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31st October 2012, 02:29 PM
IDNs* have become strongly linked with Internet governance discussions on multilingualism. Of approximately 6 000 languages in the world, only 12 languages accounted for 98% of Internet web pages in 2008, while, according to UNESCO data, English was the dominant language online with 72% of web pages.
According to last year’s joint report, the introduction of IDNs in the Internet root domain was an important milestone in the development of multilingualism on the Internet, especially for non-Latin scripts, including Arabic and Cyrillic.
In addition, the study concluded that IDNs were only one factor in achieving a multilingual Internet, but there was what more to be done to achieve this aim, including securing basic Internet access for the majority of the world’s population, as well as strengthening the environment for creating local language content.
Furthermore, the links between IDN registrations and local languages were classified as ‘strong’, as for example the intensity of .eu IDN registrations in Greece (Greek script) and Bulgaria (Cyrillic script).
Last but not least, it was suggested that implementation of key services like email would further benefit uptake, making IDNs fully useable.
http://www.neurope.eu/article/eurid-unesco-present-report-idns
According to last year’s joint report, the introduction of IDNs in the Internet root domain was an important milestone in the development of multilingualism on the Internet, especially for non-Latin scripts, including Arabic and Cyrillic.
In addition, the study concluded that IDNs were only one factor in achieving a multilingual Internet, but there was what more to be done to achieve this aim, including securing basic Internet access for the majority of the world’s population, as well as strengthening the environment for creating local language content.
Furthermore, the links between IDN registrations and local languages were classified as ‘strong’, as for example the intensity of .eu IDN registrations in Greece (Greek script) and Bulgaria (Cyrillic script).
Last but not least, it was suggested that implementation of key services like email would further benefit uptake, making IDNs fully useable.
http://www.neurope.eu/article/eurid-unesco-present-report-idns