Internet needs multilingual support for next billion people

[IDG] The Internet must support the large number of languages in the world at all levels, including content, hardware, software, and internationalised domain names if it is to reach the next billion people, according to speakers at an Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Hyderabad, India.”When we talk about Internet for all, we have to go beyond the people who speak English,” said Manal Ismail, vice chair of the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) of the ICANN, said on Wednesday.
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/120308-internet-needs-multilingual-support-for.html
http://www.cio.com/article/467713/
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/154844/.html
http://www.macworld.co.uk/business/news/index.cfm?newsid=23774
http://www.cio.co.uk/concern/customers/news/index.cfm?articleid=3360Does “Internet for all” require larger variety of languages?
English, Chinese and Spanish are the top three languages used on the Internet but, to enable the next billion people to have access to the Internet, should a larger range of languages be supported?According to Internet World Stats the majority of Internet users use English (29.4%), followed by Chinese (18.9%) and Spanish (8.5%). After that the usage drops off with the tenth most used language, Italian, at just 2.4% of all Internet users. I say ‘just’, that still accounts for over 34.5 million users.Addressing attendees of an Internet Governance Forum in Hyderabad, India, vice chair of the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) of ICANN, Manal Ismail, said that “Internet for all” means going beyond those who speak English and should encompass content, hardware, software and internationalized domain names.
http://bizreport.com/2008/12/internet_for_all_requires_larger_variety_of_languages.html