Launch of Multilingual Internet Committee (MIC)
May 13, 2007
Talal Abu-Ghazaleh College of Business
Amman, Jordan
By Samar Al-Labbad
Chair, Multilingual Internet Committee (MIC)
Arab Knowledge Management Society (AKMS)
Ladies and Gentlemen, Excellencies and Distinguished guests:
First, I would like to welcome you all and thank you for joining us today for the inauguration of the MIC. Special thanks to H.E. Eng. Basem Rousan, Minister of Information and Communications Technology, for being with us today, and for his critical support and leadership. I would also like to express our appreciation to Mr. Baher Esmat, Middle East Liaison of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), for the spirit of support, cooperation and commitment that he and his organization have brought to this initiative. The support, partnership and collaboration of those of us here today, along with numerous other organizations, will be crucial to the work and success of the Multilingual Internet Committee.
The promise and the power of information and communication technologies, particularly the Internet, to connect, inform, educate, facilitate and empower, have been recognized by all. However as powerful as modern ICTs have been in breaking down barriers, they have also highlighted other challenges not so easily overcome, and chief among these is the barrier of language.
No sooner had the Internet shown its promise, then it also showed us its, and our, limitations. I think we are all fairly familiar with the underlying issues of language; our main challenge and focus development of internationalized domain names (particularly Arabic), Arabic content and applications, and minimal prudential government/non-governmental regulation and administration.
The Multilingual Internet Committee (MIC) that AKMS and ICANN are launching today is obviously not the first initiative of this kind. Previous efforts by MINC, AINC, ESCWA, UNESCO, the ICT Task Force and numerous others have laid much of the groundwork and I note these organizations in particular as deserving much credit and appreciation. But in laying that basic groundwork, they have highlighted difficult management and policy issues that, because they have been so difficult and sometimes contentious to resolve, have ultimately prevented many well-intentioned projects from complete fulfillment of their initial objectives.
From our own point-of-view, as Arabs, both the technical and policy challenges may seem less than daunting. But when you put multilingual internet issues in the appropriate international context, with hundreds of languages in different scripts and alphabets, and some that are only spoken (not-written) languages, the real import of the challenge becomes apparent. How do you meet such diverse needs while maintaining the security, stability and usability of the international Internet system?
Faced with such complex conundrums, previous multilingual internet projects in the Arab world (and elsewhere), have lost momentum and some have gone into dormancy. So the MIC we launch today is intended to renew, revitalize and build upon previous efforts with due regard and appreciation for all the work that has been done by manifold individuals and organizations over the last decade.
Obviously, any real multilingual solution is going to depend on and be developed in cooperation with ICANN. AKMS has had the pleasure of working with ICANN for many years now and I have always been impressed by their willingness to participate, support and engage in regional projects, particularly in our region, the Arab world. The MIC is just the latest example of that commitment on their part.
As we move forward with this project we are gong to educate, inform and involve key Arab Internet constituencies in the public, for-profit, civil society, and government sectors. As we do so we will want to keep in mind a few basic principles, chiefly the international character of the Internet, interoperability and stability, and the necessity for dialogue, flexibility and compromise.
From a technical and financial standpoint there is nothing stopping us (the Arab region) from developing an Arab Internet. An internet is really nothing more than a large group of interconnected servers and personal computers with a common system of communication. We could set that up with the Arab League easily. And the Chinese could create their own, and the Russians and Japanese and so on; but that isn’t what most people want. We want a universal yet diverse Internet. So as we go forward the watchwords are patience and compromise.
The MIC partnership has been agreed between ICANN and AKMS; but it is really a partnership between ICANN and the Arab world. As Mr. Esmat is ICANN’s liaison for the Middle East, so AKMS is a liaison, a representative for the Arab world; the real partnership, cooperation and progress is between visionary Arab leaders like H.E. Minister Rousan and the Arab people leaders like him represent. In the months ahead we will do our best to live up to this goal of inclusive representation of all stakeholders and work closely with all who value both the unique cultural and linguistic heritage of the Arab people, and the richness, depth and promise of global brotherhood, friendship, sharing and cooperation offered by the international Internet.