Rouen,
France (Inttranet): The Inttranet (www.inttra.net),
the multilingual portal for professional interpreters
and translators, has been approved for inclusion
on the UNESCO Observatory for the Information Society
(www.unesco.org/webworld/observatory).
UNESCO
recognizes that the Information Society offers great
potential in promoting sustainable development,
democracy, transparency, accountability and good
governance, but only if individuals and organisations
have access to information, knowledge and ideas.
This is because information is the basis for transparent
decision-making and a prerequisite for any democracy;
while knowledge is the key agent for transforming
both our global society and local communities.
Specifically,
the principles of the Information Society promoted
by UNESCO include:
All
of these principles are included in the mission
statement of the Inttranet portal for professional
interpreters and translators.
Launched
in 2002 after two years of development by a team
of linguists from 26 countries, the Inttranet portal
is unique among portals for interpreters and translators
in that it is genuinely multilingual: 33 language
versions are currently available*, representing
90% of all Internet users, and all of the portal's
features and functions are interoperable between
each language version. Using the portal, users all
around the world can locate, evaluate, contact and
contract with the linguist(s) required, all in their
own language.
If
the security of the Information Society depends
on the quality of information, it therefore depends
on the quality of means used to transfer that information
from one country to another i.e. translate it. This
is also taken into account on the Inttranet portal.
The
Inttranet is the only portal for professional interpreters
and translators to be fully compatible with ISO
9001 quality assurance requirements. The portal
also applies the most stringent admission criteria,
by being exclusively reserved for professional interpreters
and translators with a minimum of 3 years' experience,
as well as the appropriate academic qualifications
and references.
Finally,
in addition to these remarkable operational characteristics,
registration and basic use of the Inttranet portal
is free of charge for linguists and customers alike.
In
this way, by providing simple technology, affordable
cost, security of use and multilingual operation,
the Inttranet furthers an equally important aim
for its members: preserving one of our most precious
birthrights, the world's linguistic and cultural
diversity.
For
more information, please visit:
www.inttra.net
www.unesco.org/webworld/observatory
Languages
in which the Inttranet is currently available:
Arabic,
Armenian, Brazilian Portuguese, Bulgarian, Catalan,
Chinese (simplified and traditional), Croatian,
Czech, Danish, Dutch, Dutch (B), English, French,
German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian,
Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Norwegian,
Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovakian,
Spanish, Swedish, Turkish.
