[Air-l] Language on the Internet (was AoIR in Latin-America)

[Alex Kuskis]

Geert,
I think that's wishful thinking on your part. Global language usage
is a function of political, economic, technological and cultural
power. The English-speaking world (including ESL) has that in
spades and shows no signs of giving it up, despite the rise of
China (where they're studying English like crazy). The following
is an extract from a Toronto Globe & Mail article no longer acessible
without paying a fee. Noting the claim that English will add its
millionth word sometime this year -

David Crystal, a world authority on English, said any attempt to count the
number of English words is futile, but he agreed that English has achieved
international dominance and is growing faster than any other language.
The reason, he said, is power.
"That's the only reason languages spread: because of the power of the people
who speak them," Prof. Crystal, editor of the Cambridge Encyclopedia of the
English Language, said from North Wales.
"Every significant cultural innovation of modern times - from the invention
of the radio, to the Internet, to air traffic control - began in an
English-speaking country or was immediately facilitated by an
English-speaking country. It really is amazing."
Today, an estimated 1.5 billion people speak English. A British study
predicts the number of people studying the language will reach two billion
within a decade. About 250 million people are now studying it in China
alone. English has become the language of business and diplomacy, technology
and popular culture, science and academic conferences.
"Never has there been a language spoken by so many people as English," Prof.
Crystal said.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060211.wxenglish0211/BNStory/National/home

Furthermore, you might want to look at the following UNESCO
report on measuring Linguistic Diversity on the Internet:
http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=20804&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

"Hundreds of local languages may be sidelined in the drive to bridge
the digital divide because of technological oversight and political
inertia, according to a new UNESCO publication entitled "Measuring
Linguistic Diversity on the Internet".

UNESCO is calling for new ways to monitor information societies which go
beyond a techno-centric view to consider the social impact of the Internet.

According to the new publication that was prepared under the auspices of
the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, there are no accurate figures
concerning language use on the Internet. For example, there have been
claims that diversity is increasing because of soaring numbers of
non-native English speakers (mostly Chinese). Indeed, it has been
estimated only 36% of actual Internet users are anglophone.

However, this is an estimate based upon other estimates produced largely
by a marketing company. "Absent from the data is any kind of actual
survey of Internet users," says the UIS publication. There is no
indication of the language these people actually speak or use on the
Internet."
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The question of language usage on the Internet is complex and your
dismissal of English language dominance is not supportable at this
time (which is not to say that other major languages shouldn't be
accommodated by the academic world)........Alex Kuskis

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "geert lovink" <geert at desk.nl>
To: <air-l at listserv.aoir.org>
Sent: Monday, March 20, 2006 4:49 AM
Subject: Re: [Air-l] AoIR in Latin-America


> No worries! People who speak in English are a minority in this world.
> The content in English on the Net is shrinking (relatively speaking)
> and so are the users for whom English is their first language. I guess
> it is time for Internet researchers to wake up to this new reality.
> Please read the basic statistics. We're spinning off those who speak
> English. It's not the other way round... Those who write in English are
> in the minority, big way. Let's not portray it otherwise.
>
> Geert
>
> On 20 Mar 2006, at 3:44 AM, Nathaniel Poor wrote:
>
>> I was thinking: "If we spin off the people who don't speak English....
>> who may not even be on the list in the first place... then we will
>> have a more restricted view of the Internet..."
..............................[snip].........................................