ded here is probably
already obsolete. Never mind. The world of the Internet is fast-moving and
evolves constantly - that is one of its many assets.

This study follows a Ph.D. I completed in 1998-99 at the University of the
Sorbonne (Ecole pratique des hautes etudes), Paris, France. Although the key
ideas are the same, it is not the translation of the French study, which was
Francophone-oriented. New websites and new contributions from people belonging
to the English-speaking and the international community have been included here.

Originally, I worked as a librarian in Europe and in the Middle East, under
contract to set up libraries and/or computerize catalogs. More recently, I have
been contributing to the preparation of publications as a writer, translator,
editor or indexor. Since 1996 I have been working mainly for the International
Labour Office (ILO), Geneva, Switzerland. As I am fascinated by languages, I
also wrote a study about Multilingualism on the Web.

2. THE INTERNET

[In this chapter:]

[2.1. The Internet and the Other Media / 2.2. The "Info-Rich" and the
"Info-Poor" / 2.3. The Web: First English, then Multilingual]

2.1. The Internet and the Other Media

Since a few years ago, the Internet has become integrated into our daily life,
and people have gotten connected at home, at work or in their university. At the
end of 1997, the number of Internet users was estimated at 90 or 100 million,
with one million new users every month. In the year 2000, the number of Internet
users will be over 300 million.

Does the Internet compete directly with television and reading? In Quebec, where
30.7% of the population is connected, a poll taken in March 1998 for the
cybermagazine Branchez-vous! showed that 28.8% of connected Quebeckers were
watching television less than before. Only 12.1% were reading less. As stated by
the French Canadian magazine Multimedium in its article of April 2, 1998, it was
"rather encouraging for the Ministry of Culture and Communications which has the
double task of furthering the development of information highways... and
reading!"

The Internet has become the medium of choice for many news consumers, in many
cases matching and occasionally surpassing traditional forms of media, according
to a survey conducted in February 1998 for MSNBC on the Internet by Market
Facts.

In an article of Internet Wire, February, 1998, Merrill Brown, editor-in-chief
of on-line MSNBC, wrot