May 20, 1996
The Web has no borders
By Bob O'Donnell
One of the great characteristics of the Web and the Internet in general is that they
are truly international phenomena. Thanks to the 'net's universal reach, you or I can
communicate virtually anywhere on Earth with anyone whose got the right connections. And
if you really think about that, it's a profound statement on the power of the Internet and
its ability to bring people together all over the world.
Of course, there are some downsides to this global community, too. If you fire off a
hasty, ill thought-out response in a Usenet discussion group, you could end up on the
receiving end of some nasty notes from all over the world. Call me sentimental, but
on-line life seemed easier when only a few people in an AOL or CompuServe forum could fire
back at you, instead of a certain percentage of the world's population.
And then there's the language problem. In addition to the obvious issues with
translation, there are the more subtle but equally insidious problems with interpretation.
As a result of important cultural differences, certain phrases that appear perfectly
innocuous in American English may have an entirely different, and unintended, meaning for
readers in the U.K. or Ireland, for example. This is not a problem unique to the Web, of
course, but it's one that's easy to forget about when you're creating information for
on-line consumption. In fact, we almost found out about some of these differences the hard
way here at InfoWorld Electric but were saved major embarrassment by some U.K.-born
members of InfoWorld's editorial staff.
The story goes like this: We were trying to come up with a catchy name for a new advice
column that Bob Lewis is going to write exclusively for InfoWorld Electric starting June
3. The column is going to have an "Ask Ann Landers"-type format, where Bob
answers questions that are posted or e-mailed to him anonymously about management problems
or issues common to IS departments. We sponsored a "name the column" contest
internally and the winner we chose was "On the Job with Bob Lewis." We thought
it nicely summed up what the column was going to be about. That is, until Forums Editor
Kristin Kueter received responses to her e-mail announcing the winning name. With great
delight she was told that, in Ireland, "on the job" is slang for going to the
bathroom. Thus, translated, we would have something akin to "On the Can with Bob
Lewis." Not exactly what we intended.
Worse still, in the U.K., "on the job" refers to, well, having sex. We
imagined the howls of laughter emanating from our readers in the British Isles and quickly
decided that a column that could be interpreted as a titillating chronicle of Mr. Lewis'
love life didn't really work either. (Sorry, Bob.) So, we ended up with "Advice
Line," an equally descriptive name that we're fairly sure is free of international
double entendres. Look for it in our Forums section beginning Monday, June 3. And if you
have any questions you'd like to see Bob answer, send him an e-mail at robert.lewis@ps.net. (But please, stick to IS
management issues.)
All kidding aside, if your company currently offers or will be putting up an external
Web site, you need to be aware of international users and cultural differences. One
important problem that we still have to fix here on Electric, for example, is that the
address section of our current Registration form is not international-address friendly. At
the moment, it's designed for U.S. addresses only, which has led to numerous complaints
from readers who live outside the United States. I'm happy to report we will be addressing
this problem and many others in a streamlined Registration process that's schedule to go
live on June 17. Look for more info on that in upcoming columns, but, in the mean time, we
ask for your patience.
Finally, on a completely unrelated note, we've upgraded our Calendar section
here on Electric. With some help from Now Software's Now Up-to-Date Web Publisher, we're
able to present upcoming trade shows and other industry events in a visual, calendar
format. You don't need the Now software to be able to see the calendar, but if you are an
Up-to-Date user you get the added benefit of being able to drag events off the calendar
(via the >> signs) onto your own calendar. (Note that you need the latest versions
of the program --1.5 for Windows 3.1 and 95, and 3.6 for the Mac -- for this feature to
work.) We think it's a pretty neat technology and are glad to be the first Web publication
to offer it.
©
Copyright 1996, by InfoWorld Publishing Corp., a
subsidiary of IDG Communications, Inc. Reprinted from InfoWorld,
155 Bovet Road, San Mateo, CA 94402. Further reproduction is prohibited.
