they move out of the realm of ‘localisation problem’ and into the domain of ‘Information Quality trainwreck’. This following story is just such a tale. (the full Gizmodo article can be found at this link)

The Turkish alphabet has a character similar to “|” (we can’t recreate it on our keyboard… typical), known as ‘closed i‘. Cellphones in Turkey have the traditional letter “i” but the vast majority apparently lack the “closed i” character. The character set is incomplete for the domain of values expected.

Normally this is an inconvenience, an irritation. However for a young couple who were in the midst of a less than amicable divorce where arguments were being traded by SMS, the missing character cost both of them their lives.

According to Gizmodo:

“The use of “i” resulted in an SMS with a completely twisted meaning: instead of writing the word “sıkısınca” it looked like he wrote “sikisince.” Ramazan wanted to write “You change the topic every time you run out of arguments” (sounds familiar enough) but what Emine read was, “You change the topic every time they are f[***]ing you” (sounds familiar too.)”

(we’ve edited out the profanity in the translation, but we’re sure you can guess what it was).

The young lady showed the SMS to her father, who took offence on behalf of the family and called the young man to berate him. The young man called around to the in-laws to apologise and wound up getting stabbed for his troubles. Somewhat surprised at being stabbed for what he thought was an innocent text about an argument, the young man in turn stabbed his ex-wife.

She bled to death waiting for an ambulance and he later killed himself in jail.

Again, from the Gizmodo article (with minor profanitity edited out)…

“Apparently it’s not the first incident of this kind caused by the … … dot on top of the letter i. The local press has pointed out that the faulty localization of cellphones in Turkey is causing “serious problems” when it comes to certain “delicate words” in Turkish, and they are calling to enhance localization of technology to avoid these mistakes. “

While Gizmodo calls for the banning of knives from the homes of ‘stupid people’, we at IQ Trainwrecks and the IAIDQ would side with the Turkish authorities. Banning knives is akin to inspecting the defect out of the product… far better would be an approach to correct the problem at source, within the faulty localisation of cellphone software.

After all, poor IQ can kill you.

Two people dead… this counts as an IQ Trainwreck.