eans and 33%
Asians).

Despite the so-called English-language hegemony some non-English-
speaking intellectuals were complaining about, without doing much to
promote their own language, the internet was also a good medium for
minority languages, as stated by Caoimhin O Donnaile. Caoimhin has
taught computing at the Institute Sabhal Mor Ostaig, on the Island of
Skye (Scotland). He has also created and maintained the college
website, as the main site worldwide with information on Scottish
Gaelic, with a bilingual (English, Gaelic) list of European minority
languages. He wrote in May 2001: "Students do everything by computer,
use Gaelic spell-checking, a Gaelic online terminology database. There
are more hits on our website. There is more use of sound. Gaelic radio
(both Scottish and Irish) is now available continuously worldwide via
the internet. A major project has been the translation of the Opera
web-browser into Gaelic - the first software of this size available in
Gaelic."

TOWARDS A "LINGUISTIC DEMOCRACY"

= [Quote]

Brian King, director of the WorldWide Language Institute (WWLI),
brought up the concept of "linguistic democracy" in September 1998:
"Whereas 'mother-tongue education' was deemed a human right for every
child in the world by a UNESCO report in the early 1950s, 'mother-
tongue surfing' may very well be the Information Age equivalent. If the
internet is to truly become the Global Network that it is promoted as
being, then all users, regardless of language background, should have
access to it. To keep the internet as the preserve of those who, by
historical accident, practical necessity, or political privilege,
happen to know English, is unfair to those who don't."

= [Text]

Yoshi Mikami, a computer scientist at Asia Info Network in Fujisawa
(Japan), launched in December 1995 the website "The Languages of the
World by Computers and the Internet", also known as the Logos Home Page
or Kotoba Home Page. (The website was updated until September 2001.)
Yoshi was also the co-author (with Kenji Sekine and Nobutoshi Kohara)
of "The Multilingual Web Guide" (Japanese edition), a print book
published by O'Reilly Japan in August 1997, and translated in 1998 into
English, French and German.

Yoshi Mikami explained in December 1998: "My native tongue is Japanese.
Because I had my graduate education in the U.S. and worked in the
computer business, I became bilingual in Japanese and American English.
I