Net should have more local content in regional languages: ITU -Governance Now

Net should have more local content in regional languages: ITU

Proportion of English speaking internet users on decline

PTI | May 26, 2010

There is a need for more local content in regional languages on the Internet, a report by International Telecommunication Union (ITU) 2010 has said.

The report said the web, which is still dominated by English language, needs to change as the proportion of English-speaking Internet users is declining.

The report, jointly prepared by the ITU, UNESCO and WHO, was released today at the World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC) 2010, being held here.

"English is spoken by just 15 per cent of the world population and non-English speakers are increasingly growing online. Another indication for the diversification of content on the Internet is the growing number of websites that are registered under country domain names. Some of the highest 2005-09 growth rates in terms of newly registered domain names were found in India (.in), Russia (.ru) and China (.cn)," the report said.

The report provides a mid-term review of the progress made in creating a global information society by 2015, a commitment that governments agreed upon at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) that took place in Geneva in 2003 and in Tunis in 2005.

Sami Al Basheer Al Morshid, director(telecommunication development) of ITU, said that the number of Internet users has more than doubled since 2003, when the WSIS first met, and today more than 25 per cent of the world's population is using the Internet.

He said as many as 75 per cent of all households have a television whereas only 25 per cent have Internet access. In the developing countries, home Internet penetration is as low as 12 per cent, he added.

The report proposes a list of 50 concrete indicators to monitor the targets over the next five years, until 2015.

"The report made three recommendations on the policies and measures needed to help achieve the targets, and these include ensuring that half the world population gets access to broadband by 2015, building an information and communication technology (ICT) literate society globally and developing online content and applications," Morshid said.

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