Ugra Global Expert Meeting on Multilingualism in Cyberspace

 

2015-08-06

 

On 4-9 July 2015 Khanty-Mansiysk welcomed the participants of the Ugra Global Expert Meeting on Multilingualism in Cyberspace, the major international event in this field in 2015, included in the calendar of UNESCO’s most important events. The meeting hold within the Seventh International IT Forum was a great success.

 

Today more and more people around the world begin to realize that linguistic diversity should be preserved, maintained and developed. We witness a growing interest in this topic, which is increasingly discussed at a high political level.

 

Cultural diversity, which has always been a source of development, rapidly declines due to globalization and urbanization. And what lies at the heart of cultural diversity is the diversity of languages. Ever more people feel and see that languages have become an instrument of political and economic domination. Small languages are weakened and increasingly marginalized. This issue is also topical today for major European languages, languages of the great world literature and science – French, German, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Italian. They are used more and more seldom in science, politics, business communication, even in education, and linger in the shadow of English. This issueinevitably raises serious concerns.

 

According to various estimates, there exist today approximately 7,000 languages. Notably,

• 97% of the world population speak only 3% of the world languages;
• The remaining 97% of languages are spoken by 3% of the population;
• Only a few hundred languages have a role to play in education and in the public sphere;
• Only about 400 out of 7,000 languages, or about 6%, are used on the Internet.

 

Throughout its history mankind saw some languages emerging and others dying. But the process of language extinction has recently become rampant. A considerable number of languages are endangered. According to estimates, by the end of the XXI century about 90% of languages may disappear, replaced by more powerful languages.

 

Research shows that ICT intensive use accelerates language vanishing. But at the same time new ICTs can and should be used to slow down the extinction of minority languages and even revitalize them.

 

What can be done to confront the negative trends and to enhance the positive ones? What is the true scale of linguistic problems? What are these problems? How should they be ranked? What are their causes and potential consequences? It is clear that serious measures should be taken at both national and international level to preserve linguistic and cultural diversity.

 

Since 2008, which the UN proclaimed as the International Year of Languages, and up to the day when the Ugra Global Expert Meeting on Multilingualism in Cyberspace started its work eight major international forums has been held aimed at collective search for answers to these questions:

• The First International Conference on Linguistic and Cultural Diversity in Cyberspace (Yakutsk, Russian Federation, 2008)
• The Bamako International Forum on Multilingualism (Bamako, Mali, 2009)
• The First International Symposium on Multilingualism in Cyberspace (SIMC I – Barcelona, Spain 2009)
• The Second International Conference on Linguistic and Cultural Diversity in Cyberspace (Yakutsk, Russian Federation, 2011)
• The Second International Symposium on Multilingualism in Cyberspace (SIMC II - Brasilia, Brazil, 2011)
• The Third International Symposium on Multilingualism in Cyberspace  (SIMC III - Paris, France, 2012);
• The Third International Conference on Linguistic and Cultural Diversity in Cyberspace (Yakutsk, Russian Federation, 2014)
• International Expert Meeting on Improving Access to Multilingual Cyberspace (UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, France, 2014)

 

Four out of these forums were organized by the Russian Committee of the UNESCO “Information for All” Programme and the Interregional Library Cooperation Centre with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO, the Government of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the Government of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – Ugra and the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk.

 

The Khanty-Mansiysk Expert Meeting is the ninth major international forum. It is also the fifth high-level international event, organized by the Russian UNESCO IFAP Committee and the Interregional Library Cooperation Centre – again with the financial support of the Government of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – Ugra. It is Ugra’s Government second major initiative within the framework of cooperation between Russia and UNESCO in the field of cultural heritage preservation, language preservation and linguistic diversity development in cyberspace.

 

The meeting was organized with the support of the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO in cooperation with UNESCO and the MAAYA World Network for Linguistic Diversity.

 

Greetings to the organizers and participants of the International Expert Meeting in Khanty-Mansiysk were received from:

• Acting Governor of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – Ugra Natalia Komarova,
• Russia’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Gennady Gatilov,
• UNESCO Deputy Director-General Getachew Engida,
• Chair of the IFAP Intergovernmental Council Chafica Haddad,
• Deputy Head of the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation of the Russian Federation Larisa Efremova.

 

 

The meeting’s key objectives were:

• developing and advancing UNESCO and Russian policies in the field of language preservation and linguistic and cultural diversity development in cyberspace;
• developing and promoting the outcomes of the Third International Conference "Linguistic and Cultural Diversity in Cyberspace" (Yakutsk, 2014) and the International Expert Meeting on Improving Access to Multilingual Cyberspace (Paris, UNESCO Headquarters, 2014).

 

The Khanty-Mansiysk expert meeting on language issues has become a central event of the Seventh International IT-Forum and also Russia’s new contribution to the implementation of the “Information for All” Programme – UNESCO’s major intergovernmental programme in the field of communication and information and the only programme in the world to imply comprehensive and holistic approach to humanitarian issues crucial for the future of the information society – information accessibility, information preservation, media and information literacy, information ethics, information for development, preservation of languages and their development in cyberspace. Evgeny Kuzmin, Chairman of the Russian UNESCO IFAP Committee, President of the Interregional Library Cooperation Centre was twice (in 2010 and 2012) elected Chair of the IFAP Intergovernmental Council. He is currently the Council’s Vice-Chairman and head of the IFAP Working Group on Multilingualism in Cyberspace.

 

The Khanty-Mansiysk meeting gathered leading national and international researchers working in the spheres of ethnolinguistics, ethnopolitology, sociolinguistics and culture, as well as representatives of key international governmental and non-governmental organizations, managers and specialists of institutions and authorities in the field of education, science, culture, information and communication, staff of permanent delegations to UNESCO from Azerbaijan, Brazil, Canada, Central African Republic, China, Colombia, Georgia, Grenada, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Mali, Moldova, Mozambique, the Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, and the USA.

 

Co-chairs of the Meeting’s Organizing Committee – First Deputy Governor of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – Ugra Gennady Bukhtin and Chairman of the Russian UNESCO IFAP Committee, President of the Interregional Library Cooperation Centre Evgeny Kuzmin greeted the participants at the opening ceremony.

 

The meeting’s programme included 6 plenary sessions and 5 thematic sections:

• Section 1. Languages and Education.
• Section 2. Research and Innovation.
• Section 3. Organizations and Projects.
• Section 4. National Experience and Vision.
• Section 5. Multilingualism for Well-Being.

 

Plenary and thematic sessions were moderated by Evgeny Kuzmin (Russian Federation), Lubov Koveshnikova (Russian Federation), Adama Samassékou (Mali), Gilvan Oliveira (Brazil), Irmgarda Kasinskaite-Buddeberg (UNESCO), Chafica Haddad (Grenada), Alfredo Ronchi (Italy), Galit Wellner (Israel), Daniel Pimienta (Dominican Republic), Tatiana Murovana (Russian Federation), Tjeerd de Graaf (Netherlands), Viola Krebs (Switzerland).

 

A total of 42 reports were presented.

 

Impressive cultural and introductory programme of the International Expert Meeting included visiting the Ob-Ugric Institute of Applied Research and Development, the Ugra Research Institute of Information Technologies, the Torum Maa Outdoor Ethnographic Museum, the Museum of Nature and Man, the Ugra Governor’s Cup oblas rowing competition, a boat trip to the confluence of the Ob and Irtysh rivers, a performance by the “Sun” Theatre of Ob-Ugric peoples.

 

Participants to the meeting Evgeny Kuzmin, Adama Samassékou and Louis Pouzin spoke at the opening ceremony of the Seventh International IT Forum and at its closing plenary meeting entitled “From information society to knowledge society.”

 

All meeting participants received an impressive set of materials on the issues of linguistic and cultural diversity in cyberspace, published in Russian and English by the Russian IFAP Committee and the Interregional Library Cooperation Centre.

 

All these publications formed the basis of a book exhibition opened at the conference.

 

The Russian IFAP Committee timed the release of its two new publications to coincide with the meeting opening:

• Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Linguistic and Cultural Diversity in Cyberspace (Yakutsk, 2014)
• International Forums on Multilingualism in Cyberspace (2008–2014): Final Documents (in English and Russian).

 

All participants to the meeting noted the high organizational level of this content rich event and expressed gratitude to its organizers – the Government of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Ugra, the Russian UNESCO IFAP Committee, the Interregional Library Cooperation Centre, the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO, UNESCO Secretariat and the MAAYA World Network for Linguistic and Cultural Diversity.

 

A working group was formed to prepare the Final Document of the Global Expert Meeting, which included Adama Samassékou, Daniel Pimienta, Tjeerd de Graaf, Viola Krebs, Alfredo Ronchi, Evgeny Kuzmin, Yury Chyorniy and other experts.

 

 

 

Nikolay NIKIFOROV, Minister of Telecom and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation at the VII International IT Forum opening ceremony

 

Natalya KOMAROVA, Acting Governor of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – Ugra at the VII International IT Forum opening ceremony

 

 

Participants of the Ugra Global Expert Meeting on Multilingualism in Cyberspace

 

Opening ceremony of the Global Expert Meeting

 

Opening ceremony of the Global Expert Meeting

 

 

Opening ceremony of the Global Expert Meeting. Presidium.

Left to right:  Lubov KOVENSHNIKOVA, Director, Department for Education and Youth Policy of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – Ugra (Russia), Evgeny KUZMIN, Vice-Chair, Intergovernmental Council for the UNESCO Information for All Programme; Chairman, Russian Committee for the UNESCO Information for All Programme; President, Interregional Library Cooperation Centre (Russia), Gennadi BUKHTIN, First Deputy Governor of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug-Ugra (Russia), Chafica HADDAD, Chair, Intergovernmental Council of the UNESCO Information for All Programme; Deputy Permanent Delegate, Permanent Delegation of Grenada to UNESCO (Grenada), Adama SAMASSEKOU, President, MAAYA World Network for Linguistic Diversity (Mali)

 

Evgeny KUZMIN, Vice-Chair, Intergovernmental Council for the UNESCO Information for All Programme; Chairman, Russian Committee for the UNESCO Information for All Programme; President, Interregional Library Cooperation Centre (Russia)

 

Gennadi BUKHTIN, First Deputy Governor of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug-Ugra (Russia)

 

Chafica HADDAD, Chair, Intergovernmental Council of the UNESCO Information for All Programme; Deputy Permanent Delegate, Permanent Delegation of Grenada to UNESCO (Grenada)

 

Alexander KIM, First Deputy Governor of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug-Ugra (Russia)

 

Adama SAMASSEKOU, President, MAAYA World Network for Linguistic Diversity (Mali) 

 

Lubov KOVENSHNIKOVA, Director, Department for Education and Youth Policy of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – Ugra (Russia)

 

 

Irmgarda KASINSKAITE-BUDDEBERG, Programme specialist, Communication and Information Sector (UNESCO)

 

Nikolay KHAUSTOV, Second Secretary of the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation (Russia) 

 

Gilvan OLIVEIRA, Professor, Federal University of Santa Catarina; Former Director, International Portuguese Language Institute (Brazil)

 

Tatiana MUROVANA, Deputy Head of the Department of Scientific Cooperation, Youth and Communication Programmes, Rossotrudnichestvo (Russia)

 

Aleksandr NOVIUKHOV,Advisor to the First Deputy Governor of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonmous Okrug – Ugra; President, NGO “Spaseniye Ugry” (Russia) – left and Irina BEZNOSOVA, Deputy Head of the Department for Foreign and External Relations of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – Ugra – Head of the Division for Coordination of Foreign Relations (Russia)

 

Louis POUZIN, Chief Executive Officer, Open-Root Company (France)

 

 

Nedezhda ZAIKOVA, Vice-rector, North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk (Russia)

 

Chenglong HUANG, Research Fellow, Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (China) - left and Sozinho MATSINHE, Executive Secretary, African Academy of Languages (African Union Commission) (Mozambique)

 

 

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

 

Stephen MOITOZO, Chief Innovation Development Officer, SIL International (USA)

 

Marcel DIKI-KIDIRI, Former Senior Researcher, French National Center for Scientific Research (Bangui, Central African Republic)

 

Feodosia GABYSHEVA, Minister of Education, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) (Russia)

 

Prabhakar Rao JANDHYALA, Professor of Linguistics and Head, Centre for Study of Foreign Languages, University of Hyderabad (India)

 

Mikhail OSADCHIY, Vice-Rector for Research, Pushkin State Russian Language Institute (Russia)

 

Inês GARIGLIO, International Officer, Federal Center for Technological Education of Minas Gerais (Brazil) – to the left and Otavio BRIONES, Head of the Communication and Information Sector, Permanent Delegation of Brazil to UNESCO 

 

Nadezhda KAZNACHEEVA, Director, Department of Culture of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – Ugra (Russia) – to the left and Irina GONYUKOVA, Minister of Culture of the Sakhalin Region (Russia)

 

Valerii DIOZU, Member of the Board, the Municipal Council of the City of Chisinau (Moldova)

 

Viktoriya SPODINA, Director, Ob-Ugric Institute of Applied Research and Development (Russia) –to the left and Svetlana DINISLAMOVA, Researcher, Ob-Ugric Institute of Applied Research and Development (Russia)

 

Virach SORNLERTLAMVANICH, Lecturer, Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology, Thammasat University (Thailand)

 

Natalya KORCHAGINA, Deputy Chief of Section, Department for Foreign and External Relations of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – Ugra (Russia) - left and Aleksey VTORUSHIN, Chief of Section, Department for Foreign and External Relations of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – Ugra (Russia)

 

Daniel PIMIENTA, Executive Secretary, MAAYA World Network for Linguistic Diversity (Dominican Republic)

 

Evdokia NEMYSOVA, Senior Researcher, Torum Maa Outdoor Ethnographic Museum (Russia)

 

Andras KORNAI, Senior Scientific Advisor, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Hungary)

 

Svetlana STARIKOVA, Director, National Library of the Chuvash Republic (Russia)

 

Mark KARAN, International Sociolinguistics Coordinator, SIL International (USA)

 

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

 

Elena KOSINTSEVA, Deputy Director for Research, Ob Ugric Institute of Applied Research and Developments (Russia)

 

 

 

Clara CHU, Director, Mortenson Center for International Library Programs, University of Illinois Library at Urbana-Champaign (Canada)

 

Viola KREBS, Executive Director, ICVolunteers (Switzerland)

 

Sergey BAKEYKIN, Executive Director, Interregional Library Cooperation Centre; Deputy Chair, Russian Committee of the UNESCO Information for All Programme (Russia)

 

Inês GARIGLIO, International Officer, Federal Center for Technological Education of Minas Gerais (Brazil) – to the left and Gilvan OLIVEIRA, Professor, Federal University of Santa Catarina; Former Director, International Portuguese Language Institute (Brazil)

 

Sergey BOBRYSHEV, Vice-Director, ParaType Ltd (Russia)

 

Tjeerd DE GRAAF, Senior Research Fellow, Fryske Akademy (Netherlands)

 

 

Left to right: Jyldy zBAKASHOVA, Director, National Library of the Kyrgy zRepublic (Kyrgy zRepublic), Yuri CHYORNIY, Deputy Director, Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences, Russian Academy of Sciences (Russia) and Maria VOLODINA, Khanty poet (Russia)

 

Anna FENYVESI, Director, Institute of English and American Studies, University of Szeged (Hungary)

 

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

 

Martin BENJAMIN, Senior Scientist, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (USA)

 

Left to right: Alfredo RONCHI, Secretary General, European Commission - MEDICI Framework of Cooperation; Professor, Polytechnic University of Milan (Italy), Galit WELLNER, Researcher, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Israel) and Ainars KOMAROVSKIS, Chair of the Board, NGO “Dinamunde” for Protection of Cultural Heritage (Latvia)

 

Anuradha KANNIGANTI, Lecturer, National Institute of Oriental Languages & Civilisations, France (India)

 

Adama SAMASSEKOU, President, MAAYA World Network for Linguistic Diversity (Mali) and Evdokiya ROMBANDEEVA,  Senior Researcher, Ob-Ugric Institute of Applied Research and Development (Russia)

 

Daria IGNATOVA, Assistant Director, Interregional Library Cooperation Centre; Project Coordinator, Russian Committee of the UNESCO Information for All Programme (Russia)

 

Claudia SORIA, Researcher, National Research Council (Italy)

 

Alfredo RONCHI, Secretary General, European Commission - MEDICI Framework of Cooperation; Professor, Polytechnic University of Milan (Italy)

 

Lyubov KAZACHENKOVA, Editor-in-Chief, Sovremennaya Biblioteka (Modern Library) Magazine (Russia)

 

Leyla BARTET, Attachee, Permanent Delegation of Peru to UNESCO

 

Ali EYVAZOV, Vice-Chair, Azerbaijan National Committee of the UNESCO Information for all Programme – to the left and Guram CHACHANIDZE, Professor, Georgian Technical University (Georgia)

 

Almira NAURZBAYEVA, Professor, Department of Social Sciences and Humanities, Kurmangazy Kazakhstan National Conservatory (Kazakhstan)

 

 Left to right: Gennadi BUKHTIN, Lubov KOVENSHNIKOVA, Evgeny KUZMIN

 

Expert Meeting Participants

 

Left to right: Ali Eyvazov (Azerbaijan), Nedezhda Kaznacheeva (Russia), Sergey Bakeykin (Russia), Irina Gonyukova (Russia), Lyubov Koveshnikova (Russia)

 

Lrft to right: Chenglong HUANG (China), Nevil MONTENEGRO (Deputy Permanent Delegate of Ecuador to UNESCO), Vicent CLIMENT-FERRANDO (Spain) and Katsuko TANAKA (Japan)

Expert Meeting participants at the Museum of Nature and Man