-------- Message original -------- Sujet: MISTICA: Unesco/ITU Global Symposium on Promoting the Multilingual Internet Date: Sat, 25 Mar 2006 13:09:45 -0400 De: Daniel Pimienta <pimienta@funredes.org> Répondre à: mistica@funredes.org

Global Symposium on Promoting the Multilingual Internet Geneva, 9-11 May 2006

Registration: On-line Registration Contact: multilingual@itu.int

Introduction ITU and UNESCO are convening the Global Symposium on Promoting the Multilingual Internet as a follow-up of Phase 2 of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). The Tunis Agenda for the Information Society, adopted at the Tunis Phase of WSIS, highlights the importance of multilingualism for bridging the digital divide. It identifies ITU as taking the lead role in the implementation of information and communication infrastructure (WSIS Tunis Agenda Action Line C2), ITU/UNESCO for access o information and knowledge (WSIS Tunis Agenda Action Line C3), and UNESCO for cultural diversity and identity, linguistic diversity and local content (WSIS Tunis Agenda Action Line C8).

Objectives The symposium will examine issues highlighted in paragraph 53 of the WSIS Tunis Agenda, including: Options for advancing the process for the introduction of multilingualism in a number of areas including domain names, email addresses and keyword look-up; Options for implementing programmes, also in cooperation with other appropriate organizations, that allow for the presence of multilingual domain names and content on the internet and the use of various software models in order to fight against the linguistic digital divide and ensure the participation of all in the emerging new society; Options for strengthening cooperation between relevant bodies for the further development of technical standards and to foster their global deployment; In addition the event will review technical solutions and current experiences, identify open issues and discuss a roadmap for further steps to promote multilingualism in the internet.

Call for Contributions UNESCO and ITU are calling for written contributions on the themes of the event and should be sent in final form to multilingual@itu.int before 25 April 2006. Contributions will be electronically available from the Symposium website in the language received, for discussion at the meeting.

-- ================================================================= Dr. Michel J. Menou Consultant in ICT policies and Knowledge & Information Management Adviser of Somos@Telecentros board http://www.tele-centros.org Member of the founding steering committee of Telecenters of the Americas Partnership http://www.tele-centers.net/ B.P. 15 49350 Les Rosiers sur Loire, France Email: Michel.Menou@wanadoo.fr Phone: +33 (0)2 41511043 http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ciber/peoplemenou.php ================================================================== -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.385 / Virus Database: 268.3.1/292 - Release Date: 24/03/2006