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UNESCO encourages Governments to participate in the next meeting of ICANN 06-06-2008 (Paris) © iStock UNESCO encourages Governments to participate in the next meeting of the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), to be held in Paris from 22 to 26 June 2008, in Le Meridien Montparnasse (19, rue du Commandant Mouchotte, 75014 Paris). The GAC plays a key role in guiding public policy issues discussed within ICANN, particularly with regard to the development of Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs). IDNs are the Internet domain names that could contain letters with diacritics, such as accent marks, or characters from non-Latin scripts. Currently the Internet domain names, for example “unesco.org" or “louvre.fr”, can contain only Latin scripts. UNESCO is committed to actively participating in the development of IDNs as part of its broader commitment to promote universal access to information, and cultural and linguistic diversity in cyberspace. Membership of the GAC is open to all representatives of Governments, public authorities as well as intergovernmental organizations. For more information on ICANN and GAC, and to register for the Paris meeting, please click here

ICTs in Education Prize: call for nominations 23-05-2008 (Paris) © iStock "Digital Opportunities for All: Preparing Students for 21st-Century Skills" is the theme of the 2008 UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of ICTs in Education. Funded by the Kingdom of Bahrain, the US$50,000 prize is divided between two winners. Every year, this prize rewards activities that demonstrate best practice as well as creative use of ICTs to enhance learning, teaching and overall educational performance. Submissions for candidature must reach UNESCO via the governments of Member States, in consultation with their UNESCO National Commissions, or by international non-governmental organizations which maintain formal relations with the Organization. The deadline for submissions is 31 August 2008. Winners will be celebrated at an award ceremony on 14 January 2009 at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.

On-Line Research DIGITAL DREAMING: A National Review of Indigenous Media and Communications Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission http://www.atsic.gov.au/Programs/broadcasting/Digital_Dreaming/default.asp Guidelines for Strengthening Indigenous Languages Adopted by Assembly of Alaska Native Educators. Anchorage, Alaska, February 6, 2001 Alaska Native Knowledge Network http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/standards/Language.html The Role of the Computer in Learning Ndjébbana Glenn Auld. Language Learning & Technology. Special Issue, Technology and Indigenous Languages. Volume 6, Number 2, May 2002. http://llt.msu.edu/vol6num2/default.html Internet Strategies for Empowering Indigenous Communities in Teaching and Learning Ron Aust, Brian Newberry, and Paul Resta. INET, 1996. http://www.isoc.org/isoc/whatis/conferences/inet/96/proceedings/h4/h4_4.htm Charter Schools Keep Native Language Alive by Rhoda Barton. Northwest Education Magazine, Vol. 9, No.3, Spring 2004. http://www.nwrel.org/nwedu/09-03/charter.php Saving a Language with Computers, Tape Recorders, and Radio Ruth Bennet. 2003. In Nuturing Native Languages. Reyner, J., Octaviana V. Trujillo, Roberto Luis Carrasco, and Louise Lockard. Northern Arizona University. http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/NNL/NNL_5.pdf Reversing Russia's Indigenous Languages Shift in View of International Experience: A Policy Brief for the FSA Contemporary Issues Fellowship Program. Tamamara Borgoiakova. http://www.irex.org/programs/ci/spotlight/03-feb-jun/Borgoiakova.pdf CAN THE WEB HELP SAVE MY LANGUAGE?Laura Buszard-Welcher. Published in Leanne Hinton and Ken Hale, eds. (2001) The Green Book of Language Revitalization in Practice. Pp. 331-48. San Diego: Academic Press. http://www.potawatomilang.org/Reference/endlgsweb4.htm

Measuring linguistic diversity on the Internet UNESCO has been emphasizing the concept of “knowledge societies”, which stresses plurality and diversity instead of a global uniformity in order to bridge the digital divide and to form an inclusive information society. An important theme of this concept is that of multilingualism for cultural diversity and participation for all the languages in cyberspace.

Short Documentary for Unesco on Endangered Languages

UNESCO RED BOOK ON ENDANGERED LANGUAGES: EUROPE

Why try to preserve endangered languages? Wouldn't the world be simpler if there were fewer languages? Why care if languages die out? The truth is that a people's identity and culture are intimately tied to their language. Each language is unique. No one knows what riches may be hidden within an endangered language. We may never learn about the cultures whose languages have disappeared. And the wholesale loss of languages that we face today will greatly restrict how much we can learn about human culture, human cognition and the nature of language.   'ōlelo Hawai'i     Gaeilge Success Stories Language preservation is difficult, but there are some success stories. Some languages are literally coming back from the dead. Below are just a few of them. Hawaiian Hawaiian had become nearly extinct when the U.S. banned schools from teaching students in Hawaiian after annexing Hawai'i in 1898. Today, close to 10,000 Hawaiians speak their native tongue as compared to under 1,000 in 1983. This remarkable resurgence is supported in part by the use of technology. Hebrew Hebrew evolved in the past century from a written language with no native speakers into Israel's national tongue, spoken by 5 million people. Irish Gaelic The Irish have succeeded in preserving their native Gaelic to the point where it is now spoken by 13% of the population of the Republic of Ireland. Resources The International clearinghouse for endangered languages Foundation for endangered languages Bibliography on language endangerment and language revitalization UNESCO Red Book on endangered languages: Europe Wikipedia article on endangered language SIL endangered languages Bibliography of materials on endangered languages Language revival Technology for endangered languages in Australia OLAC: Open Language Archives Community Online resources for endangered languages (OREL)