RE: Avoiding Cultural Influences

All,

I will bring this to the attention of the Internet Society...Any one care to
join me at INET 99? June 23-25 in San Jose.

Check www.isoc.org for details. It might be a good idea to set up a BOF to
discuss this.

-----Original Message-----
From: w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org]On
Behalf Of Kynn Bartlett
Sent: Monday, June 14, 1999 6:57 PM
To: Nir Dagan
Cc: kynn@idyllmtn.com; w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: Re: Avoiding Cultural Influences


At 03:27 PM 6/14/1999 , Nir Dagan wrote:
>Your article makes the point that writing simple English and using images
>will make one's site more international. I disagree.

You disagree that it doesn't at least _help_?  (BTW, "simple
English" is your term -- I made a point to make sure _not_
to assume that pages would be written in English.)

I think that proper use of images to convey meaning and
use of plain language can help a page be more easily under-
stood by a broader audience including people who speak a
different language than that of the page.

Is that saying that it's all that's necessary for
"internationalization"?  No.  But it will help some, and it's
certainly an easier sell than convincing web designers they
need to create multiple, i18n'ed sites in various languages
specialized for specific countries in order to feel they
are communicating effectively.

You suggest that "A localized version of a commercial site
must be developed by (or at least with) people of the locality."
And that's a good goal, but it's a lot of work and a lot of
expense.  As many commercial sites may not choose to do this,
I think it's good to tell them OTHER things that they MIGHT
want to do.

Do you really think there's no benefit in images and plain
language to international users?


--
Kynn Bartlett                                    mailto:kynn@hwg.org
President, HTML Writers Guild                    http://www.hwg.org/
AWARE Center Director                          http://aware.hwg.org/

Received on Monday, 14 June 1999 19:47:21 UTC