Responsible KEG Investigator:
Co-Investigator(s):
Project Collaborator(s):
- LSS, Aston University
- University of Limerick, Ireland
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Type of Project: Funded Project
Funder: UNESCO
Date Commissioned: 02/2004
Date Completed:
08/2004
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Project SummaryIn response to one of UNESCO's
objectives regarding Multilingualism for Cultural Diversity and Participation of
All in Cyberspace:
f) Provide content that is relevant to the cultures and languages of
individuals in the Information Society, through access to traditional and
digital media services. (Paragraph 23.f, Chapter 8, WSIS Plan of Action)
this project aimed at addressing some of the
linguistic,
political and
technological issues that hinders
cultural diversity and multilingualism in the Internet.
Regarding the
linguistic issues, this project sought ways to amass data on actual language
practice on the Internet, in order that policy making in this area could be
better informed. Regarding the political issue, this project monitored issues of
ownership in Internet communication and the political debate over the
assignation of domain names to states. On the technological front, we assessed
technological constraints which hinder language diversity on the Internet and to
explore means to alleviate these constraints so as to enable language diversity
on the Internet.
From an end-user point of view, we investigated some
issues surrounding the use of Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) to overcome
potential language barrier in accessing Internet resources. In light of some
potential constraints in the use of IDNs, we experimented a new way to overcome
the potential difficulty in accessing Internet resources without the use of
Roman alphabet.
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