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Projects :: MultilingualWeb

MultilingualWeb: Advancing the Multilingual Web, Thematic Network

Given the importance of the World Wide Web to communication in all walks of life, and as the share of English Web pages decreases and that of languages spoken in the European Union increases, the importance of ensuring the multilingual viability of the World Wide Web is paramount. In order to build on current internationalization of the Web and move it forward, it is important to raise awareness of existing best practices and standards related to managing content on the multilingual Web, and look forward to what remains to be done. The project is coordinated by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an organization of currently over 400 members worldwide from research and industry, headed by the Web's inventor, Sir Tim Berners-Lee. The other partners represent stakeholders from a range of affected areas. The project will last for two years. At the core will be four workshops, led by the partners but open to public participation. The dissemination of information and discussions arising from the network will be supported by publicly archived mailing lists and other tools such as a wiki, a twitter stream, etc. Information and announcements will be on the W3C web site, which will guarantee high visibility and stable long-term access by the public. Partners will also provide input to practical initiatives that will be carried out in parallel at the W3C. Two face-to-face meetings and a mailing list are planned to facilitate these discussions. These initiatives are aimed at supporting the development of the multilingual Web by providing an online internationalization validator, training materials related to web internationalization, and results for a test suite for internationalization features of major browsers. The actual work on those initiatives is not funded by the Thematic Network, however these initiatives provide a channel for the network to extend its influence far beyond the end of the project.

Last update: 05/10/2010

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