ISLAMABAD: - It is now possible to create Urdu websites on Internet and there is a need to promote and develop web pages in that language. Realizing the paucity of local content on Internet, especially in Urdu and other Pakistani languages, serious minded individuals and organizations have started making efforts to promote designing and hosting of Urdu websites. English is by far the most common medium of communication on the Internet. Since it is an international language, most people choose to use it unhesitatingly. Present government has provided Internet access to more than 320 cities, towns and villages and development of Urdu websites will go a long way in enabling the Urdu literate individuals to benefit from it. Towards this end, the Sustainable Development Networking Program (SDNP), a project of UNDP, managed by IUCN - the World Conservation Union, in Pakistan has taken an important step forward. In collaboration with the National College of the Arts (NCA), it organized the first workshop on "Urdu Web Authoring" - learning how to publish in Urdu on the Internet - at NCA, Lahore on February 21-22, 2001. About 10 organizations, including NCA, Council of Social Sciences (COSS), Social Action Program (SAP), Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), Punjabi Adabi Board, and Punjab Lok Sujag participated in this training workshop. Pakistan Data Management Systems (PDMS) has developed the software to be used in the training and the subsequent development of Urdu websites. In the coming months, SDNP would organize a series of such workshops in other major cities of Pakistan. Only recently has the Government of Pakistan promulgated a standard for the Urdu script. Previously there was no such standard, and software houses created their own. Hopefully, all Urdu software, from now on, will conform to this standard and achieve the same level inter-operability that we are used to in the English language. SDNP has already created a web gateway for all significant development information about Pakistan (www.sdnpk.org). Under this program, funded by UNDP, more than 170 development organizations - including a third from the government - have been trained to set up and maintain their websites. This is in addition to thousands of other websites and Internet resources that have been indexed for this Pakistan Development Gateway (PDG). Plans are underway to establish a similar gateway in Urdu as well, so that a larger number of Pakistanis here and abroad will have access to the latest development news and information in a language that they can easily understand (APP). |
