Subject: GKD97 List Summary 11/9 - 11/15

                   GKD97 List Summary 11/9 - 11/15

This message attempts to summarize briefly the major discussion points
made on the GKD97 list.  Inevitably, many valuable points will not be
captured here, and new List members are encouraged to obtain past List
archives. Currently, they can be obtained from the GKD97 WWW site
<http://www.globalknowledge.org/mailarchives> in a HyperMail format,
which groups messages by thread (subject) and also allows full-text
searches of all the List messages. For those without WWW access, the
digest version (a plain text compilation of each week's messages) can be
retrieved via anonymous FTP from tristram.edc.org.  The path is
pub/gkd97/digest.


Thread: Technology notes

The Internet experience in India will undergo considerable change soon,
as the government owned ISP monopoly, VSNL, is opened to competition. 
Over 100 companies are eager to compete with VSNL, and the Department of
Telecommunications estimates that the number of Internet users will grow
from the current 80,000 to about 1.5 million in the next three years.

FRACNET is celebrating its 10th anniversary, in part by issuing an
invitation to join its French-language family planning discussion list. 
To subscribe to the FRACNET-L forum, please send the commend "SUBSCRIBE
FRACNET-L", followed by your name, to the address
.

A Spanish-language discussion list for Canary people interested in
improving the lives of people on the Canary Islands is now on-line.  To
subscribe, send a message to  with "SUB
CANARIAS yourfirstname yourlastname" in the body of the message. 
Interested people may also obtain information from
<http://www.rediris.es/list/info/canarias.html>.

INFOEDU-RESUMEN, a digest of information in INFOEDU (Education in Latin
America), is now available.  To subscribe send an e-mail to
 with the words "subscribe infoedu-resumen".

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has released a proposed
recommendation for HTML 4.0, which will provide more standard tools and
methods for web page designers.  Among the new features are improved 
support for the ISO 10646 character set, which allows the use of 
right-to-left text and mixed-language pages.  List members may wish to 
visit the Consortium's web site at <http://www.w3.orgs.es/list/info/canarias.html>.


Thread: Languages on the Internet

This week again saw considerable discussion of this issue.  Most
participants seemed to agree that English is now dominant on the Internet,
but participants did not agree whether efforts should be made to encourage
the use of other languages.  One member again argued that the use of
languages is akin to a marketplace, in which little can be done to push
one language or suppress a language.  Instead, the utility and
adaptability of languages will determine their prominence in global usage. 

Some discussion centered around translation issues.  One member posted a
news release for a software package that promises to be able to translate
from one of a set of languages into another language.  Another participant
wrote of his own company, which produces a disease management information
system that can provide information in any of five languages, with the
eventual capability to add more.  The implication of this line of
reasoning is that it may not be necessary to become a polyglot, since
technology may be able to bridge language barriers. 

Several List members have pushed the idea that English should be a
universal "second" or "auxiliary" language, to facilitate communication by
people around the world.  Others found this objectionable, noting that the
effort was "another case of cultural and personal domination." 

Other members encouraged multilingualism.  In addition to the benefits of
knowing several languages, one List member felt that the process of
learning several languages improves critical thinking skills.  Some
participants felt that one must know the language of a culture in order to
know it fully.  Others felt that one can gain a significant sense of a
particular culture just by using one's inherent power of observation. 


Thread: IT and the environment

Last week a List member wrote to inquire about the relationship of IT and
environmental concerns.  This week one participant wrote to report that
his research is covering the role of IT in environmental decision-making
efforts, especially in the Iguacu Basin of South America. 


Thread: Request for information

Christiana Shorunkeh-Sawyerr requests information about the impact of
technology on distance education.  Contact Ms. Shorunkeh-Sawyerr at
. 


Thread: References and web sites

Book: "Civil Society Computer Networks: The Perilous Road of Cyber-
     politics."  Ph.D. dissertation by Francois Fortier, York
     University, Canada.  Available on-line at:
     <http://www.yorku.ca/research/dkproj/fortierml>

Report: "Distance Education in Higher Education Institutions" by the
     US Department of Education.  100 page PDF file.  Available at:
     <http://nces.ed.gov/pubs98/distance/index.html>

International Development Research Centre
<http://www.idrc.ca/pubs98/distance/index.html>