[A12n-forum] Re: Fwd: Grants offered to help shape Internet

["Don Osborn" <dzo@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Quick follow up...  The phrase "foreign-language character sets," although
unfortunately ethnocentric (whose languages are foreign?), implies Unicode,
which is not as widely understood among African ICT experts as it might be.

IETF also deals with language tagging issues like use of ISO-639 and
supplementary tags.

For more information on the program and how to apply, see:
http://www.isoc.org/educpillar/fellowship/overview.shtml

-----Original Message-----
From: a12n-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:a12n-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Don Osborn
Sent: Saturday, January 20, 2007 9:38 PM
To: a12n-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [A12n-forum] Fwd: Grants offered to help shape Internet

FYI, the following AP article was seen on DigAfrica. It seems like this
would include attention to Unicode ...  DZO

--- In DigAfrica@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "yamanjanl" <yamanjanl@...> wrote:

Grants offered to help shape Internet
Internet Engineering Task Force hopes to encourage developing countries By
Anick Jesdanun The Associated Press
Updated: 10:25 p.m. ET Jan. 10, 2007

NEW YORK - All-expense-paid trips are being offered to help ensure that
technologists in developing countries have a say in shaping the Internet's
architecture for years to come.

Technical standards before the Internet Engineering Task Force govern e-mail
formatting, foreign-language character sets and other Internet basics to
ensure that people around the world can communicate with one another through
their Internet-connected computers.

Standards can make or break companies - an African business, for instance,
might suddenly find its products shunned should they suddenly be
incompatible with offerings from industrialized nations.
Lack of progress has affected the ability for instant-messaging programs to
talk with one another and for Web addresses to use non-English characters.

But because Americans and Europeans got to the Internet first, engineers
elsewhere have complained they haven't had enough say in some of the
Internet's fundamental decisions.

To encourage greater participation from developing countries, where Internet
usage is growing, the nonprofit Internet Society is offering grants for up
to five people to attend each Internet Engineering Task Force meeting.
Covered expenses include meeting registration, airfare and hotels.

Each recipient will also be paired with an IETF veteran to serve as a
mentor.

"There are many talented individuals in developing regions that have an
interest in and follow the IETF's work and would benefit from the
opportunity to participate in person," Lynn St. Amour, the Internet
Society's chief executive, said in a statement.

The next IETF meetings are scheduled for March in Prague, the Czech
Republic, and for July in Chicago. Applications for both are due Feb. 2.

The Internet Society is paying for the program through corporate
sponsorships, the initial money coming from Internet search company Google
Inc.

C 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16566161/

--- End forwarded message ---

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