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Thomas Petzold Thesis Thomas Petzold B.Arts (Hons), The Open University London, UK; M.Arts, Europa Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder, Germany; R , W „ W . P T ,“ W ! , G ! (Magister, Sofia University „St. Kliment Ohridski,“ Sofia, Bulgaria) A dissertation presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Creative Industries Faculty Queensland University of Technology (QUT) 2011 Languages Internet research Media studies Complexity research Language evolution Governance of languages on the Internet Wikipedia Television Google Translation technology …, or, as a keyword cloud (using www.wordle.net) i Language-use has proven to be the most complex and complicating of all Internet features, yet people and institutions invest enormously in language and cross- language features because they are fundamental to the success of the Internet’s past, present and future. The thesis takes into focus the developments of the latter – features that facilitate and signify linking between or across languages – both in their historical and current contexts. In the theoretical analysis, the conceptual platform of inter-language linking is developed to both accommodate efforts towards a new social complexity model for the co-evolution of languages and language content, as well as to create an open analytical space for language and cross-language related features of the Internet and beyond. The practiced uses of inter-language linking have changed over the last decades. Before and during the first years of the WWW, mechanisms of inter-language linking were at best important elements used to create new institutional or content arrangements, but on a large scale they were just insignificant. This has changed with the emergence of the WWW and its development into a web in which content in different languages co-evolve. The thesis traces the inter-language linking mechanisms that facilitated these dynamic changes by analysing what these linking mechanisms are, how their historical as well as current contexts can be understood and what kinds of cultural-economic innovation they enable and impede. The study discusses this alongside four empirical cases of bilingual or multilingual media use, ranging from television and web services for languages of smaller populations, to large-scale, multiple languages involving web ventures by the British Broadcasting Corporation, the Special Broadcasting Service Australia, Wikipedia and Google. To sum up, the thesis introduces the concepts of ‘inter-language linking’ and the ‘lateral web’ to model the social complexity and co-evolution of languages online. The resulting model reconsiders existing social complexity models in that it is the first that can explain the emergence of large-scale, networked co-evolution of languages and language content facilitated by the Internet and the WWW. Finally, the thesis argues that the Internet enables an open space for language and cross- language related features and investigates how far this process is facilitated by (1) amateurs and (2) human-algorithmic interaction cultures. ii Keywords ................................................................................................................................. i Abstract ................................................................................................................................... ii Table of Contents .................................................................................................................. iii List of Figures ......................................................................................................................... v Statement of Original Authorship ....................................................................................... vi Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................ vii 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Overview of the thesis.............................................................................................. 4 1.2 Research design ....................................................................................................... 7 1.2.1 The methods ..................................................................................................... 7 1.2.2 The interviews .................................................................................................. 8 1.2.3 The research questions ................................................................................... 10 2 Architectural foundations for a lateral web: codes, software, content ................... 11 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 11 2.2 Codes...................................................................................................................... 12 2.2.1 Early character encodings .............................................................................. 14 2.2.2 Universal character encodings ....................................................................... 17 2.3 Software ................................................................................................................. 21 2.3.1 Technical implementation measures .............................................................. 22 2.3.2 Political implementation measures ................................................................ 23 2.4 Content ................................................................................................................... 27 2.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 29 3 Theoretical approach ................................................................................................... 33 3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 33 3.2 The macro level: linking cultures and languages – towards a more complex understanding ......................................................................................................... 34 3.2.1 The social complexity of inter-language linking ........................................... 37 3.2.2 Excursus: Geo-linguistic complexities of the World Wide Web – the linguistic development of Wikipedia ............................................................. 40 3.2.2.1 Wikipedia as a critical observation site ...................................................... 41 3.2.2.2 Techniques of geo-linguistic analysis ........................................................ 43 3.2.2.2.1 Choropleth maps and cartograms ......................................................... 44 3.2.2.2.2 Network graphs .................................................................................... 45 3.3 The meso level: linking mechanisms ..................................................................... 47 3.3.1 Inter-language linking: defining large-scale content co-evolution ................ 48 3.3.2 Ambitions and regulations for inter-language linkage ................................... 50 3.3.2.1 Governance of languages in the Internet environment............................... 51 3.3.2.1.1 Wikimedia ............................................................................................ 53 3.3.2.1.2 Google Translate .................................................................................. 54 3.3.3 Software for linking languages ...................................................................... 55 3.3.3.1 Inter-language links, the example of Wikipedia ........................................ 55 iii 3.3.3.2 Excursus: the development of machine translation .................................... 58 3.3.3.3 Language pairs, the example of Google Translate ..................................... 64 3.4 The micro level: collective intelligence and inter-language linking ...................... 66 3.5 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 69 4 Historical antecedents: inter-language linking & television ..................................... 73 4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 73 4.2 Precursors of inter-language linking ...................................................................... 74 4.2.1 Prolegomenon: foundations for new institutional arrangements .................... 74 4.2.2 S4C’s start-up environment & the formation of rudimentary forms of inter- language linking ............................................................................................. 77 4.2.3 The development of the new Welsh content network .................................... 79 4.3 Linking languages and content – Welsh content in the web environment ............. 82 4.3.1 Welsh content in the web environment .......................................................... 82 4.3.2 Techno-linguistic enthusiasm in a global environment: a future for small languages ........................................................................................................ 86 4.4 Conclusion .............................................................................................................
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