A Multilingual Internet
Group (MLiGrp) is investigating the usability of the internet
for the next billion netizens.
ITRealms
Online gathered that this investigation is expected to have matured
by 2013 with official launch of MLiGrp.
Just as the group anticipated
that the next billions of internet-users would be those
using Arabic, Urdu and Farsi as their native language and alphabets.
This group of people, according
to MLiGrp, would form the centre of what their current experience of
web-usability is like under the English language.
Also, ITRealms
Online gathered that the debut of this MLiGrp officially will open
the doors to many billions of customers, citizens, correspondents and
contributors that currently are reported to have been excluded by the dominance
of English and the western alphabet.
Although pages may be translated,
most web addresses on demand are the American Standard Code for Information
Interchange (ASCII) script-based on the western alphabet, making it harder for
those not familiar with these characters to navigate the web effectively.
To further strengthen its
determination, the group launched a website, www.MLiGrp.com, to extend the market study of Internet usability focused on the Arabic, Urdu and Farsi
regions, communities and languages.
Also, the study will aim to
research the usability of the Internet to date, identify
the remaining challenges for the coming Multilingual Internet
and their coming multi-billion Netizens.
Although not limited to Internet users in the states where Arabic, Urdu and Farsi are
generally used, but will include native speakers of these languages all over
the world for whom their language has always been an extension of their
heritage and identity especially on the Internet.
This development, obviously in
response to the ICANN’s new generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) programme, recent
efforts by the United Nations, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU),
and the U.S Department of Commerce, to extend the reach of the Internet,
the research results will be invaluable to any business or organisation seeking
to engage with new internet populations speaking these
languages.
Speaking at the launch of the
research project, Mr. Khaled Fattal, chairman of The Multilingual Internet Group, said they are thrilled at the prospect of this
market study and of going directly to end users as citizens to tell what they
want and need.
“We have also reached out to
local country authorities and regulators whose responses to cooperate have been
excellent. The study will either confirm what we know or teach us what we did
not know,” he said.
Fattal also pointed out that in
recent years, the Internet user needs and habits all over
the world have changed; nowhere more so than in emerging markets and especially
in the Arab world since the “Arab spring”.
“Internet
users have doubled in the region in the last 2 years and we expect this change
to be more significant in 2013 and beyond. Times like these require diligent
awareness of these changes and trends,” he said.
Remmy Nweke
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
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