1. Multilingualism IGF in Hyderabad 3 – 6 December 2008 Presentation by Multilingualism Research Group 2008 DiploFoundation Capacity Building Programme

2. Language use Driving Forces Behind Internet Growth  1996 – 2004 Email, Free Web Browser, Low Cost PC, E-Commerce, Cable modem and DSL etc  2005 – 2010 DSL and Broadband connections, Handsets with Internet connection, wireless and mobile devices, Mobile commerce

3. Factors behind Internet Penetration  Old Views Language of country being English Wealth Education Pricing of Connectivity  New Views Wealth Telecommunication Infrastructure Urbanization Stability of Government

4. Role of Languages on Internet  Multilingualism Localization (discussion about how local content will improve access) Internationalization (discussion on how local content translated to other languages involve others)

5. Challenges in Creating Multilingual Internet  the balance of localization versus internationalization,  growth of language contents and their reciprocal versions in other languages,  translators for every language for automatic translation online for non- speakers,  enabling third tier languages to be machine translated so that they can be a part of the Internet and  the control of any specific language content hegemony.  clear identification and understanding of demographics of native speakers and non native speakers

6. Internet Usage in Top 20 Countries

7. Top 10 widely spoken languages  Chinese (1),  Spanish,  English,  Bengali,  Hindi/Urdu,  Arabic,  Portuguese,  Russian,  Japanese,  German(10),  French(11)

8. Language content over the web

9. Growth of language content

10. Analysis of Language Growth  Arabic Highest growth rate in terms of content 5 th Highest Language Content  English Losing its hegemony over the language content But stay as a coordinating language over the Internet  Chinese Will soon take over due to population hegemony  European Languages Dominant after English and Chinese Reason – Access to Internet

11. Reasons for English hegemony in past  Origin of Internet from USA  English used as Internets lingua franca  Initial Internet development in English  No character set available for machine translation for other languages  Lack of Fonts over the Internet  Lack of translation software

12. Multilingualism Main Players Who are the main players in this field, globally and locally ?

13. Global Players International Organizations

14. Global Players Ongoing projects: - Initiative B@bel: Promotion and Use of Multilingualism and Universal Access to Cyberspace; - Forums and workshops: Increasing awareness about multilingualism in the internet; - Internationalized Domain Names (IDN): Multilingualism is not only about the content on the internet, but it’s also about the access to that content.

15. Regional Players What is going on in different countries regarding multilingualism ?

16. Regional Players  Morocco: Promoting Amazigh online  IRCAM developed unicode fonts to type Tifinagh, the Amazigh script.  Pakistan: National language authority of Pakistan and IT Ministry suggested a standard unicode to type Urdu – Initiatives to localize content into Urdu.  Africa: With thousands of languages spoken in Africa, local organizations are working on introducing these languages to the Internet.  Midlle East: Many local projects to develop digital content in Arabic. (Ex: Foundation Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, ESCWA, etc.)

17. The impact of multilingualism on sustainable development  The information and communication technologies have a significant impact on economic, social and cultural development  Investing in technology is an important criterion in assessing the development of states and measuring their competitiveness. Hence, Internet content is of paramount importance to achieve the goals of economic and social development  Multilingualism is a key concept to ensure cultural diversity and participation for all linguistic groups in cyberspace.  Multilingualism of Internet gives the cultures the ability of self expression away from melting in a globalized culture, and to expand Internet usage to reach out a broad spectrum of people.  Multilingual Internet is an attempt to bridge the digital and knowledge divides while preserving the stability, integrity and security of the Internet.

18. Recommendations.  Create a legal environment conducive to technology. The environment is the promulgation of legal laws of electronic signature and electronic payment and trade laws and e-business.  The technological environment is the availability of infrastructure for communications and high speed access to the Internet, providing computers and software for the development of appropriate content. Governments play a key role in creating the legal environment and technological resources.  Development of local language search engines.

19. Recommendations  Development of effective machine translation from English into other languages, and is in the process of moving from words to translate to the translation of texts and passages, as well as the interpreter of the meaning of automatic text so that it can call the appropriate choice of several meanings to the same word.  Stimulate and encourage investment in digital content through the creation of economic opportunities to attract capital.  Benefit from successful experiences such as previous experience Korean, Japanese and French.  Establishment of research centers and promoting virtual distance learning.  Frameworks provide highly qualified specialists, and the essential role play by universities in this rehabilitation.  Adoption of a clear strategy for the digital content industry at the national and regional fields, the governments is concerned to do it through several ministries such as: telecommunications, information technology, media, culture, education, higher education, the economy.

20. Recommendations  We must take into account when planning such a strategy must answer the following things: 1) What are the economic and development objectives of to develop digital content industry; (2) What are the fields of digital content industry that the Governments will be focus in ; 3) how to provide the enabling environment for the development of the content industry; 4) What are the means to securing the necessary funding; 5) Who are the essential partners at national, regional and their roles.

21. Recommendations  Create a legislative environment, legally and financially: The governments are concerned to do it through several ministries: communications and information technology, economy, justice, industry. The legislation requires the issuance of such as the protection of intellectual property, electronic signature and e-government and e-commerce laws and other on the Privacy Policy, as well as the protection of software rights, applications and projects that developed in local markets. This protect is important impact on the promotion and development of software and digital content industry.  Provide access to information and communication technology: The governments and communications companies are concerned to do it. This requires a focus on the development of communications infrastructure and ensures rapid communication and information security with the development of information access and ensures access for all segments of society, as well as communications must be in cheap prices, and contribute to the deploy of computers.

22. Recommendations  Conducting special studies and research in language and terminology: universities and research centers, private companies, development institutions languages are concerned to do it. This requires addressing the problem of characters in languages, find solutions to the problems of the difference between languages, the development of electronic dictionaries and find solutions to the problems of semantic meanings of words, as well as generate terms of the Information technologies and communications that have emerged recently.

23. Thank You for your attention Gracias Merci Obrigado شكرا Danke Hvala Tesekkür

24. About this Research  Done as part of Diplo Foundation Capacity Building Course – Research Phase  Participants : Ammar Allawi Ammar Allawi - Iraq Asma El Ouirdi - Morocco Deirdre Williams – USA Mariam El Ouirdi - Morocco Muhammad Jamil Anwar Goheer - Pakistan Asma El Ouirdi Deirdre Williams Mariam El Ouirdi Muhammad Jamil Anwar Goheer Rajesh Aggarwal Rajesh Aggarwal - India Renata Avila - Guatemala Victor Kaonga – Malawi Renata Avila Victor Kaonga Hanane Boujemi - Morocco ( Tutor ) Hanane Boujemi