Global by Design

What is it about the resurgence in “minority” languages around the world? Probably the inevitable backlash against the spread of globalization in general and English in particular.
Now it is Gaelic that is gaining momentum. According to this article, “only Gaelic will be used on road signs in the country’s designated ‘Gaeltacht’ (Irish language) areas, [...]

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Here’s an interesting article about the resurgence of the Hawaiian language.
I’ve seeing similar instances of this phenomenon in other parts of the world. It seems that just when a culture is about to write off its native language for good, the next generation takes a liking to it. Is this enough of a liking [...]

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An interesting article in the Times (now locked down, I’m afraid) on the role that color is playing in social and political revolutions around the globe.
The Ukraine revolution became known as the Orange Revolution. President Bush referred to the recent Iraqi vote the Purple Revolution, in reference to the purple-stained fingers of those who voted.
The [...]

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Here’s a good article on the upsides and downsides of this thing called globalization. And a few excerpts that jumped out at me:

In recent years, about 100,000 software-writing jobs have moved from the U.S. to India alone, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Those jobs would have paid a combined $136 billion a year in [...]

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I’m at the IA Summit in Montreal and have been pleased to find that IA (information architecture) professionals are tackling the challenges of content globalization in a big way. And this is a great thing, because the IA industry is critical to the evolution of truly successful global Web sites.
I’m not much of an IA [...]

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According to the AP, a “Bengali version of the longrunning American children’s programme Sesame Street will be broadcast from April featuring Muppet characters drawn from Bangladeshi folklore.”

Sesame Street is seen in 120 countries and localized for 30 of those countries.

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From Cool News of the Day…

“We hear about the spread of U.S. popular culture, making Europe, to its horror, more American. But the influence works the other way, too,” says Matthew. “At many levels, we have more in common now, as the local goes global.” The “culinary Babel,” as Matthew (Kaminksi) calls it, isn’t just [...]

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At the eBay analyst briefing today, the company announced that it was investing $100 million in growing its business in China, a market Meg Whitman said will define global success over the next ten years. In other words, if you can’t make it in China, you can’t make it anywhere.

She’s exactly right and this is [...]

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The US Department of Defense is launching local “news” sites in an effort to counter what it believes is “misinformation” about the United States in the foreign media.
One Web site is aimed at the Balkans and the other, shown below, at the Maghreb region of northwest Africa, which includes Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. Magharebia [...]

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According to the Taipei Times (by way of Reveries), McDonald’s has added rice burgers to its menu. The burgers consist of chicken or beef patties sandwiched between two rice cakes.

The burgers join a long list of localized menu items that McDonald’s has developed over the years. Here are a few of the more memorable [...]

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