[Wikipedia-l] Languages

[Merritt L. Perkins]

What language should be used in the Encyclopedia? The English language
used in the UK and other parts of the world differs from that used in
North America. Translating an encyclopedia into another language is an
overwhelming project. It should be done by someone who translates it into
his native language. One approach might be to follow each paragraph in
English by the paragraph translated into the other language. This could
be tried out gradually, adding more and more of an article and then
starting on a few other articles
I have had correspondence in English with more than 50 people all over
the world. Some of them were fluent in two or three other languages. In
one place on the island of Borneo there are no roads so people travel by
boat on crocodile infested rivers. In Malawi one family sleeps standing
up when it rains because the roof leaks. 
In poor countries some families could not afford to operate a computer
even though it was given to them. Their diets are poor, they have no
shoes, and sanitation is bad. They might be able to use computers in
schools and libraries.
Schools or libraries would need to have several computers that can
connect to the Internet so that each user would have time enough to use
one 
It takes too long to read a long Encyclopedia entry while connected to
the Internet so there should be a way to copy it so that it can be read
later. 
It seems like a great idea to record the encyclopedia on a CD but by the
time we can make a copy (an hour) it would be out of date. When a
prominent person dies his article needs to be changed, when a government
changes or a building is destroyed the encyclopedia needs to be updated.
Subjects that have only an obscure mention should have their own article,
other articles should be brought up date or deleted, new articles added.
This was dictated with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7. Sometimes it works
perfectly, at other times it prints out things that are not said or after
the material is edited it inserts things on its own. Spell check changes
things that are correct to something else.
This was formatted as text.
Merritt L. Perkins 
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