英国新闻听力 互联网上的不同语言（在线收听）

Different Languages on the Internet

THE HOST: First though, Harvard University in the United States recently saw a few hundred people with eyes on the future getting together at a conference event called wikimania. They call themselves wikipedians. Now this isn't some weird Star Trek type cult. It actually means that they're members of the public around the world who write, update and edit articles found on the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia. The site is one of the best examples of so-called Web 2.0 technology. Resources and programs where users anywhere can play a part in shaping and recreating the content. And at the wikimania conference the buzz was all about how Web 2.0 is beginning to transform the language of the Internet. Culture Shock's Alex Galliphen went along to wikmania to meet some of the delegates.

ALEX: Endisendral Mutchel is clutching his laptop as he makes his way towards lunch at the wikipedia event. Mutchel was born in Tanzania in East Africa. Now he lives in North Carolina, here in the United States. He leads a community of bloggers who blog from Africa and the United States about all kinds of cross-cultural topics. And they blog in African languages.

MUTCHEL: It was a very, very healthy conversation about politics back home, about culture. We have teachers, we have another guy who is an agricultural engineer. He is also sharing his knowledge so for me it is an opportunity for us to share knowledge although we don't live in the same space.

ALEX: These are grass roots blogs in African languages. But there is real excitement here about the possibility of the mainstream Internet speaking other languages too. David Weinberger is with the Berkmann Center for Internet and Society at Harvard.

DAVID: Personally I think there are going to be independent, culturally sensitive wikipedias but that puts us in this really interesting position where we can start to look at how 100, 200 cultures what they have agreed upon or the facts about anything from physics to the Bush administration and that prepares the ground for a type of global conversation that will never get resolved but at least we can have.

ALEX: So Endisendral Mutchel is now spearheading a version of wikipedia in Swahili and it's going pretty well according to Ethan Zagmon. He's co-founder of Global Voices Online, a site that provides links to citizen media being produced by people all around the world.

ETHAN: One of the legacies, it's part of the socialist legacy of Tanzania is that everyone has this strong sense of national identity and cultural identity And it's really united around this beautiful, beautiful language. And so to see Swahili to have a presence online, to see Swahili wikipedia hit 1000 articles is just a wonderful thing.

ALEX: Wikipedia is not the only organisation driving the diversification of language found on the Internet. Another Web 2.0 project has started work translating basic software programs into every African language spoken by more than a million people. It's a big challenge. The English language is crushingly dominant online. But it is a start.

主持人：首先来看，数以百计的有识之士最近在美国哈佛大学聚首，共同参加了一个名为"维基狂"的会议。他们自称"维基百科者"。这并非一个奇异的星际旅行式的时尚集会，实际上，尽管来自世界各地，他们有着共同的身份--为在线百科全书"维基百科"撰写、更新和编辑文章。"维基百科"是所谓 "网络2.0技术"的最佳代表之一。全球各个角落的用户所提供的资源和程序，都可以参与网站内容的重构。在这个叫做"维基狂"的会议上，人们都在议论"网络2.0"如何开始互联网上语言的变换。文化冲突的阿列克斯·加里芬亲临会议现场，对一些与会代表进行采访。

阿列克斯：恩蒂森卓·马彻尔提着笔记本电脑走向午餐地。他出生于非洲东部的坦桑尼亚，如今住在美国的北卡罗莱纳。他带领着一群来自非洲和美国的博客写手，用非洲语言来写作，内容涉及各种跨文化话题。

马彻尔：那些关于家乡政治、关于文化的交谈非常有益处。在我们中间有教师，还有一位农业工程师，他也会跟我们分享他的知识。所以，对于我来说，这是个知识分享的好机会，尽管我们并不住在同一片土地上。

阿列克斯：这些用非洲语言书写的博客都很平民化，但其蕴含的可能性却很令人兴奋，在主流的互联网上也可以用其它语言。哈佛大学伯克曼中心的研究工作主要针对互联网与社会，大卫·维恩伯格是其中的一员。

大卫：在我个人看来，维基百科将会变得具有独立性，具有文化敏感度。在这里我们可以开始看到100种、200种文化交织在一起，看看它们在哪些问题上能够达成共识，还能看到任何事情的真相，从物理学到布什政府，这实在是很有意思。而且，这为全球性对话提供了条件，就算没办法依此解决问题，最起码我们可以进行对话了。

阿列克斯：正因为这样，恩蒂森卓·马彻尔如今率先推出了维基百科的史瓦希里语版本，而且在伊顿·扎克蒙看来，它进展得非常顺利。扎克蒙是"全球声音在线"的创办者之一，通过他的网站可以链接到世界各地的媒体。

伊顿：作为坦桑尼亚社会学者遗产的一部分，即每一个人对自己的民族和文化都有强烈的专属认知感，这种感觉集结于我们美丽的语言当中。所以，看到史瓦希里语在互联网上占有一席之地，而史瓦希里语的维基百科能够收录到1000篇文章，真是无比美妙。

阿列克斯：维基百科并不是推动互联网语种多样性的唯一组织。另一项"网络2.0"计划已经开始对基础软件程序进行翻译，目标是每一种非洲语言有一百万以上的使用者。这是个巨大的挑战。英语在互联网上具有压倒性支配地位，而上述的工作仅仅是个开始。

数以百计的有识之士最近在美国哈佛大学聚首，共同参加了一个名为"维基狂"的会议。他们自称"维基百科者"。这并非一个奇异的星际旅行式的时尚集会，实际上，尽管来自世界各地，他们有着共同的身份--为在线百科全书"维基百科"撰写、更新和编辑文章。