Divisions on the net

With traditionals groups, interest, as well as location is important in forming a group. A sport group with players from city that are afar is hard to organise.

With the advent of the internet, and even before that with buletin board systems, the distance becomes non existant. The exchange of information is independant of the actual location of each individual, but only dependant on the tools used.

So a british-based group could have americans members, an american news website could be used by australians to get international news, and a canadian support group could help british citizens with little effort. That is the global village that media talks about.

But there isn't only one 'global village'.

The only real barrier to communication online is the written language. Each language get a very different view of 'what is the internet'. A french-speaking person does not use the same ressources as someone from an English speaking country.

The Internet is a really different place for someone who can't speak english. Think about it for a second. Think about each ressources you use online. Which one exist in more than just english?

It is as if anyone not english-speaking is simply forgotten in cyberspace, as if the rest of the world didn't matter.

It's like the tourist scenario in Quebec: Tourist from the rest of north america come in Quebec, and (rightfully) expect to be served in english. Yet french speaking people can't go anywhere else in north america (with some noted exceptions) and not have to learn english simply to get around. The same is true of tourism in Mexico.

If you had to learn spanish, japanese, mandarin, german, italian or french to use the internet, would you?