Hi Cindy,
I totaly agree with your point. Language is going to be one of the barriers in bridging the information gap in coming years. We are talking a lot of digital divide and promoting selling of technologies. But we also need to be focused on making technology relevant to the local context. What is the use of great search engines like Google or Yahoo if one cant read its content. You can find millions of people around the world who have access to computers and internet but cant read the most contents available on web.
We should not talk only about the locally relevant content but also about contents in local languages. In Bangladesh many people do not go to cyber cafe in the fear that they will not be able to read its contents which is mostly in English. Or they will not be able to communicate ( emailing) in their own language. Surely this is painful for them and it just widens the existing information gap.
Regards,
Nazrul
-------------------------
M. Nazrul Islam
Director, Information and Communication Technology for Development
Relief International-Schools Online, Bangladesh Country Office
House # 210, Road # 2(East), Baridhara DOHS, Dhaka-1206
Tel. (8802)8816615, 8812056, Ext- 110
www.connect-bangladesh.org, www.ri.org, www.schoolsonline.org
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cell: (88)0175537544, (88)0192053996
Message: 3
Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2006 23:54:37 +0000 (GMT)
From: Cindy Lemcke-Hoong <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [DDN] Multilingualism in Cyberspace
To: The Digital Divide Network discussion group
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Hello Nazrul,
Language is a real issue especially since WSIS the
promotion of the 100USD lap-top.
I have always questioned the notion of English as the
defacto internet language. For countries/people who
are not knowledgeable in this langauge, with the
digital content mostly in English, that would mean the
burden is AGAIN on those poorer/digital hungry
countries/people. So how good it is to give them a
lap-top while they cannot read what is there?
I have spoke out about language divide for the past
3,4 years. But, small voice generates no punch. After
all people who is on this list precisely because they
know English, if not English is their native language.
They don't feel the pain of those who are locked out
because they lack the language ability.
Cindy
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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