http://www.webfoundation.org/2009/06/how-to-achieve-global-impact/ Founded by Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the Web, the World Wide Web Foundation empowers people to bring about positive change. Fri, 16 Jul 2010 13:51:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://www.webfoundation.org/2009/06/how-to-achieve-global-impact/comment-page-1/#comment-22 Stéphane Boyera Mon, 20 Jul 2009 12:41:16 +0000 http://www.webfoundation.org/?p=19#comment-22 Michael, thanks for your support ! JC, thanks for providing information on your work. I should surely develop a post around localization issues. I'm completely sharing your view on the importance of having content available in local languages. I cannot debate with you on the specific technical issues you are mentionning (DBCS) as i'm not a specialist. The Web Foundation is very interested in working towards free availability of more less-spoken language to lower the barriers of access and authoring. This includes availability of fonts, but also support in authoring tools, availability of appropriate input methods and so on. Identifying all the building blocks that are required to support a new language is a first but critical step to make. Steve Bratt, our CEO will deliver a keynote at <a href="http://www.agis09.org/" rel="nofollow">Agis09</a> Michael, thanks for your support !
JC, thanks for providing information on your work. I should surely develop a post around localization issues. I’m completely sharing your view on the importance of having content available in local languages. I cannot debate with you on the specific technical issues you are mentionning (DBCS) as i’m not a specialist. The Web Foundation is very interested in working towards free availability of more less-spoken language to lower the barriers of access and authoring. This includes availability of fonts, but also support in authoring tools, availability of appropriate input methods and so on. Identifying all the building blocks that are required to support a new language is a first but critical step to make. Steve Bratt, our CEO will deliver a keynote at Agis09 ]]> http://www.webfoundation.org/2009/06/how-to-achieve-global-impact/comment-page-1/#comment-21 JC Ahangama Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:37:10 +0000 http://www.webfoundation.org/?p=19#comment-21 Dear Stephane, Your words are inspiring especially to me who for four years labored on a project until I fell below poverty level. The double-byte Unicode character set (DBCS) has successfully relegated each Indic language user to their own closed nook on the Internet. That is very unfortunate. The stated purpose of the World Wide Web Foundation (http://www.webfoundation.org/) is: "<b>The Web Foundation will break-down the barriers that now prevent billions of people from being connected and empowered by the Web</b>, while advancing future technologies leading toward a more capable, useful and usable Web for all people on the planet." The main problem of Indic speakeers is that due to DBCS, they cannot use any commercial application that was tested and developed over decades. The approach to the solution is to study the languages and their orthographies to understand how these people think when writing. I studied the Indic writing systems and the principles behind their grammar to fully understand how to port these languages to the digital world through SBCS. The result makes it possible to make <b>a billion people</b> co-equal users of the web and computer alongside Western European language users. See it at work here: <a href="http://lovatasinhala.com/dualscript.htm" rel="nofollow">http://lovatasinhala.com/dualscript.htm</a> and here: <a href="http://harimaga.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow">http://harimaga.blogspot.com/</a> You need this font: <a href="http://www.americansmartfonts.com/ds/Suriyakumara.ttf" rel="nofollow"><a href="http://www.americansmartfonts.com/ds/Suriyakumara.ttf" rel="nofollow">http://www.americansmartfonts.com/ds/Suriyakumara.ttf</a></a> and Firefox 3 to view the magic of a smart font showing Sinhala and Sanskrit in all their glory of conjoint letters. I apologize for my non-typographic, pathetic design of the font. May I have the honor of a reply? Dear Stephane,
Your words are inspiring especially to me who for four years labored on a project until I fell below poverty level. The double-byte Unicode character set (DBCS) has successfully relegated each Indic language user to their own closed nook on the Internet. That is very unfortunate.
The stated purpose of the World Wide Web Foundation (http://www.webfoundation.org/) is:
“The Web Foundation will break-down the barriers that now prevent billions of people from being connected and empowered by the Web, while advancing future technologies leading toward a more capable, useful and usable Web for all people on the planet.”
The main problem of Indic speakeers is that due to DBCS, they cannot use any commercial application that was tested and developed over decades. The approach to the solution is to study the languages and their orthographies to understand how these people think when writing. I studied the Indic writing systems and the principles behind their grammar to fully understand how to port these languages to the digital world through SBCS. The result makes it possible to make a billion people co-equal users of the web and computer alongside Western European language users.
See it at work here:
http://lovatasinhala.com/dualscript.htm
and here:
http://harimaga.blogspot.com/
You need this font: http://www.americansmartfonts.com/ds/Suriyakumara.ttf
and Firefox 3 to view the magic of a smart font showing Sinhala and Sanskrit in all their glory of conjoint letters. I apologize for my non-typographic, pathetic design of the font.
May I have the honor of a reply? ]]> http://www.webfoundation.org/2009/06/how-to-achieve-global-impact/comment-page-1/#comment-20 Michael Lewkowitz Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:15:37 +0000 http://www.webfoundation.org/?p=19#comment-20 Stephane, thanks for the great summary and perspective. I particularly like the 6 aspects of interoperability, visibility, openness, extensibility, simplicity and accessibility. I also think we are at a prominent juncture for the web and society. The emergence of public micro-messaging (e.g. Twitter/Identica) is a functional bridge between sms (4 billion users) and the web. It has a number of properties as well that I think are changing the use and form of the web - and which create unique opportunity for society. I believe it has the potential as the most accessible, participatory public medium in our history and is already provoking transformations in some of our most critical systems - e.g. news, politics, disaster response. Very glad to see the Web Foundation getting going to tackle these things head on. Throughout history, technology and mindsets have woven together to determine the course of civilizations. The web is a core technology in determining the trajectory for our civilization today. Looking forward to seeing how the foundation can impact that for the better. Cheers! Michael Stephane, thanks for the great summary and perspective. I particularly like the 6 aspects of interoperability, visibility, openness, extensibility, simplicity and accessibility.
I also think we are at a prominent juncture for the web and society. The emergence of public micro-messaging (e.g. Twitter/Identica) is a functional bridge between sms (4 billion users) and the web. It has a number of properties as well that I think are changing the use and form of the web – and which create unique opportunity for society. I believe it has the potential as the most accessible, participatory public medium in our history and is already provoking transformations in some of our most critical systems – e.g. news, politics, disaster response.
Very glad to see the Web Foundation getting going to tackle these things head on. Throughout history, technology and mindsets have woven together to determine the course of civilizations. The web is a core technology in determining the trajectory for our civilization today. Looking forward to seeing how the foundation can impact that for the better.
Cheers!
Michael ]]> http://www.webfoundation.org/2009/06/how-to-achieve-global-impact/comment-page-1/#comment-19 Webmaster promotion service Sat, 13 Jun 2009 08:03:56 +0000 http://www.webfoundation.org/?p=19#comment-19 a great story i read above, really i like this one, thanks to post here, i have also bookmarks this websites a great story i read above, really i like this one, thanks to post here, i have also bookmarks this websites ]]>