[WSIS CS-Plenary] WGIG (further): Issue papers available online

[Martin Olivera]

comments on cultural and linguistic diversity WGIG
issue paper:

>"With the rapid proliferation of the Internet, one of
>the biggest challenges facing the industry is
>effectively catering to a wide array of national
>regional and local markets by providing content
>and applications that are adapted in accordance with
>cultural and linguistic needs. Despite being
>the dominant and most pervasive communications medium
>and axis of modern economies, the
>Internet can also be the unwitting vehicle for social
>exclusion, suppression of vulnerable cultures
>and language, and penalization of already
marginalized >communities through the requirement to
>learn and adopt alien culture and language in order
to >partake of its promises."

That is the introduction, the "what?" section of the
issue paper. I cannot understand why a paper of a
United Nations working group should define the need of
a cultural and linguistic diversity in Internet as a
"challenge facing the industry". Cultural and
linugistic diversity in Internet it is not an industry
matter, it is society one.

There are interesting experiencies as translating the
FLOSS OpenOffice to mayan languages in Guatemala, and
it has nothing to do with industry, because it is not
a matter of business or revenues, there are civil
society groups as Academia de Lenguas Mayas, Free
Software Community and  other NGOs as Fundacion
Rigoberta Menchu involved. The industry is not the
only way of doing things work. 


=====
SOLAR Software Libre Argentina
http://www.solar.org.ar


	

	
		
___________________________________________________________ 
250MB gratis, Antivirus y Antispam 
Correo Yahoo!, el mejor correo web del mundo 
http://correo.yahoo.com.ar