One more comment on definition of "Internationalization"

One more comment on definition of "Internationalization" at
http://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-i18n:

The first sentence reads:

"Internationalization (often written as "I18N", where 18 is the number of 
letters between 'I' and 'N') is the design and development of a product 
that is enabled for multinational, and possibly multilingual, deployment."

I think that the end of that sentence, "multinational, and possibly
multilingual, deployment" is confusing and doesn't match the definition
and the work we have done under the term "Internationalization" at the
W3C for the last 7 or more years. Giving more importance to the
multiNATIONAL aspect than to the multiLINGUAL aspect may make sense
from an ethymological point of view, but that's not what the definitions
are about. For the work in the Software industry in general, the
multiLINGUAL aspect is much more important. Also, multiSCRIPT is
a very important aspect.

Here are the definition that has been used in the W3C Activity Proposal:
"Internationalization in the context of information technology means 
enabling the use of a technology with any language, script, and culture. 
Localization means the actual configuration or adaptation of technology or 
content to a particular language and culture."

I don't mind if the definitions are not the same word-for-word, but
there should at least in spirit be a certain syncronization of the
stuff that we are doing at the W3C.

I sincerely hope that this can be fixed as soon as possible.


Regards,    Martin.

Received on Thursday, 4 November 2004 12:10:54 UTC