Tuesday, March 28, 2006

ICANN and language

ICANN TO USE MORE LANGUAGES
By Rebecca Wanjiku

The Internet oversight body is embarking on an ambitious project aimed at ensuring its materials and resources can be accessed in local languages all over the world.

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has promised to increase availability of their newsletter and website in various languages. Currently, some materials have been translated to Kiswahili.

Though ICANN has not specified the languages it is planning to embark on, it has invited participants to scrutinise its strategic plan and raise their concerns.

The move to increase the number of languages is calculated to facilitate effective and multilingual communication and allow participating communities to interact.

“Translation will improve ability of stakeholders to participate in ICANN processes including in languages other than English,” said Kurt Pritz ICANN vice president in charge of business operations.

Kurt told participants of the meeting in Wellington that the project will create an operational policy and guidelines to steer future translation efforts.

“Translation is not an end rather a means to an end,” added Kurt.

Ends

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