Inttranet included on the UNESCO Observatory for the Information Society

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.