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The Internet Shifts East

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the lots-of-proxy-servers dept.

Logic Bomb writes: "The San Francisco Chronicle has an article discussing the World Intellectual Property Organization's prediction that in less than 10 years, Chinese will be the most widely-used language on the web. Assuming the Internet becomes a truly global entity, this is an obvious (and mathematically correct) conclusion. On the other hand, the implementation of the Internet in places without certain civil liberties provides an interesting challenge to typical Western (idealist) notions about what the Internet does for society. Would you even consider the average wealthy Chinese citizen with online access truly 'on the Internet'? And how is the Internet supposed to draw people together when the same old language barrier still exists?"

2 of 447 comments (clear)

  1. Why are american standards always ignored? by evilviper · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I'll admit this is slightly off-topic, but this story reminded me of all the times that a US standard is ignored overseas. I wonder if anyone can even begin to explain it away.

    There's a million instances where a company or government essentially defines a standard before any other countries have even ventured into the territory. Simple enough. It seems that when other countries, usually European countries, get involved with that same technology, they adopt a standard incompatible with the US defined one.

    The first to come to mind is voltage, AC frequency, and the type of connctor used. That's only one thing however. Everything is incompatible for some reason. Even standards organizations... IEEE802 projects rarely exactly match the currently implimented products. Token Ring, Ethernet, etc.

    In networking a T-1 != E-1, and a T-3 != E-3.

    This could go on forever...

    --
    Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  2. nice sized thread... by dz79 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Great thread, folks! Obviously language will be a tense issue until we get together and figure it out.

    For more fun ideas on what it will take to live in a truly global civilization, check out The United Nations: http://www.un.org The World Federalist Association: http://www.wfa.org and for those of you with a spiritual streak, check out the Baha'i Faith: http://www.bahai.org

    Dan