Making technology speak your language (fwd link)

[Dave Pearson]

Thanks for this Phil. Today I was at a meeting in UNESCO HQ in Paris listening to a French Internet expert describing the “war” Google and Microsoft are waging against the presence of languages on the Internet. Meanwhile, my colleague Bill was in a different part of the building listening to a Microsoft presentation illustrating all the good things they are doing to ensure their presence! 

Dave Pearson
SIL International

-----Original Message-----
From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Phillip E Cash Cash
Sent: 23 February 2010 17:43
To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: [ILAT] Making technology speak your language (fwd link)

Making technology speak your language

Tuesday, 23 February 2010
UK

Microsoft and UNESCO are working together to help people across the
globe access technology in their own languages.

According to recent reports, one of more than 7,000 languages spoken
on Earth disappears from the face of our planet every 14 days;
forgotten languages take with them often unrecorded cultural
traditions, language-specific histories and thousands of years of
knowledge.

Half of the languages spoken around the world today are expected to
die out by the end of the 21st century.

Technology has brought this world many fantastic - and live-saving
inventions. It has also been influential in the segregation and
isolation of millions of people who can't speak or understand the
dominant languages used in the computing world.

UNESCO is working with a number of technology partners to ensure
native languages are not lost.

Access full article below:
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/making-technology-speak-your-language-1908197.html