[Indic-computing-users] [APC Forum] Web Networks: Technology Supports Culture (fwd)

[Frederick N. (FN) <fr...@by...>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------

OCTOBER 15, 2004 - 10:09 ET

Web Networks: Technology Supports Culture - Aboriginal
Languages Now Easier on the Web

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(CCNMatthews - Oct. 15, 2004) - A new solution puts a
Toronto firm at the forefront of implementing languages on the Web.

Users can now surf the Web in Inuktitut on any computer, without extra
software or special settings. "Because the syllabics issue is handled by
our Web server," says Oliver Zielke of Web Networks, "the user's fonts
and browser settings don't matter." Site maintenance, he says, is a
snap. Webmasters can write in Inuktitut within the customized interface,
push a button, and it's done.

Web Networks of Toronto worked with Pirurvik Centre of Iqaluit to
develop Attavik.net, an application suite that makes it easy to manage
documents, directories, calendars, registrations, and online payment in
the Inuit language.

"The Government of Nunavut is committed," says Eva Aariak, Languages
Commissioner of Nunavut, "to making Inuktitut its working language. This
type of development puts that goal within reach." Ease of use and
accessibility will empower Inuktitut speakers, she says, especially the
young, by giving them an opportunity other language users take for
granted in this computer age.

"In the big picture," says Chuck Gilhuly, executive director of Nunavut
Municipal Training Organization, "maintaining the viability of a
language is a matter of making things functional in the language. If we
had to become Web site programmers and write in code, we would have
never achieved the functionality that we have, or else we would have
gone broke trying to do it."

The technology behind Attavik.net can be used to serve Web sites in
other syllabic languages, such as Cree, Oji-cree, Naskapi, and Korean.

Web Networks provides Web site services to socially committed
organizations. Its clients include Amnesty International, the
Conservation Council of Ontario, and the Canadian Labour Congress.

More information is available at www.attavik.net and www.web.net.

-30-


FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Web Networks
Oliver Zielke
CEO
1 (800) 932 - 7003 ext. 18
ol...@we...
or
Pirurvik Centre
Gavin Nesbitt
(867) 979 - 4722
gne...@pi...


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the APC vision - a world in which all people have easy, equal and affordable 
access to the creative potential of information and communication technologies 
(ICTs) to improve their lives and create more
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