Subject: linguistic and cultural support

From: jean-michel bernier de portzamparc <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 25 Sep 2011 16:06:42 +0200

Dear all,
We, nicknamed "JEDI"s (Jefsey disciples), have often tried to make the IETF
understand and respect the implications of linguistic, cultural, political,
economical diversities on protocol definition. Jefsey obtained the RFC 4645,
4646, 4647 consensus he wanted.  We also obtained the IDNA2008 consensus
which was necessary to warranty the internet stability, its capacity to
support any diversity by subsidiarity, and the emergence of the IUI. We
still have a problem with the IETF/Unicode relations, the WG/PRECIS, the
IDNA IAB work, the ICANN/VIP work on variants, extension of the punycode
algorithm to support French and and the orthotypography (scripting syntax)
of most of the other languages, etc.

May be this quote will help some of our colleagues to understand better why
the IETF is to "influence those who design, use and manage the internet" for
it to offer users with a better multilinguistic support.

“We live in a global world,”...
“We have to understand that world if we … are going to be able to not only
defend this country, but to extend our relationships to others so that we
can work together to defend the world that we live in.”
“The reality is that we have to reflect the nation we live in and we have to
reflect the world we are a part of."
“Languages are the key to understanding that world.”... "It’s also critical
to the effectiveness of current U.S. military operations." ...
"If we are going to advance stability in some of the countries we are
fighting in today, we have to be able to understand what motivates those
countries, what motivates their people, and to understand their culture,
beliefs, faiths, ideologies, hatreds and loves".
“So it is crucial to our national security to be able to have a strong
language ability”.

-  Leon E. Panetta (8/23/2011). US Defense Secretary.

Mr. Panetta speaks on behalf of the USA, but I believe that if his
understanding may be late, it is also true for every other nation.

Multilinguistics, as Jefsey defined it from our IETF experience, is the
cybernetics of the linguistic diversity. How languages and cultures can be
adequately be supported and result in positive synergetic feed backs. Its
key recipe seems to be first based upon a true network linguistic
neutrality. One does not need to have more than one language to be a
multilingist, one just need to understand and/or research how to better
support linguistic and cultural diversity.

As Mr. Panetta stated, it is critical to stability and effectiveness in our
global world.
Portzamparc.