magazine, and distributing information and documents through our website.

= How do you see the growth of a multilingual Web?

Multilingualism on the Internet is the logical and natural consequence of the
diversity of human beings. Because the Web was first developed and used in the
United States, it's not really surprising it started out as -- and still is --
essentially Anglophone. But this is beginning to change, because most new users
will not have English as their mother tongue and because non-English-speaking
communities already on the Web will no longer accept the dominance of English
and will want to use their own language to some extent.

We can envisage, in a few years time, a situation similar to the one in
publishing concerning use of different languages. This means only a small number
of languages will be used (compared to the several thousand that exist). So we
think the Web should try to further support minority cultures and languages,
particularly in the case of dispersed communities.

The arrival on the Internet of languages other than English, while demanding
genuine readjustment and providing undeniable enrichment, emphasizes the need
for linguistic tools to cope with the situation. These will emerge from research
and promoting awareness in areas such as machine translation, standardization,
searching for information, automatic summarizing, and so on.

= How do you see the future?

The Internet is here to stay. The arrival on it of languages other than English
is also irreversible. So we have to take that into account from an economic,
social, political and cultural point of view. Sectors such as advertising,
vocational training, knowledge management, and work in groups or within networks
will have to change. This brings us back to the need to develop really effective
technology and tools to encourage exchanges in a truly multilingual global
village.

*Interview of March 13, 2000 (original interview in French)

= What has happened since our first interview?

Since then, the CEVEIL has stopped putting out weekly news bulletins and its
monthly magazine. This is not so much because we've changed direction but rather
for want of staff and funding. We don't plan to resume those activities for the
moment.

= What do you think of the debate about copyright on the Web?

Guy Bertrand: It's very important to respect copyright and it's up to the
authors to decide what they want to do about it. The Web