[governance] Inputs for synthesis paper

[McTim]

Hello,

On Wed, Sep 3, 2008 at 10:45 PM, Hanane Boujemi <hananeb at diplomacy.edu> wrote:
>
> Parminder and all,
>
> Indeed, my suggestion of the right of a multilingual Internet is purely
> reflecting the concern of a minority of Internet users who are not able to
> benefit fully of  what Internet can offer.

minority or majority?

The reason lies behind the fact
> that there is a clear lack of reliable online content in languages like
> Arabic. The UNESCO is working on many projects to promote this concept and
> other organizations who are obviously concerned.

perhaps UNESCO is "working" on it, could you point me to tangible results?

The results I see from here are done largely by corporations,
including M$ applications and OS and online content translators:
(http://www.google.com/transconsole/giyl/check/status)
http://www.google.com/translate_t#
http://babelfish.yahoo.com/
etc., with some notable achievements done by CS/academia
(http://translate.org.za/), and ICANNs work on IDNs.

>
> The reason why I think a multilingual Internet might be included as right
> (if we all agree)

which we seemingly don't, which was Milton's point.

 is to engage as many parties or stakeholders in  making
> this concept a reality.

That's all well and good, a laudable goal.  However, if asking for it
a "right" turns off CS ppl like me, Milton and JH, imagine what it
would look like to gov't types?


>
> As a native Arabic speaker using Internet for at least 12 hours a day, I
> mostly rely on English online content for the simple reason that content in
> Arabic is scarce (at least for the subjects I am interested in).

I submit that it's up to Arabic speakers to engage in projects to
change this, or rely on the corporates to do it, for example, your
sentence above translated (free) by
http://www.systran.co.uk/arabic-english-translation/free-arabic-translation.htm
reads:

كالمتحدث أهليّ طبيعيّ عربيّة يستعمل إنترنت ل على الأقلّ 12 [هوور ا دي], أنا
في الأغلب اعتمدت على محتوى [إنغليش] متوفّر على شبكة الإنترنات للسبب
بسيطة أنّ محتوى [إينربيك] نادر (على الأقلّ لالموضوع أنا راغبة داخل).

Now, this may be an awful translation, but at least it is something.

>
> This right falls as well under two major themes of IGF: diversity and
> access.  I think it's feasible to include a multilingual Internet as an
> inherent right.
>

I think it's an "ability" that uses users should have, but trying to
enshrine it in a "right" is a very big ask.  As mentioned upthread,
"who is going to pay for this"?

-- 
Cheers,

McTim
mctim.blogspot.com
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