Language diversity in the information society

International colloquium organized by the French commission for the UNESCO in cooperation with the UNESCO and the Agence intergouvernementale de la Francophonie and with the support of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Ministry for Culture and Communication

París, 9 y 10 de marzo del 2001

 

Unesco
Room IV
7, place de Fontenoy
75352 Paris 07 SP

The colloquium « Language diversity in the information society  » comes within the scope of the preparation of a project of recommendation about the promotion and the use of multilingualism and the universal access to cyberspace that will be presented by the Director general of the UNESCO to the 31th general Conference of the organization. Its goal is to elaborate some preliminary researches about the technical problems, the educational stakes and the cooperation challenges that the promotion of multilingualism will have to face in cyberspace.

 

Friday 9 march

 

08h30 Reception and inscription of the participants

 

09h00 Opening session

Mr Koïchiro MATSUURA, Director general of the UNESCO.

Mrs Vigdis FINNBOGADOTTIR, former President of the Republic of Iceland, Goodwill ambassador of the UNESCO for languages.

Mr Roger DEHAYBE, general Administrator of the Agence intergouvernementale de la francophonie.

Mr Jean FAVIER, Member of the Institut, President of the French commission for the UNESCO.

 

10h00 The stake of the multilingual use of the electronic communication tools

President

Mr André LARQUIÉ, former President of Radio France Internationale, President of the Communication committee of the French commission for the UNESCO

 

A- The translation stakes.

-Theme 1: what are the conditions of the creation of the efficient translation tools?

Mr Narayana MURTHY, Reader at the Department of Computer and Information Sciences, University of Hyderabad (India).

Mr Philippe RENAUT, Responsible for the HARMONIC project (multilingual questioning tool) of the Association Française pour le Nommage d’Internet en Coopération (France).

-Theme 2: capacities and perspectives of the multilingual questioning.

Mrs Maria Teresa CABRE, Director of the Institut de Linguistica Aplicada of the University Pompeu Fabra of Barcelona (Spain).

Mr Nabil ALI, Director of the Language Engineering Company, Cairo (Egypt).

 

B- Towards multilingual networks.

-Theme 1: the multilingual compatibility.

Mr Tadao TAKAHASHI, Chair of the Programme for the Information society of the Ministry for Science and Technology (Brazil).

Mrs Svetlana TER-MINASOVA, Professor at the State University of Moscow  (Russia).

- Theme 2: situation and future prospects of the multilingual access to information sources.

Mr Taik Sup AUH, Professor at the Mass Communication Department of the University of Korea (Korea).

Mr Denis CUNNINGHAM, President of the Fédération Internationale des Professeurs des Langues Vivantes (Australia).

 

15h00 The educational and cultural stakes

President

Mr Marcel DIKI-KIDIRI, Institut de Linguistica Aplicada of the University Pompeu Fabra of Barcelona (Spain).

 

A- Language learning and the use of networks.

-Theme 1: the child education and the primary school learning.

Mr Omkar N. KOUL, Professor at the Central Institute of Indian Languages of Mysore (India).

Mr Raymond RENARD, Director of the Centre international de Phonétique appliquée de Mons (Belgium).

-Theme 2: learning during the lifetime.

Mr José SILVIO, Coordinator of the Programme IESALC/ UNESCO in Caracas (Venezuela).

Mr Paul DELANY, Professor at the English Department of the Simon Fraser University of Burnaby (Canada).

 

B- The cultural diversification in the electronic networks.

-Theme 1: the strategic use of the multilingual cultural collections.

Mr Kiyoshi HARA, Professor at the Joshibi University of Asamizodai (Japan).

Mr Daniel PIMIENTA, Director of the Fundacion Redes y Desarrollo (Dominican Republic).

-Theme 2: promoting the cultural diversity.

Mr André DANZIN, former Director of the Institut national de recherche en informatique et en automatique, President of the Forum international des sciences humaines (France).

Mr Sveinn EINARSSON, General secretary of the Icelandic commission for the UNESCO (Iceland).

 

Saturday 10 march

 

9h00 The legal and geopolitical stakes

President

Mr Omkar N. KOUL, Professor at the Central Institute of Indian Languages of Mysore (India).

 

A- The international cooperation at stake.

-Theme 1: the developing countries’situation.

Mr Marcel DIKI-KIDIRI, Institut Universitaire de Linguistica Aplicada of the Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona (Spain).

Mr Jean-Claude GUEDON, Professor at the Department of compared litterature of the University of Montréal (Canada).

-Theme 2: the problems of technical compatibility and economic cooperation.

Mr Tatsuo KOBAYASHI, Member of the Unicode Technical Committee, Chief of the Japanese delegation of the Working group for Han Characters (Japan).

Mr José Antonio MILLAN, Creator of the Virtual Center Cervantes, journalist in the multimedia section of El Païs (Spain).  How much is a language worth?

 

B- Is the definition of legal rules possible?

-Theme 1: public regulation and the definition of multilateral fair rules.

Mr Rainer KUHLEN, Professor at the Institute for Library Science of the Humboldt University of Berlin (Germany).

Mr Pierre OUDART, Technical advisor for multimedia and the new services of communication for the Minister of Culture and Communication (France).

-Theme 2: the question of the legal tools and the problem of copyright.

Mrs Anita SOBOLEVA, Director of the Law Program of the Open Society Institute of Moscow (Russia).

Mr Andràs SZINGER, Legal Department of the Hungarian Bureau for the protection of authors’rights of Budapest (Hungary).

 

12h00 Closing session

 

General report

Mr Daniel MALBERT, Technical advisor for the information society at the Délégation générale à la langue française (French ministry for Culture and Communication).

Mr Jean-Gabriel MASTRANGELO, Technical advisor for the communication issues, French commission for the UNESCO.

 

Conclusion

Mr Philippe QUÉAU, Director of the Information and Informatics Division of the UNESCO.

Mr Jean-Pierre BOYER, General secretary of the French commission for the UNESCO.

 

Partners

Unesco-Information and Informatics Division

Agence de la Francophonie

Ministry for Foreign Affairs- Mission for the New Technologies of Information and Communication

Ministry of Culture and Communication- Délégation générale à la langue française

 

Organization Committee

Mr Jean-Yves BABONNEAU, Director of the Agence française pour le nommage d’internet en coopération.

Mr Jean-Pierre BOYER, General secretary of the French commission for the UNESCO.

Mr Bernard CORNU, former Director of the IUFM de Grenoble.

Mr André DANZIN, former Director of the Institut national de recherche en informatique et en automatique, President of the Forum international des sciences humaines.

Mr André LARQUIÉ, former President of Radio France Internationale, President of the Communication Committee of the French commission for the UNESCO.

Mr Daniel MALBERT, Technical advisor for the information society in the Délégation générale à la langue française, French ministry for Culture and Communication.

Mr Jean-Gabriel MASTRANGELO, Technical advisor for the communication issues, French commission for the UNESCO.

Mr Victor MONTVILOFF, Programme specialist, Information and Informatics Division of the UNESCO.

 

 

Secretariat

French commission for the UNESCO

Mr Jean-Gabriel MASTRANGELO

Tel: 01.53.69.37.35

E-mail: jean-gabriel.mastrangelo@diplomatie.fr

 

 

Mrs Véronique FRANCESCHINI

Tel: 01. 53.69.39.55

Fax: 01.53.69.32.23

E-mail: véronique.franceschini@diplomatie.fr

Última versión, 2 de marzo del 2001.