Originally Posted by specofdust Ok, firstly, there is a hell of a lot more to the internet then the English bits. The internet is very much seperated into languages, but just because you don't see them doesn't mean the other bits don't exist.
Secondly, India is an English speaking country(the biggest in the world by population). You should know that.
Thirdly, just because a lot of the internet is in English does't mean people can't get much out of it. So long as there are people working on Chinese, Arabic, Italian, Portogeuse etc. versions of sites like Wikipedia, the internet has a massive purpose.
Ok, some good points, although I don't think I should know India is the biggest english speaking country in the world.
I'm talking more about the little languages. Not Arabic or Chinese or something, but tribe languages and the native languages of Africa and places like that.
Well, to take my India point a bit further. There are around 20 regional languages in India, from what I understand most people speak English and the traditional regional language. Give out computers to people and yes, they might go to the Urdu parts of the web, or they could just check out the Englsih bits. Options are generally more common not less.
Africa is in a similar but less developed situation. English and French are spoken by a large number of the 850M people. There are in the region of 500 regional languages and only 60 countries, so most have adopted an extenally developed common tongue(English, French, and Arabic being the most common I believe). You're correct that in some situations there would be a problem but I'm sure software that works irrespective of the language the person speaks when they start using the computer could be developed, given the strength of some of the big names behind this project. Even if not, the problem isn't as bad as you might think at first.
I agree, the kinks would be worked out over a few years. If people really want to learn via the internet, they will probably be willing to learn a major internet langauge if they didn't speak one already.
I hate to point out one thing.. Seeing that this OLPC launches is good, but what about the religius fanatics, regime leaders and the likes, that most likely will use this as a method of "education". This is not limited to Arabic speaking people, i.e. those that believe in the Koran and such, but if someone high enough up the regime's ladder thinks propaganda and finds a way to broadcast that onto these OLPC's, we'll have a major problem... Maybe it's just me being paranoid..
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I'm talking more about the little languages. Not Arabic or Chinese or something, but tribe languages and the native languages of Africa and places like that.
Africa is in a similar but less developed situation. English and French are spoken by a large number of the 850M people. There are in the region of 500 regional languages and only 60 countries, so most have adopted an extenally developed common tongue(English, French, and Arabic being the most common I believe). You're correct that in some situations there would be a problem but I'm sure software that works irrespective of the language the person speaks when they start using the computer could be developed, given the strength of some of the big names behind this project. Even if not, the problem isn't as bad as you might think at first.