‘Languages’ of info - keeping it local
Jinfo Blog

30th May 2010

By Joanna Ptolomey

Item

We live in knowledge driven industries and digital economies are fuelled by information. It is a fact that there are many barriers for some in participating in the world in which we live in today – access, information literacy, and technology to name a few. Anne Jordan has recently been discussing the latest news around broadband access (http://www.vivavip.com/go/e29140), a major barrier to access. Stewart Bain from Orkney Libraries, in a recent VIP editorial (http://www.vivavip.com/go/e29139), has also been reminding us that geography can also be a barrier to participation. But what about language, how does that place a barrier? In my own work I have been involved in many multilingual information driven projects – that includes not just finding content, but analyzing appropriateness of content, providing procedures for quality control and ‘how to’ manage and share for various stakeholders. This could be industry providers, the general public and/or special requirement groups with their own unique needs and culture. This week I have been revisiting the idea of multilingual information approaches and the importance of the ‘one size fits all’ mentality. Firstly, news from an industry insider in the STM sector that social media will be the tool of choice from which to deliver global content that just requires a ‘little tweeking locally’. Am I the only person that sees this as a flawed approach? I ask myself whether this could be laziness or the ability to see what a great opportunity is being missed by using social media for its intended purpose of conversation rather than just fire-hosing out ‘vanilla information’. I am also reminded of a global advertising campaign of a worldwide banking group that wants us to understand that they have broken away from the ‘vanilla approach’ of service delivery. They want us to know that different groups of people value different things, and by having that conversation they will be better placed to serve others. News this week from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (http://www.iab.net/), a US organisation comprising of more than 375 leading media and technology companies who are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States, is the formation of the IAB Multicultural Council. This has replaced the Hispanic Committee and will focus on ‘key issues that impact marketing and advertising within the multicultural marketplace’. This is an important change to ensure that all segments of the U.S. population are captured and understood. This is especially true in reaching minorities and other groups that are as yet perhaps properly inaccurately measured and accounted for. We could be suspicious of IAB, surely they just want to sell us ‘more stuff’? However, would we feel better if that ‘more stuff’ was great quality appropriate content such as public health messages or being empowered to understand and make decisions about government issues. Perhaps it is an area that more information providers need to take cognisance of. The ability to provide content that is appropriate, yet individual to multiple stakeholders, and is accurate, high quality and accessible in a variety of formats such as digitally or via an advocate is important. We may live in a global information economy but the messages still need to be local and sensitive to culture.

« Blog