INTERNATIONAL ISSUES
SITES
Babel -- Internationalization of the Internet
Information from the Internet Society on the multilingual nature of the Internet, the main languages (other than English) used by web surfers, and how to make your site multilingual.
Civil Society Internet Forum
An international organization dedicated to democratic participation in Internet governance and citizens' Internet rights.
Computers Today
Computer news and views from India Today magazine.
Eurobytes
New York Times column documents international developments in cyberspace, with a focus on Europe. Free registration required.
First Tuesday - Europe's Internetworking Community
Resources, news, and events for European Internet entrepreneurs.
Global Internet Statistics (by Language)
Estimates on the number of speakers of various languages who are on the Web.
Multilingual Internet Names Consortium
A non-profit international consortium promoting the multilingualisation of Internet domain names and internationalization of Internet names standards.
The Unicode Consortium
Home page for the Unicode Consortium, which hopes to provide a means of encoding characters from all of the world's major languages.
VEO European Internet Newsletter
Archives of Virtual European Office's (VEO's) newsletter covering high-tech happenings in Europe.
W3C Internationalization and Localization
Resources on character sets and language handling, as well as other global Internet issues.
ARTICLES
Africa's Wireless Solution
Analysts expect the number of cellular phone subscribers in Africa to top 5.5 million in 2000. Local and foreign corporations are scrambling to provide connectivity to the burgeoning market. (1/10/2000 at Wired News)
An XSLT Style Sheet and an XML Dictionary Approach to Internationalization
Using XML and XSLT to deliver your web pages in different languages, minimizing the number of files you need to edit to change content on your site. (4/26/2001 at IBM)
Are World E-Commerce Tariffs Inevitable?
The World Trade Organization has extended temporary bans on e-commerce tariffs; but because of concerns among developing countries, they have not made them permanent. (10/19/1999 at ECommerce Times)
Designing Internationalized User-Interface Components for Web Applications
Developing internationalized user interfaces using JSP custom tags. (7/12/2001 at O'Reilly and Associates)
Dot TV
Thanks to exploitation of the .tv top-level domain name, the sovereign nation of Tuvalu can finally afford to join the United Nations. (9/5/2000 at MSNBC)
'Etail' Chill Turns Arctic With Clickmango Demise
With the impending demise of British online retailer Clickmango.com, the etail sector is losing its luster in the UK. (7/31/2000 at Fox News)
EU Closing NSI Investigation
The European Commission's fears of monopoly behavior by NSI have been assuaged by the recent agreement between NSI, ICANN, and the U.S.; but the Commission may want more changes at the end of 2000. (12/22/1999 at The Industry Standard)
Europe Offers Special Challenges for Online Retailers
Etailers doing business in Europe face special challenges - everything from dealing with different law and tax systems, to dealing with country-specific consumer preferences. (12/22/1999 at The New York Times)
European E-Commerce: Stymied By 1950s Law?
E-commerce companies from a variety of countries are complaining about a law that allows citizens of European Common Market countries to sue foreign corporations in the citizen's own country. (11/2/1999 at The Industry Standard)
French Battle for Web Space
French-speaking nations fear an English-only Net, and are pushing to bring more French-language sites to the Web. (9/3/1999 at BBC News)
German Government to Seek Tax on Computer Equipment, Report Says
The German government plans to impose a tax on most computer and telecommunication equipment and Internet applications, the proceeds from which would go to the authors and artists whose content is transmitted online. (9/6/2000 at The Nando Times - Techserver)
Global Sites Left out of Webby Nods
The Webby Awards nominees for 2001 included mostly U.S., and perhaps too many California-centric, sites. (4/26/2001 at ZDNet)
Global Web Sites Prove Challenging
In their globalization efforts, U.S.-based companies are encountering problems in dealing with different languages, foreign laws, and foreign customs. (8/22/2000 at CNN)
Guns, Money and Cell Phones
The worldwide demand for coltan is helping fuel violence in the Congo. (6/11/2001 at The Industry Standard)
Internet Explodes in LatAm, But Only for Elite
The UN's International Telecommunication Union (ITU) warns that only the elite citizens of Latin America are gaining access to the Internet and other computer technology. (4/10/2000 at Excite News)
Japan Goes Web Crazy
Japan is poised for huge Internet growth, but with a few differences from the US model: many consumers get access through cell phones, and Japanese Internet companies tend to be profitable. (1/24/2000 at Fortune)
Latin American Entrepreneurs Told To Be Patient, Dig Deep
At a Jupiter Communications conference, entrepreneurs hoping to build Net businesses in Latin America were told that with the current low Internet penetration in Central and South America, profits in the region will take a while to materialize. (2/16/2000 at Miami Herald)
LINGUISTICS: The Net's Gender Gap
Many languages assign a gender to nouns. A list of the genders assigned to the Internet in various languages. (1/17/2000 at The Industry Standard)
The Net's Frontera Nueva?
Microsoft and Lycos have launched Spanish-language portals in Latin American countries, following in the footsteps of AOL and Yahoo, which already have Brazil-based sites. (10/27/1999 at The Industry Standard)
New Crop of Portals Rises in India
After a small entrepreneur in India sold a 24.5% stake in his company for $28 million, entrepreneurs there have gained inspiration. (1/4/2000 at News.com)
New Domain May Unite Europe
The European Union is proposing the creating of a dot-eu (".eu") top-level domain, since the nominally international business TLD, .com, is often perceived as a US-based domain name. (12/20/1999 at Wired News)
Nine Latin American Papers to Launch Net Portal
Nine major Latin American newspapers plan to jointly launch an online portal "within a very brief time." (2/10/2000 at Fox News)
Not All Asian E-Mail Is Spam
Due to the amount of spam coming from Asian countries, some network administrators are blocking all email from the East, contributing to a balkanization of the Net; ironically, much spam coming from Asian computer systems was sent from America. (2/19/2002 at Wired News)
Not Quite a Dot Farce
The report and recommendations issued by the Digital Opportunity Force, a group announced at the G8 summit in July 2000, offer some worthwhile recommendations on closing the international digital divide. (6/5/2001 at NUA Internet Surveys)
Organizing a Multilingual Web Site
Guidance on maintaining a multi-lingual site - file naming conventions, language prefix standards, and maintaining true "language toggling." (12/20/1999 at designshops.com)
Planet Web: Global Divide
U.S. politicians talk about the digital divide in the United States; but, bad as it is, it's not as bad as the divide between the world's rich and poor countries. (12/27/1999 at The Industry Standard)
Planet Web: The Language Gap
The difficulty of inputting Chinese characters via traditional computer keyboards is hindering Chinese adoption of the Internet. (1/20/2000 at The Industry Standard)
The Proust Portal: France's National Library Goes Online
The National Library of France added 35,000 books and 35,000 images to its website in January, making it the largest library online. (2/8/2000 at Business Week)
Sex, Gambling Online Show U.S. Laws' Limits
The U.S. government is struggling to create, and enforce, laws limiting the spread of traditionally offline industries - including gambling and pornography - to the Web. (12/6/1999 at Miami Herald)
Silicon Valley Work Ethic Crosses the Atlantic
British (high-tech) business culture is starting to imitate Silicon Valley business culture - long hours, no separation between work and life, and a relentless pursuit of money. (10/22/1999 at The New York Times)
Tech Topples Tower of Babel
A number of companies are trying to automate translation among different written languages; others hope to make it easier for those using non-Roman scripts to input characters from their language onto a computer. (2/11/2000 at Wired News)
The Multilingual Domain Name Race: On Your Mark…Get Set…WAIT!
A look at several different proposals for providing multilingual domain names, and the problems inherent with any such major change in DNS. (12/14/2000 at IBM)
Tutorial 17: Shady Characters
Information on character sets and character encodings, and how to specify encodings so browsers will properly display different-language and special characters. (12/13/1999 at WebReference.com)
U.S. Lawyers Want Net-Rules Body
An American Bar Association (ABA) report - not (yet) adopted by the organization - suggests that a multinational commission be created to set rules and resolve disputes regarding the Internet. (7/10/2000 at Wired News)
U.S. Sites Top European Charts
US sites dominate the top-ten lists of websites used by Internet users in the UK, France, and Germany. (12/7/1999 at The Industry Standard)
US and Europe Clinch Privacy Deal
The US and Europe have come to a preliminary agreement regarding privacy on the Internet; U.S. corporations can continue to serve European customers as long as they safeguard their data. (3/14/2000 at BBC News)
Web Addresses Go Multilingual
i-DNS.net International has developed a system that will allow the DNS system to recognize non-ASCII characters, paving the way for allowing non-Roman characters in domain names; NSI and the ICANN-accredited registrars plan to test the system. (8/22/2000 at InfoWorld)
Web Portals Opening Doors to Asian Market
Online sites that aim to unite the U.S. and international Asian populations are popping up, and finding that the English language is a common denominator among communities. (12/6/1999 at Los Angeles Times)
Web World Wide: The Revolution Goes Global
A special report from CNET on how the Internet is affecting non-US countries and their citizens. (2/9/2000 at CNET.com)
Welcome to Lomar
Micronations - small, unrecognized countries proclaiming independence from the rest of the world's nations - are popping up with websites, declarations of independence, and in some cases passports. (1/4/2000 at ABCNEWS.com)
Welcome to the World Wide Web. Passport, Please?
Start-ups like RealMapping, Quova, and BorderControl are releasing software that let website operators determine, with decent accuracy, what country a particular visitor is in; this may lead to different content being shown to people in different places. (3/15/2001 at The New York Times)
Why Unicode Won't Work on the Internet
Slashdot discussion of an article on Unicode's shortcomings, and the political and technical problems caused by its incompleteness. (6/5/2001 at Slashdot.org)
Wiring Africa From Top to Bottom
Africa Online has so far concentrated on wiring sub-Saharan Africa, but will soon expand into more technologically advanced countries such as Egypt and South Africa. (8/30/2000 at Wired News)
WTO tackles the internet
Less-developed countries at the World Trade Organization meeting are objecting to a permanent moratorium on Internet taxes, saying it will deny them much-needed tax revenue. (12/2/1999 at BBC News)
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