Russian Committee of UNESCO "Information for All" program

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The Third International Conference on Linguistic and Cultural Diversity in Cyberspace has completed its work in the capital of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).

2014-07-18

The Third International Conference on Linguistic and Cultural Diversity in Cyberspace completed its work in Yakutsk on July 3, 2014.

Getachew Engida, UNESCO Deputy Director-General highly praised the professional and organizational level of the conference and noted that holding this event was a new significant contribution made by the Russian Federation in the activities of UNESCO, which considers the preservation of linguistic and cultural diversity as one of its top priorities.

The conference gathered representatives from almost 50 countries of diverse regions of the world – leading experts, workers of culture, scientists, educators, politicians and diplomatic officials of Albania, Argentina, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Central African Republic, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Macedonia, Moldova, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Peru, Poland, Republic of Korea, Republic of Maldives, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Slovakia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden, Syria, Thailand, Togo, Turkey, UK, USA. Over half of the participants were nominated by national governments.

The Conference is also Russia’s new contribution in the implementation of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Information for All Programme (IFAP) – one of UNESCO’s two major programmes in the field of communication and information. Notably, five of eight members of the Bureau of the IFAP Intergovernmental Council were present at the meeting, namely Evgeny Kuzmin (Russia), Dietrich Schueller (Austria), Kgomotso Motlotle (Botswana), Yara Al Ghafri (Oman) and Leyla Bartet (Peru).

The Conference Opening Gala took place in the Government House of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and its four working days included two plenaries and eight sessions of four sections. Discussing various aspects of topical political, philosophical and technological challenges of preserving multilingualism in the world and developing it in cyberspace raised much interest of the participants.

While the Second Conference, held in Yakutsk in 2011focused on institutions and instruments for supporting multilingualism and on the problems of creating a favorable environment for its preservation in real life and its promotion in cyberspace, the key topics of the Third Conference in 2014 were:

ICT for linguistic and cultural diversity in cyberspace
Socio-cultural aspects of linguistic diversity in cyberspace
Preservation of linguistic and cultural diversity in cyberspace: national vision and experience
Education for preservation of linguistic and cultural diversity in cyberspace

Promoting the Russian language as a language of interethnic and international communication was the conference’s cross-cutting theme.

Conference plenary sessions were chaired by the co-chairs of the Conference Organizing Committee – Evgeny Kuzmin, Vice-Chair of the IFAP Intergovernmental Council, Chair of the Russian IFAP Committee, President of the Interregional Library Cooperation Centre, and Evgenia Mikhailova, Rector of the North-Eastern Federal University.

65 communications were presented at the conference.

The conference programme and list of participants (Download)

All section moderators made reports at the Closing Session summarizing the conference – Michael Gibson, Senior Sociolinguistics Consultant of SIL International (United Kingdom); Daniel Pimienta, Director of the Networks and Development Foundation FUNREDES (Dominican Republic); Tjeerd de Graaf, Senior Research Fellow of the Mercator Centre under the Fryske Academy (Netherlands); Joseph Mariani, Research Director of the National Centre for Scientific Research (France); Galit Wellner, Research Fellow of the Ben-Gurion University (Israel); Alfredo Ronchi, Secretary General of the European Commission – MEDICI Framework of Cooperation (Italy); Tatiana Murovana, Executive Secretary of the Russian IFAP Committee (Russian Federation); Nadezhda Zaikova, Vice Rector for Corporate Policy and Culture of the North-Eastern Federal University (Russian Federation); Elena Beilina, Editor-in-Chief of the Universitetskaya Kniga (University Book) Magazine (Russian Federation), etc.

Russian version of the analytical digest Net.lang. Towards multilingual cyberspace was presented at the conference. The book was initially published by the MAAYA World Network for Linguistic Diversity in English and French with UNESCO’s support. Most authors of the book took part in the Third conference and had also contributed to the two previous ones.

Conference participants were glad to note that it attracts more and more attention worldwide. De facto, it has become the world's major forum for discussing topical problems of languages preservation and their development in cyberspace.

The First Conference in 2008 gathered representatives of 15 countries – and for the Russian Government and UNESCO it was a big success. It brought up the theme in Russia and became the first event on this topic within IFAP and UNESCO.

The Second Conference in 2011 welcomed participants from 33 countries.

Both conferences attracted great international attention and led to the adoption of important international instruments – the Lena Resolution “On cultural and linguistic diversity in cyberspace” and the Yakutsk Call for Action “A Roadmap towards the World Summit on Multilingualism”.

The Lena Resolution, the final document of the first conference, has received international recognition as the first document structuring the problematic situation in the field of multilingualism promotion and identified all stakеholders. It is currently being cited in research and formal documents of international organizations. The second conference conclusions and final document were discussed at the UNESCO General Conference in 2011. Both conferences’ proceedings are published in printed and digital form in Russian and English.

Proceedings of the first conference eng/rus

Proceedings of the second conference eng/rus

Among the important outcomes of the first two conferences on Linguistic and Cultural Diversity in Cyberspace are the expansion of professional contacts and the establishment of friendly relations between leading experts from different countries. Fruitful partnerships have been established between the UNESCO Intergovernmental Information for All Programme, its Russian Committee and the MAAYA World Network for Linguistic Diversity, headed by Adama Samassekou, Chair of the Preparatory Committee of the World Summit on the Information Society. In 2010 the Centre to Advance Multilingualism in Cyberspace was opened under the North-Eastern Federal University with the support by the Russian IFAP Committee and the UNESCO Moscow Office. Awareness of the importance of issues of multilingualism preservation and development in cyberspace was raised at different levels, primarily within UNESCO itself. On Russia's initiative multilingualism in cyberspace was proclaimed the sixth priority of the UNESCO IFAP and a special IFAP Working Group was created, headed by Evgeny Kuzmin.

All this has led to an even greater interest shown to the Third conference, which gathered almost 50 countries.

The conference was organized by

Financial support was provided by

The Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO, under which the Russian IFAP Committee has been working contributed greatly to organizing this significant event.

Feodosia Gabysheva, Deputy Chair of the Government of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), and Dmitry Glushko, State Councillor of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) greeted conference participants on behalf of the Yakutian Government.

Greetings to the Conference were also received from

A Working Group formed for the Final Document preparation included Michael Gibson, Daniel Pimienta, Tjeerd de Graaf, Joseph Mariani, Alfredo Ronchi, Evgeny Kuzmin, Nadezhda Zaikova, etc.

All participants received an impressive set of materials in Russian and English on the issues of linguistic and cultural diversity in cyberspace published by the Russian IFAP Committee and the Interregional Library Cooperation Centre, in particular the book Net.lang. Towards a multilingual cyberspace, collections of materials of the two previous conferences, as well as other publications on the challenges of Information Society building.

These publications formed the basis of a book exhibition opened at the Conference.

Conference cultural programme entailed participating in the Yakut national celebration Ysyakh, visiting the Lena Pillars Nature Park, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, the Permafrost Kingdom Museum and the Mammoth Museum, and also the Arctic Innovation Center of the NEFU.

Three receptions were held in honor of the conference participants by the Government of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), by the Yakutsk Mayor Aisen Nikolayev and by the NEFU Rector Evgenia Mikhailova. A concert was given by the State violin ensemble of Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) "Virtuosos of Yakutia".

Summarizing the conference its participants expressed gratitude to the event’s organizers, and special thanks went to the Rector of the NEFU Evgenia Mikhailova – as Evgeny Kuzmin said, “if not for her neither the first nor the second conference would not have been convened. In 2008 as the Vice-President of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) not only she supported our idea and backed us, but also demonstrated political wisdom while we, the first conference initiators had no idea of the scalability of this project. Today Ms Mikhailova still gives us the most serious support – now as the head of the largest federal university in the North-East of Russia, which is being actively developed and is gaining ever more credibility in our country and abroad”.

Egor Borisov, President of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), met the conference key organizers before the Opening Gala.

Upon the conference closing Egor Borisov extended thanks and awarded valuable gifts to main conference organizers – members of the Russian IFAP Committee Evgeny Kuzmin, Sergei Bakeykin, Tatiana Murovana and to the most active foreign participants of all three conferences. Daria Ignatova, Assistant Director of the Interregional Library Cooperation Centre was cited by the Rector of the NEFU.

Conference opening gala in the Government House of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)

Getachew ENGIDA, UNESCO Deputy Director-General

Evgeny KUZMIN, Vice - Chair of the Intergovernmental Council and Chair of the Russian Committee for the UNESCO Information for All Programme; President of the Interregional Library Cooperation Centre and Evgenia MIKHAILOVA, Rector of the North-Eastern Federal University

Yuri PULYA, Head of the Department of Periodical Press, Book Publishing and Printing Industry of Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation

Joseph MARIANI, Research Director of French National Centre for Scientific Research

Feodosia GABYSHEVA, Deputy Chair of the Government of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia)

Alfredo RONCHI, Secretary General of the European Commission – MEDICI Framework of Cooperation; Professor of the Polytechnic University of Milan

Andrey BORISOV, Minister of Culture and Spiritual Development of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia)

Evgenia MIKHAILOVA, Rector of North-Eastern Federal University (Russia)

Michael GIBSON, Senior Sociolinguistics Consultant of SIL International (United Kingdom)

Nikolay KHAUSTOV, Second Secretary of the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO, Ministry of Foreign Affaires of the Russian Federation

Kgomotso MOTLOTLE, Secretary-General of Botswana National Commission for UNESCO

Evgeny KUZMIN, Vice Chair of the Intergovernmental Council and Chair of the Russian Committee for the UNESCO Information for All Programme; President of the Interregional Library Cooperation Centre

Vitaliy KOSTOMAROV, President of Pushkin State Russian Language Institute

Marcel DIKI-KIDIRI, Senior Researcher of Language, Languages and Black African Cultures Unit of French National Centre for Scientific Research (Central African Republic)

Irina REVA, Councellor of the Library&Archives Division, Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation

Leyla BARTET, Attachee of the Permanent Delegation of Peru to UNESCO and Yara AL GHAFRI, Science and Communication Officer of the Permanent Delegation of the Sultanate of Oman to UNESCO

Alexey BUNKOV, Adviser of the Department of ICT Applications and E-democracy of the Presidential Executive Office of Russian Federation

Galit WELLNER, Research Fellow of the Ben-Gurion University (Israel) and Daniel PIMIENTA, Director of the Networks and Development Foundation FUNREDES (Dominican Republic)

Virach SORNLERTLAMVANICH, Advisor to Executive Director of Technology Promotion Association (Thailand–Japan) (Thailand)

Nadezhda ZAIKOVA, Vice Rector for Corporate Policy and Culture of the North-Eastern Federal University

Farah MOTLAK, Deputy Minister of Education of Syria

Irina BEZNOSOVA, Deputy Director of the Department of Public and External Relations of Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug and Nadezhda KAZNACHEEVA, Director of the Department of Culture of Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug (Russia)

Left to right: Tapio VARIS, Professor Emeritus of the UNESCO Chair of the University of Tampere; Joseph MARIANI, Research Director of French National Centre for Scientific Research; Jean RADVANI, Co-director of the Center of Scientific Studies of Europe and Eurasia of French National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations; Vassili RIVRON, Researcher and Social Science Coordinator for Metroscope project of National institution for Informatics and Automation under the University of Caen Lower Normandy (France)

Left to right: Valentina SAMSONOVA, Director of the National Library of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia); Sergey BAKEIKIN, Executive Director of the Interregional Library Cooperation Centre, Deputy Chair of the Russian Committee of the UNESCO Information for All Programme; Olga AFANASYEVA, Deputy Director of the National Library of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia)

Irene KÄOSAAR, Head of the General Education Department of the Ministry of Education and Research of Estonia

Mohammed Mustafa ALI, Lecturer of the Sudan University of Science and Technology and Ludovit MOLNAR, President of the Slovak National Commission for UNESCO, Professor of the Slovak University of Technology

Claudia SORIA, Researcher of the Italian National Research Council

Ducksoo KANG, Professor of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (Republic of Korea) and Antonina GRIGORIEVA, Member of State Assembly (Il Tumen) of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia)

Claudio MENEZES, Assistant Professor of the Brasilia University and Claudia WANDERLEY, Researcher and Professor of the UNICAMP University (Brazil)

Marcel DIKI-KIDIRI (Central African Republic) and Shevket MUSTAFAEV, Deputy of Sudak Town Council, Republic of Crimea (Russia)

Andras KORNAI, Senior Scientific Advisor of Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Tatiana MUROVANA, Executive Secretary of Russian Committee of the UNESCO Information for All Programme; Deputy Head of the Department of Scientific Cooperation, Youth and Communication Programmes of Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation

Mark KARAN, International Sociolinguistics Coordinator and Senior Sociolinguistics Consultant of SIL International (USA)

Piotr LAPO, Member of the Belarusian National Commission for UNESCO; University Librarian of the Belarusian State University

Alexander SNEGIRYOV Adviser of Department of Foreign Affairs of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russian Federation

Evgeny KUZMIN, Vice Chair of the Intergovernmental Council and Chair of the Russian Committee for the UNESCO Information for All Programme; President of the Interregional Library Cooperation Centre and Sargylana BRYZGALOVA, Head of the Department of International Cooperation and Promotion of Russian Language Abroad of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation

Rexhep HIDA, Director of the Publishing House "Fan Noli" (Albania) and Ali Eyvazov, Vice-chair of the Azerbaijan Committee of the UNESCO Information for All Programme

Anatoly ZHOZHIKOV, Director of the Centre of New Information Technologies of the North-Eastern Federal University

Vicent CLIMENT-FERRANDO, Associate Professor of the University Pompeu Fabra (Spain)

Kurt EBERT, Dean of the Institute for Austrian and German Legal History under The University of Innsbruck and Dietrich SCHÜLLER, Vice-Chair of the Intergovernmental Council for the UNESCO Information for All Programme (Austria)

Katsuko TANAKA, Assistant Professor of the Nagaoka University of Technology (Japan)

Valerii DIOZU, Member of the Board of The Municipal council of the city of Chisinau and Meldra USENKO, Expert of The National Archives of Latvia

Elena BEILINA, Editor-in-Chief of the Universitetskaya Kniga (University Book) Magazine

Tjeerd DE GRAAF, Senior Research Fellow of the Mercator Centre of Fryske Academy (Netherlands)

Natalya GRISHINA, Director of the Ryazan Regional Research Library (Russia)

Jarosław LIPSZYC, President, Modern Poland Foundation and Yara AL GHAFRI (Oman)

Nestor RUIZ, Lecturer and Researcher of Caro and Cuervo Institute (Colombia)

Daria IGNATOVA Daria, Assistant Director of Interregional Library Cooperation Centre, Project Coordinator of the Russian Committee of the UNESCO Information for All Programme and Evgenia MIKHAILOVA, Rector of the North-Eastern Federal University

Murat SABYR, Vice-Rector for International Relations of West Kazakhstan Humanitarian Academy

Adolf KNOLL, Secretary for Science Research and International Cooperation of National Library of the Czech Republic

Hongkai SUN, Honored Academy Member of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Anuradha KANNIGANTI, Lecturer of French National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (India)

Liudmila ZAIKOVA, Director of Centre to Advance Multilingualism in Cyberspace of North-Eastern Federal University and Daniel PIMIENTA (Dominican Republic)

Luminita DRUMEA, Deputy Secretary General of the National Commission of the Republic of Moldova for UNESCO, Chair of Moldavian Committee of the UNESCO Information for All Programme

Irina ZHILAVSKAYA, Head of Chair of Journalism and Media Education of the Sholokhov Moscow State University for the Humanities

Huang CHENGLONG, Research Fellow of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Harald HAMMARSTRÖM, Researcher of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (Sweden) and Turrance NANDASARA, Director of National Online Distance Education Service of the Ministry of Higher Education of Sri Lanka

Nikolai PAVLOV, Administrator of Sakha Wikipedia (Russia)

Panchanan MOHANTY, Professor of the University of Hyderabad (India)

Anna FENYVESI, Director of the Institute of English and American Studies under the University of Szeged (Hungary) and Sergey BAKEIKIN, Executive Director of the Interregional Library Cooperation Centre, Deputy Chair of the Russian Committee of the UNESCO Information for All Programme