On May 16-17, the International Scientific and Practical Conference “Digital Humanities in a Global World” was held in Mogilev (Belarus) at the Belarusian-Russian University, addressed by experts from the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ.
Scientists, teachers and specialists in the field of IT technologies, linguistics and other social and humanitarian sciences from around the world gathered these days in Mogilev to discuss the challenges of the digital world for the humanitarian sphere, the transformation of intercultural communications and the possibilities of preserving the cultural code of nations.
During the Plenary session, Director of the Coordination Center Andrey Vorobyev spoke about the importance of multilingualism on the Internet and the development of Cyrillic Internet addressing. He noted that the Russian language today ranks 5th in terms of the number of websites on the network, and currently 17 Cyrillic TLDs have been delegated, including the national domains of Russia .РФ and Belarus .BEL.
“The Coordination Center pays great attention to the development of a multilingual Internet and the introduction of universal acceptance of Cyrillic IDN domains and EAI email addresses. Поддерживаю.РФ, which has already become a real flagship project of its implementation not only in Russia, but also in the world, was launched in 2020. Our experts participate in regional and international groups, conduct research and give lectures to students. And we are open to cooperation with other universities and organizations to increase the accessibility of using their native language on the Internet for all users,” Andrey Vorobyev said.
On May 17, the Chief Analyst of the Coordination Center, Maria Kolesnikova, addressed the section “Preserving the Cultural Code of Nations in the Digital World.” She spoke about the representation of different languages on the Internet and emphasized the importance of expanding multilingualism on the Internet.
Maria Kolesnikova noted that the dominant language on the network remains English, which is used by 1.5 billion of the 5.4 billion connected users. However, more than 50% of websites use English, which creates significant difficulties for those who do not speak English. In her opinion, to create a comfortable online environment and attract 2.6 billion unconnected users, it is necessary to expand the use of national languages on the Internet.
Project Manager of the Coordination Center Evgeniy Pankov held a quiz for students of the Belarusian-Russian University on the game “Study the Internet & Govern It!”. The children were able to test their knowledge of Internet technologies, and the most active participants received memorable prizes and gifts from the Coordination Center.
