beginning.

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

I think a multilingual Web's a very positive thing. The Internet doesn't belong
to any one nation or language. It's a vehicle for culture, and the first vector
of culture is language. The more languages there are on the Net, the more
cultures will be represented there. I don't think we should give in to the
kneejerk temptation to translate web pages into a largely universal language.
Cultural exchanges will only be real if we're prepared to meet with the other
culture in a genuine way. And this effort involves understanding the other
culture's language. This is very idealistic of course. In practice, when I'm
monitoring, I curse Norwegian or Brazilian websites where there's isn't any
English.

= What is your best experience with the Internet?

The day I won a box of Swiss chocolates on the Health On the Net site. But don't
rush to this site, the game doesn't exist any more.

= And your worst experience?

The abuse of e-mail: bad-mannered people take advantage of the distance and
relative anonymity to say not very nice things and take really juvenile
attitudes with, alas, consequences which are not always the kind you find in a
children's world. For example, I once forwarded an email to somebody I thought
would be interested in the subject and the person wrote directly to the original
sender and discredited me.

CATHERINE DOMAIN (Paris)

#Founder of the Ulysses Bookstore (Librairie Ulysse), the oldest travel
bookstore in the world

Located in central Paris, on the Ile Saint-Louis in the middle of the river
Seine, Librairie Ulysse is the oldest travel bookstore in the world and has more
than 20,000 books, maps and magazines, out of print and new, including some in
English, about all countries and all kinds of travel. It was set up in 1971 by
Catherine Domain, a member of the French National Union of Antiquarian and
Modern Bookstores (Syndicat national de la librairie ancienne et moderne
(SLAM)), the Explorers' Club (Club des Explorateurs) and the International Club
of Long-Distance Travelers (Club international des grands voyageurs).

Catherine has travelled all over the world for many years, visiting 136
countries, and she is still on the move. In 1998 she went sailing in Kiribati
and the Marshall Islands in the the Pacific. In 1999, as a judge in the Island
Book Prize (Prix du livre insulaire) contest, she visited the French island of
Ushant.