Cultural & linguistic diversity
Can the Commons be Universal? Embracing Linguistic Diversity at Sapporo
- iSummit 08
Young but experienced Cambodian NGO joins APC
APC welcomes its new Cambodian member, Open Institute. “We see ourselves as facilitators,” explained Chim Manavy, executive director of the start-up NGO. “We facilitate communication, knowledge-sharing and gender equity through the strategic use of ICT and of the Khmer language”. What this means on the ground, is easy to understand when one takes a look at the track record of OI’s colleagues.
Fast track to internet domains in own alphabet
The Register reports that certain countries such as China, Russia and Saudi Arabia are on the fast track to net domains that use their own alphabets.
Africa: Steps taken for multilingual internet
An article posted today on the allAfrica.com website reports on the collaborative efforts of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the International Telecommunication Union, and UNESCO to address the multilingualism issue posed by the rapid expansion of the internet.
Free Culture House
iCommons announces a new project called the ‘Free Culture House’ project, recognising the growing importance of physical spaces in building the kinds of communities that will spread the global commons. The creative and information commons is by its nature a virtual and intangible thing, and having a physical space where people can learn from and talk to one another, becomes more and more important.
National Literacy Award for Canadian APC member Web Networks
APC member in Canada Web Networks announced that its "Tusaalanga" Inuktitut language online learning platform (developed using the open source Drupal system) has received the prestigious national literacy award. Inuktitut is an indigenous language spoken in Candada and other northern territories.
e-Governance in Nepal
Blog for creating awareness in community, government bureaucracy and all concerned about ICT, e-Governance, citizen services, poverty alleviation through ICT and contribute empowering society into knowledge based society
Creative Commons comes to India
Premier technological institute IIT Bombay is to launch the Indian chapter of Creative Commons during its annual Technology Festival of India, later this month (January 2007). The Creative Commons (CC) is a global non-profit working to expand the range of creative work available for others "legally to build upon and share."
“The discussion about diversity must not become diversity”
Over the past few years, a considerable number of discussions have been conducted on linguistic diversity in the online world. It has brought with it a controversy, in part due to the fact that the spread of the internet is frequently hailed as a cause for the loss of cultural diversity. At the recent Internet Governance Forum though, much attention was given to the protection of our linguistic diversity.
Accessibility for all, central to internet forum
Aside from ‘access to the internet’ – the single most important issue at this weeks first Internet Governance Forum – ‘accessibility’ follows suite in what is to be labelled “priority”. In fact, access to the internet deals with submarine fibre optic cables, gigantic satellite dishes and other infrastructure considerations. That has to come first. But when you break down the story of internet access to the personal level, what is needed, is a strong commitment towards getting women, underprivileged and people with disabilities on board.