New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Nunatsiaq News October 8, 2004

New technology improves syllabics on the web

"We want to make sure people using older computers aren't missed"

SARA MINOGUE
http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/nunavut/41008_11.html

A small Iqaluit company has found a hassle-free way to put Inuktitut
syllabics online.

"Up until now you always had to download fonts, and if you didn't have
the right font, you couldn't access the information," says Gavin
Nesbitt of Attavik.net.

"Most people would just ignore the Inuktitut text and they wouldn't
access it at all."

Now, he says, it's possible to guarantee that anybody with a computer
and Internet access can read and print syllabics from Inuktitut web
sites.

A prime example of the new technology can be at the new website of the
Office of the Languages Commissioner of Nunavut, at www.langcom.nu.ca.

Visitors to the site are no longer prompted repeatedly to download a
special font to view the Inuktitut. Instead, new technology on the
Attavik web server takes care of the font problem, with no extra effort
by the user required.

It works like this: Every time someone visits a web page hosted by
Attavik, it is filtered through a piece of software called Glyphgate,
created by Swedish company em2 Solutions.

Glyphgate automatically performs a check of the user's browser, and then
decides what it needs to do to make Inuktitut syllabics visible on that
particular computer.

If the computer cannot already display Inuktitut syllabics, Glyphgate
will create a quick fix. One fix is to create a temporary font
specifically for that user.

"If you're on a Mac," Nesbitt says, "you can see this visibly. It will
actually show a bunch of random characters and then switch them to
syllabics."

The other fix — if your computer technology is really ancient — is for
Glyphgate to convert all of the Inuktitut words to tiny images that are
displayed as one big picture.

Current efforts designed to help people use Inuktitut online generally
rely on brand new technical standards, governed by obscure
international bodies, which means that people working in Inuktitut
generally need to have the latest equipment and fonts on their
computers.

This allows people to type and print syllabics, and copy and paste
syllabics from different programs.

"To people working in Inuktitut, that's fine," Nesbitt says. "But if
you're somebody in Pond Inlet using Mac OS 8 with Internet Explorer 4
or something, you probably aren't going to be able to read most of the
web sites that are online right now.

"We want to make sure that people who are using older computers aren't
missed."

Attavik.net was founded about a year ago, as a partnership between the
Pirurvik Centre, a language and cultural consultancy Nesbitt runs with
Leena Evic, and a Toronto-based non-profit web hosting service called
Web Community Resource Networks.

The Pirurvik Centre's interest was mainly driven by the desire to give
Inuktitut "the same options that other languages have online," Nesbitt
says.

However, the Attavik.net system has also proved to be a flexible,
easy-to-use mechanism for companies or groups to create and maintain
web sites in multiple languages, as many Nunavut organizations do.

With just 10 minutes of training, Nesbitt says, Languages Commissioner
Eva Aariak can update Inuktitut text online, a major change from most
Inuktitut web sites.

"Right now, it's pretty much the norm that web sites are out of date,"
Nesbitt says.

The word "Attavik" translates roughly to mean "foundation," and is a
short version of "Inuttitut Qarasaujalirinirmut Attavik," which means,
"setting a base for Inuktitut computing."

A number of other groups are already using the technology, including the
Municipal Training Organization, which has won rave reviews.

The Languages Commissioners' Office, appropriately, is the first to
actively promote the technology with the launch of their site.

"The easier it is to put Inuktitut on the web, and the easier it is for
users to get Inuktitut on the web, the better it is for the language,"
says Jonathan Dewar, public affairs officer for the OLC.

Attavik.net is now open for business. Prospective customers should visit
www.attavik.net for more information.