--Dear Everyone: You know how the French feel about the purity of language and cultural identity; it is their credo. And at least they get excited about issues that really matter. Think of the race as another Sputnik... as Andy has stated, everyone will benefit from a little "friendly" competition. And at the risk of being a provacateur.. remember the U.S. Congress and "Freedom Fries"? Now really. Vive le rivalite', Susan Susan Crane-Sundell SUCB [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---- Andy Carvin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Meanwhile, I've just posted an entry about the "counter-offensive" on my > blog: > > http://www.andycarvin.com/ > permalink: http://www.andycarvin.com/archives/2005/03/chirac_declares.html > > Here's a snippet: > > ...While too much of the Internet is English-only and society needs to > make much greater investments in ensuring other languages and other > cultures can prosper online, this doesn't mean that you should go after > libraries just because they want to put their collections online. > > There is no such thing as scarcity when it comes to how much information > you can put online. It's not like there are only 100 terabytes of > available space on the Internet that will eventually run out, preventing > others from publishing content. This isn't Deadwood, the Yukon or the > Comstock, folks; the gold in them thair hills ain't runnin' out. As long > as companies keep building bigger and cheaper hard drives, there will > always be more room for more content to be posted online. > > So President Chirac, please go ahead and encourage Francophone libraries > to put their collections online. But don't stop there. Encourage > individuals and their communities to become content creators and citizen > journalists as well. Encourage French universities to adopt open > courseware initiatives, and fund French projects to create community > media portals like the new Ourmedia project. Bankroll Francophone > nations in Africa to make sure their enormous wealth of cultural content > can go online, as can their people, with the skills to become content > creators in their own right. Please, go ahead and do all of those > things. But don't frame this as a cultural war or counter-offensive > against "Anglo-Saxon" Internet culture; giving all cultures the > opportunity to share their knowledge, wisdom, literature and history via > the Internet will benefit everyone, whether they speak English, French, > Arabic, Vietnamese or Wolof.... > > ac > > David P. Dillard wrote: > > Thanks to Andy Carvin for posting on this very important and very digital > > divide and in this case language divide related development. Net-Gold has > > a post with links to several news stories on this subject that may be of > > interest to members of this discussion group. > > > > From: "David P. Dillard" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Date: Sat Mar 19, 2005 9:43 pm > > Subject: ELECTRONIC TEXT: RESOURCES : LIBRARIES: ELECTRONIC: DIGITIZATION > > PROJECTS : VIRTUAL LIBRARIES: French Classics Enter Cyberspace : France > > Fights Back Against 'Googlisation' > > <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Net-Gold/message/5205> > > > > What is really interesting about this is that this development following > > on the heels of the Google creation of their project as five libraries to > > put fifteen million books online full text is coming at the same time that > > there is discussion within the newspaper industry of charging for news > > content online and the Yahoo sports coverage already includes fee based > > article links. > > > > From: "David P. Dillard" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Date: Tue Mar 15, 2005 7:02 am > > Subject: NEWS : NEWSPAPERS : INTERNET: ACCESS: FREE : FREE VS. FEE: Can > > Papers End the Free Ride Online? > > <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Net-Gold/message/5122> > > > > If this happens and becomes widespread that newspapers become fee based, > > look for a very rapid coming of age of weblogs as they move in to replace > > newspapers as a free source of news and information about current events. > > The Wikipedia already does extensive current events or news coverage. > > To say the weblogs are liked by the membership and leaders of the Digital > > Divide Network is sort of like saying that the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans > > tend to be wet. <g> It may be an important potential role of the digital > > divide communities, not just this one, to lobby and counsel the media to > > retain free content and even assist them in finding through advertising > > and marketing electronic commerce ventures, the facility to viably > > continue free web based content, as a key part of reducing and ending the > > digital divide is access to quality and currently needed content and > > information. > > > > Providing free access to libraries would be of little good to anyone if > > the books and magazines in the libraries had first been carefully removed > > and only an empty building remained in its place. Although with the > > Google and Chrirac book initiatives and other already in place full text > > book and periodical full text free online resources, the library is hardly > > empty, thank goodness, but there is still a vital need for the citizens of > > the world to have up to date knowledge of what is happening in the world > > and of these many simply cannot afford to pay for this knowledge. > > > > > > Sincerely, > > David Dillard > > Temple University > > (215) 204 - 4584 > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/net-gold> > > <http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/ringleaders/davidd.html> > > <http://www.kovacs.com/medref-l/medref-l.html> > > <http://listserv.temple.edu/archives/net-gold.html> > > <http://www.LIFEofFlorida.org> > > World Business Community Advisor > > <http://www.WorldBusinessCommunity.org> > > > > ================================================== > > > > On Tue, 22 Mar 2005, Andy Carvin wrote: > > > > > >> From CIO-Today.com... -ac > > > > > >>Chirac Plans French 'Counter-Offensive' on Internet Culture > > > > > >>French President Jacques Chirac has vowed to launch a new > >>"counter-offensive" against American cultural domination, enlisting the > >>support of the British, German and Spanish governments in a multimillion > >>euro bid to put the whole of European literature online. The president > >>was reacting last week to news that the American search-engine provider > > > > > >> Google is to offer access to some 15 million books and documents > >>currently housed in five of the most prestigious libraries in the > >>English-speaking world. > > > > > >> The realization that the "Anglo-Saxons" were on the verge of a major > >>breakthrough toward the dream of a universal library seriously rattled > >>the cultural establishment in Paris, raising again the fear that French > >>language and ideas will one day be reduced to a quaint regional > >>peculiarity. So on Wednesday Chirac met with Culture Minister Renaud > >>Donnedieu de Vabres and National Library president Jean-Noel Jeanneney > >>and asked them "to analyze the conditions under which the collections of > >>the great libraries in France and Europe could be put more widely and > >>more rapidly on the Internet." > > > > > > <http://www.cio-today.com/story.xhtml?story_title= > > Chirac-Plans-French--Counter-Offensive--on-Internet-Culture&story_id=31513> > > > >>or > > > > > >>http://tinyurl.com/4c9ew > > > > > >>----------------------------------- > > > > > >>Andy Carvin > >>Program Director > >>EDC Center for Media & Community > >>acarvin @ edc . org > >>http://www.digitaldivide.net > >>http://www.tsunami-info.org > >>Blog: http://www.andycarvin.com > > > > > >>----------------------------------- > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide > > To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word > > UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. > > -- > ----------------------------------- > Andy Carvin > Program Director > EDC Center for Media & Community > acarvin @ edc . org > http://www.digitaldivide.net > http://www.tsunami-info.org > Blog: http://www.andycarvin.com > ----------------------------------- > _______________________________________________ > DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list > [email protected] > http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide > To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE > in the body of the message.
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