On 15 November 2005, in Tunis, a new network for a multilingual cyberspace was created in Tunis by the African Academy of Languages (ACALAN) and the E-Africa Commission of NEPAD, in partnership with UNESCO, the Agence Intergouvernementale de la Francophonie (AIF), ITU, the Union latina, the International Literacy Institute of the University of Pennsylvania (ILI), the SIL International, FUNREDES, Multilingual Internet Names Consortium (MINC), the Casa de les Llengües of Catalunya, the Language Observatory Project (LOP), Unicode IDN in Africa, and ICVolunteers, under the auspices of the African Union. Its seeds being laid, the official launch of the network will take place on 21 February 2006 at UNESCO headquarters, on the occasion of the International Mother Tongue Day.
The Summit has clearly identified national e-strategies as the key vehicle to meet the targets. Fostering rich multilingual content has been recognized as a priority for the implementation of WSIS. One means to achieve this objective is through organizations specialized in the area of languages to work together. This is the aim of the newely started network on linguistic diversity in cyberspace.
The network was created as an ongoing initiative, based on a multistakeholder apparoach, brining together a maximum of actors.
This project has been submitted to the Golden Book database.
Grandes orientations du SMSI qui ont un rapport avec cette activité : Thème 1. Le rôle des gouvernements et de toutes les parties prenantes dans la promotion des TIC pour le développement
Thème 6. Créer un environnement propice
Thème 8. Diversité et identité culturelles, diversité linguistique et contenus locaux
Thème 11. Coopération internationale et régionale
Partenaires:
The African Academy of Languages (ACALAN) and the E-Africa Commission of NEPAD, in partnership with UNESCO, the Agence Intergouvernementale de la Francophonie (AIF), ITU, the Union latina, the International Literacy Institute of the University of Pennsylvania (ILI), the SIL International, FUNREDES, Multilingual Internet Names Consortium (MINC), the Casa de les Llengües of Catalunya, the Language Observatory Project (LOP), Unicode IDN in Africa, and ICVolunteers, under the auspices of the African Union.