Columns

Internationalize the Internet!

  • July 2000
  • By Michael Dertouzos

Wanted: a new breed of dot coms to provide the "total translation" that will transform the Internet into a truly international medium.

   

There are 1 billion of us. We should build our own Internet and lock out the English-language Internet! That was the undercurrent theme I encountered last March at a Taipei conference titled "A Chinese Language Based Internet Economy."

There is ample justification for the Chinese, and other non-English speakers, to be frustrated over their inability to access the Internet. They want to participate and benefit from this huge socioeconomic revolution. But the overwhelming majority do not understand English, or the other mostly European languages of the Internet, and they feel left out. For the Chinese people, the problem is worse because of their many ideograms, which make keyboard use nearly impossible. The Chinese, like all the rest of us, will have to live in a world of many human languages. What might they and we do about it?

 

To read the entire article you must log in:

Most of our content — all daily news, blogs, and videos — is free. Magazine stories are paid. To read this story, you must have a subscription or you must use a reading credit. Registration to Technology Review is free and entitles registrants to three free reading credits.

Username or REGISTER
Password  
   
 
Advertisement

MAGAZINE

Can We Build Tomorrow's Breakthroughs?

Manufacturing in the United States is in trouble. That's bad news not just for the country's economy but for the future of innovation.

Videos

Meet 2011 TR35 Winner June Andronick

More

Advertisement

Technology Review Lists

TR50

Our list of the 50 most innovative companies, including the following:

Goldwind Science and Technology

Roche

Applied Materials

Lyric Semiconductor

More

Advertisement

Facebook

Advertisement